Seraya's POV
The night was just about to lift when I trudged back to pack territory, head pounding, my mood gloomier than when the night began.
"Fucking asshole." I muttered, scowling deeper the more I remembered that ill-mannered jerk. I just knew the brooding bodyguard that followed me the rest of the night, scowling down any man that even tried to approach me was sent by him. Why did he bother pretending to be a decent person? "Fucking dickhead."
To make matters worse, not one of the other males that blatantly ogled my body the rest of the night interested me. I obviously needed better taste in men.
My night of get-away was over and my dreary reality was slowly settling back over my shoulders. Perhaps I would run away, travel to some far away land and join another pack.
"Raya!" The pair of alarmed voices snapped me from my melancholy and I saw my best friends running at me, their faces etched with fear.
"What is it?" I asked, feeling a fresh dose of apprehension.
"Where did you keep your phone?!" Marisse cried. "We've been trying to reach you all night!"
I fished in my purse for my phone and fetched it out but the battery was flat. I held it up for them to see.
"I didn't know it was dead. What is it? You're making me worried!" I asked and she exchanged a glance with Van.
"Alyssa is furious that you publicly embarrassed them last night. Tristan too." Tristan was Cairh's father and while I wasn't close to him, he had always been mild-mannered with me.
"They wouldn't let us leave to fetch you." Marisse added. "There was all this talk about you turning on them and the pack, so many lies against you. Let's just say you're nobody's favorite person right now."
I was truly dumbfounded. "Why would Alyssa lie against me?" Was there no end to the betrayals? "I'll confront her myself."
I started matching forward but Van grabbed my arm.
"No! We think you should leave." He said, holding up a duffel bag that I never saw till now. My eyes widened with shock.
"What?!"
"We are coming with you." Marisse said. "I hate this pack anyway. We can travel around the world like we always imagined, just the three of us." She hooked her arm through mine and started dragging me away but I planted my feet and yanked my arm from her grip. My head was buzzing and hurting. A minute ago, I'd considered running away myself but suddenly faced with the real possibility, I balked. I belonged here with Cairh, even if he didn't know it. I refused to believe he actually went through with claiming someone else until I saw the mark for myself.
"Why would I run away? This is my home!" I snapped.
"Not anymore." Alyssa's cold voice said from behind me. I spun around to find her and Tristan looking furious. Cairh and his bride walked up behind them, his mark on her shoulder not fully healed but she displayed it with pride.
Pain burned through my gut and I doubled over. My eyes prickled again as I met Cairh's distant stare.
"How could you?" I whispered. His nostrils flared, his eyes narrowed at me and I wondered if he could scent that someone else touched me tonight, someone else had his tongue against my clit just hours ago. I prayed he smelled it. I prayed he was dying inside after discarding me like trash.
"Raya! We need to run now!" Marisse pulled at me from behind.
She was right, there was nothing for me here again. I gathered the remnants of my broken heart and turned to run.
"Not so fast!" Alyssa hissed.
Warriors suddenly blocked our path. They seized my arms, marching me towards the family that discarded me despite my friends' cries of objection.
"What is this?!" I hissed, glaring at Alyssa. "I have done nothing to justify this treatment."
"Oh you have done plenty." Alyssa purred. Did she always have that wicked glint in her eye? "With Alpha Zed dead, Beta Axel is in charge until the next Alpha Haul. Your actions tonight did not only disgrace my family, disgrace Cairh who has been so nice to you since your parents passed, but you also disrespected the Beta himself."
"What madness are you talking about?!" I cried.
Cairh moved in a blink of an eye. His hand struck my cheek, fast, brutal and without warning. My head snapped to the side with the force and a stunned silence followed.
"Don't you dare talk to my mother like that!" He hissed.
Pain bloomed on my cheek. "How could you?" I whispered. Never once had he struck me before. I was starting to understand, horrible as it was. My Cairh would never hurt me. This man... this beast- he was no lover of mine. "How could you?!" I yelled and launched at him.
Nobody expected it so I managed to free myself from the warriors' grip and reach him, my nails scoring his face and leaving a jagged bleeding line before I was wrestled away.
"Gosh! Look at the wild thing!" Alyssa exclaimed.
"Look what she did to you!" Anya cried, running to Cairh and taking his face in her hands. The look she sent me promised death. "Let me have her. I will teach her a lesson myself." She pleaded.
"Consider her your wedding gift." Cairh told her, glaring at me. Anya smiled and my blood chilled.
