Freya's POV
"Long live Alpha Luciano. Long live crescent moon pack." The crowd cheered as two huge guards dragged me to the scaffold.
Today was the worst day of my life.
It was the day of my execution.
After five months of investigating the mysterious death of the dowager luna and all evidence still pointed toward me as the murderer, I was eventually sentenced to death by beheading some days ago.
Tears oozed out of my eyes as I smiled mirthlessly at the crowd that had gathered to me take my last breath.
The pack that had converged to watch me die an undeserving, torturous death.
"Ivy." I whispered to myself as my eyes scanned the crowd for a familiar brunette.
She didn't come.
After my sentencing, she had held me in the dungeon and wept bitterly until her cries lulled me to sleep.
Strangely enough, the gravity of the whole situation didn't quite dawn on me on the day of my sentencing.
The realization just struck me earlier that day when I was asked to take off my clothes and presented with a jute gown and a plain white cap, which was regarded as the death outfit for criminals who had been tried and found guilty by the pack council.
"Oh, Freya. Is this really going to be our end?" Ana whimpered inside me.
"I guess so." I croaked, choking on my own tears, before turning to the executioner.
As defiantly as I could, I uttered. "I'm ready now."
The tall, burly man merely gave an impatient grunt as a response.
After muttering a prayer to the moon goddess to bless my soul, I knelt and placed my head on the scaffold as the menacing shine of the sword struck my eyes.
I felt the sword linger on my neck for a split second, but just before I could feel the agonizing pain of the murder weapon, everything turned dark and I awoke in the dungeon with a fear-ridden gasp.
Cold sweat broke out on my skin as I glanced around the petrifying terror that was the dungeon.
Apprehension soon dawned on me and I realized I just had a nightmare.
"Thank you, moon goddess. Thank you so much." I panted.
"We won't go down easily without putting up a fight, Freya." Ana broke into my thoughts, causing me to roll my eyes at her absurdness.
"Right, we won't. Like we have any influence at the moment. Or have you forgotten where we are right now?" I scoffed.
"At least we are not dead yet, right? That's what matters. We need to be alive, so we can get to the bottom of this." My wolf countered.
"Yeah, we need to be alive," I agreed, before exhaling deeply. "Although, I don't know how much longer we will be."
"I hear footsteps." Ana squeaked, prompting me to frown in confusion for a split second before apprehension hit me.
What if it was Alpha Luciano?
Immediately, goosebumps enveloped me and it felt like I couldn't breathe properly through my nostrils.
A week had passed since I had been imprisoned and he hadn't come to see me once.
What horrible news was he coming to give me? Was my nightmare going to come to pass?
"Take it easy, Freya. Try to breathe through your mouth." Ana suggested, to which I nodded before obeying her instruction.
I stopped breathing for a fleeting moment when he strolled in, flanked by three guards and a strange man.
Luciano looked as handsome and powerful as an alpha could be in his perfectly-tailored black suit paired with a black ascot to match.
Truly, he was a majestic sight to behold. It was a shame he was a psychopathic brute.
"A-Alpha." I stammered when our eyes met.
Averting his gaze from mine, he reached into his pocket and retrieved a lighter.
"He smokes?" Ana asked.
"How the hell am I supposed to know that?" I snapped, and she quickly mellowed.
"It's been a while, my darling dear. How are you feeling today?" Luciano asked, flicking his lighter in an on and off motion.
My brows furrowed in confusion as my mind registered what he had just called me; his darling dear.
Plus the fact that he had asked after my well-being.
I had no idea what was going on, but Luciano was really creeping me out.
"Don't you have a mouth?" The strange man barked, glowering at me.
"It's alright, Reginald," The alpha spoke, moving toward me.
I swallowed harshly as he leaned in and cupped my jaw with one hand, and smiled at me.
Scratch what I said earlier about him being creepy, his calm demeanor and harmless smile was petrifying to behold.
"Are you ready to tell the truth now?" He asked.
"I-I don't know the truth, Alpha. Please believe me. I woke up in the dowager luna's bedchamber without a single clue of how I got there." I divulged, looking everywhere but into his eyes.
The beryl hue of his eyes was bone-chilling to stare at.
"Interesting." He nodded, his smile widening as he finally let go of my chin and straightened up.
"Very interesting and audacious of you to keep lying to my face. You have no idea how draining this whole thing is." Luciano said, his eyes darkening as his face hardened into it's usual cold mien.
My heart dropped as he darted me a glare and slipped the lighter back into his pocket.
