The Chains and the Alpha

The first thing I felt when I woke up was excruciating pain in my side. Everything was cold...everywhere was freezing. 

I tried to open my eyes, but my vision spun with blurry dots behind my eyes as my head throbbed. 

I looked around, trying to understand where I was. The room was dim, with the only source of light coming from a small lantern on the stone wall that surrounded me.

I shivered, instinctively trying to curl myself to generate more heat, only to feel the sharp, painful pull of chains. I panicked immediately, making my eyes snap open completely.

I looked down at myself and realized with shock that I was naked with a blanket loosely tossed over me. I tried to shake my head, this had to be a dream… a wicked, vile dream... but the metal cuffs biting into my skin were real. 

My ankles were shackled to the bedpost, spread just far enough to keep me from moving much. My arms were free, but they were weak and bruised. The spot were the rogue bit me ached, but I will still alive.

What the actual hell…?

 "Oh goddess... my head..." I grabbed my head with my hand amd immediately,  images of the young baby i had tried to save filled my head, squeezing my chest and causing tears to gather in my eyes.

I shook the sad thoughts from my head, I needed to know where I was first, I would grieve later.

"Mate" 

My wolfs inner voice bursts through my thoughts. 

She had to be kidding me. Mate? That killer?

I tugged at the chains again, gritting my teeth against the burn in my ankle, my breath fogged in the cold air. I scanned the room again, really looking at it this time.  There were no windows in the room. The walls were thick and old. definitely underground.

A dungeon. Of course it was a damn dungeon.

"Which mate cages his destined one in a dungeon?!" I yelled at my wolf.

Just as I leaned back, trying to pull strength from my wolf’s reserves, the door creaked., opening slowly. I snapped my gaze to it, snarling, though my voice cracked from dryness.

But it wasn’t a soldier, or an Alpha or even a rogue like I feared. It was a girl that looked maybe seventeen. She had reddish hair and was dressed in white clothes. 

I looked at her hands, ready to charge at her with whatever strength had left if she was holding a weapon, but her hands held a tray full of rolled bandages and little pouches of herbs. She flinched when she saw I was awake.

“Oh. You’re… awake,” she whispered. Her voice was quiet and soft, like she wasn’t used to speaking above a hush. I did not trust her though.

I narrowed my eyes. “Where am I?”

She hesitated. “You’re… safe. I...I’m here to clean your wounds.”

“Safe?” I let out a bitter laugh. “Is this how you treat people you’re keeping safe?” I said lifting up one of my chained ankles to proof my point. 

The girl walked closer, her hands shaking a little. “You were hurt really badly. You had rogue poison in your blood, it was progressing very fast. You would’ve died if Alpha Kade hadn’t told us to stabilize you.”

Alpha Kade.

My blood simmered just hearing the name.

“I don’t want your herbs or your help.  I want to get out.”

“I can’t do that, I mean, it’s not up to me. I’m just the healer’s daughter. I’m… learning.” she said the last bit with child-like pride.

“what's your name?" I asked.

That softened something in her expression. "Bella" she whispered. "What's yours?" 

"It's Naya."

I sat up straighter, trying not to wince. “Please… I can’t stay here. You don’t know what he’s done. What he is. I need to leave.”

Bella looked conflicted. Like she wanted to help, but did not want to disobey and be caught.

 She twisted her fingers into her apron, her lips pressed into a thin line.

 “I can’t help you escape. I... I’m sorry. He’d find out. He knows everything.”

Before I could ask what she meant, Bella suddenly stilled, all colour drained from her face. She nodded at no one in particular, then shook her head vehemently. Like in a trance. She had to be communicating through the wolf bond.

The thought of it made my heart sink. I reached for my own packs bond, but all I got in response was silence. They were all gone.

“He’s coming,” Bella whispered, snapping me out of the deep sadness that came on me. Without another word, she turned and fled out the door.

I blinked, forcing my voice to work. "Wait! Bella!"

The door opened again. And this time, it wasn’t Bella.

It was him.

Alpha Kade. 

My wolf was basically purring as he entered the dark room, but i hushed her. "He killed our entire pack, remember?" I whisper down to my wolf,  hoping it would wash off whateverplans she may have. I did not want a murderer for a mate.

He stepped in like he owned the very air I breathed, dressed in black from head to toe. His hair, a Wolf's cut teased his eyes... eyes so grey and unreadable, it made me nervous. His presence filled the room like a storm cloud, stiffling even the very breath in my lungs,  shifting something ancient and primal in the air.

Behind my eyes, my wolf looked at him too and growled.

The male in front of me was a monster through and true. His vibes were weird.

Kade said nothing at first. He simply shut the door behind him and strode to the side table where Bella had left the supplies before she ran off.

“I’ll do it myself,” he said coolly, rolling up his sleeves.

“I didn’t ask for your help.”

“I didn’t ask for your opinion.” He knelt beside the bed, soaking a cloth with a pungent green salve and reaching for my leg.

I snarled, trying to jerk away. “Don’t touch me!”

He caught my ankle easily in one large hand and glared up at me. “Struggle again, and I’ll snap your neck.”

I froze immediately. Nope. This could not be my mate!!!!

His hand moved to my throat, light but threatening, his fingers resting just below my jaw. The pressure was barely there, but it was enough.

“If you move,” he said softly, “you’ll be the one doing it. You will snap your own neck. Try me”

He held my gaze for a long moment. Daring me.

I may have threatened the moon goddess over and over, but I was not a fool either. Maybe a little, but still not that much of a fool. He was going to kill me if I moved. I saw it clearly in his eyes. He would kill me and not loose sleep over it.

He released me and returned to dabbing at the wound on my thigh while silence stretched between us like damned rubber band.

“I should’ve let you die out there,” he said absently, as though he was commenting on the weather. “But there’s something about you. Something familiar. Something I'm still trying to unravel”

I said nothing. What did I say to a delusional psychopath who was going off on a lazy rant?

He looked up at me again. “What title did you hold in your pack?”

The rage that slammed into me made my vision red.

“You!” I said, my voice shaking from fury. “You killed everyone. My father, my friends. My entire pack. And now you expect me to just sit here and make small talk?”

Tears stung my eyes, but I didn’t let them fall.

"...the baby... you killed the baby!! You did!!! if you didn't attack my pack, they would be no need for your stupid herbs..."

"Your father? you speak like an elite, with foolish carelessness…” He said, humming to himself.

“You should kill me now, finish what you started,” I snarled, “…because if you don’t , you’ll find out who I was to my pack in the worst way possible.”

Kade’s expression didn’t shift. But his gaze darkened.

“Is that a threat, Naya?”

I sucked in a breath. Shock evident on my face.

He knew my name. How the hell did he know my name.

“How do you…?”

“You shouldn't be so surprised” he said quietly. “This is my pack. My people tell me everything. If it was such a secret, you should've taken it to your grave”

My lips parted in disbelief. Bella… she told him.

 “You’re a bastard.” He smirked faintly.

 “Maybe. But I’m your captor. And you… you’re fascinating.”

He stood, his height towering above me.

“I’m going to enjoy unraveling you.”

And then he was gone, the door shutting behind him with a click and I was left staring at the ceiling, shaking from the fury I could no longer hold down.

“I’m going to kill him,” I whispered to myself.