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I leaned back, pressing my spine against the wall. “Who are you?”

His smile widened. “You don’t need to know that.”

“I’m not afraid of you.”

His eyes glinted. “You should be.”

He crouched, resting his hands on his knees, and studied me like I was something fragile. Something he could break.

“You’re important, Annika.” My name on his lips felt wrong. “More than you realize.”

I forced myself to hold his gaze. “I’m nothing to you.”

He tilted his head. “Oh, but you are.” His fingers brushed the bars, and I flinched before I could stop myself. His smile sharpened.

“We’ve waited a long time for you.”

My stomach twisted. “Why?”

“Because,” he said, “you’re the key.” Upon those words, he gestured at me. “This won’t be pleasant, but I’m afraid it is necessary, to make sure.”

I frowned. “What do you mean?”

That was when three shifters appeared, and one of them started to unlock my cell. I pushed my back against the nearest wall, shaking my head.

“No!” I shouted, although I knew that wouldn’t do much good.

Two of them held me down, while I was kicking and screaming. Shifters, half-turned, their claws were digging into my arms. The third one gripped my hair, forcing my head back against the cold stone wall.

I thrashed, but it was useless. The chains rattled, biting into my wrists and ankles, pinning me like an animal.

“Let me go!” I screamed, but they didn’t even look at me.

The pale man, the one with the empty eyes, stood just outside the bars, calm. Unbothered. He didn’t blink as I fought.

“Hold her still,” he said.

They didn’t need to. The chains did the job for them.

I felt the prick of the needle before I saw it. Cold metal pressed against my skin, just below my collarbone, and then it slid in, smooth and precise.

I froze. My body locked up, every nerve screaming to move, to run, to fight, but I couldn’t. My breath came fast, too fast, and my vision blurred.

“It doesn’t hurt.” The man’s voice was smooth, almost soothing. “Not yet.”

Not yet.

I felt the pull almost instantly, the strange, soft tug beneath my skin as the needle drew my blood.

And he was right. It didn’t hurt. But it was worse.

It felt wrong. Like something being stolen. Something vital. Something I would never get back.

“Stop,” I said again, but my voice broke this time. “Please.”

The man didn’t react.

The blood filled the vial, dark and thick. Then another and another. The shifters held me tighter when I jerked, but the needle didn’t move. The pale man just watched like it was all nothing.