For three days, the men tortured him in every possible way they could, using different methods and equipment. They got angrier with each passing day and one by one, they shifted into their werewolf forms, slashing his body with their claws and leaving marks.
His jaw was broken, his fingers were twisted, and his chest was crushed. But that was just the beginning. His skin was torn, burned, branded with red-hot iron, and his bones were broken. As the torture worsened, Kieran's mind faded in and out.
He could barely breathe and whenever his head hung low in silence, they threw ice-cold water on him to shock him back to reality. They would shove his head into a large drum filled with dirty, freezing water and would hold him down while the others kept hitting him with spiked whips that tore through his back and shoulders.
In those moments, Kieran would thrash and choke as his lungs burned for air. But just when he thought he would pass out, they would yank him up again and chain him to the wall like an animal.
His blood soaked the floor beneath him and with each passing day, his breathing became shallow. He was on the edge of death. But his mind… his mind was awake. And his silence was the only weapon he still had.
Deep inside of him, something stubborn burned. A piece of him that refused to give in. He wasn't just anyone. He was a Drakalon—a Drakhaal born of fire and strength, even if they were both gone… for now.
"He's one of them," Cassius said quietly, his eyes fixed on nothing in particular.
He was standing outside the cell with Maximus who stood, staring at Kieran on the floor. Cassius had already reported how unyielding and unresponsive he was, even while being nearly tortured to death.
That caught Maximus's attention.
At first, he thought the men simply hadn't dealt with him hard enough, but seeing Kieran's bloody and battered body proved otherwise.
This man, whoever he was, clearly had something to hide, something important, and whatever it was, he was ready to die before revealing it.
"What do we do, Alpha?" Cassius asked, clenching his fists.
He hated that Kieran hadn't broken. No one had ever lasted this long under his torture and stayed silent. It was eating him up inside, making him look weak in front of Maximus.
"Get him cleaned up and dressed," Maximus replied coldly and turned to walk away.
"Cleaned up? But..."
"You have failed to force words out of his mouth, it's only fair I take him to someone who can do a better job and provide the answers I need"
Cassius' jaw tightened as he watched him leave. With his fists clenched, he stormed back into the cell. "Still not ready to talk?"
•••
Outside the hallway, Ariadne walked back and forth, growing more impatient by the second. She had been waiting for Maximus to finish whatever he was doing in the cell below so she'd finally get the chance to ask the questions that had been swirling in her mind.
News had spread fast about a strange man who appeared out of nowhere, and she was desperate to get answers straight from her father.
Letting out a loud sigh, she stopped pacing and tapped her foot impatiently on the floor. All she wanted was answers, just the truth. After a short while of waiting, Maximus finally walked out of the hallway and she breathed a sigh of relief.
"Father, what's going on? Who is he? What does he want?" She asked as she rushed over to him. "Please tell me we've finally gotten a clue after all these years"
Maximus looked at her with a tired expression. He knew his daughter well enough. Once she had questions, she never stopped until she got answers.
"He hasn't said a single word since we found him," He replied gently. "But don't worry, my little Princes, we'll deal with him soon enough."
"Deal with him? What do you mean by that?"
"As I said, don't worry about it," Maximus replied, brushing a kiss against her forehead. "Get some rest."
"But I—"
Before she could say anything else, Maximus turned to Viggo, her protector. "Escort her back to her room and make sure she remains there until I say otherwise."
With that being said, he walked away and didn't look back, leaving her stunned and angry as Viggo silently motioned for her to follow.
As she started walking away finally, her steps slowed at the sound of a sudden agonizing scream that echoed from deep within the hallway. The cry was raw, filled with pain and something else she couldn't quite name.
As she took another slow step forward, the scream got louder and she froze. Her body tensed, and slowly, she turned back toward the hallway.
There was something about that scream—it wasn't just pain. It felt... familiar, like a string inside her had been pulled too tight. Her heart thudded hard in her chest as the agonizing scream grew louder, each beat faster than the last. Even after the sound had faded, it echoed in her ears.
"Who was that?" She asked softly, without taking her eyes off the dim hallway.
Just then, Viggo stepped in front of her, blocking her view. He then motioned for her to continue walking. "It's nothing you need to worry about, Princess."
But Ariadne didn't move.
Something inside her had stirred, something she had never felt before.
THE NEXT EVENING~
After Kieran was cleaned up a little, he was dressed in clean clothes that didn't match the broken state of the man inside them. He couldn't walk on his own, so the guards grabbed him by the arms and dragged him out of the cell.
Three days of brutal torture had completely broken his body and he couldn't struggle. He just let them pull him forward, each step filled with pain.
His long, wet hair fell over his swollen, almost unrecognizable face as his head hung low between his shoulders. Every inch of him ached, but that didn't stop them from dragging him to meet Maximus.
Finally, they reached the council chamber and Kieran was dragged inside. As he was thrown hard onto the floor, pain shot through his body once again, sending shockwaves all through him.
Without words, Maximus watched him from behind the stone table. There was something strange about the stray... something odd, but intriguing enough to unsettle him.
After a while, he stood up and walked over to him. Kieran was then lifted from the ground and forced to kneel.
"What is your name?" Maximus asked, circling him.
His keen senses flickered, and he leaned in, trying to catch Kieran's scent—the unmistakable scent of a werewolf, a vampire, or something even more primal. But there was nothing, just as Cassius had confirmed the first night they saw him.
Nothing at all.
Maximus frowned deeply and stepped back with a puzzled look on his face. Closing his eyes briefly, he focused, using his wolf to try and sense anything—any trace of what this man could be.
But there was no smell, no heat, and no trace of anything familiar.
His wolf's instincts screamed at him to make sense of what he was seeing. The scentlessness was unnatural and he had never encountered anything like that.
For a second time, he sniffed again.
What was this man? He wondered as his wolf became restless. Was he one of the strays? A rogue? A vampire? He'd eradicated all rogue vampires years ago and the ones left were in hiding, not daring to show themselves.
The werewolves were easy to track because there was always a scent or something to follow. But this… this man left nothing behind.
Perhaps a human?
The idea was fleeting and impossible and he dismissed it quickly. This wasn't just some human wanderer, something was off. The man wasn't like any human he'd ever met. But then what was he?
Maximus crouched in front of Kieran and narrowed his eyes with suspicion. He couldn't be what Ariadne and Cassius had thought him to be. He didn't even possess their dark powers and looked nothing like them.
"I can't smell you," Maximus muttered under his breath and yanked him by his hair, forcing him to look up. Kieran jerked in response and looked straight into Maximus' eyes. "What are you? Werewolf? Vampire? Or something else entirely?"
As always, Kieran remained silent. He could barely hold himself back from exploding or control the surge of immense fury that rushed through him, burning hotter than fire.
In return, Maximus's piercing eyes never left his face. He studied every minute shift, looking for any sign of weakness or recognition. But there was nothing. Even when broken and unrecognizable, he refused to give in or say a word.
With his jaw clenched in frustration, different thoughts burned at the back of Maximus' mind. He had eradicated all other threats years ago—the Drakalons...
Before that thought could even form fully, his mind dismissed the possibility. Those hybrids had been wiped out, destroyed in the war and there was no reason to even consider it.
Still, something felt off. Something about Kieran felt... wrong.
Again, he leaned closer to Kieran.
"You're not like the others." He said with a dangerously low voice. "So tell me—WHAT. ARE. YOU?"