The Alpha's love slave

CHAPTER SIX: CHAINED!

Dungeons were her home; she was not afraid of being among the rats in the dark without food. The irony of it was that Dastan Acker thought he was punishing her by placing her in the basement. The truth was that she was used to being chained in worse conditions ever since the age of six.

Her father would make sure that nobody knew of her punishments, not even Xander. He would lie about her whereabouts, saying that she was spending the night studying. The punishments didn’t last more than two nights usually, so she’d developed a resilience against everything.

At first she’d been too small to comprehend that her father was disciplining her, she’d peeped through the holes thinking that it was a silly game. She could still remember the moment she’d realized that it was not an amusement. Fear had settled inside her to freeze her blood and bones in the dark.

As a child, it had been difficult to be brave and face the rats in the darks. She’d screamed in fear every time she’d felt something touch her feet. Until her lips had become parched. Then, she had pounded against the door for some water. Until her hands had bled from the pain. Nobody had come to her rescue.

After two days, the doors had opened, and she’d been too hungry to thank the one who’d released her under the orders of her father. She’d devoured all the food from the kitchen on her first release date and had been later trashed for it. But it had been worth breaking the rules.

The next time she’d been locked in the basement, she’d kept cereal bars in her jean’s pockets, and had survived without the gnawing hunger. However, the rats had still been a problem, so she’d conquered her fears by grabbing one with a pocketknife. The small rodent had been wriggling under her captivity and she’d stared at it until it no longer intimidated her.

By the time the punishments had become more frequent, Maera had been used to the rats, the hunger, and the stark darkness. She had used her situations to learn to navigate through the dark without the need for light. She’d befriended the rats to overcome her fear and had always kept snacks in her pockets as ammunitions.

Dastan Acker didn’t know that he was only repeating something that her father had done over the years to her. It was no big deal. Having one meal per day was a blessing in her case. They hadn’t fed her wolf-bane since her wolf was considered too weak to rebel against the might Alpha Dastan.

Sex slave, indeed. She smiled at the uproar his proposal had created and wondered who had been more scandalized by the idea. Eaton or Claire. That girl seemed to be nursing a crush over the Alpha and had not hesitated to utter her discontentment over the suggestion.

“Alpha Dastan, what are you saying? How can you think of taking that inferior being to your bed?”

Maera could guess that she was more than willing to offer herself as sacrifice to satisfy their Alpha’s s****l needs. The idea had been laughable, so she’d snorted her amusement, causing Dastan to cast her a look of warning.

“You dare question my authority?” he’d shouted.

“But Alpha, she is a Henderson. Bedding her wouldn’t be right. What if she dreams of being your Luna someday? What if she falls for you and wants to stay here and rule over us? What a disaster that would be! She would avenge her families by treating us badly.”

Dastan had turned piercing eyes to the woman in silent warning. “You think so low of me? You think that I am incapable of controlling myself around our enemy?!”

“I didn’t mean that, Alpha,” Claire quickly retreated when Dastan nearly pounded his chest in front of his pack to show his authority. In the exact way her father would do. But he didn’t.

“Dastan?” Eaton had called out like he was surprised by his Alpha’s words. Why would Eaton be surprised that an Alpha was displaying his superiority over the weak ones? Wasn’t that how it worked? How many times had she seen her father railroad his way to their pack by abusing his position of power?

Dastan Acker was cut from the same cloth. There was nothing distinguished in the post of an Alpha. Maera wondered how the people could respect an Alpha without question. She knew she had none for neither her father nor Xander. She loved her brother with all her might, but he was a coward who picked his fights carefully.

“What?!” Dastan had screamed in an annoyed voice, causing his Beta to flinch back in fear. Would he be beaten down like Howard her father’s Beta would so often be mistreated in front of everyone?

“What are you saying? Why would you want her as your…partner?” Eaton asked with a frown towards his Alpha, showing both surprise and displeasure. To his credit, Dastan returned the quizzical gaze without flinching.

“Why do you think?” Dastan had retaliated back fiercely, aflush appearing in his cheeks. “Why do you think Henderson took my mate? To punish and humiliate me. Goddess only knows what he might be doing to her right now. And I can only return the favor by treating his sister with the same exact disrespect and dishonor.”

A rumble of approval sounded in the pack, but Maera’s eyes were fixed on Eaton who wasn’t very convinced with the idea despite the very justifiable explanation. Tit for tat. Eaton, however, looked like somebody had punched him in the stomach.

“I don’t think it’s the right thing to do, Dastan,” Eaton protested in a small voice, and Maera snickered at the coward. She figured it was a novelty for him to defy his Alpha and felt pity for the man. What a piteous existence it was to live under the shadow of such a tyrant man. Wasn’t Xander in the same shoes?

