’Inez, did you try to run?’
It was the middle of the winter, and Inez, who was fed up with the constant torment, had tried to run out of the pack’s territory because she knew that if she stayed any longer, she would go crazy. So, she had packed her bags and made a run for it, wanting to escape the torment of being thrown into the dungeon or locked up in the dark room for the smallest thing that she did wrong.
The pack despised her to the point that even her breathing made every single pack member agitated and disgusted by her, which was confusing because Inez could not understand what she had done for the pain they were putting her through.
She had tried to understand their rage, even questioned her own actions, and yet nothing explained the torment that was being given to her.
Unable to withstand the pain and agony that the pack made her go through, Inez had tried to make a run for it, but before she could even get past the pack boundary, she was caught and brought back to the pack.
It was as if Dominic were an actual semblance of the real God in her life.
He knew things about her better than herself or, more like, her mother would rather betray her only daughter than face the wrath of this man. Inez knew that it must have been her mother who told the truth about her little plan to Dominic and the rest.
Inez had long stopped questioning how her mother could do such a thing to her. There was no point in asking such foolish questions, for her mother was one of the most selfish and self-centred women. As a matter of fact, Inez was nothing to her. A mother who could call her own daughter a monster – how could she care about the safety and happiness of that child?
She must have given her away, thinking and taking it as the finest moment of her sorry, pathetic life.
’I did,’ Inez answered Dominic. She knew that there was no point in denying or trying to explain why she did it. Because Dominic was not interested in any of it. He only cared about one thing, and that was to make her suffer the worst kind of pain known to humanity.
The man stared down at her. His eyes were blank and devoid. Like a void that had sucked everything, even the light.
’You really need to learn your lesson,’ said Dominic as he made his way to the wall where the many tools for torment were hanging.
Inez sucked in a breath when the man picked up the barbed whip and turned around on the ball of his heels. He looked at her, brutality brimming in his eyes as he said to her, ’I shouldn’t be saying this to you, Inez. But I believe you are smarter than this— you should have known that this would happen. That you can never escape me.’ Taking one step at a time as he came close to her.
A rush of anger surged in Inez’s heart. She wished to tell the man to fuck the right off but before she could, Dominic was standing in front of her. The barbed whip in his hand was raised above his head and —
The pain—the excruciating pain—made Inez scream. She tried to hold the tears back as she bit her lower teeth and tried to calm her breathing down. She could feel the barbs raking against her skin and drawing flesh and blood.
Inez had to grit her teeth to stop herself from begging the man to stop because she knew that there was no point. He would never show her any mercy. Something that she knew and had long understood in the past two years.
The man looked down at her, and seeing that she was unmoved, the whip started to lash against her skin again and again and again. It was so painful that Inez nearly passed out, but her experience taught her that if she fainted, the man would bring her back to consciousness by dripping fucking wolfsbane on her back.
Wolfsbane was a herb found in the forest where the humans and witches lived. A small, prickly plant that could be used to make a potion so strong that it could drain the shifters of their strength. Inez knew that if she fainted, it would only bring her even more pain, so she held on.
She had no idea how long the whip lashed against her back, but she was certain that by the time Dominic finished with his torment, the skin on the back was more or less skinned. The pain of being whipped had indeed doubled, which proved that the bones on her back were now revealed.
Inez drew in a shuddering breath while being tied on a triangular wooden base that dug into her flesh a bit too painfully.
She felt the man move, and a second later, Dominic was crouching and looking her in the eye. He was smiling as if the prospect of bringing her so much pain made him happy, and maybe it did, because what else would explain the twisted smile on his face?
’I hope this...’ he reached out and skimmed his finger on her back, which brought another wave of pain to wash over her. ’A lesson deep enough for you to understand that you can never escape me, Inez. You will live for me as long as I want, and you will die when I decide that it is time for you to die. But before that, you shall never escape my grasp. Never.’
After he finished speaking, the man got to his feet and left the dungeon, closing the door behind him and shutting down the only source of light that made the prison cell a better place.
Inez watched the door for a while with a helpless expression before her eyes drifted close.