One.

Aria's POV

“LET ME GO YOU ASSHOLE” Seren was screaming at the man while trying to swipe at him with her half shifted claws. It wasn’t making the slightest bit of difference. The guy was just too far out of reach and I tell her to be quiet as we were both dragged towards the dungeons, at least we were not dead!

“At least I am fighting them” she retorts back.

“There is no point Seren, we are well and truly outnumbered, we have lost!” I mutter back at her. 

Seren had always been so quick to judge my lack of urgency, but the truth was, I liked to think things through, I liked puzzles, I Iiked to solve them logically. Being held hostage was no different.

The man throws me into the dungeon after my sister, sending me rolling across the stone floor. I collide into Seren who quickly helps me up and wraps her arms around me, pulling me in tight against her large chest. We didn’t have the best relationship, but having just watched our parents being murdered, it was like she knew she had to step up as my big sister.

“Where’s Kyle?” Seren asks in the dark as I shake my head. I hadn’t seen him since he told me to stay hidden. Breaking away from Seren, I turn to see that beautiful face, amber eyes bright in the darkness, a smirk sits on his lips as he stares at me through the cell bars. I would recognise them anywhere purely because I had never seen anything like them before except for one man. Ryan!

“Why are you doing this?” I ask him through the bars, trying to reach out to touch his hand.  

“Ryan, is that you?” Seren asks in shock. 

Ryan looks away and begins ordering his men to round everyone up, telling them to make sure Moon Bay is locked up. “If you see any men, kill them on the spot!”

“Ryan, please, you made a Blood oath, a promise to this pack when my family took you in!” I call out to him.

He shakes his head at me “Your pack did nothing for me!”, you could hear the anger in his husky voice.

“We took you in Ryan, when you were on the brink of death, we were the ones who took you in!” The tears begin flowing down my cheeks as Ryan turns his head, blatantly ignoring me.

I could sense it, anything he had once felt for me was long gone and yet, when I saw his eyes I felt something, a twinge that wasn’t painful, a twinge of longing to be with him. That feeling just didn’t go away that easily, even after months apart.

“What about me? What about us?” I cry out to him. Our relationship had only lasted a few months before Ryan broke it off. I never got an answer and I never understood why he just upped and left. Everything had been perfect. Ryan had been perfect. As Ryan walks away, I turn back to my sister, looking for some reassurance but anger was written on her face.

“You brought him here, you are the reason father let him stay!” The anger was rolling off of Seren, but here, I was alone. Here I didn’t have Kyle to protect me and Seren takes a swing at me. Her fist making contact with my nose, the crack and the spreading pain confirming that it was broken.

The tears fall faster, my nose was agony as I cracked it back into place, hoping that it would eventually heal straight. “I didn’t know this was going to happen. Mum and dad both welcomed him into our home. You liked him too, Seren!”. I tried to defend myself but it was no use, Seren didn’t care what I had to say and continued to ignore me. 

I could hear the people in the other cells blaming me, they had heard everything and even though they had lost the war, they were taking great pleasure in belittling me, the Alpha’s youngest daughter. They all knew who had started this battle and it was Ryan, the man I had brought into the pack and they were blaming me for the destruction that Ryan had caused to their peaceful pack.

Seren and I sit at opposite ends of the damp cell, listening to the moans and cries coming from the neighbouring cells. While I listen, trying to find out what is happening, Seren stares at me with pure hatred. It was impossible to keep my head low, but I still hoped that Kyle and Bea were somewhere safe, making a plan to save the remainder of what was now Kyle’s pack.

Several weeks passed and Seren was still refusing to speak to me no matter how much I begged, in the end I gave up trying, instead sitting in silence, watching as pack members of Moon Bay were gradually removed from the cells. There was nothing I could do as people from my pack are dragged away out of the dungeons. No one had any idea what was happening, and the ones taken, never returned which could only mean one thing. They were being killed one by one.

As I sit on the cold cell floor, hugging my legs, many scenarios ran through my head, but I just couldn’t understand how Ryan had changed so much. He had made an oath to Moon Bay Pack, too me, and now he was breaking it. It was like he was a completely different man, not the man she had known

In the days before my name was called, we were given measly amounts of porridge to survive on and even though Seren hated me, she still made sure that I ate. Just once a day the two bowls would slide through under the cell door, one for me and one for Seren, but it didn’t stop the groans of hunger from the people in the other cells and every so often, a lifeless body would be dragged out.

Seren shakes me awake, “They are calling you,” It was the first time she had spoken to me in weeks and as I look up towards the cell door I see those bright amber eyes staring straight back at me. He doesn’t speak, he just watches me.

“Aria Madden” when he speaks, he states my full name. It felt strange, hearing him say my name in such a way. 

I had no idea what to expect and when I rise to her feet, Seren pulls me in tight, not speaking a word. Ryan opens the door of the cell, keeping his amber eyes on me and yet he refuses to touch me, instead he asks another man to hold me and Ryan walks ahead of us.

As the main door of the dungeon swings open revealing the bright sunlight, the rays sting my eyes and I find myself squinting. I had no idea how long it had been since I had seen daylight, but my eyes had become accustomed to the dark.

The man holding me spins me around so that I am facing Ryan. He looked at me but not quite directly, it was like he was looking through me, afraid to look directly into my eyes or fully acknowledge me.

“Aria Madden, I will give you two options, you must choose.” Ryan announces as the other man forces me to my knees by kicking my legs out from under me, making me kneel to Ryan, treating him like he was some sort of man of power.

My knees hit the damp grass a little too hard but I couldn’t show Ryan that I was weak or that it hurt my knees. “Aria Madden, you can pledge your loyalty to me or you can die just like your mother and father, just like the others”

“And what about the oath you pledged to me, to my family, to Moon Bay?” I didn’t care if I was about to die for speaking back, I had to remind Ryan of what he had promised. Ryan’s laugh is deep as it rattles through the air, a sound that I had heard often.

“Your father forced me take an oath that was a facade, he never trusted me, he never completed the ritual correctly”

“Yes he did, you took a Blood oath, you made a promise. We all watched you!” my voice fades out “You made a promise to me, remember”?