Chapter Two: Where was I

I groan, blinking slowly. I smell wet stones. My head feels heavy. My arms and legs feel weak. I am so cold. It is too quiet.

“W-What… happened?” I whisper. My throat hurts.

I try to sit up. A sharp pain bites my side. I gasp.

The last thing I remember… Sylvia is shouting. A glass falls. Then I hear a voice, his voice…

My eyes open wide.

I am not in my small room. I am not in my small bed.

It is dark. There is only one light on the wall, a torch. It makes long, dark shapes on the stone room.

I saw chains in the corner.

I was in the dungeon.

Fear hits my heart.

“No… no… why am I here?” I say. I am shaking.

A sound echoes. A soft step.

A shadow moves.

“Who’s there?” My voice breaks. “Please…”

The person steps into the light. My heart feels like it stops.

I know that face.

A strong jaw, sharp eyes, wide shoulders.

It is him.

The man from that night.

The Alpha.

“Alpha Caius,” I breathe. Tears fill my eyes. “No… no, please…”

The Alpha says nothing.

He just looks at me. I cannot tell what he is thinking.

I move back until I hit the wall. “Why am I here?” My voice cracks. “Are you going to kill me now?”

He takes one slow step forward.

My voice gets louder. “No one will believe me! I am just an omega! No one would care if I screamed! So please, Alpha, let me go.”

Still, he says nothing.

I make my hands into fists. “I did not poison Sylvia! I did not do anything! You know I did not!”

“You are scared,” Alpha Caius finally says. His voice is low.

I laugh a sad, hurt laugh through my tears. “Of course I am! You–” I stop. My breath shakes.

“You hurt me,” I whisper. “You… raped me. And now I am here. You say I tried to poison Her Royal Sylvia.”

Silence.

Then the Alpha says, “I know you feel it.”

“What?”

“The pull,” he says, stepping even closer. “Your wolf is awake now, is she not?”

My eyes get wide. My chest feels… tight. My skin feels strange. My wolf who was always quiet my whole lifeis now moving inside me. She is whispering words I cannot understand.

“What… what is this?” I whisper.

“You are my mate,” Alpha Caius says simply.

I cannot breathe.

“The moon goddess would never do that.”

“Well, she did.”

“But, you knew?” I cry out. “You knew and you still–still did that to me?!”

“I lost control,” he says. His voice is steady.

“You call that losing control? You raped me.”

“I did not plan for it to happen like that. And we both know no one would believe you.”

And he is right.

I remember those same words in my head. No one will believe you. No one will listen. You are nothing.

I remember my mother’s voice. Soft. Tired.

“You will have to be silent to survive, Ayla. Omegas like us do not get heard. Just stay quiet and obey.”

My parents were omegas too.

My father worked the fields all day. My mother cooked in the Alpha’s kitchens until her hands were sore and red.

One winter, there was no food. My parents gave their food to me so I could eat.

They both died that winter.

They starved. Everyone forgot them.

No one was sad.

No one cared.

I survived, just barely. I worked like my mother did, silent, obedient, unseen.

Until now.

Now the Alpha has seen me.

And I am ruined.

A tense silence passes. The only sound is my crying.

Then, suddenly, a guard comes. He whispers into the Alpha's ear. He says there is an important meeting.

Alpha Caius nods. He turns to the other guard.

“Take her,” he says. Then he walks out with the guard who just spoke.

My eyes widen in horror. “Wait—where are you sending me? Where are you going?”

The Alpha does not answer.

The guard grabs my arm.

“No! Let go of me!” I scream. “You are going to kill me, are not you?! That is it, right?! Just do it yourself then!”

The Alpha says nothing as I shout after him.

“I hope the Moon Goddess sees what you have done!” I cry as the guard pulls me away. “I hope she judges you!”

I keep screaming until my throat is on fire.

He drags me through dark halls. We pass guards who look away. We pass other wolves who look at me with hate. Everyone believes the lie, that I tried to poison Sylvia.

They all believe I deserve this.

So do I.

I think I am going to die.

But I do not.

Instead of death, the guard leaves me in the dusty hall near my small room. My body still hurts from last night. My mind is full of confusion, fear, and shame.

No one says anything when I come back.

No one looks at me.

They have all heard the story, that I was sent away to be punished for what I did to Sylvia. But now I am back, hurt, broken, and silent.

Why?

I do not know.

All I know is that the Alpha has left.

I cannot even feel happy that he is gone.

I am too tired.

I feel empty.

I move like a ghost through the halls. I do my work. I keep my head down. I do not speak. Every step hurts. Every breath reminds me of what happened.

I scrub the floors with shaking hands.

I wash clothes until my fingers bleed.

I do not speak.

Because what can I say?

No one would believe me. I am an omega. A maid. A nobody.

And the man who hurt me, who took my virginity, is the Alpha. My supposed mate.

I am folding towels in the storage room when I hear the door slam open.

The sound makes me jump.

Sylvia.

I smell her first, roses and something sharp and nasty.

She steps in. Two guards are behind her. Her eyes are full of anger.

“There you are,” she says, her words like a slap. “Pretending like nothing happened. Like you did not humiliate me.”

My mouth opens, but no sound came out.