Chapter 3: I Was Imprisoned

I always left very early, before Hunter woke up, after every treatment. He was wild with the poison racing through his veins; he gripped me hard enough to turn his knuckles white and his eyes were frenzied, blind with lust. I dragged myself up, exhausted and weak.

I never let on what happened between us, though. Gradually I realised that he didn't just hate me, he hated all Omegas, and he’d already thrown me in the dungeon once. I couldn’t let that happen again.

If he knew, he might think I was using my body to seduce him, not cure him, and I wouldn’t be able to bear it. Worse still than the dungeon was the thought of him looking at me with hatred, and it was that slim bit of pride that kept my mouth shut.

Dragging myself to the kitchen, I winced with every step. I was particularly sore after last night, my thighs aching and my back bent out of shape. 

“Here she comes,” muttered Phyllis, one of the other Omegas.

“Morning,” I said, forcing a smile. 

“Bitch,” another hissed, their back to me. I ignored them.

“How’s your quest to become our new Luna going?” Phyllis taunted.

“Great,” I muttered, trying to move past them to start washing the dishes. The bright lights in the kitchen burned my retinas, and I squinted, one hand on my belly, as I edged away from the growing crowd of my tormentors. 

"Enjoy your soup, ’Luna Jane,’” Phyllis hissed, before splashing my arm with burning hot soup.

My skin blistered where the soup touched it. I rushed to rinse it under the cold tap, but the other Omegas blocked my path. Tears pricked my eyes, but I refused to cry in front of them – no matter how much pain, physical and emotional, I was in.

As soon as I could I went to see Daisy. I could’ve dealt with the burn myself, but I needed to see a friendly face almost as much as I needed a cooling salve. I felt more alone than ever these days.

Seeing her little hut always made my heart pang. Here, the Moon Goddess had sent me a beautiful gift on my eighteenth birthday. When I woke up from the dream, I had nothing left. 

I knocked with my good hand, my whole body sagging. 

“Oh, Jane,” Daisy murmured, her hand flying up to her mouth. “What’ve they done to you this time?”

“Just a burn,” I muttered, looking down. 

“Come in, come in.” She bustled inside, winding her salt-and-pepper hair up into a tight bun. I sat down on the edge of the medical cot as she washed her hands, well-used to this process. “I did some more digging into that poison,” she called.

“Oh?” 

“Part of this poison is only effective against mates and can be used to enhance sexual desire. It seems to be hallucinogenic; however, it is not clear what the full composition is, or why he would forget that night. I‘ll keep researching.”

I reached for her and squeezed her hand. “Thank you.”

When she applied the salve to my arm, the smell of it made me retch. I bent double and threw up. Daisy held my hair back and muttered soothing nonsense to me.

“You’re feeling sick?” she asked when I was done, one grey eyebrow arching. “Does that happen often?”

“Only recently,” I said, chewing on the inside of my cheek. “But not normally that badly. I thought it was this.” I twisted around, gesturing to my latest gash. “I lost a lot of blood yesterday.”

She frowned. “Could you be pregnant?”

“I – no.” I shook my head. “Surely not… I did miss my last period, though. I just thought I wasn’t eating enough. I’m not exactly on a regular cycle.”

She clucked her tongue before turning away, rummaging around before putting a pregnancy test in my hand. She shooed me into the bathroom.

I hovered in the doorway, picking at my cuticles. “Really? Right now?”

“Right now, Jane.”

 

Five minutes later, my world came crashing down around me. Two bold pink lines came up in the results window. I was pregnant. 

“You have to help me,” I begged Daisy, my eyes flooding with tears. “You have to keep it a secret.”

She took me into her arms. "Of course, honey. I’ll do anything to keep you both safe. A child is a most precious gift!”

* * *

Probably because of the command of the Alpha, they no longer dared to blatantly harass me. However, this didn't make my life easy either.

I was careful to avoid covering my belly when they hit me or knocked me to the ground, even though my instincts screamed for me to. But, as time went on, I started to fill out; Daisy made sure I was eating more, and my belly started to grow. I felt as though prying eyes lurked around every corner, and when I struggled to control my hormones the men advanced on me like a plague. 

It was terrifying, to feel that helpless with a child inside me. But one good thing came out of it, aside from the life I was growing inside me: Hunter became more tender, more doting, more loving, during our monthly treatments. He started to sniff my neck, inhaling deeply and smiling to himself. 

As my body swelled with our child, his illness stopped requiring sex for him to heal. We lay together, our legs entwined, my head on his muscular chest, and just slept. It was peaceful in a way I’d never felt before, and my dreams were always sweetest on those nights.

The peace of those nights dissolved the moment the sun rose, though. 

“One-fifty-six! One-fifty-seven! One-fifty-eight!”

I was being forced to kneel on the cold ground, scrubbing the already immaculate kitchen floor. The other Omegas huddled around me, counting loudly as they made me wipe the floor two hundred times a minute. If I couldn’t do it, they would whip me.

