Light footsteps woke me, glancing around the room realizing that it was still dark but the sounds of birds tweeting here and there. My eyes felt like they had crusted shut, and my arms and legs were numb from the knots they were tied in. The silver had completely exhausted my body along with my stomach I felt starved, gargling loudly.

Nella's face appears between the bars as she takes the key and opens the door quietly, trying not to slam it against the brick wall.

She turns to look behind her as another person emerges from the darkness of the cellar, her eyes meet mine and for a second I feel like I know her.

"Megan?" She asks as she takes a step closer, her blonde hair falling all the way down to her hipbones. My eyes watch her as she kneels down in front of me, not fearing me once. "Do you remember me?"

For a second I felt like I did but the curse had been fucking with my memories, destroying my brain cells day by day.

"No," I mumble out.

"I'm Hope?" She says again, pressing a hand to her chest as she speaks. "We used to be in the same pack. We didn't really talk much but I knew who you were."

My eyes remain on hers as I take in her words, we were in the same pack?

"Pandora is your mother," she continues and I draw my head back sharply.

"Hope," I breathe out as I attempt to remember, it all felt so familiar but I couldn't quite pin my finger on it. Sparking an intense fury inside of me, or maybe it was the mention of my mother's name.

"Holy shit," Nella comments from the side. "You guys know each other?"

Hope turns to look up to Nella as she nods. "Yeah," she says.

"W-What happened?" I croak out, no energy inside of my body to say more.

Hope's pale blue eyes narrow for a second as she tries to grasp what I said. "I left your pack when I met Alfie, my mate. I have been here for a few years now." She explains.

My tongue licks along my bottom lip, not saying anything more. "Here," Nella says as she cracks the lid of a water bottle and pours it into my mouth, the cool liquid slipping down my throat. Clenching around it desperately, never have I gone so long without water.

I nod up towards her as she takes it away. Hope clears her throat and I turn back to her. "The curse," she says. "Pandora did this?"

"Yeah," I mumble out.

"She fucked me up too," Hope nods and I tilt my head in confusion.

"How?"

"When I met Alfie, I spoke to my parents about leaving the pack and coming here. Pandora kept telling me how much it would upset my family and I was putting them to shame." Hope grounds out, remembering what happened. "And I decided to go anyway but Pandora tried to stop me."

Hope pauses for a second and pulls up the material on her leg, my eyes darting towards the scarring across her skin. Like a lash of venom wrapped around her leg, red and blistering. "She did this to me and now I have a permanent murmur in my heart."

Her eyes drop to the floor as she yanks on the material, covering her wound. "She is evil and she is cruel and she abuses her power because she knows she's stronger than most. I wish I could say that you're lucky you got out but I know she's cursed you and I'm sorry."

"Megan wants revenge," Nella comments as she folds her arms over her chest.

Hope snorts towards her and turns back to me. "Too right," she agrees. "That fucking bitch needs to be put in her place, she needs to be stopped."

"If I kill her the curse will be broken," I grumble before coughing sharply.

Hope's eyes blink back at me rapidly. "Do you think mine will go away as well?" She questions.

Nella nods. "Usually spells and curses are broken when the perpetrator is dead," she explains. "The power she has used to create these spells won't be on the Earth anymore, breaking the foundations of them."

"Oh my God," Hope mumbles out, her eyes glassing over with tears. "I didn't know that."

"Will your murmur kill you?" I question with hooded eyes.

Hope's expression turns sad within a second. "I don't know but every so often I have these blips, it causes seizures and blackouts. Sometimes I feel weak and I worry that it will kill me one day. Why else would she have done it?"

Nella sighs and grips her shoulder, deep down in my heart I could feel her pain but I couldn't sympathize when I was living with something similar.

Except Hope gets to go through this with her mate, I will probably never meet mine.

"Does your mate hate her?" I question deeply.

Hope's head nods. "He fucking despises her," I watch as her fists tighten into the sleeves of her jumper.

"Do you want to help me get revenge?"

