Selene's POV
I had promised myself I wouldn't cry.
I swore it right here in this same room when Kael had dragged me here with the collar locked around my neck and stripped the last pieces of my name and freedom. I had stared at the stone walls then, numb but proud, and told myself I wouldn't give them anything more. Especially not my tears.
But now they wouldn't stop.
My body convulsed with each sob, my chest tightening as if ropes had wrapped around it. The cold tile beneath me was soaked through, muffling the gasps I tried so hard to hide. I pressed my face deeper into them, biting hard on my arm just to keep myself from screaming. But even that small act of control was slipping away.
The pain wasn't just in my throat or chest.
It was everywhere. In the raw sting across my hips. In the tremble of my legs. In the places his hands had gripped too hard. There were bruises already...rising like angry flowers across my skin.
