The Lycan King's Second Chance Mate: Rise of the Traitor's Daughter-Chapter 194: Caged Wolf

Cassandra~

I was drugged.

Darkness clawed at the edges of my vision like something alive. Hot. It burned behind my eyelids, twisted in my gut, and pulled me down like chains in a lake. I struggled to surface. Every time I did, I was dragged under again.

But voices—low and taunting—pierced through the fog.

"She bewitched him. Had to. There’s no other way Lord Sebastian would ever... choose her."

That voice—male, haughty—flicked against my mind like a whip. I blinked slowly, catching slivers of light slicing through the metal slats of a van—no, a truck. My body shifted with every bump in the road, my limbs sprawled like broken branches.

"She’s not even a vampire or a real werewolf. She’s a rogue. A hunter. She kills our kind, and somehow he... marked her?"

Laughter, sharp and bitter, followed that.

"She used demon magic," one of them snarled, voice dripping with disgust. "There’s no other explanation—she reeked of it."

Another vampire nodded grimly. "Props to Brent. If he hadn’t caught the scent on lord Sebastian and raised the alarm, we’d still be in the dark while she played puppet master with our lord."

Brent. My mind latched onto the name. The youngest. The observant one. My brain, though thick with whatever they injected into me, managed to stitch the pieces together. Brent must have been watching Sebastian. He noticed the change. Then he followed the trail and found me.

I had underestimated Sebastian’s coven. And now, I was paying for it.

My tongue felt like sandpaper. My hands were numb. The silver-coated cuffs around my wrists dug into bone, and every jolt of the vehicle was like a slap to my insides. I tried to focus. Tried to will my body to obey. I couldn’t let them see me like this—weak, strung out, helpless.

They kept talking. They liked the sound of their own outrage.

"Lord Sebastian is our future. An upright, noble leader. If she had succeeded in turning him fully, we’d have lost everything."

"And now, because of this thing," the voice sneered, "we almost did."

The truck screeched to a stop.

My body rolled slightly, and a sharp heel jammed into my ribs as someone stood.

"Let’s get this witch underground before the sun finds us."

Rough hands gripped my arms, hauling me like trash. My bare feet dragged through dirt, gravel biting into my knees when they let me fall. There was a rusted iron hatch hidden beneath a crumbling shed. They pried it open, revealing a steep staircase spiraling into shadows.

"Welcome home, Slayer," one hissed.

They carried me—half-dragged, half-tossed—downward. The air grew thick, damp, cloying. The walls closed in. The flickering torchlight barely lit the stone tunnel as we descended deeper into hell.

And then they threw me in.

The cell door clanged shut behind me, steel and old magic locking in place. I crumpled against cold stone, pain ricocheting through every limb.

A moment passed.

Then another.

I breathed. Shallow. Ragged.

Silence.

Until—

"You should’ve stayed away from him," a deep voice growled.

Footsteps echoed on the stone, heavy with purpose.

I forced myself to raise my head.

He stood behind the bars—tall, broad-shouldered, his black coat fitting too perfectly, his features carved from marble and shadow.

"Luca," I croaked.

His eyes narrowed. "You know me?" fгeewebnovёl.com

"You were in the pictures. His old journals." My lips twitched into a dry smile. "Sebastian wrote about you."

He flinched. Just slightly. Like I’d thrown a dagger that nicked skin.

"Don’t say his name." Luca’s voice dropped, dangerous and simmering. "You don’t deserve to."

I said nothing.

Luca gripped the bars, his knuckles bone-white. "Do you know what you’ve done to him?"

My heartbeat thumped—uneven, fearful, guilty.

"I watched him unravel," Luca said coldly. "He stopped feeding from the coven. Stopped communicating with us often. He laughed too much. Smiled too easily. He started staying away from us like some foolish fledgling in love."

He spat the word like poison.

"Lord Sebastian," he continued tightly, "isn’t just our Master. He is hope. Order. A future. And you—you—slithered in with your pretty eyes and demon stench and ruined him."

"I didn’t—"

"Spare me your lies," Luca snapped. "Do you think we don’t know who you are? Cassandra of the Crescent pack. Demon’s blade. The Bloodless Bane. We know your tally, witch. Fifty-two dead. And those are just our coven alone."

My fingers curled into fists. "I was bound to the demon. You think I wanted to do those things?"

"You chose to kill."

"I was surviving!"

"You seduced him," he seethed. "You laid with him. Got under his skin. Into his mind. And now, he’s a shadow of who he was."

I lowered my gaze. "If he’s changed... it’s not because I made him."

Luca’s eyes glittered dangerously. "You admit it, then. You wormed your way in. Used magic. Let him mark you."

I hesitated.

This was it.

The lie that might save Sebastian from the hatred and wrath of his coven.

"Yes," I whispered.

Luca stilled.

"I came to kill him," I said slowly, every word like shards in my throat. "The demon sent me. I was supposed to earn his trust, weaken him... and take him out."

A horrified silence settled over the corridor.

I kept going. "But I underestimated him. He was strong. Clever. And yes... I used demon magic to make him care for me."

Luca stepped back, his face a mask of disgust and betrayal.

"Thank you for confirming," he said tightly. "Now we know for sure."

Good.

Let me be the villain.

Not him.

Not Sebastian.

Luca turned his back to me, fists clenched at his sides.

"You’ll never see him again."

Something sharp and cold stabbed into my chest.

"You’ll stay here," he growled, "until the earth forgets you ever existed. Until even the stones forget your voice."

I wanted to scream. But I bit it back. I couldn’t give them the satisfaction.

The cell door sealed with a low hiss of ancient magic. Luca disappeared into the dark without another word.

And I—

I collapsed.

I laid there on the stone floor, my silk shirt ripped and clinging to my skin, still faintly smelling of him. The air was freezing. My body throbbed from whatever cocktail they’d given me. My wrists burned. My stomach twisted in knots.

I curled into myself and stared at the wall.

He wouldn’t come. He couldn’t.

If they found out he’d taken me in willingly—loved me—they’d destroy him.

So I stayed silent.

I let them believe I tricked him.

Even if it meant I never saw him again.

Even if it meant dying in this pit.

I let them believe it was all my fault.

Because if I could spare Sebastian their hatred... then maybe it was worth it.

Maybe.

A tear slid down my cheek and disappeared into the stone.

I felt alone. Utterly, achingly alone.

I closed my eyes and whispered, to no one, "Be safe, Seb."

Even if I never got to say it to him again.

Even if I’d already lost him.