Chapter 5

My eyes slowly opened at the sound of a heavy door creaking open.

The sun light shining into my cell through the small window made me close my eyes again, giving me an instant headache that made me groan. 

Soft footsteps forced me to blink through the pain and look past the bars right where I had fallen asleep.

Mina appeared with a tray in her hands, they key of my cell hanging from one of her fingers.

"Hey..." She whispered, barely looking at me as if she was ashamed of keeping a pregnant woman in a cold cell over night.

She balanced the tray on one arm as she opened the door and stepped in.

She placed the tray on the small table while frowning down on the food I didn't dare touch the previous night.

"You should really eat..." She whispered, tucking a red strand behind her ears.

I silently stared at her. My first thought was bolting out the door she had left open, but I could barely push myself to my feet. That would be a sad, failed attempt.

"Have you decided what you're going to do to me?" I asked, my voice low and broken.

Mina's green eyes looked at me with utter curiosity before she shook her head.

"Not yet." She replied, looking away from me once again.

"And you're going to keep me here until you do?" I asked.

Mina stepped closer to me before she leaned down to help me stand. I tried to protest, pushing her hands away. But with the lack of food and water, along with my nonexistent strength, there was no way I was going to be able to resist her for long.

She pulled me to my feet and carefully walked me over to the bed, pushing the tray aside to help me sleep.

Once I was done, she advised me to eat and grabbed the older tray to leave.

"Wait!" I called out, stopping her mid-turn. "Look at me, Mina. Do I really look like I can be a threat to any one of you?" I asked.

She looked at me with pity, the coldness she showed me the previous night no longer in place.

"No." She shook her head. "You alone in your state are not a danger to any one of us. But what you can bring with you is what we're afraid of."

Her explanation only made me realize that they were not going to let me leave any time soon.

"I won't bring anything if you let me go. I'll disappear and never return." I promised, but I doubt she would believe me.

Mina let out a sigh before place the tray on the ground and sitting down next to me.

"Tell me this. How did you find your way to our home?" She asked.

Her question confused me.

"I... Max had brought me here before..." I started, but she shook her head.

"Our pack is not easy to find. Just because you came here once months ago doesn't mean you can find it again with ease." She argued.

I shook my head.

"I don't know what to tell you, Mina. I was running for my life that night. I was looking for a place I could hide. I didn't even know I was coming here." 

My explanation didn't seem to satisfy her.

"Okay..." She whispered. "Then tell me one more thing. What happened between you and Maxwell?"

The question burned the wounds of my heartbreak. 

"I don't know." I whispered, recalling how angry he looked the previous night, how accusing his eyes had been when he looked at me through the bars.

It was the truth. I didn't know what happened between us. All I knew was that one moment he was my everything, and the next he was nowhere to be found. The hurt I had seen in his eyes had confused me even more.

"Come on, Rose. Give me something better than that." She whispered, looking at me hopefully.

"He just changed." I replied. "I loved him, but he stopped loving me. And he made it clear that he hated me yesterday when he tried to kill me."

Mina frowned once more, looking me in the eyes as if she was trying to figure out if I was telling the truth.

"My goodness..." She whispered as if something had dawned on her. "You... You really don't know why he left you."

It was my turn to frown, confusion drowning me.

"I already told you that." I whispered back.

"Maxwell made it clear that you knew." She said.

"Knew what? What did he say I know?" I asked, but instead of giving me an answer, she shot me another question.

"What do you think your family does for business?" 

Her questions were all over the place, and they were managing to confuse me more.

"A small hotel..." I started, but she cut me off.

"No, the other one, The hunting." She specified.

"That's not a business. It's just their hobby..." I replied.

The nod Mina gave me was clear that she had come to a conclusion, but I didn't understand which side she was holding me against.

"I have to go." She said as she stood up, rushing to the door without taking the tray from last night.

"Wait, Mina please..." I tried to bed, but she rushed out, locked the door, and ran out of my line of sight. 

I heard her footsteps thundering around the dungeons before the heavy door was slammed shut. 

I sat there no knowing what to make of the situation. She asked me a bunch of unrelated questions then ran out like she had figured everything out, leaving me in the cold cell to be punished for the sins I had no knowledge about.

Despite wanting to cry myself to sleep again, I forced myself to eat a little. I didn't have an appetite, but I wasn't just eating for myself. 

I ate what little my stomach would allow me and pushed the rest to the side. 

I needed to find a way out of this cell, and a plan to get away from this place. I no longer had a single enemy. I wasn't going to be running from my family alone. I was also going to have to run from Maxwell and the community I had once wanted to be apart of.

I belonged no where, and while that broke my heart, I had to push my emotions to the side and think logically.