"Oh darling, I'll take very good care of her."
~~~
First on their agenda was starving me it seemed. I was thrown into a holding cell and left to rot. The tiny solitary window did nothing for the light or the dank air in here. The miserable sounds of my fellow prisoners was my constant companion so I was just as shocked as the rest of them when the dungeon doors groaned open and light streamed in. I shielded my eyes from the painful glare and a moment later, a familiar pair of boots stopped in front of me.
"Look at you." Cairh said, looking down his nose at me. "You brought this upon yourself."
I struggled to my feet weakly, refusing to let him see me broken. The line I made on his face was already healed. "And what about you?" I struggled to speak past my parched throat. "You want to be Alpha?" I let out a bitter, mocking laugh. "Everyone knows you are an oath-breaker. Who will ever follow you? You are pathetic." I sneered, leaning into his face through the bars.
I saw his eyes twitch with anger and I was pretty sure if the bars were not separating us, he would have struck me again. How could I not have seen him for the spineless, mannerless jerk he was until now?
"I see you are yet to learn your lesson." He gritted out. "Perhaps a few more days in this cell will teach you."
He turned away and I bit my lip to keep from crying out to him. Would he not even offer me water? I was so parched. He suddenly stopped, turning back to face me with a scowl across his lips.
"I came down here to offer you a way out but you are not even deserving of it." He said before turning to leave.
"Wait!" My voice broke but he stopped. It was degrading, this desperation clawing at my chest to find a way out of here. He couldn't leave me here... I would lose my mind. "What way out? Should I leave the pack for you and your new mate then?"
Slowly, he turned around and a shitty smile spread his lips as he slowly paced back. "You would love that wouldn't you? You were even trying to run earlier."
"I was doing you all a favour. It doesn't look like I'm much wanted here." I shrugged, gesturing to the dirty cell.
"No." He said, stopping in front of my cell and staring at me with an unsettling intensity. "I miss you Raya."
My jaw dropped and my shameless, tattered heart tripped.
"I'll get you out of here, make you more comfortable than you ever were if you'll agree to be my mistress."
"What?!" My shrill cry startled several prisoners awake.
"We were good together." He said convincingly, taking a step forward. "What we had was special and I miss it... I miss you. When I become Alpha, your status shall rise above many others. I'll make sure you have everything you wish for." He said excitedly.
"Are you insane?!" My voice was high and filled with disbelief and he finally noticed my level of enthusiasm. Heavy disappointment smothered my heart and my hand itched to slap his face in anger. "How dare you?" His fucking mistress?!
The sick shine finally drained from his eyes and he looked down his nose at me. "No? You know you'll find no better offer right?" He sneered.
"Get out." I was shaking, my fists clenched tightly. "Get out of here you fucking bastard!!" I yelled.
He turned to leave but paused, his voice ominous when he spoke. "You will come to me Raya. There is no one else for you but me, we both know that. Not if you intend to ever trigger your shift." He looked over his shoulder, his gaze raking down my skin and leaving me feeling filthy. "But my patience is not eternal. I will not wait forever."
I collapsed slowly to the floor after he left, shaken. What was this feeling? I pressed my hand against my chest to mute the raw, bleeding organ. His fucking mistress? How could Cairh look me in the eyes and make such a vile offer? A life of forever being beneath Anya's foot, lesser, unwanted, ridiculed.
My scream of rage shattered the silence and my fist groaned. I would die first.
"Shut the fuck up!" A prisoner from the opposite cell yelled before going back to sleep.
The door was thrown open again and I thought he came back but when I looked up, it was no other than the new bride matching in. Her face was flushed, her eyes sparking with anger as she stopped at my cell.
"Why was Cairh down here?" She asked and I scoffed. I never liked Anya. Anybody in Lisa's circle was automatically vile and snobbish and she was no exemption.
"Why don't you ask him yourself?" I smirked. "One would think your honeymoon was booked in this dungeon cell. Between you and your mate, I don't even have a second to feel lonely." I snickered, sounding half mad.
"I see a night down here has not broken your spirit." She gritted out then her lips curled into a sinister smile. She clapped and warriors rushed in. "Take her."
The warriors opened the cell and I flinched, apprehensive despite myself. "Where are you taking me?!" I asked, resisting but they were too strong.
"Everyone's waiting." Anya crooned. "You don't want to keep them waiting do you?"
'Everyone' turned out to be the entire pack, jammed into the arena stands. Their shouts rose to the sky when I appeared and it took me a second to decipher that they were yelling for my punishment.
