Saving the Alpha's Dream Mate

Last Meal

When I finally woke up, I knew immediately that I had been unconscious for at least a day. I assumed that I had been lying on the cold, hard, stone floor of the cell since I lost consciousness, but when I sat up I realized that the silver shackles had been removed.

My heart raced; I was relieved, and I was sure that Gamma Kai had removed them because he was not as cruel as the others.

I looked around the cell, hoping that there would be something to eat or drink in there with me, but I saw with horror that I wasn't in the same cell I had been left in - the shackles had been removed because I had been moved to a cell with silver bars.

"No..." I whispered, but I knew from the bars that it was only a matter of time before Alpha Lincoln came to kill me.

I struggled to my feet, and approached the bars despite the fact that being close to that much silver hurt my head and made me feel nauseous.

When I saw a solitary figure walking down the corridor towards the cell, I stepped back before I could be seen.

It didn't matter that I moved to the far corner of the cell; it was too late, and whoever was approaching knew I was conscious.

"I know you're awake, girl," the familiar voice of Alpha Lincoln growled down the corridor. 

His footsteps had stopped, and I knew he wasn't going to get any closer than he was because he didn't want to feel the effects of the silver, but I was still afraid of him and I knew that he had been waiting for this so that he could kill me.

He wasn't a reasonable man, and the time I had spent down here had not been enough to get him to change his mind; he wanted me dead, and he was making sure I knew that.

I wished he would just get it over with, but he wanted me to suffer for the fact I knew he had been fooled by Alpha Kaleb.

"I want you to know, girl," he continued, "that I will kill you without feeling guilt for it. I will not make it quick, and I will make it as painful as possible for you. And I will feel no remorse, because you deserve it."

My heart was racing and my stomach was churning in fear, but I forced myself to breathe slowly and I didn't say anything. 

I didn't want to waste my breath when I knew that I couldn't stop him killing me. He had ordered that I should be locked in the silver cell; I would remain inside until he was ready to torture me, and there was nothing I could do about it.

He had nothing more to say to me, and I was relieved to hear him walking away from me.

I wasn't left alone for long, and this time the person approaching me came close enough that I could see them.

"I don't know why he's wasting his time with you," Gamma Kai sighed. "You realize you'll be dead in a couple of days, don't you? I shouldn't tell you this, but..."

He decided against it, and shook his head before turning away.

I ran to the bars of the cage and gripped them tightly as the silver burned through my skin and into my core.

"Kai!" I called after him, and when he span around his eyes were filled with anger at the fact I hadn't used his title.

He took a deep breath, and I thought he might punish me for disrespecting him, but when he glanced at my hands and the pain in my eyes, I knew that he considered the pain I was inflicting on myself to speak to him torturous enough.

"I can't help you, Sienna. Whatever you did...whatever you saw, or said, or heard... I can't help you. Alpha Lincoln has made up his mind; you will be taken from his cell tomorrow morning and he will torture you however he sees fit before he kills you."

"I didn't do anything..." I gasped.

"No, you stumbled into his office with a tray of food and...you dropped it for a reason, Sienna. That's obvious enough."

I looked away from him in shame and let go of the bars.

I had done nothing wrong, but there was nothing he could do to save me and I was going to be dead within a day - assuming Alpha Lincoln didn't decide to keep me at the brink of death for as long as possible before finally ending things.

"I'm sorry," I whispered. "I'm sorry."

Gamma Kai shook his head, but he didn't say anything more. 

He knew that I hadn't done anything to deserve this, but apologizing to him was not going to achieve anything.

Who would have thought that opening the door to Alpha Lincoln could lead to this? It was almost funny - after a lifetime of being chastised and tormented by the pack, this was what had finally been my demise... overhearing a conversation that I didn't even care about.

I groaned and sank to the floor again; I was feeling weak and I wasn't sure if the silver was to blame or if it was because I hadn't had anything to eat or drink since before I made the mistake of opening that door.

 I was numb, and I was in pain.

I didn't know how long it would be until Alpha Lincoln came to kill me, but I knew that I would be grateful whenever the time came.

I should have been frightened, but I wasn't.

I was numb.

I spent the day, or most of it at least, on the floor of the cell, curled up in a ball.

I had heard nothing since the brief conversation with Gamma Kai, and I was too weak and too scared to get up and try to get his attention again, or ask for something to drink. I doubted he would have bothered to get me anything anyway, because the silver was getting to me and he would not have approached the cell when I was going to die soon anyway. I knew, though, that he would be the one sent to fetch me in the morning. Alpha Lincoln was not willing to get close to this cell.

I wanted to sleep, but the pain was too intense and it felt wrong to waste my final hours sleeping on the cold, stone floor.

As the hours went on, I became aware of a quiet voice speaking somewhere down the corridor, and a few minutes later Gamma Kai approached me again and slid a tray with a cup of water and a dish of unpleasant looking grey gruel into the cell.

I only looked at the gruel; I didn't reach for it.

"You need to eat, girl," he said - the hint of pity I had sensed earlier was gone. I wasn't Sienna anymore, I was 'girl'. When I didn't move to take the gruel, he growled with significantly more force. "Eat."

The word made me shudder; Gamma Kai had never spoken to me like that before and I hated hearing him growl at me that way.  I didn't want to eat, and I pushed the tray away from me, but he put up with the pain of the silver bars to shove it back into the cell and I knew that he wasn't going to leave until he had seen me eat something.

When I did take a small mouthful of the gruel, I almost gagged. I wasn't suspicious of it, but it was clearly the dregs of a meal that had been eaten by the Warriors days ago and it was rancid by the time it reached me here in the cells.

There was no apology from Gamma Kai for the fact the food I was been given was so unpalatable, and when I took a sip of the water to wash away the taste of the gruel, I found that it was stale and unpleasant.

I tried not to gag again, but the sight of the grey gruel and the smell of it made me want to throw up.

"Don't tell me that's the best you can do?" Gamma Kai asked.

The words were unnecessarily hurtful; I was going to die, and he wasn't even going to let me live out my final moments in quiet dignity.

He looked at me with disgust, and it finally dawned on me why he was acting like this; either Beta Leo or Alpha Lincoln had spoken to him, and they had fabricated something about why I was really there.

"Sorry," I croaked.

He shook his head, annoyed.

"Stop saying that," he snarled. "You deserve everything you get after what you did to Alpha Lincoln."

"I didn't do anything to deserve this; I didn't do anything to Alpha Lincoln."

"I don't want to hear it Sienna," Gamma Kai sounded exhausted, and I saw him run his hands through his hair and step further away from the cell. "Just... eat the food and keep quiet. Alpha Lincoln will come for you tomorrow morning, and I doubt I will see you again after this. It took a lot for me to get that food for you - the least you can do is eat it. I don't care if it tastes like s**t; it's your last meal."

He left me in the cell, and when I finished the gruel I curled up on my side and clutched my head.

The silver was making my head spin again and now that I had eaten I felt nauseous as well as drained. I didn't want to lose consciousness again - I wanted to be awake when Alpha Lincoln came to take me, but I was exhausted, and I couldn't push away the darkness anymore.