Chapter 2: Dungeon

KATE

Lexi was my best friend- No! my only friend, actually. She was a fellow omega in the pack, and like me, she’d lived through unimaginable horrors most couldn’t even imagine.

I still remember the day she told me about losing her parents. They were slaughtered before her eyes during a pack war when she was just a child.

“I was only six when it happened. I remember the screams, the blood, and the way their eyes widened in terror before they… they were slaughtered by a warrior. The war spared no one, not even my parents.”

"I'm so sorry, Lexi. No child should ever have to go through that." I tried to console her.

She paused and took a deep breath, “It's been years Kate, but the pain remains, and it’s a pain I wouldn't wish on anyone.” Tears stream down her cheeks.

Of course, that kind of pain never leaves you. She’d been alone in the world, until she met me, and we’d bonded over our shared loss, our shared misery, over the truth that we were both nothing more than omegas… no, worse than that. Slaves.

Yes, we omegas are slaves.

We were at the bottom of the food chain in the werewolf kingdom. Every tasky and disgusting task was ours. If a floor needed scrubbing, it was us. If garbage needed hauling, it was us.

And at night, after a day’s worth of brutal labor, we’d collapse in our narrow bunks in the drafty omega quarters, aching and bruised, but grateful for each other’s company.

I knew Lexi had my back, always. I’d swear on that, any day. So, of course, I never once doubted her innocence when things went south.

We’d help each other every chance we got. She wouldn’t mind carrying an extra load I was struggling with, and I would cover for her if she was having a rough day. We were a team, and that’s why I know, deep in my bones, that Lexi would never betray me.

There was nothing she could gain from it. Neither of us had any rank or prestige for the other to steal. We were both just omegas, practically invisible.

Knowing that framing me for this kind of crime would likely result in my death, I am confident Lexi wouldn't do something as horrible as that. There’s nothing she would gain from doing that.

I have no mate or rank that she might want to steal; we omegas are so identical that we practically look alike due to the uniform we omegas were made to wear for pack members to easily recognise us in instances when they want us to clean their bum bum for them after using the toilet or help them open their mouth while they eat.

It was really humiliating, but do we have a choice? No!

But despite how hard they tried to break us, Lexi was different. She stood out in her own way. I mean, she was beautiful, no denying that. The kind of beauty that even an alpha would notice.

She had curves that could make heads turn, not that I cared much about that sort of thing. She’d even found her mate, a guard named Slav. Lucky girl, right?

And yet, if there was anyone who had a reason to be jealous, it should’ve been me. She had everything better than I did. She had someone who looked at her with love, while I had… nothing.

NOTHING!

The sound of my scrub brush hitting the bucket filled the hallway as I scrubbed floors that never seemed to look clean no matter how hard I tried. Despite my knees hurting on the cold stone floor, I had to keep scrubbing with my weak hands. I was forced to.

She had appeared strange that evening. She clutched her stomach as she walked into the corridor where I was cleaning, to run an errand, looking pale and unsteady.

“Lexi, are you okay?” I asked, setting my bucket down and hurrying over to her.

“I’m fine,” her voice was thin as she spoke slowly but the way she wobbled on her feet said otherwise.

“No, you’re not. You need to see the pack doctor,” I pressed. “Come on, I’ll take you.”

She shook her head, “I can’t. I have to take this to the Alpha’s quarters. If I don’t…” Her voice trailed off.

I hesitated. The Alpha’s quarters were the last place I wanted to be. But Lexi looked so frail, so desperate. “Fine,” I sighed. “I’ll take it for you. Just this once won’t hurt.”

Her relief was palpable as she handed me the tray. “Thank you, Kate. I owe you.”

Just one little favor. I didn’t think twice—I’d have done anything for her. So, off I went with the tea in my hand, doing my best to avoid bumping into any of the higher-ups along the way.

My hands trembled as I handed the tray to one of the guards. He took the drink from me and tasted it and immediately he sipped a bit of the tea as protocol demanded, he dropped dead at my feet.

The sound of his body hitting the ground echoed in my ears as chaos erupted around me. There were shouts, hands were grabbing me.

