Chapter 5

Berrilyl's POV

I looked at Liah with disgust as she uttered those words, where was the princess in me now? I was as tattered as they were although not tattered enough to eat that kind of stale food. I was nothing more than a slave to this place.

"Don't give me that look. This is our world and we are welcoming the lovely princess" Sha said smiling.

"It's so not funny. This is the worst thing that has ever happened to me. It is the worst. We work tirelessly so we can eat and in the end, we get this. This stale thing that not even a mad person would want to eat" I rebutted.

"See princess, that means that all of us here are more than mad because all of us eat this stale food. We need it to survive" she said. 

"I didn't mean to call you guys mad" I said but I still couldn't find it in my heart to believe that this was the food she had to hide so it wasn't eaten by others. 

"Okay, princess. Well, you have to get used to eating this stale food or you'll die of hunger" 

"Die of hunger" I repeated the words and it got glued in my ears. If I wasn't careful I would die of hunger truly.

"The food you've just wasted,  that you vomited into, could have fed others. You decided to vomit it today. No problem but just don't do that tomorrow or better still, give your food out. We would happily collect it while you go on your hunger strike but mind you it wouldn't strike enough to get any favour or mercy from the alpha. Everyone from here would do anything to eat it. We are a group of hungry wolves"

As Liah talked, I stared at her with utmost confusion. I couldn't believe that this was actually happening. My life took a crazy turn otherwise everything would have been okay and perfect.

"Wait, Liah. How come they are still practising this kind of slavery– chaining people? Even though we might be surrounded by mountains but still... It's like we are stuck between modern and ancient ways" I asked, then it occurred to me that I didn't even know where my phones and other stuff were. I didn't think of them at all as I was filled with anger and confusion about Owens's death. He was more important than gadgets.

"I don't know, all I know is that this place is very hard to locate and this kind of slavery is more torturing" she replied.

The image of how he had Owens killed replayed in my mind and I could feel nothing but hate for him. 

He was the heartless beast that kept me here and now he's forcing me into believing that we spent some wonderful time together, we looked so caught up in the moment we shared. A part of me told me it was real but how could it be real? We never shared any time and I didn't even know him so how come those pictures were there? And Liah also said she had never seen him with anyone before so he must be playing tricks with me.

When it was time to sleep, I wanted to choose the floor but when I took a closer look. It was more worse than the bed in some aspects so I decided to manage myself.

"Good night, princess. Sweet dreams. Hopefully, your prince charming would magically appear to save you from this place" she teased, squeezed herself into that little space and closed her eyes to sleep "You'll be woken up early princess, so sleep now" she said firmly, eyes still closed and slowly she drifted away from reality.

I looked around and saw that they were all asleep like it was so easy and normal. I slowly put my head on the bed but still couldn't sleep a wink.

"Wake up. Wakey wakey" I faintly heard others' words accompanied by sounds of whips and that immediately woke me up. 

"I wanted to let you sleep a little before I woke you up" Liah said smiling. "Good morning, Your Highness" I looked outside through the bodies moving hurriedly and saw that the sun was barely out. 

No wonder, I felt like I didn't sleep a wink. I just closed my eyes for some minutes and then I'm being asked to wake up. 

It felt surreal and now I really hoped I had wished for a prince charming to save me like Liah said, I now understood what she meant by being awake early.

I wondered how they lived this long. I was going to surely find it impossible to survive here. It would be my last and I really wished my brother was here to save me.

Liah helped me get ready and we went out and started our slave duty and I felt so tired. I just wanted something to distract me from the crazy labouring work. 

"The Alpha's asking for you. Lazy, weak animal" Cain said arrogantly.

He was surely still annoyed about the last time and was ready to do anything to make me feel pain and lose my self-worth which I wasn't sure I even had. I knew he would try everything in his power to make me regret doing that to him but he deserved it.

Soon some guards came and grabbed me by that arm, dragging me into the palace.

"I can walk properly. You don't need to do this" I said but it fell on deaf ears. I didn't know why the alpha wanted me to see him but I knew it was never going to be something good.

Even though I wanted something that would distract me from that burdensome work, I never wanted it to be the Alpha. He was the last thing wanted to see right now.

We finally reached where he was and I was thrown on the bare floor making a loud thud that made him smile.

"How's your morning going, wicked one?" He asked and I looked at him shocked, he was the evil one yet he called me wicked. 

"If I am wicked then what are you?" I angrily spat out.

"I'm good. Of course" he said with all the ego in the world.

"Good, my foot!" I said and he came near me, I could feel his intense gaze piercing through the mask to my soul. I was becoming afraid since he was so close to me.

"There is something you need to do for me. Berrilyl" he said smiling mischievously and my heart started beating with uncertainty.