Chapter 2

Charlotte’s POV

Something was wrong.

My body was struggling to wake me, but I didn’t want to listen. There was an uneasy feeling in my mind. Something was lurking.

Something big and dark and heavy that I didn’t want to think about.

I wanted to stay in this dream world. I wanted to think about nothing. I wanted to drift, unconscious, forever.

But my body would not let me rest.

Pain was knocking at me, insistent and intense. It forced me awake with needling agony.

I flickered my eyes open, gasping. A white ceiling floated above me. It was barren and empty.

Just how I felt.

There was movement in the room. A person in scrubs was leaning over me. A nurse?

”What happened?” I croaked, throat parched, “There’s something wrong with my body.”

”You had a miscarriage,” the nurse’s voice echoed resoundingly in the room.

I squeezed my eyes shut as memories crashed over me. The fragile pregnancy test that had held so much hope, shattering under Jessica’s heel. Jason’s foot swinging back to kick me in the stomach.

Then, the pain and the blood.

That was the big, heavy thing my mind had been trying to avoid.

I felt hollow, wrung out. No life stirred within me.

“I need to check your vitals,” the nurse continued, ignoring my distress.

“No,” I demanded, voice cracking, “bring me the forms to apply to leave the pack.”

The nurse stared at me in displeasure, but she went to do as I asked. I scratched a pen across the paperwork with a shaking hand. I didn’t know where I would go, but the Alpha, Jason’s father, would hopefully release me.

The door to my room slammed open not long after. Jason strode in, holding my application in his large hands. Seeing him sent pain flooding through my limbs all over again.

“Request denied,” Jason scowled, tearing up my application and throwing the pieces to the floor.

“You have no right,” I whispered.

“Of course I do,” he sneered as he drew close to my bed and leaned over me. I shied away from him, but my IV tethered me to the bed. I couldn’t escape.

“Stupid Charlotte,” Jason taunted, his face inches from mine, “I confess, I didn’t think that the severing of our bond would affect me this much, but the way you bewitched my body…” he let out an audible grunt, eyes roaming over me, “I’m not used to being denied…”

Those hands which had once held me with gentle kindness now shot out to grip me roughly, “You will remain here to keep my bed warm, on-demand,” Jason caressed me roughly, “I’ll have you when I want you, and you had best obey! Don’t even think about leaving.”

I trembled as his hands pinched and touched my sore and spent body intimately. To think that this was the same man I had thought I would marry and raise a family with! He had totally deceived me.

”How could you?!” I choked out the words, “I was carrying your baby…”

“I couldn’t care less about the child,” Jason snapped, “This stupid bond between us drives me crazy! I only need your body and your compliance…” Jason groaned, as though he was imagining something prurient.

”I refuse!” I freed an arm from his grasp and reached out to shove his face away. Jason scowled as I pushed him. He swatted my hand away.

“You dare rebel against your Alpha?” Jason roared. His voice and the command within it made my limbs quiver with fear.

His hand shifted from the back of my head to my neck, lifting me up so that my frantic eyes met with his.

I choked as he squeezed my throat. Jason’s eyes were narrow slits in his usually handsome face, now flushed with anger and exertion.

I kicked and fought as best I could, but I couldn't harm him a bit.

"If you think by resisting me, you are winning your freedom, you are wrong!” He shouted as I struggled to breathe, “You will be a pack slave starting from today! At my command, you will never be allowed to leave!"

“Submit to me now,” Jason hissed. “Once I've had enough of you, I might forgive you and free you sooner.”

His hand released me. I dropped on the bed, gasping for air.

“What will it be, Charlotte?”

I could tell he was gloating, certain that I would submit, the way I had always let him tell me what to do previously.

"Never,” I vowed.

Even if I was kept as Jason’s slave for decades, even if I died a slave, I would never submit to this brute.

—-

They branded me with a hot iron that afternoon, leaving red blisters on my pale skin. The welts announced to the world that I was a slave, and worst of all, a criminal. I was moved into the slave quarters that night.

My body hurt from the brand. Cramps and bleeding from my miscarriage still twisted my insides.

Apparently, Jason’s displeasure with me had been communicated in some manner, and the Head Slave quickly assigned me the dirtiest and harshest tasks.

I expected my body to be weakened by the miscarriage and the long hours of labor, yet each morning I arose from my sleeping mat feeling stronger than the last.

I wasn’t sure where my new-found vitality was coming from, but I sensed that my fellow slaves and the foremen that oversaw us would only exploit me further if they knew.

I pretended to be more exhausted than I really felt.

One week before the wedding, the Head Slave announced this to everyone. “Alpha Kieran and his daughter will attend Alpha Jason and Luna Jessica's Wedding.”

Alpha Kieran? The most powerful Alpha in the region?

I had heard people talking about him. Apparently, he had the biggest and richest pack and a bloodthirsty army. They said that he had wiped out entire packs of those who crossed him. He was ruthless in his revenge.

His first mate passed away and he raised his young daughter Nora alone. He was also actively finding a suitable luna to take the mother's role for his daughter.

He sounded like a good Alpha. And a good father.

When I applied to leave Jason's pack in the hospital, I considered applying for Alpha Kieran's pack after I left. Now I doubted if that day will ever came.

Then it was the day of the wedding.

When Jason and Jessica were completing their marking ceremony in the grand hall, blessing by all the guests, I was dismissed to the scullery to scrub pots and pans and assist with the feast that was to come.

My stomach cramped with hunger, and my legs cramped as I crouched to scrub at the blackened pans with abrasive sand.

There was a commotion of shouting from the entrance to the kitchens. I used the excuse to stand and stretch my back.

I saw the Head Slave supervising a group of kitchen slaves who were all gesturing and yelling at a child.

She was probably 5 years old. She just stood there, wide-eyed and frightened, clutching a roll she had snagged from a nearby tray. She looked terrified, and I felt the echo of her fear in my own heart.

I knew what it was like to be bullied and hurt by others.

I didn’t let myself stop to think about the possible consequences.

I threw my scouring brush to the side and rushed towards the girl.

She was someone’s daughter. She was someone’s child.

I couldn’t rescue my own baby, but I could try and save this one.

I saw the raised hands and feet of those who were about to do her harm, and I threw myself in front of them, wrapping my arms around the girl’s slight form and feeling their blows land on my back instead.