Chapter 4

Lyric Adams pov

Two huge guards hidden in the shadows of the trees approached the vehicle, and my door flew open.

I shrank back from the red-eyed man peering in at me.

“This the new whore to add to the Alpha's collection?” he asked the driver.

“Take her to quarantine first. Goddess only knows what diseases she has picked up from the outcasts,” Mister Romanov ordered.

After getting dragged from the backseat, I was carried by my cuffed wrists around the side of the house and brought to a small, square-shaped brick building in the rear.

Tossed inside the windowless holding room and landing on a pile of hay, I glanced back at the opening.

“Someone will get you prepared for the Alpha after your time has finished,” The guard asserted before slamming the door and locking it.

My eyes adjusted to the darkness as I scooted to a seated position with my hands still cuffed behind my back.

My wrists hurt but the pain quickly subsided as I stared at the darkness.

Hours passed and the hot interior started to cool. I shivered as my sweat started to cool. As I sat there with the insects that I was certain infested the straw I thought about my family and my predicament. Moisture collected in my eyes as I wished desperately to prove them all wrong. If my shift came, I could re-enter the Crescent Moon pack and show the Alpha that I had a wolf, I thought, then grunted sourly.

“That bastard Gregory Sinclair would just shrug his shoulders and tell me Oops and dismiss me because I was a low-ranking wolf,” I muttered sullenly and turned toward the door opening.

Glaring blue eyes peered in at me. It was a woman who had put her finger to her nose and snorted.

“So you are the slave that Camden purchased, well I will make it my mission to make your life here a living hell. I AM LUNA and no lowly bought bitch is going to take that position away from me,” she asserted in haughtiness.

“Fine,” I murmured softly and she eyed me callously.

“You smell horrendous and will be permitted in the upper residence after you have been bathed and prepared for Alpha. So sometime tomorrow, since he is being entertained by his usual trollop this evening,” she stated flippantly, and I swallowed uncomfortably at her strange relationship with the Alpha.

“I thought mates were faithful,” I blurted and heard her sharp intake of air.

“Foolish chit! Camden has no mate, only me as Luna and I like the position it provides me, Egads! Mates, ha! Such foolishness,” she rambled on before slamming the door on me.

Hearing the lock catch, I exhaled softly and cursed at myself for not asking for the cuffs to be removed, then laughed at myself for believing that I would be given such luxury.

Lying my head down from exhaustion and hunger, I drifted off to sleep.

My dreams were horrendous, and when I awoke with the need to urinate, I grimaced.

Feeling my way in the darkness to a corner, I was thankful for not having on underwear and relieving myself.

Once finished, I scrambled back to the area I had rested and waited as my stomach gurgled.

“When did I eat last?” I questioned myself.

It had been at least three days. My last meal had been stewed rabbit with bread rolls that my mom had prepared.

“Perhaps I will starve to death before I get murdered,” I surmised, then laughed insanely.

Not having any reason to fight or carry on, I accepted my fate.

Hearing heavy footsteps, I watched the door open and saw a guard peering inside.

“Come here,” he asserted, and I stood up on my shaky legs.

Feeling exhausted and weak, I stumbled through the uneven straw toward the door.

The guard wrinkled his nose at me and said, “You will be taken to the others to be prepared for Alpha.”

Giving him a stoic glance, I asked him if my cuffs would be removed.

“That's up to the Alpha or Luna to decide, no more questions,” he asserted as he grabbed my bound wrists and manhandled me toward the residence.

I was brought in through a side door and taken down a set of stairs to the basement into a furnished room. I was taken to stand before a mature, scantily clad woman.

She looked me up and down with disdain.

“Get her prepared,” the guard huffed and shoved me further into the room.

“Are you going to remove her handcuffs?” The woman shouted at the man.

He stopped, turned, and tossed her a key.

“Put them back on her when you're finished with her,” he ordered.

Catching it mid-air, she smirked as she glanced at me.

“I'm ranked fourth out of the six, and my name is Rita. Come closer?” She paused, waiting for my name.

“Lyric Adams,” I mumbled.

Nodding, she stood and gestured for my wrists. Turning my back to her, she unlocked my cuffs and informed me that jewelry was not permitted to wear.

Bringing my hands to my front to rub my sore wrists, I shook my head.

“I can't remove the bracelet, a witch put it on me, and I will die if it's removed,” I told her.

It wasn't a total lie, as a witch had put it on me, and if my brand was discovered, I would die.

Rita just eyed me curiously and shrugged.

“Whatever, it's your skin, not mine, that will be whipped,” she stated, extenuating the p in the word “whipped.”

Nodding my head, I thanked her, giving her more of a confused scowl.

Gesturing for me to follow after her, she led me to the attached bathroom and told me to cleanse myself in the pool.

I removed the floral shift and then stepped into the steaming water.

“Stella Grey is Luna here, and you must obey everything that she says. Jasmine is the Alpha's number one, Trina is his second, Vanessa is his third, and I'm fourth. Stacy and Willow were sent to the packhouse kitchens, and that is a fate worse than death in this pack. I am a lowly female and am tasked with tending to the new slaves and Alpha's guests,” she explained, then handed me a bottle of perfumed soap and shampoo.

Eyeing her incredulously, I cringed.

“You have to mate with the Alpha's guests,” I balked.

“Yeah, and his guests are more sadistic than he or his brother, which I've had the unfortunate chance to be exposed to,” she said softly.

Thinking about my former Alpha Gregory, I felt pity for Rita as I washed and then rinsed my dark brown hair.

I swore I would never have to entertain him, no matter what I had to endure.