"Luna...?"
Ravhiel's voice broke through the quiet like a gentle breeze brushing past broken glass—careful, hesitant, and tinged with concern.
Since their encounter with Rhaevos, the tour had continued... but Luna hadn't. Not really. Her body moved beside Ravhiel, following the path laid before her, but her mind—her soul—felt like it had splintered somewhere back in that clearing.
She hadn't said a word.
Not because she was being difficult, but because silence was safer. Her thoughts were like static. Emotions too loud to understand. The image of Rhaevos' breath on her skin, his disgusting words—his hands. They played over and over in her mind, as vivid as if it were still happening.
Ravhiel, for his part, hadn't pushed her to speak. He had calmly explained the layout of the den as if nothing had happened. He showed her the feeding grounds—grassy and wild, where lesser-ranked wolves ate in silence.
Then the accommodations—cramped stone homes built into the earth like nests. Then the nurseries, where werewolf children tumbled through mud and shouted in innocent laughter.
Places that were supposed to be "home."
But Luna couldn't hear a word of it. Couldn't feel anything. She had shut herself off.
It wasn't until they reached a different part of the den that Ravhiel finally broke the silence.
"Luna...?"
She blinked at the sound of her name. Something in his tone was gentler than before—tinged with something that felt like guilt. Not pity. Not mockery. Guilt. Real guilt.
'What does he want now?' she thought warily, letting out a soft sigh as she turned to him.
And then she paused.
His expression startled her. He wasn't smiling politely like he had been before. His brows were furrowed. His gaze wasn't pitying—it was haunted. And she noticed something else too. His hands. Dirt caked the rims of his palms and fingers.
His chair's wheels were streaked with brown from the road. The paths were rough and uneven, made only of dry earth. Not a single effort had been made to pave them.
'Why the hell didn't anyone build him a proper road? Stone, even wood... anything but this.'
And then he said it.
"I'm sorry."
The words hung in the air between them.
Luna tilted her head slightly. Her arms folded loosely across her chest. Confused.
'Why is he apologizing?'
As if hearing her thought, Ravhiel pressed on. "If I had spoken up more... perhaps Rhaevos wouldn't have acted that way."
Her heart jumped. "You... were pushed away. Y-You didn't have a choice."
Luna surprised even herself by defending him. She didn't know what Ravhiel's angle was, not completely, but she had seen how Rhaevos shoved him like trash. How the others barely even looked at him. No fear. No respect. Like he didn't matter.
And that made him... different.
Maybe even genuine.
Ravhiel blinked, seemingly taken aback that she'd even responded. He smiled, softly, like someone relieved just to be acknowledged. Something in that smile twisted Luna's chest a little. Not in pity—but understanding.
'He's...'
She felt her lips twitch. Just slightly. A ghost of a smile escaped before she could stop it. Ravhiel's eyes widened.
Then, gently, she said, "Don't... worry about it, Ravhiel. You've been really nice to me. And I—I never thought anyone would be nice to me here. Not when I'm just... here to be used. To give birth. Like livestock."
Her voice cracked slightly at the end, but she didn't cry. Not this time.
Ravhiel's expression softened even more, like her words meant more than she realized.
"Of course I'll be nice to you. You deserve that. You don't have to worry, Luna. Not while I'm here. My whole role in the den is to assist anyone who needs it. So if you have questions or need help with anything—ask me. Please."
Luna's smile grew, just a little. It was the first real comfort she'd felt since arriving.
"Thank you, Ravhiel. I... I feel a bit more relieved now."
'...gonna be easy to use.'
That thought crept in like a shadow, cold and sharp. The truth was, Luna didn't trust anyone. Not fully. Not after what she'd seen.
One out of the five had already shown his true colors. The rest were probably no better. She didn't just want to escape anymore—she needed to free the other women too. The cages. The crying children. The blank stares of broken mothers.
And she was just one werewolf. An untrained one.
