Chapter 2: Captured 

The dungeon was suffocating, a dark lightless pit that reeked of decay, despair and rotting flesh. Bodies littered the cramped cells, slumped against the cold stone walls.

The other members of my pack were packed into one cell. I was alone in another. I looked across the hall and spotted my best friend. Her head was resting on the wall. Her once striking brown eyes were dull, rimmed with red from several hours of crying. 

She had lost her mate in the attack. She must be really hurt.

She hadn't spoken since we were thrown into this hellhole. No one had. All we had witnessed was too great for words.

My stomach churned from starvation and and my wrist felt raw from the silver laced iron chains that chained me to the wall. I closed my eyes letting the silence of the cell fill my ears but all I saw were my family's dead bodies. The sound of my mother's screams, the look in my brother's eyes and the sound of the snap of his neck. 

I pressed my hands on my face trying to block the images and sounds out but the image persisted, seared into the back of my eyelids. 

The sound of heavy boots thundering down the stone floor jolted me from my thoughts. A guard appeared, tall, broad and armed. His face was covered with a helmet. His eyes scanned the cells before they landed on me. He turned back and called more guards before instructing them to open the cell of my packmates and match them out.

“What are you planning to do to them? What did we ever do to you? Let them go! Please” I rasped out as I had not spoken since we got shoved into the truck.

“ Is the little miss princess trying to save her mates?” He said in a baby voice, cooing at me and mocking me. He burst out into a large laughter and ignored me as he jingled his keys to open my cell. 

I flinched as he unlocked the cell door, the creak of rusty metal made my skin crawl. 

“Come on now, doll. Let me get that for you.” He approached me and unlocked my chains before speaking again.

“Get up” 

I didn't move, I wanted to but my body refused to obey. 

The guard moved closer and yanked me up from the ground. Pain shot through my shoulders and knees and I stumbled to my feet. 

“I said, get up!” he struck me hard across the face, I felt my face turn to the other side from the force as I fell back against the wall, tasting blood. 

“Leave her alone!” Zahra’s voice, horse and trembling, rang out from the other cell as she was being marched out. 

The guard turned to her, his lips curling into a sneer “shut up bitch, you'll get your turn.”

“No, don't—” I struggled to breathe as his hands wrapped tightly around my arm painfully.

He dragged me out of the cell ignoring the weak protests of my packmates that had yet to be matched out from the cell. My legs barely carried me and I stumbled at every chip or crack in the floor.

The hallway beyond the cell was full of assigned guards. Their faces were twisted with disgust and mockery. 

“Look at her, isn't she Alpha Asher’s daughter? The princess of their pack?” One said in between laughs. 

“She most certainly is. Red claws, more like blunted claws” another bellowed out laughing.

The taunts and jeers continued till we were put of the hallway. The guard dragged me into an open courtyard and the sheer brightness of the sun made me squint. It was a wide clearing with seats for an audience. The seats were filled with many werewolves. And in the middle of the clearing, there were some of my packmates lined up and back in chains. 

I had to look twice to confirm if what I saw was real. There was a wooden platform and on both sides were guards with knives dripping of blood.

I slowly looked at the ground in from of the platform to find heads separated from the bodies of my pack mates.

I looked behind me and saw that the rest of us were being marched out, including Zahra.

No, no ,no.

The guard threw me to the back of the line and I watched as ahead, a woman was dragged to the platform and forced to kneel. The clearing went silent. One of the guards raised his sword and the next thing, she was on the ground, blood pooling around her as her head rolled away. 

The crowd burst into cheers. 

What kind of fucked up pack is this that enjoys pleasure in people's deaths? 

“No!” Zahra's scream made me turn to face her but it was drowned out by the road of joy from the crowd. 

This went on and on with my pack members meeting a terrible end. I was getting infuriated with every life that was taken. I couldn't do anything. I felt my wolf stirring with me in anger. She wanted to come out but with so many silver burns on me, she couldn't. 

I could do nothing but seethe and offer a prayer to the goddess for every life taken. 

I looked up and saw that the next person matched up was Zahra, 

No, they can't.

Zahra looked lifeless, like she had resigned to faith and didn't want to fight anymore. She locked eyes with me and looked at me with sorrow filled eyes. She attempted to smile as she shook her head and mouthed ‘ I love you ‘

No, they werent going to take her from me. They can't do that! They can't!

I struggled against the chains as I ran to save my best friend. She was forced to kneel in from of the platform and the guard had raised his hands when I screamed. I screamed so loudly that it caught the attention of everyone. The guard was momentarily distracted and shocked. I rushed towards him and head butted him. 

This made him stumble and drop his sword. Many guards tan towards me to restrict but they were stopped by a voice.

“STOP!” 

The voice… it stirred something inside me. I felt like a child that had just been given her favourite candy. I felt happy and alive. My wolf kept trying to tell me something, I tried to listen. 

The scent was earthy and comforting, I felt alive.

The words slipped past my lips “mate”