"Reginald, tell them to bring in her present. She deserves it for being so cooperative. Hopefully, it will improve her cooperation." He said, and I swallowed harshly while inwardly wondering what the gift was.
Was it a sly innuendo? I rhetorically questioned myself.
I was right; it was an innuendo.
The "gift(s)" were nothing more than two wheelbarrows of bricks and cement mixed with sand and water respectively.
My heart sank even further when one of the guards unchained my feet and wrists before roughly yanking me up, and slamming me against the wall.
I shook with pure trepidation as some bricks were placed around me and binded with the cement mixture.
“You’re getting an immurement. Isn’t that great, my darling dear?” He chuckled, folding his arms across his chest.
My heart lurched in terror as bile clogged my throat at his idea of a “gift.”
I knew what an immurement was; it involved entombing someone alive and leaving the person to die.
Apart from beheading, it was the worst form of death.
At least with beheading, my agony would end quickly. Immurement however was a long and torturous experience because one would feel oneself gradually slipping into insanity before death took them.
“N-No,” I whispered, feeling goosebumps envelop me. “I-I don’t deserve this. I didn’t kill your mother!” I screamed like a lunatic that was being forced into a psychiatric hospital.
Luciano just scoffed. “Quicken your pace.” He barked at the guards.
In a matter of minutes, the bricks had been built up to my waist.
Tears burned my eyes as Luciano fixated a cold stare on me.
"W-Why are you doing this to me?" I couldn't help but choke out as I weakly glared at the alpha.
"I should be asking you the same question. Do you think I don't have other affairs to oversee? Do you think I also want to sit here and watch you lie to my face? This is what you deserve for using a knife laced with silver on my mother!” He barked.
“S-Silver? I did no such thing. Where could I have possibly gotten it from?” I stuttered, confusion dwelling within me.
I was as poor as a church rat and the amount of money needed to get just one gram of silver was no joke, plus it wasn’t even accessible to the wealthy; only the alpha could obtain it.
“Maybe your sponsor gave it to you. I mean whoever d-” He swallowed the rest of his statement and inhaled deeply.
“Even snails would have completed this thing a long time ago.” Luciano swerved his focus from me and barked at the guards.
As the bricks piled up to my chest, uncontrollable tears flowed down my face, and I glared at Luciano again.
"Monster." I whispered and immediately I did, I wished the word had never rolled off my tongue.
Luciano's POV "Monster." I heard Freya whisper feebly as the bricks piled up around her.A dry smile curved my lips as I moved closer to her."Just a minute." I muttered, tapping one of the guard's shoulder, and they immediately stopped working.Retrieving my lighter from my pocket, I took one step closer to Freya. "Monster, huh? How brazen of you."She remained undaunted as she kept glaring at me like she would chop me into pieces the moment she was set free.I knew she couldn't do more than a dead rat because the glare was a look I recognized and had grown accustomed to.It was a look associated with most captives.I called it "the cowardice glare" because they couldn't even dare touch me even if I decided to let them go.The least thing a criminal could do was to at least have a courageous mindset, but they were all feeble-minded punies.I flicked on my lighter and let it dangerously linger beside Freya's neck, and her glare instantly dissolved into a panicked look, which was exac
Freya's POV "Help me. Please help me." I wheezed, weakly hitting the immurement.The only response I got was the echo of my own voice and a scoff."Luciano is so evil. He's such a brutal scumbag. Why is he doing this to us?" Ana whimpered from within.And at that moment, I wished I could bring her out of me and hug her."I wish I could hug you too. We've been through so much in just ten days." She said, causing me to sob softly."Do you think we will ever be able to get out of this place? Will we ever be free from this life of torture? Why did this have to happen to us? Why are we being punished for a crime we didn't even commit, Freya?" My wolf asked and I could only cry harder as I clutched my chest.If only I knew the answer to that question."I wish I knew, Ana. I'm so tired of this miserable hell I call a life. Why can't I be happy? Don't I deserve a blissful life after everything I've been through?" I wept.My knees and head ached while my neck itched and burned from the burn w
Luciano's POV "Please accept my sincere condolences once again, Alpha." One of the pack elders said as the diggers covered mother's mahogany casket with earth."Thanks, Elder." I nodded, subconsciously reaching into my pocket for my lighter before realizing that I had left it at the dungeon.I was gradually getting addicted to smoking which wasn't a good thing in the slightest.I could only imagine the nagging I would have gotten from my mother if she were alive.She had always been against me smoking and drinking excessively.Mother would often tell me that alcohol and cigars could only suppress my worries for a while before I get dragged back to the harsh reality of life.And she was right.I had been smoking since she died ten days ago, yet I couldn't get a single hour of peaceful sleep at night.Everything tormented me–from the disturbing voice of my wolf telling me I was making a bad decision by tormenting Freya down to the gory image of mother lying in a pool of her own blood i
Freya's POVI heaved a blissful sigh as I felt fresh air on my face.Being in the damn brick enclosure had nearly killed me.It was then I realized something; I wasn't in the immurement anymore.The toxic smell of cement that gave me heartburn had dissipated but the throbbing ache at the back of my head still lingered."It seems we survived that torturous ordeal, Freya." Ana squealed, causing me to raise my lips weakly to resemble a smile."It seems the omega is starting to regain consciousness." I heard a strange voice say."Really?" Another voice questioned."Yes. Her lips twitched just now." The former voice responded.Opening my eyes felt like a rigorous task, so I kept my eyes closed while gently breathing in the natural oxygen that the moon goddess bestowed onto us.Nothing could have prepared me for the large amount of cold water that was poured on my head.Instantly, I squeezed my eyes open with a gasp as water cascaded down my body, causing me to shiver."What was that for?"
