Chapter 1

_Alina's POV_

I lay there, helpless, as Caleb's hand reached for the knife. My heart pounded in my chest and my whole body trembled uncontrollably. Every instinct screamed at me to run, to fight, but I was bound to the bed by tight ropes that cut into my flesh, leaving painful marks and restricting any movement.

The bruises that littered my flesh throbbed with every movement. I couldn't say for how long Caleb had been tormenting me. Time seemed to stretch into an endless abyss of suffering, each moment blending into the next in a harrowing blur of pain and fear.

He had beaten me mercilessly for daring to run away from the pack. I regretted ever attempting to escape, but how could I have stayed once I learned the truth about Caleb's true nature?

As Caleb's hand closed around the handle of the knife, I braced myself for the searing pain that was sure to follow. Starting at my neck, he made small, deliberate cuts over my skin. He didn't go too deep, but it still hurt. I knew he did this intentionally. He relished in the suffering he inflicted upon me. He knew that since my wolf had not emerged yet, my healing would be slow. He wanted to prolong my torment for his twisted pleasure.

I reached my breaking point. The pain, the fear, the suffocating despair—all of it became too much to bear. "Caleb," I whispered, my voice trembling. "You deceived me."

He paused, a cruel smirk playing at the corners of his lips as he looked down at me, his eyes alight with a twisted sense of satisfaction.

"Deceived you?" he scoffed. "You were always mine, Alina. You belong to me."

Anger flared within me, burning bright against the darkness that threatened to consume me. "No," I spat. "You lied to me. You used me. And now you're torturing me for daring to seek freedom."

Caleb's laughter echoed in the room. "Freedom?" he mocked. "You think you can escape from me? From us? You're a fool, Alina. A weak, pathetic fool."

Tears welled up in my eyes as I summoned the courage to speak my truth. "For three years, I loved you, Caleb," I choked out, the words heavy with pain and betrayal. "I did everything for you. But you never truly loved me, did you?"

Caleb's expression darkened, his features twisted with rage. "How dare you speak to me like that?" he growled, his grip tightening on the knife.

But I refused to back down. "You kept me here not out of love, but because I resembled your deceased wife," I continued. "You used me as a replacement, a pawn in your twisted game of control and manipulation."

"I endured so much for you, Caleb. I was mistreated, treated as nothing more than a servant by your pack members. But I endured it all because I believed you were my true mate."

Caleb's eyes flashed with anger but I pressed on. "You lied to me, Caleb. You knew from the start that we weren't true mates, but you lied to me. You deceived me, manipulated me, all for your own selfish desires."

As I dared to confront him with my truth, Caleb's face contorted with fury. "Shut up!" he roared, his voice reverberating off the walls of the room.

Before I could utter another word, he plunged the knife into my arm with a savage force. Agony ripped through me, and I cried out in pain, my voice mingling with the echoes of his laughter.

I never imagined my life in this pack would descend into such darkness. I remembered the day I first met Caleb—it was the day of my sixteenth birthday. I was supposed to undergo the rite of passage, to finally shift into my wolf form, but something went wrong. My wolf didn't emerge, and my former pack members saw it as a sign of weakness. They decided to expel me from the pack.

As I fled through the forest, pursued by my former pack members, Caleb appeared like a guardian angel, rescuing me from certain death. At first, I didn't know he was an Alpha, and I was taken aback when he declared that we were mates. It was still too early for me at that time to meet my mate but I had believed him anyway.

But now, as I lay bound and bleeding before him, I realized the cruel truth—I had been deceived from the very beginning. Caleb had manipulated me and used my vulnerability to ensnare me in his web of lies and deceit.

Caleb had known from the start that we were not true mates. Werewolves could smell their mates, and Caleb was no exception. Yet, I was unable to confirm the truth for myself since my wolf had not emerged yet.

Blinded by my longing for acceptance and love, I had believed Caleb's declaration that we were destined to be together. I had clung to his words like a lifeline, desperate for a sense of belonging in a world that had rejected me. But now, I realized the depth of my naivety.

