1. Still A Prisoner.

~ LAYLA ~

I will not die today.

Cold iron cuffs bite into my wrists. A painful migraine pulses behind my eyes, each throb sharp enough to make the walls tilt around me.

I don’t want to believe this is real, but the truth is already hard to ignore.

I am chained up. Again.

The chain groans when I test it, the thick links disappearing into the wall behind me and bolted deep into the wall that even a full shift can't rip them free.

Whoever built these chains knows exactly how to hold a wolf.

I tug at the chains again, my eyes looking around me. This place is a cell and I am caged like an animal. I do not fully know where I am. All I know and feel is that I am not in Kaliq's cage again like some rabid animal he locked up and almost turned me into.

This cell isn’t Kaliq’s prison.

But nevertheless, it is still a prison that's much bigger and colder than Kaliq's prison.

Probably even worse.

When I pull again at the chains holding me to the wall, the silver sizzles my skin with another painful burn, the pain shooting up my arms as I bite back a mournful cry and pull again.

Still nothing.

I am helplessly hanging here, a prisoner all over again.

Every escape keeps leading me to another cage.

Will I ever be free?

The thought makes me want to scream both in anger and for help. My heart bleeds when I remember my family.

My parents.

My mother's scream.

My father's last stand.

And my baby brother Erin.

They died protecting me, and I swore to myself that I will preserve their legacy by never letting myself die or get caught again. I swore that I will never let myself be captured again by the one man who has sworn to own and destroy me and my entire family.

The monster who destroyed everything.

Kaliq.

I am sure he killed my family. He also enslaved me for years until I finally escaped and swore to never let him enslave me again.

But now, why am I locked up here?

Did he eventually succeed in dragging me back that night?

Is that why I am here?

Did he find me again?!

Fear rushes down my spine in icy shivers, my breath hitching in my throat as I desperately try to hold onto anything around me. Anything that might make sense.

I force myself to look around, searching for more answers.

The roof of this place is covered in cobwebs. The wall bricks are dark and cracked. To my right, there is a small window, way up near the top of the wall and sunlight is shining through it, now forming a soft pale yellow glow pattern on the floor. Also, I can hear birds singing outside.

Okay. I know I am not underground.

But I am still locked up in a cell.

Just where the fuck am I?!

I close my eyes, trying to dig through the messy fog inside my memories to grab at any detail I can find.

Running.

I remember running.

I remember gasping for air and how my heart pounded like I was about to die but I kept running.

I remember those harsh sounds of chasing footsteps behind me.

Those footsteps belonged to Kaliq’s men that were trying to capture me and drag me back into that smelly cage that night.

And…

And then... I think I remember—

“She is awake, Alpha."

The voice makes my eyes fly open.

The voice is deep, belongs to a male.

And it's coming from outside my cell.

Right then, something shiny catches my eyes on one of the iron bars and I squint at the object.

Fuck no.

My heart sinks at the sight of the object: a symbol of a crescent moon crossed by three claw marks.

I know that symbol!

Everyone knows that wretched symbol!

It is the pack crest that only belongs to the BloodHounds Pack!

A shiver zaps downs my spine, my whole body freezing cold.

I am a rogue captive in the lands of the BloodHounds Pack.

No.

This can't be happening to me!

This is bad. Really bad. The BloodHounds don’t take prisoners. They kill rogues like me on sight and their Alpha is the most ruthless soul on earth according to all the horror stories I have heard about him.

He is cold. Deadly.

And has no fucking mercy.

His name is Raelin Michaelson.

But the world calls him the Midnight Alpha.

Three years ago, he wiped out a whole rogue camp in one night. They had attacked his pack and killed fifteen women and children on the night of his Ascension Ceremony. The massacre happened in the dead of midnight and he made sure no rogue in that camp survived.

Ever since then, every rogue pack has avoided his territory like a plague.

Right now, I feel like a fool. A big, massive, rogue fool who somehow stumbled into the territory of the Midnight Alpha after that night I escaped Kaliq.

As punishment, I am now locked up in his prison.

I am doomed.

And worse, I already know I am never getting out of this wretched place alive until I do something to save myself.

Crying, I start yanking the chains again. The force is hard enough to make my wrists bleed, but I don’t care.

I just want to get out of here by any means possible.

I keep pulling at the shackles again and again, but my efforts are completely useless.

More tears spill down my face.

What have I done? How could I be so stupid to have wandered into the Bloodhounds territory after I escaped Kaliq?!

“No, no, no,” I whisper to myself, encouraging whatever little strength I have left. I keep tugging the chains harder and ignoring the sizzling pain of the silver burning into my flesh.

I can’t give up.

I won’t give up.

All of a sudden, the sounds of approaching footsteps make me freeze and next, I hear keys clinking, followed by my cell door swinging open.

My heart instantly squeezes in fear.

Am I fucking scared? Yes.

But will I die today? No.

I don't believe so.

I will fight until the last drop of my blood if that is what it will take for me to keep myself alive.

If I go down, I will go down fighting!

I take in a deep breath, the air in this place feeling more stuffy.

However, I suddenly find myself inhaling a sweet, soothing scent of pine and cinnamon, the scent instantly intoxicating me.

Dear goddess... that scent....

That scent is so comforting regardless of the stench and darkness in this wretched cell.

I close my eyes and inhale more, my wolf purring inside me.

We like that scent.

Wait... that scent is sweet, comforting, but it is also.....

No way.

An Alpha.

That scent has a strong Alpha aura combined with its sweetness.

I can feel the aura in my bones. In my soul.

And there is something else burning inside my heart, a burning feeling I already recognize because my mum told me so much about it.

The mate bond.

I have never experienced it, but I know what it feels like because my mom always told me how she felt her mate bond when she met my father.

Now, I am going through the same experience.

Except in my case, my mate....

My mate is in this dark, forsaken place with me.

And he is a fucking Alpha.