Nella's lips part but I don't focus on her, I focus on Hope who agrees the second these words leave my mouth. "Oh, I want to tear her limb from limb and force her to experience what she's done to us."

"Then help me get to her," I say as I flick my eyes between them both.

Nella drops her hands from her chest and sighs. "I can convince Mace that you're not a threat to the pack but convincing Jason is going to be hard."

"Yeah, pretty sure he almost slit my throat last night," I say with a light laugh.

"Megan, what did I say about winding him up?" She presses her hand to her forehead.

"I couldn't help it," I shrug.

"Alfie will help convince Jason," Hope nods instantly. "Jason thinks the world of Alfie, hell will break loose if he knows that you can help us get to her and kill her. We're going to need all the help we can get, we know how powerful she is."

"I guess the more of us there are, the more likely we are to succeed." I wheeze out partially.

"I agree," Hope says confidently.

"Could you at least untie me from these knots and the silver?" I question quietly.

Hope doesn't even need to be asked twice. She was up on her knees before I knew it, pulling apart the rope and slowly edging off the silver so that it didn't harm her skin. Nella followed Hope's lead and after a few minutes, I was free from the deathly metal.

Stretching out my arms that felt like jelly, pushing against the chair and having to stabilise myself against the brick wall. Nella's hands move to touch me but her skin against mine felt like poison, burning up my veins within a second.

I recoil from her hold. "Don't touch me," I shake my head towards her suddenly.

"I'm sorry," she says quickly.

"All I want is to get to my mother, I don't want any of your pack. I'm not interested in hurting any of you, I just want to get on with what I was planning." I tell them as my fingers dig in between the bricks on the wall.

"We know," Nella says. "It's just convincing Jason."

"He hates me," I comment.

"Well yeah, you've literally hurt a member of his pack and then belittled him." Nella says light heartedly. "I think he's going to be a little butthurt."

"Oh Jason will get over it," Hope presses her hands to her hips. "He will have to see how serious we are about this, and that we wouldn't be able to do it without you. You know your mother more than anyone."

"Do you think I could get something to eat and have a shower?" I question, shuffling my feet in attempt to stretch my legs without falling over.

"Yes," Hope says instantly. "You will need to get your strength up if we want to take Pandora down."

"Let me talk to Jason and Mace," Nella says seriously as she turns to Hope.

"But I know they'll listen if we tell Alfie and let him have a say as well."

Nella's lips swish from side to side as she thinks. "Fine we do it together," she nods before turning to me. "I'll bring you some food but I can't take you upstairs until we have the go ahead from Jason."

"Okay," I mumble out, too exhausted to argue.

"I think you should apologise to Jason for hurting one of his wolves, ask if they're okay," Nella suggests and my face instantly turns sour. "I know you don't want to but it will go a long way Megan, all they want is respect and currently you've given him zero."

"He threatened to kill me?" I breathe out. "Talk about respect."

Nella sighs. "You two are literally impossible."

Hope shares a supportive smile with me as they edge out of the cell, Nella closes the cell behind her and locks it. "I'll grab some food now." She tells me and I nod back.

Desperate for something to eat, my stomach felt like it was performing cannibalistic acts on itself. Feeling sick from the lack of energy, my body was covered in a thick layer of sweat.

I didn't want to admit it but I knew that I needed Hope and Nella to get me out of this gloomy cell, maybe biting my tongue would help my situation.

. . .

Later that night Nella grabbed me from the cellar and showed me upstairs, my eyes almost bursting from the surge of light as we entered the hallway. My eyes clenching tightly as Nella attempts to guide me, remembering not to touch me which I felt grateful for internally.

"How did the convincing go?" I ask, my voice croaking as I eventually crack my eyes open.

Nella guides us to a grand set of stairs, large oak banisters with thick varnished steps. "It went... I guess." She shrugs.

"You guess?" I mumble towards her.

"Grab onto the handle," she tells me as we slowly make our way up the stairs.

"You're lucky that Alfie and Mace are brothers," Nella tells me with a side smile. "Because if Alfie were anyone else, Jason really wouldn't have let this happen."