I wouldn't have learned the truth if I hadn't overheard the conversation between Caleb and his sister, Juliet. I had gone to see Juliet to ask her if she wanted to watch a movie with me since she was my only friend in the pack. She was the only one who was kind to me.

But as I approached her room, the sound of raised voices reached my ears, and I paused, my hand hovering over the doorknob. The voices belonged to Juliet and Caleb.

"You can't keep lying to her, Caleb," Juliet's voice rang out, filled with frustration and concern. "She deserves to know the truth."

Caleb's response was cold, indifferent. "And what truth would that be, Juliet? That I have rescued her only because she resembles Tanya?"

Juliet's tone grew more adamant. "She trusts you, Caleb. She believes that you love her."

Caleb's scoff cut through the air like a blade. "Love? Is that what you call it, Juliet? She's nothing more than a means to an end. She has Tanya's face and every time I look at her, every time I touch her, it's like Tanya never left me. It brings me satisfaction to imagine that she's Tanya when we're together."

"If it weren't for her resemblance to Tanya," he continued, his voice laced with malice, "I would have left her to die in that forest. She would have fallen prey to the rogues lurking in the shadows."

The revelation struck me like a physical blow. I felt sickened, violated by the realization that I had been nothing more than a vessel for Caleb's twisted fantasies. He had never loved me. He had never seen me for who I was. I was merely a reflection of his past, a living memory of the woman he had lost. He had saved me from the forest not out of compassion or kindness, but because I bore the face of his deceased wife.

Every smile, every touch, every whispered word of affection—it had all been a lie, a cruel charade orchestrated by Caleb to fulfill his own selfish desires. He had kept me around not because he loved me, but because I reminded him of Tanya.

"She really loves you, Caleb," she said, her words filled with sorrow. "You need to tell her the truth."

But Caleb's response was callous, devoid of remorse. "I don't have time to waste," he snapped. "I have important work to do. We have to prepare for the celebration next week to welcome the werewolf prince who will come to visit our pack."

For weeks, I had believed that the preparations were for the celebration of my Luna ceremony, the moment when I would be officially declared as the Luna of the pack, standing by Caleb's side as his equal. But now, I realized just how naive I had been.The celebration next week was not for me—it was to welcome the werewolf prince, a guest of honor whose arrival held far greater significance than my own aspirations and dreams.

As I heard his footsteps approaching the door, I knew I had to act quickly. I couldn't let him know that I had overheard everything. I quickly ran away before he could see me.

Suddenly, a searing pain sliced through my consciousness, wrenching me back into the nightmare that was my reality. Caleb's cruel laughter filled the air. I glanced down to see a deep cut etched into my thigh, blood seeping from the wound, staining the fabric of my torn dress. The agony was overwhelming, threatening to consume me whole.

"Where are you lost, baby?" Caleb taunted. "Is the pain too much for you to handle?"

The physical pain radiating from the wound on my thigh was nothing compared to the anguish in my heart. With every beat, it echoed the betrayal and cruelty inflicted upon me by Caleb—the one I had once believed to be my protector, my mate. But now, he was nothing more than a monster, a twisted shadow of the man I thought I knew.

"You'll never know love, Caleb," I hissed. "You'll never find the happiness you crave for. All you long for will vanish and you will stay miserable."

My words struck a nerve, igniting a fiery rage within Caleb's eyes. Suddenly, he slapped me across the face, the force of the blow sending waves of pain radiating through my skull. I tasted blood on my lips, the metallic tang a bitter reminder of the brutality that lurked within Caleb's soul.

"You've been talking too much, Alina," he spat. "You think you can defy me? You think you can challenge my authority? You'll see what happens to disobedient little girls like you. You'll see what it means to defy the Alpha."

Before I could muster a response, the heavy wooden door creaked open, revealing two burly guards. "Take her," Caleb commanded, his voice cold and unforgiving. "Throw her in the dungeon. Keep her there until I decide what to do with her after the visit of the werewolf prince. That's more important for the time being."