Chapter 2: In the Dungeon

ISOLDE 

Why would he think I would kill his only heir after everything we had gone through, after all the promises, war, and sacrifices?

I let my head fall against the dark wall, cold burning through my skin.

I thought we were going to be together forever.

I still remember the first day I saw Alpha King Rowan, coming from the coven to see my parents.

His tall and dazzling figure got me grounded as I set my eyes on him, his deep blue eyes almost drafted out my brain while I felt like eating his pink lips to my satisfaction.

I felt goosebumps now and then, any time I saw him. We didn't talk the first time, but the second time he met me at home instead of my parents to collect an herb for his sick father, who was the Alpha King.

Alpha King Rowan summed up the courage to ask me out and I accepted him without thinking twice because I fell faster for him than magic could cast.

He courted me quietly like a storm in disguise, and I knew he loved me. He stood by me when the elders were against us, saying,” Werewolves for werewolves. Witches for witches.”

We didn't care.

He promised he would reject his fated mate whenever he came across her and I believed him.

We married and he became the Alpha King of the Red Hollow pack.

But peace didn't follow.

Wolves were being attacked, and children were being kidnapped. Wives ran away from the pack. 

The elders said it was because he had turned against the moon goddess's will. 

I beseech him to look for his mate not for love but for survival.

I thought it would help me conceive when I hadn't given him an heir since our five years of marriage. He accepted and promised to love me still no matter what.

Luckily for him, he found his fated mate within six months.

Velin.

A daughter of his father’s best friend. Surprised she had been right behind us all this while.

Velin was pretty, sexy–a woman every wolf in the pack could die for.

She was perfect.

She was everything I wasn't.

Then Alpha King Rowan married her almost immediately.

He said it was for the pack. For the duty.

That was the day I saw him do what he had never done to me before.

Lie.

After Alpha King Rowan married his fated mate, everything went back to normal.

Peace returns among the wolves and the witches once again. Velin gave birth to a baby boy, the future heir. I was genuinely happy and said,” Mine will soon come.”

Months passed.

Then years.

Alpha King Rowan changed.

At night, I would wake beside him. The silence between us was louder than cries, and when I tried to reach out to him…to remind him of our love.

He would growl at me, speak venomous words at my face,” Useless. Fruitless.”

I was powerless, shattered, and hopeless.

I held onto broken promises and love that still linger between us.

Still hoping.

Still waiting.

He disconnected every means of getting close to him. He found solace in another witch–Felda, shortly after his fated mate got sick after her childbirth.

Felda was submissive, soft-spoken, and pretty; she would brew him tea and sing his praises during the royal bath until he married her, too.

I accepted everything not because I had no pride but because I was hopeless. I had nowhere to go. I didn't know where to start.

No witch will marry a barren witch, not to mention a wolf. I was a disappointment to my parents no matter how they say otherwise.

And Elisa warned me!

“Don't marry a king who would exchange your soul for power?” She warned me.

I should have listened to my sister. 

But no! I was so blinded by love.

And I wasn't going to give up on him yet.

I knew he still believed in me, which is why he didn't kill me earlier.

‘Really Isolde? That's why he threw you into his pit to rot?’ a voice hissed in my head.

I shook my head continuously, my hands on the wall of the dark dungeon, hot tears never leaving my face, and the aches in my heart weren't leaving anytime soon.

“No! He still believes in me!” I cried loudly knowing no one would hear me or rescue me.

I was nothing here. Not a witch or queen but a prey.

Fummzzzz!!

A low and dark sound echoed through the dungeon. I started walking with the remaining strength, hoping to see the dungeon's entrance, which I knew wasn't possible.

“You can't get out of here,” the voice in my head reminded me,” you can only get out except if you're an Alpha.”

And I knew!

“I knew!” I yelled.

Fummzzzz!!!

The sound got closer. I couldn't see the monster but I could feel it walking closer to me.

I stopped walking as the air changed, thick, dark, and deadly. A chill ran down my spine.

Then it touched me.

Something long and thick like claws brushed my right arm. I stood frozen, moving away quickly after regaining myself.

“Who are you?! Get away from me or I will kill you!” I yelled, my hands clenched into a fist even though I had no strength.

The monster didn't answer.

Fummzzzz!!!

Then it dawned on me that it couldn't talk and his touch felt like… a hound.

Shadow Hound.

Oh no!

The chains were the only ones that were making noises as I continued to move back, almost turning to run to nowhere, but I hit something, melting, and the smell?

Gosh! It was terrible! 

Its breathing was bad.

The same hound!!

I stepped away, but the hound grabbed my left arm, his claws reaching for my neck,” Get off me!!” I tried to yank his stinky hand away, but I couldn't as it got hold of my hands with the silver chains.

Suddenly, he raised me with my neck, my legs swinging in the air. I fought with everything I had left, but it was too strong. I cried and screamed, but nothing happened.

Then, another and another hound. They started coming towards us as I heard their horrible sound.

Fummzzzz! Fummzzzz!! Fummzzzz!!! Fummzzzz!!!

I had to give up once again like I gave to Alpha King Rowan. He had made me powerless with these chains.

One hound dragged me from the one holding my neck, and I fell to the ground helplessly as I hit my head on the cold and stony ground. 

I winced and gasped in pain. One grabbed my leg, one grabbed my hand, and some surrounded me. I could picture them in my head with their annoying sound.

Then I felt a sharp pain at the upper side of my left breast, a bite.

A hound bite that was poisonous and could kill me in just three days.

“Ahhhh!” I shouted as I cried in pain, I struggled but they were just coming out more and more.

“Isolde! Isolde!!” I heard a faint voice calling my name but maybe I was dreaming. 

How could another human being be here?