My Sister Stole My Mate And I Let Her (Seraphina) novel Chapter 183

Chapter 183: Chapter 183 SOMETHING MONSTROUS

CELESTE’S POV

Cold.

That was the first thing that tore through the fog in my head.

Not the sharp bite of winter air, but a damp, stale chill that crawled under my clothes and clung to my skin.

My body jerked—and metal rattled with the movement. I realized...

My wrists wouldn’t move. They were held in place by cool iron.

W-what?

My lashes fluttered open, my vision blurry. For a moment, I thought I was still in the hotel suite—the silk sheets, the glinting chandeliers, Brett’s flat voice twisting through my mind like a cruel dream.

But hotel suites didn’t smell like this. Rust. And gasoline. And sweat. And urine.

My surroundings came into focus. With it came cold, heavy dread.

I wasn’t in a bed.

I was sitting on a metal floor—corrugated, ridged, rocking slightly beneath me as if...

As if I was moving.

A truck.

I was in a fucking truck.

I blinked, taking in the space. It was dimly lit by slivers of light seeping through the cracks of the shuttered back doors.

Harsh shadows flickered with every bump in the road. The ceiling was low. My knees were bent awkwardly to my chest because there wasn’t room to stretch out.

My wrists were shackled together with thick cuffs connected to a chain bolted to the floor. Something heavy weighed down my ankles, too.

All around me, huddled shapes moved with weak, trembling breaths. Women. Girls. Some barely more than kids.

They all wore collars around their necks, chains rattling with every shift. Their faces were streaked with grime and tears. Some stared blankly ahead like their souls had already checked out.

A strangled cry scraped free from my throat, raw with panic. My neck was weighed down by a collar of my own.

“No,” I whispered, my voice hoarse. “No, no, no—”

Panic hit me like a tidal wave. I yanked at the shackles on my wrists, metal cutting into skin. “HEY! WHAT IS THIS? LET ME OUT—LET ME—”

A boot slammed into my ribs so fast I didn’t even see it coming.

The air whooshed from my lungs as my body crumpled sideways, my vision exploding into bright white stars. Pain flared like fire beneath my skin.

“Shut the hell up,” a gruff male voice snarled.

A shadow loomed above me, and I had to blink the stars away to take him in. He wore a dark jacket and was heavily built, his features hard and cruel in the dim light.

The other women shrank back.

I gasped, struggling to pull in air. Shock and fury warred with disbelief.

“Do that again,” I rasped, rage lacing every word, “and my fiancé will—”

A sharp crack split the air.

Something lashed across my arm—whip? Belt? Gods, it burned, tearing my skin with a sting so vicious I screamed before I could stop myself.

“Watch her face, dumbass!” another voice barked from the front of the truck. “Pretty ones get better prices. Don’t mess up the goods.”

Goods.

Goods.

The word rang in my skull like a sick joke.

A shudder wracked me. I was shaking, paralyzed, lungs spasming in frantic, useless gulps.

One of the girls beside me whimpered silently, shoulders jerking.

The man who had struck me snorted and stepped back. “That’s better,” he muttered, satisfied now that I’d gone quiet.

My heart hammered in my chest, a wild, chaotic rhythm that had nothing to do with the cold.

Goods.

No.

No, absolutely fucking not!

“I’m not—” My voice quivered. I swallowed the sting of tears, forced more volume. “I’m Celeste Lockwood, daughter of Edward and Margaret Lockwood of Frostbane Pack. My fiancé is Alpha Kieran Blackthorne of Nightfang Pack. If you don’t let me out of these chains right now—”

Laughter.

Harsh, mocking laughter.

“You hit her too hard, asshole,” someone else I couldn’t hear muttered, amusement ringing in his voice.

The man who’d hit me spat on the floor. “Oh, sure, princess,” he sneered. “And I’m the King of the Council.”

That sent them into another fit of raucous laughter.

“Are you hearing me?” I hissed, more pissed off than scared now. “I am fucking royalty!”

“There is no royalty here,” another chimed in lazily. “Only mutts, Omegas, and wolfless filth no one gives a shit about.”

“I—” My voice trembled with fury. First, I’d been kidnapped, and now I was being classified with fucking filth? “I’m not an Omega. I’m not wolfless. I am—”

“Delusional, sweetheart,” he chuckled. “You’re delusional.”

“You fucking—”

The truck lurched violently as it hit a bump, pitching us sideways. My wrists ached as the chains held me in place.

“Pathetic,” he snorted.

My tongue felt thick in my mouth. Sweat trickled down my back despite the cold.

They didn’t believe me.

Or worse—they didn’t care.

I tried to push past panic and think.

Okay. What did I know?

I remembered the hallway. Chasing Brett. The elevator doors closing. Then—arms grabbing me. Hand over my mouth. No chance to scream. No scent to latch onto because—

Because Kharis was sealed.

A tremor rippled through me.

If she weren’t locked away... if the bond between us weren’t muted... maybe I would’ve felt the danger sooner. Maybe I could’ve fought back.

But I’d caged her. Smothered her voice until she barely even scratched against the inside of my mind anymore.

Brett’s voice from earlier sliced into my thoughts like a hot blade:

‘Stop keeping Kharis locked away like she’s some inconvenience you wish never existed.’

Panic wavered. Guilt slithered in.

No.

I tossed that panic aside with a savage will. I refused to break here. I refused to become like the hollow-eyed girls around me.

Think, Celeste. You are a Lockwood. You were raised for power. Taught how to survive politics, mind games, social warfare—

But this wasn’t politics. This was chains. Flesh. Fear. Real danger.

The truck slowed suddenly.

My breath hitched.

A murmur rippled through the girls around me—small, broken sounds that were more like sobs swallowed by fear.

The guard hit the metal wall twice.

“We’re here!”

Here. 𝒻𝘳ℯℯ𝑤ℯ𝒷𝘯ℴ𝓋ℯ𝘭.𝑐ℴ𝑚

Where the hell was here?

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