Luciano's POV "Alpha." Reginald greeted as I trekked into my private bar.The private bar was located at a secluded part of the palace beside my bedchambers.Only Darius, Reginald, and my butler were allowed in there."How is the omega? Has she woken up now?" I asked, sitting on a bat stool."Yes, Alpha," Reginald confirmed, going behind the bar counter to retrieve two shot glasses. "What would you like to drink?" He asked me."Plain whiskey, thanks," I muttered, to which he nodded."What did she look like when you went there?" I prodded as he set the shot glass of whiskey in front of me."She looked disheveled but somewhat heathy in a way like someone has been secretly feeding her. I know it can't be the guards because they won't dare go against your orders." Gamma said, taking his seat on the bar stool beside me."Interesting," I downed the whiskey and grimaced."Would you like me to look into the matter?" He asked, and I waved him off."No, it's fine. The person is doing a great j
Freya's POV "It may be Luciano." My wolf tattled as the footsteps became more pronounced.I couldn't find it in myself to feel frightened because I didn't have even the slightest bit of energy.My stomach rumbled with immense hunger, my throat was parched, and my headache had also morphed into an excruciating migraine.Not to talk of the bile clogging my throat, causing me to dry heave every once in a while even though there was nothing in my stomach to vomit.It seemed I was really going to die of starvation at that point because Ivy was still yet to sneak in with food neither had Luciano come to tell me about what manner of psychopathic torture he'd perform next on me.At that moment, I felt death would grant me immeasurable peace and I really yearned for it.My idealization of death was interrupted when I heard the guard greet someone who I presumed was him.I forced my aching eyes open and beheld the striking lout that was the bane of my existence.Alpha Luciano.With swift immed
Luciano's POV At the crack of dawn the next day, I was out in the woods jumping across cliffs and mountains to get rid of the image of a certain omega which remained engraved in my mind like a burden."You're only wasting your time by doing this." Killian commented as I stood atop a mountain in my wolf form surveying the vast landscape of my pack.I didn't bother responding to my wolf as I transformed back into my human form, picked up my discarded clothes and threw them back on."Now you can't get her out of your mind. How pathetic of you." My maddening counterpart continued as I trekked down the mountain and out of the woods to my car."That wench means nothing to me, why the hell would she be on my mind?" I fibbed, plopping behind the steering wheel."You can lie to everyone else but we both know you can't lie to me. I'm your other half, Luciano. I'm your wolf who knows you more than you'll ever know yourself." Killian bragged, causing me to hit the steering in ire."Shut the fuck
Freya's POV Three days after Ivy visited me in captivity, I was rudely awoken from a nap by noisy bustlings and murmurs."What are you still waiting for? Untie her this instant!" I heard someone yell and I instantly flapped my eyes open to see what the ruckus was all about.A choked gasp forced itself out of my throat as the sight of more than ten guards greeted me, including the nice one that had pardoned Ivy for sneaking in."What is going on?" I tried to mindlink him but he just averted his gaze from mine."Don't tell me he told Alpha Luciano about Ivy sneaking in." Ana bristled.Just as I was about to reassure my wolf that the guard seemed trustworthy enough, three guards moved closer to unshackle me from the pole.A grim thought which I was desperately trying to ignore encroached my mind, causing me to shiver fearfully.Were they taking me to the scaffold? Was I going to get beheaded like I had seen in my nightmare?I desperately hoped I was in another nightmare again as they ci