Chapter 3

– ELIRA –

"Get up, bitch!"

Cold water hit my face, I gasped and opened my eyes. Standing before me were two huge guards standing over me, one held an empty bucket.

"Time to meet your new master, your new Alpha" the other one said. He grabbed my arm and yanked me to my feet.

I was in chains, heavy iron around my wrists and ankles. My whole body hurts. Someone had changed my clothes, now, I wore rough gray rags that scratched my skin.

"Move!" The first guard shoved me forward.

My legs shook, I could barely walk, but they dragged me anyway.

We went through a dark stone hall. This place felt evil.

They threw me into a big room, and I hit the floor hard. My knees cracked against stone.

"The trespasser, my lord," one guard said.

I looked up and forgot how to breathe.

He was huge, seven feet tall at least. He had a black hair, his skin so pale it was almost white. And his eyes... God, his eyes were silver and they glowed in the dark.

That was no other than Alpha King Kael Draven.

He walked around me in a circle, like a predator studying it's prey.

"What's your name?" His voice was deep and cold.

"Elira." My voice cracked.

"Elira." He said it slowly. "Do you know what I do to trespassers?"

I should have begged, I should have cried, but instead, I whispered, "Just kill me please." I would prefer to be killed by a total stranger than to die at the hands of Garrick's men.

He stopped walking, those silver eyes stared right into mine.

"Most wolves beg for life and you beg for death. Why?"

"Because I have nothing left."

He studied my face for a long time, like he was looking for lies.

"Interesting, here's what will happen. You'll serve in my keep for two weeks. If you're useful, you live. If not, you die. Do you accept it?"

What choice did I have?

"Yes."

He unlocked my chains, they fell to the floor with a crash.

"Don't disappoint me."

#My Nightmare Begins#

A mean old woman named Martha came for me, she had gray hair and cruel eyes.

"So you're the new slave, I'm in charge of servants here, follow my rules or die."

She gave me a bucket and rags. "Start with the kitchens, scrub everything. Fast."

The kitchen was huge and filthy, grease covered the walls, food rotted on the floor, it smelled like death.

I started scrubbing.

Other servants walked by, and they whispered about me.

"She's the trespasser who didn't die."

"Why is she still alive?"

"She won't last three days."

I kept working, my hands got raw from the harsh soap, my back ached from bending over.

A guard walked by, he kicked my bucket, water spilled everywhere.

"Oops," he laughed.

I filled it again and kept scrubbing.

A kitchen girl bumped into me, my cleaning supplies scattered across the floor.

"Sorry," she said, but she was smiling.

This happened all day, guards pushed me, servants tripped me, everyone treated me like dirt.

At night, Martha threw me in a tiny room with no windows, just a thin mat on the floor.

"Sleep fast, work starts at dawn."

I lay in the dark and touched my empty stomach. My baby was gone, my mate was gone, my sister betrayed me, my pack threw me away.

Now I was a slave in a cursed castle.

But I was still alive.

That had to mean something.

## Getting Stronger

Days blended together. Work, pain, sleep. Work, pain, sleep.

Martha gave me the worst jobs, cleaning blood from torture rooms, scrubbing walls in the dungeons, carrying heavy stones up endless stairs.

"Move faster, omega!" she would yell.

The guards laughed at me. "Look at the weak little wolf, can't even shift. Pathetic."

They shoved me when I carried food, made me drop everything, forced me to start over.

But something strange happened. My body got stronger, my arms could carry heavier things, my legs could run up stairs without stopping.

And I started noticing things others missed.

Secret doors behind tapestries, guards changing shifts at midnight, whispered conversations in empty halls.

I moved like a shadow now, quiet and invisible.

I always felt him watching. The Alpha King. Those silver eyes follow me everywhere, but he never spoke.

Was he waiting for me to break? To give up?

Too bad, I'd already lost everything, what more could he take?

## Two Weeks Later

I was still alive, still working, still getting stronger every day.

Martha looked angry about it, the guards seemed disappointed.

But the Alpha King just kept watching, silent as death.

A young servant girl walked over to me quietly and handed me a small cup.

“You look so tired, you need this” she said and handed the cup to me “Have some water.”

I was thirsty, my throat felt like sand, the water looked cool and clear.

I drank it all.

"Thank you."

She walked away, but something felt wrong, the way she moved. Too careful. Too planned.

A sharp cramp hit my stomach, making me bend over.

The cup slipped from my hands and smashed on the floor.

Was it poisoned?

My vision blurred, as foam came from my mouth, I fell to my knees on the cold stone.

Why? Why would someone want to poison me?

I was nobody! Nothing! Just a broken omega slave with no power.

Who did I threaten? What danger could I possibly be?

Unless... unless someone didn't want me to pass my trial. Someone who wanted the Alpha King to think I was weak, maybe because I have always been weak.

But who? And why?

My body hit the floor, everything went dark around the edges of my eyes.

After everything I'd survived. Garrick's rejection when I was pregnant with his child. Serina's betrayal - my own twin sister choosing to destroy me. Losing my baby in the mud and rain. Running through the forest while wolves hunted me like an animal.

I'd made it through all of that, proven I was stronger than the mere omega they knew me to be, I have proven I could survive anything.

And now someone here wanted me dead too.

Was I cursed? Destined to always be unwanted? Always be thrown away like garbage?

First my own mate chose my sister over me when I was carrying his heir. Now someone in this castle wanted me gone.

What had I done wrong this time? What crime was I paying for?

Maybe Garrick was right, maybe I really was nothing, maybe I deserved all this pain.

The darkness crept closer, my heart slowed.

Was this how it ended? Not in battle, but poisoned like a rat in the shadows?

Would anyone even remember that Elira existed?

Or would they just throw my body in the burn pit with the rest of the trash?

The last thing I saw before everything went black was silver eyes watching from the doorway.

The Alpha King, had he seen what happened?

Would he care that someone tried to kill me?

Or was he the one who ordered it?