Chapter 3

Fiona

I was shoved hard to the unforgiving ground of the dungeon, the hash impact knocking the breath out of my lungs. I gasped loudly, due to the fall’s impact and the sudden disrespect from the warriors towards me. 

“This is where a mutt like you belongs.” A bald warrior snarled before swinging the heavy metal gates shut. A loud thud echoing throughout the empty room. 

Carefully, I hissed as I peeled myself off from the cold slick ground, coming up in a kneeling position. The air in the oppressive dungeon was thick with iron and humidity. My body felt heavy and beads of sweat rolled down my forehead. 

The injuries that I sustained still sent small jolts of pain around my body. However, the bleeding had subsided. Mera was healing me but the process was rather slow due to the effects of the silver. 

The stench filled excuse for a dress that they donned me hanged sloppily on my shoulders. Faint crusts of dirt and sweat coated my slightly bruised skin, making me feel filthy. 

I registered some resentment for the cold ground as I crawled to the dark corner at the far edge of the dungeon. I sat with my back resting on the rough uneven wall, my legs folded to my chest and my arms wrapped around them. 

“Mera,” I called to my wolf but her silence was all that greeted me. 

I buried my head between my knees and drown myself in my own thoughts as the sensation of loneliness began to crawl up my spine. 

It was hard to believe that I had lost the most important parts of my life in just one night. My mate, my title as Luna and worst of all my wolf had abandoned me. Maybe she didn’t fully abandoned me but tonight I was alone, unsure of when she’d speak to me again. 

After what felt like hours, I heard the sound of the dungeon gates opening. I looked up in anticipation, like a pet desperately waiting for its owner as Lucian’s towering figure walked in.

His white and rough pompadour hair was hard to ignore under the moonlight illuminating from a small window right above my head. 

“Lucian, I’m sorry.” I said desperately as I moved to stand. I attempted to touch him but he quickly avoided me like a plague. I was shocked but I also felt like I should have expected it because of the filth I was covered in. 

“I have nothing to do with you anymore. I only came here to inform you about the punishments you’ll be  receiving for assaulting my Luna.” Lucian’s tone held no emotions as he wiped his hand where I had touched him. 

I couldn’t help but scoff. “Are you referring to Nadia as your Luna? You have only known her for four days. Lucian, that woman is a bitch and she’s—”

Before I could finish my protest, a hard slap sent me crashing to the bare ground. I held my hot cheek with both hands as I stared back up at Lucian in fear. 

“You’ll treat your Luna with respect!” He warned, pointing a finger at me. 

“And just so you know, Nadia and I have been having an affair long enough for me to know that she is fertile and strong enough to carry my seeds. She deserves to be Luna, not you. You’re nothing but a liar and a fraud.” 

“A liar? Lucian, I have never lied to you. I would never do that.” I said in a whimper, tears breaking free from my eyes. 

“You became a liar the moment you shifted into that wolf. It only took you seconds to transform, something impossible for a first time shifter. You made a fool of everyone.” He chuckled. “You made a fool of me.”

“It truly was my first time. Mera had never let me shift before and I don’t know why she did so this night but I only wanted to show you that I can shift. Mera was the one stopping me. Please, believe me lucian.” I pleaded as I held unto his ankle but he kicked my hands off immediately. 

Lucian ran his fingers through his hair as he chuckled, his muscles flexing underneath the black silk shirt he donned. 

“That’s a stupid and ridiculous lie. You were jealous when you saw me with Nadia that’s why you became angry and shifted into your wolf thus exposing your secret along the line.” Lucian smirked, like he had read my mind and exposed my deepest secrets. 

I wanted to speak but he interrupted me with a hush while holding his index finger up. “There’s nothing left for you to say. The council elders have sentenced you to fifty lashes of silver whip but I’ve decided and ordered them to give you thirty instead.”

“Furthermore, you’ll spend a week in the dungeon after that you will continue the rest of your life outside the pack house, where I had found you in the first place.” Lucian stated before turning to leave. 

A faint gasp escaped my lips as if I was being strangled by his words. “Lucian! You can’t let that happen to me, I’m carrying your unborn child. What about our baby?” I asked as I clutched my stomach and he stopped with the gate halfway open. 

He shrugged dismissively as he looked to me over his shoulder. “Don’t you think for a second that you can manipulate or fool me. You’re  not pregnant and even if you were, that bastard is no child of mine. For all I know you could have slept with one of my warriors because my seed would never stay inside you.” 

My lips trembled and I failed to find the right words as I watched him leave. My heart fell into a thousand pieces again and this time I knew there was no amending it. The Lucian I knew was no more and he has been replaced by a monster. 

Not long after Lucian left, I started hearing barely audible whispers just right outside the prison door. I crawled over to the door and slowly placed my ear on the cold metal. It took me a moment to recognize the familiar voice that was arguing with the guard. But fear gripped me when I did. 

It was Nadia’s voice and even if I was wrong, her unmistakable scent of dandelion would prove me right. I listened further to their barely audible conversation and I realized what Nadia was planning. She wanted to get rid of me. She was ordering the guard to kill me. Nadia wanted me dead. 

I realized right then and there that I needed to do something. For the sake of my baby, I won’t continue my life in silver fang after I’ve been reduced to an omega. Even surviving thirty lashes wasn’t so sure without my wolf presence. 

I needed to escape. 

I stood up and started knocking softly on the walls of the dungeon, hoping to find a loose brick where I’d break through but I found none as the walls were solid and thick. Suddenly, my gaze shifted to the small window above my head. 

I peeped through the window and I immediately understood why it had no rod to prevent prisoners from escaping. The cell was a few stories up,so  jumping from this distance would mean the same thing as dying. 

“What the hell are you doing?” The bald warrior roared as he pushed the gate open. 

“Mera!”  I called to my wolf as I leaped out of the window, leaving my fate to her and the moon goddess.