“Poison!” someone yelled. “The tea was poisoned!”

I barely had time to process everything that was happening before I was dragged away, thrown into the dungeon like a sack of garbage.

The rest…well, it all happened so fast. It’s now been two days.

I’d been in this dungeon two long days now, suffering for a crime I didn’t commit. I was locked away, cold and alone, replaying every detail over and over, searching for some clue, something that would prove my innocence.

But instead, all I found was betrayal. Lexi, that bitch! The only friend I thought I had was the one who framed me.

I couldn’t believe it, but what else could I think? And even if it wasn’t her fault, even if someone else had poisoned the tea, she’d left me to take the fall and haven’t even shown her face ever since then.

How then can I not think she was the one that really did it?

As I lay there on the stone cold floor, shivering, the cold caused me to curl up more tightly as the thought of escape, of someone coming to my rescue, seemed more impossible with each passing minute especially with the new Alpha on the throne.

My mind raced when something struck my mind. Could someone else have poisoned the tea? Was Lexi a pawn in this, just like me?

The new pack leader, Alpha Nath, the son of Alpha Shawn had returned from America and was crowned just days before my misfortune. The timing couldn’t have been worse. He’d come with fire in his eyes and fury in his heart, determined to rid the pack of every hint of corruption.

Alpha Nath had gathered his seven fiercest disciples, men he trusted like brothers, to enforce his iron-fisted rule. People believed that he was draconic, that his justice was swift and unforgiving.

Alpha Nath was the kind of leader who inspired fear rather than respect. My death was certain if he learned of my alleged crime- attempt to murder his father, but the only thing that kept me alive was that he had gone away on official duties at the time my case was heard.

But that wasn’t the worst of it. Nath was my mate. My destined mate but I wasn’t sure he even knew I existed.

“Hahaha- How can he know?”

The bond between mates should’ve brought us together, but I was scentless because of my wolflessness, I was just a useless omega who didn’t even have the littlest blessing of her own kind.

My mate couldn’t smell me; he wouldn’t feel the pull. And now, thanks to Lexi, he would only see me as the girl who tried to murder his father. Even if I somehow survived, he would never look at me with anything other than disgust.

“Arrrrrgh-arrrrgh!”I choked on the irony, bitter laughter bubbling up despite the tears streaming down my cheeks. The one good thing I’d ever hoped for was my mate, the only person who might care about me, was now the one I’d never have.

It seemed almost poetic in its cruelty. The universe had decided I was a curse, and maybe it was right.

Lexi’s betrayal burned within me. How could she? How could she watch me dragged away, knowing I’d die here? And what hurt most was that I’d trusted her, loved her like a sister.

But no, I couldn’t blame her entirely. This was my fault, too. I was the fool who believed in friendship, in loyalty, who thought someone like me could ever be anything but a pawn in someone else’s game.

I lay curled up on the chilly and muggy floor, buckling my knees, as ripples of pain rolled over me. “Why, Lexi?” I whispered into the darkness. “What did I ever do to you?”

There was a slight rustling sound in the dungeon corridor. My heart sprang, then fell again in a matter of seconds. It couldn’t be anyone coming to help me. More likely, maybe Alpha Nath was back and heard what I had done and it was time to drag me out for execution.

The door creaked open, and there was a silhouetted male figure framed by the faint glow of the torchlight he was holding.

My heart was beating in a fast rhythm that made me think my heart was going to jump out of my mouth as he slipped quietly into my cage.

It was Slav, Lexi’s mate.

“What was he doing here?” I whispered to myself.

As he approached, I didn’t dare to breathe, neither did I dare to move.

“What do you want?” With a raspy voice I asked.

At first, he refused to respond, he just kept staring at me with those cold, calculating eyes.

Then, finally, he spoke. “You trusted her, didn’t you?”

The venom in his voice made my blood run cold.

“What are you saying, Slav ? Lexi wouldn’t—”

“She would,” he interrupted, his lips curling into a cruel smile.

“And she did. Do you want to know why?”

I stayed in a fix for a second. I couldn’t speak. I didn’t want to know.

I didn’t want to hear that Lexi really did this to me.

But he told me anyway.