For the first time in two years, his eyes lifted to meet Maera’s lifeless ones, and her cynical smile deepened. Eaton Miller, her ex-mate was worried about her giving her body to his Alpha. How very manly. Relax, little mate, she wanted to say but there was no mind link between them. I have no intention of becoming his s*x slave.

For one second, a flash of the anguish she’d experienced reflected in her mind, and she braced herself against the blinding anguish like she’d been doing for the past two years. She hated herself for still feeling the pain of rejection. What didn’t kill make you stronger, wasn’t that what they said?

“I choose the dungeons,” she announced in a bored tone causing a few outraged gasps to emerge from the crowd.

“What?” the Alpha reacted with a start.

“I said I choose the first option. Live in the dungeons with the rats without food or cloth and a pot for my basic needs. That was my first option, right?” she reiterated in an assertive voice. Dastan had been so sure that she would never have chosen the first option, his jaw slackened when she repeated her choice without flinching. As insignificant as it was, she felt pleasure at her win.

“Are you sure?” Eaton asked, addressing her for the first time and Maera felt another bout of agony. That man had rejected her in front of the whole world, and she was still reeling from the pain he’d caused her. She would never forgive the merciless way she’d been rejected. Never.

“I am sure,” she responded back with a curt nod towards her ex-mate before averting her eyes as memories flooded her.

“I, Alpha Maera Henderson from the Crystal Blood pack accept the rejection.” That had been the hardest thing she’d done in her entire life, and she had the feeling that nothing would matter after that. What she’d thought would be her panacea had averted to be her downfall.

The ride back home had been a blur of fever and pain, sweat covering her forehead as she’d struggled between semi-consciousness and oblivion. There had been no doctor at hand to give her some morphine to dampen the pain, so she’d endured everything until they’d been back home.

“You stay put Mae. I’ll come back with a doctor,” Xander had reassured her with a kiss on her forehead before rushing out to personally look for someone to douse her pain. None of them had doubted what would have followed.

Her father had flung the door of her room open without any consideration to her state. “You filthy w***e. I told you not to step out of the house!” he’d cried out in fury with his thick belt in his hand.

Maera had been weak with pain, and any form of escape had been impossible, whether physical or mental. She was recently rejected, and her wounds were still fresh, therefore there was no place for her to hide.

When the leather belt had struck her delicate skin, she’d cried out for the first time in years. Being used to the ill-treatment had taught her to bear everything in silence. That night had been different. Another blow had struck against her already battered body causing her to tremble with the pain.

“F…. Father!” she’d begged in a desperate attempt to calm the man down, but her plea had been met with another blow accompanied by a slap to her face. The pain had made her lose her mind and she’d slipped into a sweet coma.

It had taken her three months to wake up beside a mortified Xander who’d been appalled by her state. Thankfully, nobody had told her brother about the beatings, and he’d believed her broken ribs and nose the effect of the rejection. Maera had also kept mum, not wanting to disrupt his relationship with their father.

One omega later told her that her father had beaten her even after she’d lost her consciousness and that the doctors had been worried that she were dead. Xander had taken her to Switzerland for a better treatment, and she’d taken a year to fully recover from the blow. Her studies had taken a backseat and she’d lost a year, but she’d come back even more determined to complete her degree.

Broken and dispirited, she’d barely managed to keep her wits around her as she’d finished her studies. But something inside her was irreparable. She got nothing more to lose now, which made her fearless against her enemies.

“I am sure,” she repeated in front of the whole Blood Rose pack without blinking an eye. “I would take the dungeon anytime,” she replied, staring directly in the Alpha’s eyes to make sure he got the message. He did for he hitched in a breath at the insult.

“Okay, as you wish,” he replied curtly. “It’s your prerogative. Just so you know that you can change your mind anytime. But there would be only those two choices for you. Either a mere slave or a s*x slave.”

Her finger scraped the wall as she recalled Eaton executing his Alpha’s orders by pushing her towards the direction of the basement like a vulgar prisoner. A part of her had wanted to succumb to Dastan’s derogatory proposition only to make Eaton pay. It would be interesting to make Alpha and Beta quarrel over her. She would have laughed at them had the situation not been so dire. They were both foolish men who had massive egos and she could play both of them if she wanted to.

But her situation was far worse. There was no point lamenting over her fate, she was destined to die in the dungeons.

At least the Goddess had heard her prayers. Locked in the Crystal Blood dungeons, she’d spent sleepless nights wishing fervently not to let her die alone in those dungeons.

And guess what? A new dungeon had been granted for her to breath her last breath. She was not disillusioned – nobody would pity her here. Her punishment wouldn’t last for days, but months. Or until she died.

Here was no longer a question of correcting her or punishing her, but humiliating her to the extent of killing her. As she hugged herself in the dark, she murmured the words which she’d longed to say for a very long time.

I’m sorry, Amethyst. I’m sorry for the pain I caused you.