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I have never been vain about my appearance but I have been aware that some things came my way because some thought me attractive. Boys gave me attention, men helped me out. Would Luc have been interested in me if my hair was thin and my bum was wide? Well, it wasn’t but looking at myself in the mirror, I see a broken girl. Ugly. Perhaps I will never be pretty again.

I close my eyes and turn away.

Nobody would want me like this.

But I think of my mother and the poor nurse, who is scared to death of what will happen to her children and I know I have to go through with it.

I wash my face as best I can and wince every time I touch it. My ribs hurt, my arm is throbbing painfully and I wish I could climb into my bed at home, pull my lovely duvet over my head and sink into the deepest sleep.

Perhaps never wake up.

There is banging on the door.

“Come on out!”

I limp to the door and step back when I see a crowd of men waiting for me.

“Shit, he’s gonna come back for this?” Someone jeers at the back. They all start laughing, taunting me. “Don’t you wanna put on some make up?” Someone calls out to me.

One of the men takes my arm. “Ignore them,” he says curtly. The corridor is narrow and dark. It looks like it has been dug with shovels. Makeshift lights hang from the top. We walk for a while, then we stop. There is a metal ladder in the wall and I’m told to climb. It takes a while because I’m weak and my left side won’t move well. Something’s wrong with my leg, it hurts every time I lift it.

When I get to the top, there is a trapdoor and it is opened from the outside. A hand stretches towards me, I take it and I’m pulled out into the daylight. I can’t believe it, I’m standing in the forest. When they close the door and cover it with shrubbery, I can’t see where it is at all.

“Ok, men, take your positions,” comes the call from the leader of the pack. They fall back to hide behind the trees. I sense there are even more hidden out of sight.

The leader turns to me, a little apologetic. “I have to hurt you, sorry. He feels your pain, they say.”

“Please don’t,” I beg him. I don’t think I can take it anymore.

“I won’t hit you again,” he says and pulls out a knife.

He comes closer and moves so quickly that I have no time to prepare myself. He cuts my upper arm, from the shoulder down, I feel the blade slice through my skin and scream out in pain.

I can’t help myself, falling to my knees. Nobody comes to help me, they all stand there watching me, writhing in pain, bleeding into the grass, dying for all they care. I’d never hated shifters as much as I did then. Mercifully, I blacked out right there and the pain stopped.

But someone came to wake me up, shaking my other arm.

“Don’t sleep, bitch, your time will come but for now, you gotta be awake.”

The pain in my arm is dull now but I can feel it.

With my good arm, I feel around my neck for the silver chain my father gave me for my eighteenth birthday. When I feel it is intact, I breathe a sigh of relief.

Time passes and then I feel Luc coming closer.

They sense it too and without a word being said or any signal being given, the forest around me grows alive with growling and snarls. Most of the men have changed into wolves, huge beasts and frightening jowls. I look up at the sky, parts of which I can see through the trees but he doesn’t come from there.

Instead, there is a tree close to me and I hear him whispering to me.

“Ruby!”

I pull the necklace from my neck as the wolves jump from the bushes, ready to pounce on Luc. I put the dog whistle in my mouth and blow as loudly as I can, not sure what to expect. Almost immediately, the wolves start howling, but others are still coming. I can feel my strength fading away and I close my eyes as darkness mercifully returns.

When I wake up again, I am somewhere soft.

In a bed.

I blink a few times and try to make sense of it. There is a lot of pain though, my arm hurts.