Chapter 19

The guards drag me down the spiral staircase as low as it can go, down, down into the dungeon. They drag me through the narrow hallway between the rod-iron cages. Instead of going to the cell at the end of the hall, where I was once tortured with the truth serum, one of the guards unlocks a cell along the way and throws me inside.

I stumble, toppling down to the dirty floor.

The guard slams the gate closed behind me and locks it.

I want to beg him not to go, to reconsider, to say this is all a mistake.

But my crime was clear. I was trying to escape, and I got caught. Nothing I could say would change that.

So, trapped in these iron bars and my own misery, I watch the guard walk away, abandoning me in this dark, damp place.

Someone is wailing from down the hall, moaning like a ghost. The noise echoes through the space, unnerving.

Is this to be my home now? Am I to live out my days in the dark?

What about my pack? Who would alert them now? Could Nina still find a way?

Surely she hadn’t led me into trouble on purpose. We are pack. This had to be my own fault. I didn’t wait until late enough, or I made too much noise shifting through the hole.

She has to still be out there, working to save our pack. I have to believe that. It would be far too bleak not too. I can’t succumb to hopelessness just like that.

So I start to pace. My mind wants to race so I focus on exercise instead. My cell isn’t very large, maybe six foot by six foot, but I walk from one side to the other. Back and forth, again and again. My legs are sore and my mind exhausted, but I won’t slow down. I won’t give in.

I don’t know how much time has passed. Minutes. Hours?

Suddenly, the wailing stops. The room seems to hold its breath as steady, proud footsteps come down the stairs and enter into the hallway.

“Show me where,” Caleb growls.

“This way, my King,” says a voice I don’t recognize. A guard, perhaps.

The footsteps come closer. King Caleb, Tristan, and the guard stop just outside of my cell.

I stop in my tracks and look up. Caleb’s eyes trap my own, and I swallow thickly. A fiery rage ignites within his irises, the blue of his eyes even starts to redden.

Is he about to shift?

Instinctively, I take a step back.

“Open this door,” Caleb snaps.

The guard scrambles to open. He fumbles with the keys once, putting in the wrong one.

As Caleb continues to glare at me, a growl starts at the back of his throat.

The guard, hands shaking, finally unlocks the door. Caleb’s arm flashes forward. The cell door swings open so hard and fast, it smashes backwards against the bars of the cell, making a horrible clanging noise that makes me wince.

The gate out of the way, Caleb storms forward into my cell.

I back up, step after step, until my back presses against the cold, damp stone of the cell wall.

Caleb continues forward, boxing me in.

“Where did you think you were going in?” he demands, voice shaking with barely constrained anger. “Did you believe you could escape me? You are mine.”

Frightened as I am down to my core, I lift my chin. “I had my reasons. And they are good ones too…”

“Tell me then,” Caleb scoffs. “Tell me what would drive you to want to commit suicide like this.”

If he’s speaking the truth, if he means to kill me for what I’ve done, then I have no reason to deny him the truth. He can’t kill me twice for speaking my truth.

“You,” I snap. “You plan to let the bear pack attack my clan. You don’t care if they die. You are will to sacrifice an entire pack of people for a nonexistent child!”

“The child is real,” Caleb says sharply.

“You’re insane!”

His hands move in a flash, slapping the stone wall at either side of my head.

“You precious pack is not dead yet. The bear clan attack has yet to happen,” Caleb growls. His eyes pulse red. “But my child is very real. He is out there, and you hide him from me.”

“I’m n-not…” I say, my courage waning in the presence of those red eyes.

Teeth clenched, he spits out the words, “You still refuse to tell me the truth?” He slaps his hands against the wall, even closer to my head.

Wincing, I squeeze my eyes shut.

“Tell me the truth!” he shouts straight in my face. “Where is my child?”

His brutal arrogance sparks something within me that triggers my bravery once again. Or maybe its stupidity.

If I’m about to die, I’m not going to die cowering.

Forcing my eyes open, I glare at Caleb. His pulsing red eyes are terrifying, shaking me through and through. But I keep looking, refusing to let myself cower or turn away.

“I did not have a child,” I say. “And I wouldn’t want to. I’d never want a child with you, a man so arrogant and cruel. Why would I want to share my genes with you and bring a poor child into this monstrous world of yours?”

How dare this female speak to him this way? He is King! He is to be respected! His genes are valued above all else. This whore would be lucky to have his seed buried in her belly.

She thinks herself better than a King?

At once, he closes his hands into fists and punches the stone at either side of her head. The stone crumbles, exploding in dust and debris.

She cringes away, frightened.

She should be.

Let her see his strength. He is King. He is Alpha.

She is lucky to stand in the same space as him.

“You have betrayed my kindness to you,” Caleb growls. His voice is deeper now. He feels himself sitting on the edge of his shift. His wolf claws at his chest, aching to be free.

“Kindness?” she scoffs. Even cowering, she manages to look up at him with defiant eyes. “You have never shown me any kindness!”

“You will soon see how many boons you have been gifted, now that they are to be taken again,” Caleb says.

He thinks of a fitting punishment. Any other woman, he would have hanged. But this woman might be the only person alive who knows where his missing child is. To kill her would be to destroy any lead he might have.

As much as he wants to throttle her with his bare hands, he must restrain himself.

Denying her his gifts is a good start to her punishment, but it’s not enough.

If he cannot kill her, he will condemn her to the worst living punishment within his great power.

Caleb steps back from Harper. She slumps slightly in relief.

She has no idea the nightmare he is about to set upon her.

Tristan walks into the cell. “Yes, my King?”

“Make the preparations,” Caleb says. “I want this slave assigned to that place.”