4- Her sentence

Her routine was simple; Dungeon by morning, trials at noon and bedroom by night. She went to bed every night in his arms to his sweet loving and his kisses every morning before he snuck her back in the dungeon. She felt like a teenage girl again even though she didn't frolic around at that time.

"You look dreamy for a prisoner," she snapped out of her thoughts at the sound of Ariel's voice.

The former Gamma strode into her cell one evening, eyeing Anastasia suspiciously but she soon smiled and rushed to hug her. Anna met her halfway, throwing her arms around her body as she inhaled her scent. All these weeks, she felt she had been abandoned but the moon goddess had sent a mate her way.

"I've missed you," Anna confessed.

"Me too. We don't have much time. The guards only gave me twenty minutes. I'm not supposed to be near you," Ariel rubbed her eyes under her glasses.

After Weston's death, the women in his organisation all lost their positions and they had Anna to blame for that.

"I'm sorry," she apologised again. "I tried my best to come sooner. I've been hearing about the trial. The new Alpha is hellbent on saving you," those words made Anna smile and her eyes watered. She knew he wouldn't let her down but it was good to know he kept his word.

"I wonder how much Weston must've told him about you for him to believe you so much," Ariel was truly happy. "Also, you smell like roses and rich perfume- almost like you had a bath or something."

Anna simply smiled and opted to tell the truth to a person she considered her childhood friend. They talked at length and Ariel was extra silent.

"So that's why he defends you with all his might," she mumbled after Anna was done speaking. "But he's married and according to what I hear, the Luna is his mate-"

Anna shook her head, confident in the story that Levi had told her, "It's all just an act. He needed his parents off his back so he married her abroad."

Ariel, however, squinted her eyes, "Have you seen how they look at each other? They are in love, Anna. I don't know what you two have together but I'm sure you can smell the mated mark on him."

She could and every time she did, it was like a painful tug at her heart. She wished she could cover the mark with her own but Anna didn't want to get ahead of herself. She was going to be patient with it. First she needed to clear her name, get out of here and then she would think on what to do.

"I know," she lifted her head with pride. "It'll be alright."

Ariel blinked in shock for a while before grabbing her by the shoulder, "Okay. Who are you and what have you done to my prideful friend who would rather die than settle for less?"

"I'm a prisoner," Anna shrugged.

"Fair enough," Ariel giggled. "Just be careful. I just want you out of here and if things don't go as planned, I'm busting you out and I mean it."

Anna nodded but she decided to believe in her mate a little more. She had never relied on anyone in her life- it was something too strange to do. Even Weston wasn't left out. Sometimes he had to remind her he was Alpha so he could have his way.

"Are you allowed to be here?"

Ariel flinched at the Alpha's voice and quickly pulled away from Anastasia whose wolf was getting all excited at the scent of her mate. When she laid eyes on him, she couldn't help the smile that lifted her lips. It had been a week yet it felt as though the flames of her desires increased each second of every day.

"Anna," she blinked back to the present and found that Ariel was gone. Did he send her away? She didn't even know when that happened. Anyways, she was alone with her mate now and the way he stared at her told her a lot of things.

She could already picture them in bed, holding each other and exploring their bodies. He found new ways to make her cum each night and his lust for her was like an insatiable pot of desires.

He cupped her cheek and pressed a kiss to her lips, "I've missed you."

She had missed him too. So much that words couldn’t even describe. She told him in a kiss instead, matching the slow and passionate pace of his mouth and when his hands got needy, touching her boobs and squeezing, she knew he wanted her again.

"Right here?" she asked even as he backed her against the wall and he grabbed her waist, spinning her around. It was night anyways and he had probably already sent the guards away.

He gave no reply, instead he pulled down her pants and she waited patiently for the tip of his cock to push into her. Her jaw fell open in a silent moan as she widened her legs and pushed back her ass to accommodate him and giving her no time to recover from the sudden entry, he began to move.

She pushed back against him, meeting his every thrust till the sound of their flesh on flesh filled the room. He held her chin and turned her face to him. He stared her deep in the eye and she was lost in those eyes that looked at her as though she was the only one in the room.

It was all too familiar.

"I love you," she whispered from the depths of her heart and a tear rolled down her cheek. He kissed sweetly, stroking their passion as his hips continued their sweet torture. She felt the buildup at the low of her stomach and ache that came with a plea for release.

She wanted to feel his cum deep inside her. If he couldn't mark her outside, at least his seed would claim her inside and drip down her thigh-

"Levi!"

The horrified female scream cracked the passion and he suddenly pulled out. Still hazed with desire, she turned around to see a woman staring at them in shock with a hand over her mouth. Who was that?

She had never seen her before. Her black hair was straight and it bobbed on her chin, her eyes were black and they were filled with shock at first before her brows furrowed heavily and she stormed into the cell.

Pa!

