Snap.

Horror shot through my veins as the metal collar snapped shut around my neck. Metal clashed against metal with a finality that echoed around the small chamber, and a strangled sound of surprise escaped me. I tried to twist out of his grip, to strike out, to do something, but the collar tightened the moment I tried, leaving me wheezing and gasping. I tried to shift, to finally leave him behind because I was scared and just wanted to go home. My magick sputtered underneath the collar, dampened and useless. I couldn’t even shift forms!

I stopped resisting as Thad snapped the remaining chains around me, the wrist cuffs connected to the collar with a thick chain. After the final click, he released me, and I fell heavily to the ground.

“I know you won’t believe me, but I’m trying to help you.”

I didn’t hear him. I was still in shock. I couldn’t believe he’d actually chained me. I wanted to rage. I wanted to strike him and scream, then find my mates and have them take their own pound of flesh for daring to treat me this way. Afterwards, they’d all take me at the same time and tell me that no one would ever hurt me again. I felt wild and out of control, my magick swirling through my body with no outlet. Thad’s eyes flashed with fire as he took a step towards me. I flinched heavily, and that seemed to wound him worse than when I’d screamed at him. He swallowed heavily and backed away.

“When this is over, you’ll thank me.”

I didn’t try to get up and risk tangling myself in the long chains. I just lay there, a dead weight. I refused to look at his face; refused to give him the satisfaction. After all this time, after everything I had been through, I was right back where I had started. A slave. Like before, I was powerless and inconsequential, with no control over my destiny. My heart rate increased, and my breaths came in pants. I closed my eyes, halting those thoughts immediately.

Instead, I imagined what Benedict would do when he found out what Thad had done, breaking his agreement to look after me. I grinned, baring my fangs as my lips parted sensuously, seductively. Thad hissed and looped my chain around a hook in the stone wall before leaving me alone in the semi-darkness as he strode out into the hall. He wasn’t quick enough to hide what I saw straining against his breeches.

Perhaps I had more control than I thought.

That evening, Thad wanted to explore the fortress and decided my presence was a bonus; a way for him to prove himself to Severn and the Overlord, while putting me in my place. This grand plan of mine suddenly didn’t seem so smart or easy. Not as my iron collar bit into my neck, and everyone glared at me.