I scrubbed as hard as I could, desperate to do the impossible task. I couldn’t get hurt, not now I was pregnant. Sweat pooled on my forehead, sliding down my temples and dripping into my sore, swollen eyes. Barely able to see, I squinted through my tears as I scrubbed.

My arms trembled from over-exertion. My nails were broken and blood seeped down my fingers. All of me hurt. I wished someone would help me, even if it was just this once. Save me, I begged silently. Save me, and save my baby.

But no-one came.

“Only one-sixty times a minute! Our ‘Luna’ is too weak.”

“We’ll have to wipe the rest for her.”

They laughed and laughed.

“Jane,” one of them cooed, “we’ll whip you forty times for not fulfilling the agreement. That’s fair, isn’t it?” They poked my face with the tail of the whip.

They didn’t need me to answer. They just wanted to see my desperate face and my broken heart. I closed my eyes in despair, hugged my belly, and curled myself into a ball as I waited for the first strike of the whip.

Then the door banged open. I looked up. 

Hunter strode into the room. The Moon Goddess had heard my prayer! He’d come for me!

Silence swelled. Everyone was too intimidated by him to dare speak. Though he was smiling, his eyes were cold and he radiated fury.

He stalked over to me. He picked me up off the floor and took my hand in his, scanning the Omegas surrounding us.

“I always knew you Omegas were disgusting,” he sneered, a muscle ticking in his jaw, “but I still managed to underestimate just how vile you could be. Don’t touch her again. Got it?”

Then he dragged me out of the kitchen.

“Thank you for saving me again,” I murmured, trying to ease my hand out of his grasp.

“No need. It was Reg, my wolf. He forced me to come here.” He sounded worked up and a little fierce. “Why do you always get hurt? Every time I see you, you’re in tears.” He dabbed away my tears with his fingertip.

I sucked in a sharp breath before looking up at him. I could lose myself in those deep, dark eyes. “Why is it always you who saves me?”

He lowered his hand. Then, slowly, he moved closer to me, until his handsome face was only inches from mine. My heart thundered in my chest; I could feel his breath on my lips. “I had a headache,” he muttered, “and I was irritable just now, but now I feel relief. Whenever I’m near you, I feel relief.” His jaw flexed. “Why?”

“You tell me, Hunter! Why?” I pressed onto my toes and cupped his cheek. I couldn’t resist getting close to him and, damn it, I wanted to kiss him. It was instinctive. It was natural. It was right. 

I didn’t have any family. I was so very lonely. Hunter was supposed to be my mate, the dearest person to me in the whole world. But even he despised me. 

Someone screamed.

My head jerked up. The most beautiful woman I’d ever seen stood a few metres away from us, her face bloodless and her mouth twisted in an endless gasp. Blonde curls fell down her back effortlessly, and green eyes widened in shock and horror. “Hunter?” she cried, one hand going to her heart as she stumbled backwards, as if the sight of us alone had shattered her.

He dropped my hand immediately. “Amy!” he cried, rushing towards her. “What are you doing here?”

“I came to surprise you,” she blubbered, her almond-shaped eyes filling with tears – though none of them fell. “But you’re with another woman.”

“Her?” Hunter scoffed, shaking his head. “She’s just an Omega, Ames. She means nothing to me.”

My heart tore in two, but I was frozen to the spot. I didn’t want to break away from this moment. If I did, I would have to move on from it. Accept it.

“Then why were you holding her hand?” Amy asked snidely. Then her expression shifted, and she pouted. “And don’t talk about her like that, Hunt. Omegas are people too, just the same as us.”

“She’s my medicine,” Hunter ground out. “That’s all.”

Amy sniffled. He pulled her into his arms so gently that my heart ripped again, leaving it in bloody quarters. “I don’t understand,” she whimpered, nestling into him.

“I have headaches, fevers, and bouts of sickness. I don’t know why, Ames, but the Omega makes it go away.” Amy sobbed into his neck. His arms tightened around her. “I promise you that I will find a way to fix this.”

Seeing him hug another woman hurt more than any whip. I wished he hadn’t saved me. At last I broke free from my stupor and ran as fast as I could back to the pack house. I hid in my room, burying my face in my folded arms, breathing heavily through my mouth. I couldn’t think beyond this moment, past this present agony.

The door banged open. I didn’t even have the energy to lift my head. 

Rough hands grabbed me, pulling me up and dragging me out of my room to the basement. “In a month, the Alpha will announce his new Luna. To keep you away from her, you’ll be kept in the basement,” he told me. “You aren’t allowed to leave without the Alpha’s permission.”

"I can't believe it,” I sobbed. “I don't believe he would do this to me. I didn't do anything wrong! Why would he do this to me? I want to see the Alpha!" I begged until my voice went hoarse, but nobody listened to me.

From that day on, I became an invisible person in the Storm pack.