If she could barely fight off Rhaevos... how the hell were humans supposed to escape?
'I need a way out. Any way. Anyone. Ravhiel may be weak, but he knows everything about this place. He knows the system. How everything works. And he's kind... kind enough to be useful.'
"That's good," Ravhiel said, though his smile faltered ever so slightly. His brows furrowed again. "But... actually, there's a reason we stopped here."
Luna looked at him, head tilting slightly. A silent way of saying, Go on.
"We're at the threshold of the inner ring," he explained. His tone was cautious now, like he was warning her of something dangerous. "It's the heart of the den. The council room, the training grounds, personal quarters of the elites... everything important is there."
Luna felt her heartbeat quicken.
'Which means?'
"It's also where you're most likely to encounter the other ruling five again."
Her lips pressed into a thin line.
'Fantastic.' Luna thought sarcastically.
"Oh," was all she managed aloud. The single word slipped from her lips like breath escaping glass—fragile, uncertain, brittle with unease.
Then, with a soft sigh, Luna lowered her gaze. Her fingers curled slightly at her sides. "Anything... I should know about the rest?" she asked, her voice cautious, laced with a quiet tension.
She wasn't just asking out of curiosity—she needed to know. Her tone made that clear. She was worried. Afraid. Not of Ravhiel, but of the others. The ones who might treat her like Rhaevos did.
Because from what she had seen earlier, the five ruling males didn't exactly scream stable. Their earlier conversation—what little she had observed of it—reeked of dominance struggles, bruised egos, and violent tempers. But perhaps meeting them one by one… was even worse.
Ravhiel nodded slowly, gently steering his wheelchair toward the path ahead. "The one we'll likely run into once we get inside… is Rhyxen."
Luna's ears twitched slightly at the unfamiliar name.
"He's... Rhaevos' twin brother."
'So they're twins? But they don't look alike.' Luna blinked in surprise. Her mind replayed Rhaevos' face—sharp, brutish, like a beast barely leashed. She couldn't imagine someone who shared his blood looking or acting even remotely different.
"I can smell that he's near," Ravhiel continued. "He's probably in a meeting right now with the Deltas and Gammas. He's called the strategist of the five. He plans the raids and hunts, coordinates supply lines, oversees the resource flow throughout the den."
His voice held an odd sense of pride, like he respected Rhyxen's mind even if he didn't necessarily like him.
Then Ravhiel glanced back at her, smiling in a way that was meant to be reassuring. "Don't worry. He's the exact opposite of Rhaevos. Rhyxen is quiet. Cold. Calculating, maybe... but—"
Luna tilted her head slightly, her eyes narrowing. "Hm?" she prompted. 'But what?'
Ravhiel exhaled softly, eyes flicking ahead toward the entrance. "He can be... very rude. Dismissive. It depends on his mood. Some days he won't even acknowledge you're in the room. But I am confident he won't do what Rhaevos did. That's not his nature."
Luna bit the inside of her cheek, nodding slowly. "…Oh. Okay…" Her voice was barely above a whisper.
But if she was honest—she still wasn't looking forward to meeting him.
'Cold or not, he's still one of them.'
Her gaze dropped to her hand—pale, still trembling faintly from everything that had happened—but it held a quiet strength beneath the surface. She flexed her fingers slowly.
'If it gets bad again... I can do it. I can try what I did to Rhaevos.'
The memory hit her like a crack of thunder. The way his arm had buckled, the sickening crunch. She hadn't just shoved him away—she had broken him.
'Maybe those old guys were right... I might be stronger than I thought.'
No—she was. Luna could feel it now. Not a maybe. Not a possibility.
A certainty.
There had been no hesitation in her instinct, no fear in that moment—only fire. Only defiance. Rhaevos had tried to dominate her, and she'd fought back. With strength. With power she hadn't known she possessed.
'I just need to learn how to control it.'