CHAPTER TWO

MELISSA

I do not make a single sound as the guards pull me out and begin whipping me. What Kayden does not know is that his words hurt me more than any physical pain ever can. They don’t even mind that I am pregnant, and it’s fine by me. Maybe, they would finish up the job I had started earlier on. The pain makes me drift into semi-consciousness, into my new hell where Alpha Kayden’s words transform into thorns that tear at my heart. He had said Evelyn was his chosen Luna, my own step sister! How long had this been going on behind my back? And all the while, I had thought the reason we were growing distant was merely because his mind was preoccupied, but he was busy having an affair with Evelyn. My step mother and sister had probably planned everything from the moment I told them I and the Alpha shared a mate bond. That was why Evelyn had taken my claw, but of course no one would believe the bizarre things Evelyn and her mother did to me. “Seventy eight… seventy nine..” the guard whipping me calls out, as he continues whipping a pregnant woman, grunting with the energy exertion it took. I close my eyes. Why am I not dead already! His whip lands on my navel, and a sharp pain sizzles through my entire body, settling in my belly. I cry out, as I feel my womb constrict in the most painful way. The baby is coming prematurely, I realize in alarm. “Someone help,” I whisper through my pain. “My pregnancy… the baby!”From the corner of my eye, I can see my step sister walk into the room, looking proper and pretty in a nice dress. “So you’re finally crying out,” she says with a smug smile, walking up to me. “I thought you wanted to brave the entire whipping.”I shudder in pain as my womb hurts even more. I clutch her feet, and try to look her in the eyes. “Please,” I plead, hoping for a shred of kindness in her. “My baby.. My baby is coming!”“Alright,” Evelyn surprises me by saying. “Guards, let her go, the baby is coming.”Alpha Kayden merelyscoffs. “Keep whipping her. Let everything about her die with her, I want no part in children tainted by her blood.”I gasp at his words. I know he hates me, and I can understand his hatred if he thinks I killed his kid brother, but to say this about his own child, this was unthinkable! Surprisingly, it is Evelyn that comes to my aid again, her voice going all soft and mushy in a way I have never heard before. “I know she is a murderer Kaydee, but the child in her womb still belongs to you, it is going to have your blood. Please, let her have this baby.”To my surprise, Alpha Evelyn heart thawed instantly. “Alright. Get a midwife to help her deliver, but as soon as she gives birth, I want the flogging to continue. She hasn’t suffered enough pain yet, not enough to pay for killing Davis. A thousand of her lifes cannot equal Davis’s life.”His hateful words are the last words I hear before I drift into semi consciousness again. I feel my body being lifted to a higher plane, my legs spread out and lifted above my body. Someone slaps me hard and commands me to push, and I use my all my strength to push until I feel the baby slide out of me. I draw in a breath, and relax my muscles, but then, I receive another hard slap. “Push! There’s still one more baby in there.”I close my eyes, tense my muscles and push again, till I birth my second child. Twins. I have just birthed twins. My body aches all over from the whipping,and I am in terrible pain, yet somehow, the miracle of childbirth fills me with new hope, dispelling some of my gloom. Maybe, the moon goddess would show these babies more kindness than I ever got. Maybe, they can have a better life. I know in that instant that I would sacrifice all I have for them, I would give my life for my babies, and I would shower them with all the love I never had, give them a better life than my sorry existence. In this moment, I know what I have to do. I need to run away with my babies. “Can I hold my babies? please let me hold my babies,” I whisper to the midwife, but she simply ignores my question. “I would tell the Alpha that I am done with you, so that your flogging can continue. What you did – it’s despicable. How could you kill the Alpha’s brother!”I shudder at the thought of being whipped again, with my body still open and gaping from childbirth. Anguish tears at my heart, but I do not tell the midwife that I did not kill Davis. There is no need. No one would believe me now.