After My Alpha Drugged Me for Ten Years

The lock turned at nine PM.

I went rigid. Couldn't help it. My body knew that sound better than it knew my own heartbeat. Metal sliding into metal. The click. The finality of it.

I was sitting on the floor of the locked room they'd put me in. Lower level of the Silvercrest pack house. No windows. One door. A cot against the wall and a bucket in the corner. They'd removed the silver cuffs but my wrists still burned where the metal had pressed.

I faced the door. Always faced the door. Ten years of habit.

The room was quiet. Too quiet. At the cabin there had been wind in the trees. Mice in the walls. Here there was just silence and the faint hum of the pack house heating system somewhere above me.

I pressed my hands flat against my thighs. The scars on my wrists caught the dim overhead light. Silver burns didn't heal clean. They left marks that looked like someone had poured acid on skin and let it sit.

I closed my eyes.

Reached inward.

It was something I hadn't done in years. Not really. At the cabin I'd been too afraid. Too worried that if I reached for Solace and found nothing, the last fragile thread holding me together would snap.

But tonight I needed to know.

*Solace?*

Nothing.

I tried again. Pushed deeper. Past the wolfsbane fog that sat thick in my blood. Past the exhaustion. Past the fear.

*Solace. Are you there?*

For a long moment there was only silence.

Then — something.

A whisper. Barely there. Like a voice heard through deep water or from the other side of a wall so thick it swallowed sound.

But it was there.

My breath caught.

I pressed harder. Focused everything I had on that faint presence. It felt like trying to hold smoke. Every time I thought I had it, it slipped away.

*I'm here,* I thought. *I'm still here. I haven't forgotten you.*

The whisper didn't form words. It couldn't. Ten years of wolfsbane had done that. But there was a sensation. Warmth. Faint. Fragile. Like a candle flame behind glass.

Solace was alive.

I opened my eyes. My hands were shaking.

I made a promise then. Silent. To the ghost of my wolf trapped behind a chemical wall.

*Tomorrow. Whatever happens tomorrow, I will not let them take you from me again.*

From somewhere deep inside, so faint it could have been imagination, something answered.

Not words. Just warmth.

I sat there for a long time. Hands pressed to my thighs. Breathing. Feeling that tiny flicker of presence like it was the only thing in the world that mattered.

Because it was.

---

Miles away, in Blackridge territory, Levi Gardner's phone lit up at 11:47 PM.

I didn't know that yet. Didn't know he'd kept a burner phone charged and on his person every single day for ten years. Didn't know he'd memorized my number the same way I'd memorized his.

I didn't know that when he read those three words — *Silvercrest pack house* — he didn't read them twice.

He was already moving.

Already issuing orders to his Beta. Already mobilizing his royal guard. His voice flat and absolute. The voice of a wolf who had rehearsed this moment ten thousand times and was done rehearsing.

Maren Voss, his Beta, didn't ask questions. She'd watched him dismantle his own peace for a decade over a she-wolf most wolves thought was dead. She knew what the message meant.

Within forty minutes, Levi and his full guard were moving toward Silvercrest under a dark sky.

But I didn't know any of that.

I sat in the locked room and felt the faint warmth of my wolf and told myself it was enough.

---

Declan came in the morning.

I heard his footsteps in the hallway. Recognized the rhythm. He walked like a man who owned every space he entered.

The lock turned. The door opened.

He was alone. Immaculate. The Golden Alpha in a pressed shirt and tailored pants. His Silvercrest insignia gleamed on his collar. His hair was perfect. His jaw was clean-shaven.

He looked like he'd slept well.

I was still sitting on the floor. I hadn't moved to the cot. Hadn't slept.

He stepped inside and closed the door behind him. Set a document on the small table near the cot. The Luna Accord transfer. Same one from yesterday.

"Today's the ceremony," he said. His voice was calm. Reasonable. "You'll sign this after the rejection vow. In front of the assembled Alphas. Then you'll be released. Free to go wherever you want."

I looked at the document. Looked at him.

Said nothing.

He waited. His expression was patient. Understanding. The face of a man doing something difficult but necessary.

"The past decade was unfortunate," he continued. "But it was necessary. Your wolf was unstable. You know that. We protected you. Kept you safe. Now it's time to move forward."

The silence stretched.

His jaw tightened. Just slightly.

"Stella." His voice dropped. The Alpha tone slid into it like oil. Low. Commanding. Designed to compel. "You will sign the document."

The tone hit me. Pressed against my consciousness like a weight. Heavy. Insistent.

For a second I felt it dig in. Felt my body want to obey.

But something else pushed back.

Deep inside. Where Solace's faint warmth still flickered. Something that carried the echo of a bloodline I'd never been allowed to access.

The tone didn't reach as deep as it used to.

I kept my eyes on his.

Didn't move.

Declan's eyes narrowed. Just a fraction.

He picked up the unsigned document. Folded it once. Slid it into his jacket pocket.

"We'll try again at the ceremony," he said.

Then he walked out.

The lock turned behind him.

I sat in the silence and pressed my hands to my thighs and felt the faint warmth inside me burn just a little brighter.