"Punish her! Show no mercy!" They yelled.
I saw faces I knew and those I didn't. Frantically, I searched for my friends and I found them sitting together, their expressions stiff and frightened. Marisse met my eyes and shook her head softly and I saw that there were also warriors behind them. Sitting high on a podium was Cairh and his parents, Anya's parents, looking like new royalty. Cairh met my eyes and smiled. The message was clear enough, he could end this humiliation any minute, once I took his offer.
"Wait!" I yelled at the top of voice, digging my heels in. The crowd quieted some. "What is my offense?!"
"Take her and tie her to the whipping post." Anya commanded and the warriors seized me again and did swift work of the command.
"What have I done?!" I yelled.
"What is your offense?" Anya sneered and the crowd quieted. "For eleven years, my mate's family has taken care of you, took you as their own since all of your family was dead. Not only did you lie to everyone that you were promised to be Cairh's mate,"
The crowd gasped and I gaped at her. "What?!"
"But you were specifically commanded by my father, the Beta of Northern Bloodlands to be present last night." She faced the crowd. "Cairh was like a brother to her so she was supposed to bear the rings. Where was she instead?" She asked the crowd who were eating her words up.
"In spite, she hit Sinners instead, engaging in all types of debaucheries." The crowd booed and I scoffed.
"Since when is it a crime to hit the club?" I yelled over their voices.
"Since it was a direct disobedience of the orders of your Alpha."
"He is not my Alpha!" I yelled and everyone quieted, the air growing tense. I had already dug the pit for myself, might as well lay in it. "The next Alpha will not be determined until after The Haul. Your father is nothing but a figurehead to hold the fort until the next Alpha is born so whose command exactly did I disobey?"
The crowd gasped. I was proving them right that I was vile but I didn't care, it was the truth. Anya practically vibrated with anger. She grabbed the whip and moved behind me. I knew it was coming but nothing could have prepared me for the bite of the lash across my back. The crowd cheered.
"Do you hear that?" Anya sneered as another whip cracked across my back. "There is nobody on your side." Pain. "Not your father that knocked your mother up before giving up the ghost." Pain. "Not your mother who died and left you because you are a burden no one wants to bear."
My knees collapsed. My back was burning, the pain spreading everywhere but it was nothing like those horrid words that spoke aloud what I knew to be true in my heart. I was a burden no one wanted to bear, not even my parents loved me enough to live.
Pain. I sputtered, my resolve not to cry dissolving.
"I was really hurt when you were not there last night." Anya purred in my ear. "You thought because you had Cairh, we were of the same status? You are cheaper than dirt and last night, it was *my* name Cairh yelled when he nutted at the moon's peak."
She straightened and raised her arm for the final blow-
"Who dares to touch my woman?!" The thunderous voice shook the arena and my jaw dropped. That deep baritone... was I hallucinating? I heard the crowd gasp and then I smelled him.
Wealth, sandalwood and power. No way...
I twisted my neck to find the hulking stranger from last night in the flesh. My heart stuttered when I met his cold, black gaze fixed on me. How was he here? Did I hear him right?
Silence descended as he crossed the arena to me. His fury was palpable, darkness seeming to trail his form and yet I felt no fear. This stranger had occupied my thoughts in that cell way more than he had a right to. It was a relief to see his face and realize that I didn't imagine his beauty or his powerful aura. It wasn't because of the alcohol, nor because of the night. No, there wasn't a single woman alive that could turn down this man. But it didn't explain what he was doing here.
Anya quickly collected her jaw from where it dropped and stepped between us.
"Excuse me." She said, batting her lashes emphatically. "May I help you?"
"Move." The command gripped her legs and moved her before she could even process it.
I bit my lips, conflicted between my anger at this stranger and my relief as he knelt in front of me and loosened my bindings. Tbe murmuring of the crowd reached a crescendo and Anya looked to her parents helplessly but no help was coming.
My nameless stranger gathered me into his arms and I flinched when the wounds on my back reopened. His jaw clenched and I felt his grip soften even more.
"Say the word, she'll lose her hand." He said and I heard Anya's sharp intake of breath. I stared into his eyes, lost myself in his eyes and saw the truth. He was a beast, and he was willing to do my bidding. I felt too raw, too open. I closed my eyes and wrapped my arms around his strong neck, inhaling his scent deep into my lungs.
"No. Take me away." I said. He did.