Chapter Three

When Kayla woke up, the first thing she did was scream. Her hands, bound by silver, were red with blisters. Around her ankles were large silver cuffs linked together by chains. She tugged on them, testing their strength.

"Hurts, doesn't it?" Came a voice from behind her.

Startled, she turned to the voice. She was in a cell it seemed, the rough floor covered with mysterious stains, and the air thick with the smell of stale blood. She shuffled over to the bars, but didn't touch them, afraid that they might also be silver. Although the place was dark, her eyes could easily make out the figure before her. He was tall with well kept blond hair and bright red eyes. Her eyes widened.

"You're a Pureblood? Working with hunters?"

The man smiled, and if she weren't bound in some weird dungeon, she might have swooned.

"You could say that. We're in a temporary alliance, you see. My name is Thomas Bane, leader of the Bane clan." Kayla stared at him blankly, waiting for further explanation. He stared at her for a moment, and when she said nothing, he continued.

"Your father and I have been at odds for quite some time. The Thorne clan has been starving my people by claiming the humans in our territory as there's. Elijah is a power man, and I figured that the only way to make him listen would be to affect the future of his clan. I achieved that by capturing you. Maybe when I deliver your ashes to him he'll listen to reason," Thomas said with a smirk, which faulted at the sound of a laugh.

Although Kayla was aching and a little hungry, she immediately forgot about that when she heard Thomas' grand speech. Giggles bubbled up inside her until the cell was filled with the sound. "You have no idea how little I mean to my father, do you?" she asked as she began to finally collect herself. "I ran away from home for a reason. Your human hunters caught the wrong heir. Elijah doesn't about me. He never planned on letting me take over the clan. You should have taken my brother instead. Then you'd be getting somewhere," she said with a shrug, feigning indifference even though her heart was filled with bitterness.

Elijah opened his mouth to say more but Kayla turned her back to him. He growled and she could hear his retreating footsteps. Now she was alone. With her thoughts.

"Some birthday this turned out to be," she muttered to herself. Lying down on the concrete, she curled into a ball and hugged herself as she began to fully realize her situation. She no longer had a home and soon she might not have a life either. Silent tears slid down her cheeks and she shivered, her now dirty and tattered dress offering little warmth.

She was unsure of how long she laid there, and she'd been dozing off when she heard multiple footsteps. Opening her eyes, she saw two men dressed in black dragging a man towards her cell. Aside from his jeans, he wore nothing, and his body was covered in cuts and bruises. A soft hissing noise came from his wrists where the silver cuffs rested against his skin. The third degree burns made her blisters look like nothing. The only creatures more affected by silver than vampires were werewolves. His head was hung low and all she saw was a dark mass of shaggy hair. When he began lift his head, she scurried back into the farthest corner, wincing at the pain in her ankle.

"Ah, just the reaction I was hoping for. Your situation isn't so funny now is it?" Thomas said, appearing from behind the two hunters as they carried the new prisoner. When he finally looked up, Kayla was met with glowing yellow eyes, and her heart nearly fell into her stomach. His nose twitched, and he held her gaze as Thomas opened the door and had the wolf thrown in. He landed on his hands and knees, and Kayla looked past him as Thomas with pleading eyes. "Good luck. If you survive the night, you certainly won't survive the day,"

The cell door slammed shut and she was left alone in close quarters with a beast. If he weren't dirty and and growling, he would have been handsome. He was very fit, as most of his kind were, and she watched in astonishment as he slowly began to heal before her eyes. Every cut and bruise began to disappear, except for the burns around his ankles. Upon closer inspection, she noticed that his ankles weren't bound like hers. Thomas didn't want me to be able to defend myself, she realized. As he approached, she body tensed and she shut her eyes, waiting for a killing blow.

It never came.

Instead, she felt a feather-light touch against her swollen ankle, and she opened one eye to find him inspecting her leg. "What are you doing?" Kayla asked, lifting her other leg and putting her foot against his chest to keep him away. His large hands easily encircled her uninjured ankle and he looked down at her manicured foot, unfazed.

"I was checking to see if your ankle was broken," he said, his voice muffled due to his large canines taking up space in his mouth.