My eyes watch as I take the steps up to the top floor, careful that my weak legs don't fold in on themselves and send me down the stairs. Nella takes me down the end of the hall, glancing over all the doors along the walls.

"We have this spare room," Nella tells me as she points to the door at the end. "It's only small."

"Better than that chair," I mumble and Nella laughs shortly.

"The shower is just opposite," she points out. "Hope and I have rummaged for some spare clothes for you."

My lips curve before dropping instantly, the thought of being nice was manipulated with sudden frustration for no reason. The curse bubbling up inside me, forcing me to be a bitch instead of just accepting the nice gesture. So I say nothing.

Nella claps her hands in front of her. "Right okay," she breathes out as she takes a few steps backwards. "Let me know if you need anything."

I watch as she turns her back on me and walks up the long corridor, my shaky hand presses down onto the handle as I look into the room. Nella was right, it was fucking small. But I guess I don't have a say considering I'm staying here for nothing.

Maybe the Alpha would strangle me to death in my sleep, now that would be interesting.

Grabbing onto the towel that was spread across the single bed, I turn back towards the bathroom and lock the door. Looking up at the tiny showerhead, anything will do. Still covered in endless amounts of dirt and sweat.

Once the warm water hit my skin it felt bliss but then my body temperature ran cold, the water beginning to burn me. I curse out and turn the heat down to the coolest setting but it still hurt my skin. "Fuck you," I mumble out as I attempt to scrub my body as quickly as possible.

Using the random bottles of shampoo and body wash, watching as the dirt and blood dripped from my body. A mixture of dark brown and deep red, passing by my feet and trailing down the drain.

Wrapping the towel around my body and stepping out of the shower, staring back at the medicine cabinet in front of me. Using my hand to wipe away the condensation off the mirror, my eyes settling on myself for the first time in months.

My lips part as I stare back at my appearance, almost not recognising myself. The skin against my face was pale and broken, my eyes had turned to the darkest shade of brown I'd ever seen. They almost looked black, like I was possessed of some kind.

Raising my fingers to my hair, matted and ratty. Noticing my roots were growing out black, knowing that I was a natural brunette. The curse was killing me inside and out.

I looked crazy, no wonder Jason thought I was a nutjob.

Tearing my eyes away from the mirror and opening the bathroom door, my eyes are instantly drawn to a picture on the wall next to the spare room.

A group picture of the pack, easily over a hundred of them. I noticed Nella, Hope, Mace and Jason. Their pack looked strong, I have to admit but a picture cannot explain a story.

My eyes dart to the next picture, shuffling along the hall as I look between the people. Almost like I was desperate to find someone I knew from my old pack, attempting to challenge my memory. But nothing was coming to me, not that I would know any of these people anyway.

A tight grip of fingers is latched around my wrist unexpectedly as I am pulled away from the picture, shoved up against the opposite wall. Jason stares down at me, his eyes dilated and his nostrils flared.

"What the fuck are you doing?" He demands angrily.

"Showering," I snap back.

"I can smell your fucking arousal," he grits his teeth. "Any unmated wolf in this house can smell your arousal, so stay in your fucking room."

My eyes blink back at him. "I'm not looking for a fight." I tell him strongly.

"And I didn't ask for a response," he shakes his head suddenly.

"Why are you smelling my arousal anyway?" I challenge him, tilting my head in amusement.

His dark eyes narrow towards me as he closes the gap between us, he was trying to intimidate me but it wasn't working. I saw through his persona.

"I'm not smelling it on purpose you idiot," he looks down at me with a grimace. "Your wolf clearly can't keep control of itself, every fucking unmated wolf in this house will be able to smell you. So stay in your room until the sun comes up, alright?"

My eyes roll towards him. "Whatever," I grumble towards him.

"Whatever you're planning to do with Hope and Alfie, you get it done and then you get out of my sight." He lowers his head to mine, glancing at the wrinkles of skin on the outside of his eyes.

"I wouldn't want to be in it anyway." I mumble out as I remove myself from his hold and walk towards the spare room, slamming the door loudly behind me.