zero | enslaved

I bit my bottom lip and tried my best not to move a muscle as I continued staring at the dark ceiling. I cautiously watched a medium-sized spider moving around its nest and wondered how much I missed my freedom. How nice it would be to have my own place with a clean linen bedsheet instead of this filthy bed I was laying on. It would be much nicer too when I didn’t have a sweaty, bad-breathed forty-something-year-old male next to me, draping his huge hand across my bare chest. I willed myself to stay still but the burn mark on the side of my waist where he’d put his cigarette there about an hour ago hurt so bad. Without truly realizing it, I flinched a wee bit.

Contrary to what I was hoping inside, the man stirred in his sleep and his hand which previously was loosely draped on my breast tightened. His thumb and forefinger found my nipple and pinched it hard. So hard that I hissed in pain. My tears threatened to fall but I knew that he would do so much more, worse things if I even so much as made a small cry. He was one of my cruelest customers. He loved seeing little girls cry in pain and the last thing I wanted was to give him the satisfaction. The last thing I wanted was for him to damage me even more than he’d already had. 

“What time is it?” The man asked, his fingers twisting my nipples with nails digging into my sensitive skin. During the short period of time, he’d successfully shifted only his hand to his wolf form. He’d often done this to torture me as his wolf nails were way sharper than his human nails and he loved the sight of blood dripping off my torn nipples. Something I had to put up every single day in this hellhole. 

I glanced at the clock hanging on the wall on top of the door. “Six PM.”

“Bollocks!” He pulled my nipple before letting go and jumping off the bed. “Why didn’t you wake me up, whore?! I can’t be late for the bloody dinner or else my missus will go nuts!” He quickly put on his trousers and shirt. Once he was dressed, he bent forward on the bed and grabbed my jaw with his rough, calloused hand. “Why don’t you give daddy a kiss before he leaves?” 

He was about to plant his wet lips on top of mine when I stopped him. “I have red lipstick on. It would smear on your lips. Your wife might pick that up.” His eyes went crazy and I quickly added, “I don’t want you to get in trouble with your wife.” 

“Hmph!” The man let go of my jaw but before I could breathe a sigh of relief, he smacked my face with the back of his hand. “Smart-arse!” 

I was pretty sure my bottom lips tore, I could feel a small bead of blood form but I remained quiet. I didn’t even let myself whimper. I waited until he left before I walked out of the door and was on my way to find the ‘Matron’. 

The ‘Matron’ was the manager of this underground whorehouse. She would keep all the records of these ‘services’ that everyone had done here and deducted a certain amount from our supposedly ‘debt’. The amount ranged and depended on the customers’ rank. The man who had just left was a Beta so at least it would cost me about a hundred and fifty pounds sterling. Admittedly, it wasn’t a lot but on a good day, Matron would sometimes deduct ten pounds more out of the goodness of her heart. Other times, when her mood was as dark as the cloudy sky above, she would deduct less. It was a toss of a coin to figure out what day was today. 

“Matron,” I called on her as soon as I saw her walking to the corridor and making a turn at the corner. When I finally caught up with her, I called her again. “Matron.” 

Matron whipped her head and faced me. “Yes?” 

“How much left?” I asked the most-asked question, the only one that mattered around here. 

“Let’s see.” She opened the book she was holding under her armpit and turned to a page with my name on the top left corner. “That man was a Beta so, minus one hundred pounds, your total would be eighty thousand, three hundred, and fifteen pounds.” She frowned, marking something on her book then looked up again to meet my eyes. “I haven’t added the compounded interest but roughly, that’s the amount.” 

“He’s a Beta so shouldn’t I get about one hundred fifty at least? And what’s with this compounded interest?! This is the first time I heard about this. There’s no way I could pay up if you keep adding interests!” 

Matron closed the book with a small thud noise. “I’m only here to keep the records. If you have any problem, you should’ve brought it up to the higher up. Perhaps even the Alpha who owns this place, hm? If you dare, of course.”

“Then let me talk to the Alpha.” 

At first, her eyes widened but then she started laughing, shaking her head as if I’d just told her the biggest, funniest joke. “You may be a daughter of an Alpha once upon a time, Valeriya Sinclair, but since the day you were sold to this place, you are nothing but a worker at this whorehouse. You are the lowest in the food chain here. Even I don’t talk directly to the Alpha. Let alone you.” She shook her head and then started to leave. 

I was about to tell her that this whole thing was illegal and that I had never agreed to pay this ridiculous debt that apparently my pack owed the Erebus. Ignoring the pain throbbing in my body especially between my thighs and on the side of my waist, I used my last strength to push Matron and run towards what I believed to be the exit out of this hellhole. I was so close to reaching the door that a guard came out of nowhere and captured my waist. His other hand grabbed my hands and pinned me against the wall with his big body. 

“Let me go!” I struggled to break away from him. 

Then I heard Matron’s voice. “You will pay for what you just did to me, you ungrateful bitch! I swear if I—” she suddenly stopped. “My apologies, Alpha, I didn’t think you’d be here. I would’ve cleaned everything up and this whore certainly wouldn’t be running around the corridors.” 

I looked up and locked eyes with the one person who had turned my life upside down and made me suffer like this. “Thanos.” 

His hand abruptly choked on my neck and I instantly had trouble breathing. His eyes glinted in satisfaction with my predicament. “You may address me as ‘Alpha’ unless you want me to pull out your tongue and cut it.” His lips quirked up into a punchable smirk. “Although that would be bad for business the next time you get on your knees and pleasure our customers.”

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Author Note: This book will be regularly updated starting next week! Currently figuring things out with my editor. Grazie Mille!