Her eyes widened at the sting on her left cheek.

"How dare you?" the woman yelled. "Levi! So this is work? This is what you do every night and you leave me all by myself?"

"N-No, Kathrine, let me explain-" Levi started to say. He was stuttering and shaking with his pants still hanging loose around his thighs.

"Pull your damn pants up!" she scolded and his hands fumbled to do as he was told. "Explain what? I saw you buried deep inside her-"

"It's not what it looks like. I swear-"

"Is this why we came here? You're supposed to be mourning your brother. Not fucking some slut-"

"Mate," Anastasia said and that caught their attention. "I'm his mate-"

"That's not true," Levi denied and she snapped her head at him in shock. Those eyes that once stared at her as though she was everything he'd been searching for were now glued on his wife. "That's not true. Baby you know you're the only one I see."

Anna couldn't believe her ears. This had to be a dream, right? But the sting of the slap and the warm trickle of her tears felt too real to ignore.

Kathrine remained calm as she looked back and forth between Levi and the redhead who had just uttered those shocking words.

That was Levi's mate? How could it be that they had to come all the way down here to find his mate? But if word got out that this was his mate, what would everyone say about her? She had protected her image and with the bite mark, had proved everyone wrong about not being Levi's mate.

If everyone knew, she couldn’t possibly begin to imagine the kind of humiliation she would face.

"Tch!" she bit her lips and clenched her fists by her side. "You… bastard!" she glared at Levi and he staggered back at the anger in her eyes. "After everything I've done for you! You still- bastard! What happened to 'not giving in to animal instincts'? Huh?"

"B-Baby, sh-she seduced me!" Levi accused, pointing a finger to Anna who had her jaw hanging loose. "I swear, she seduced me. I tried to talk to her but she threw herself on me. You know I'd never cheat on you. I'd never act purely on instincts. I'm too civilised for that."

It wasn't just his words that ripped her chest open, it was the velocity and the intensity of his voice to deny her so strongly.

Her legs weakened but she stood firmly on the ground, "What do you mean? What are you saying? Tell her the truth," she wasn't asking him to leave his wife for her. She had never even thought of that. Yes, she had gotten jealous many times whenever she saw the mark on his neck. He would assure her to leave everything to him.

He seemed to enjoy it when he did all the thinking.

"You shut up," Kathrine snapped at her and turned to her husband. "Reject her."

"What?" Anna looked back and forth between them. "You-"

"Reject her and I'll forgive you. But if you don't-"

"I'll do it. I'll do anything to make you happy," he assured her without even thinking twice about it. "I, Levi Reeves, reject you Anastasia Robbie-"

"No,"

"…as my mate and I sever all ties with you!"

The very second he uttered those words, Anna crumbled to her knows, holding her chest. Her eyes opened to see the thin red rope that connected her to Levi. In the blink of an eye, the rope vanished into dust and her wolf whimpered, retreating to lick her wounds.

"It's not enough," Kathrine shook her head as the tears rolled down her cheek. "I want her punished. For robbing me of all those nights with you."

"Okay, f-fine. I'll call the elders and pass my judgement," Levi suggested as he came closer to his wife. "I'll sentence her to death."

The news was a double-edged sword; striking fear in Anna's heart and spreading Kathrine's lips into a smile.

"You mean that?" she asked Levi who nodded eagerly.

They didn't even give her time and space to grieve. Levi was too immersed in trying to please his wife while Kathrine enjoyed every bit of it.

"And you,"

Anna lifted her head and found that she was alone with Kathrine. Where had Levi run off to leaving her alone with this woman who casted a scornful look at her?

"You have some nerve. I thought it was strange that Weston had a female Beta and even worse when he refused to marry. So you were the one holding him down. You thought you could do the same to my Levi?" she trailed her fingers along her collarbone with a smile on her lips.

"I own that man and you are going to pay with your life!"

*****

The judgement was passed that night and Anastasia could only cry in her cell. She didn't sleep a wink as she thought of the betrayal and her Alpha's death. Her heart was burning from inside out and she could only scratch her chest to try to soothe the pain.

"Anna," Ariel whispered as she held the bars and fumbled with the keys. Her arm was bleeding, she'd lost too much blood.

"Ariel?" Anna wiped her eyes. "What are you doing here-"

"Get out of here," Ariel panted. "They're going to kill you tonight. You have to go!" she grabbed her wrist and pulled her outside. There were three bodyguards lying dead on the cold hard floor.

"Wait, let's leave together-"

"No. I'm gonna slow them down. Leave now," she grabbed onto Anna's hand. "Don't die, Anna and don't let our Alpha's killer die too. Avenge him, please. He didn't deserve to die. He didn't-"

She suddenly spun her around and threw her arms around her-

Bang!

"A-A-Ariel-"

"Run, you fool," she coughed up blood. "Run as… fast as you can… and live too."