Ameira's POV
The door closed and with one soft click, and the lock slid into place. I didn't move, I knew they were coming to hurt me again. My body was still, I held my breath like a prisoner. The cold from the cracked cement floor pressed into my bones, but I couldn't feel anything but the weight of their presence. Six shadows tall, broad and dominant. For a moment, I thought I was dreaming. Maybe this was another one of those cruel hallucinations I sometimes had when I hadn't eaten for days. But no… this was real. The scent of their colognes mixed with their Alpha aura, suffocating and thick, like a storm pressing against my skin. One of them stepped closer. I couldn't tell which. The lightbulb above flickered weakly, casting jagged shadows on the walls. My heart pounded so loudly it drowned out the silence.
Why are they here? I stayed crouched on the floor, my arms wrapped around my knees, my chin resting on the bones of my folded legs. My hair was still wet from the water they'd poured on me hours ago. My cheek still blistered from Calista's iron. My dress, my mother's dress was stiff with dried blood. I didn't speak, I know if I speak first they will start beating me. So I kept quiet. One of them crouched in front of me.
His hand reached out slowly and brushed my hair from my face. I flinched at his touch but he didn't pull back. Instead, his fingers moved to trace the fresh wound on my cheek.
"You didn't heal," he murmured. His voice wasn't mocking like it was earlier in the day. It wasn't loud or cruel or filled with laughter. It was now quiet observant but it didn't comfort me. Nothing did anymore.
"I'm not allowed near the healer," I whispered, not sure why I spoke. "She says I don't deserve it."
He didn't respond. The others were behind him watching us, silently, their glowing eyes unreadable. They looked like kings in the darkness. And I was just the ghost they haunted. Another one stepped forward. I knew him from his scent. Cedarwood and smoke. The same one who said would rather die than claim me. Now, his hand moved to the hem of my sleeve.
"You're bruised," he said, tugging the fabric up my arm.
I didn't resist even if I want to, I'm not allowed to resist them
I didn't speak either. The burns on my arm were still fresh. Angry. The soup had scalded me so bad but no one had cared ask ntil now.
One by one, they came closer. Surrounding me like wolves around a carcass. But their eyes didn't shine with hunger. One of them Ace, the firstborn, the one who led the rejection bent down so close I could feel his breath against my skin.
"You didn't cry today," he whispered.
I didn't know what to say to that. Or how to answer. So I said nothing.
"You didn't scream when they threw things. You didn't beg when we rejected you. Not once."
There was something almost fascinated in his tone. Like I was a puzzle he couldn't solve.
"She's not like the others," one muttered behind him.
"She's too quiet," said another.
"She should've broken by now," a third added.
I should have. They were right. But maybe… there was nothing left to break in me anymore. Then to my surprise they all sat down. They didn't hurt me that night. But they didn't leave either. They stayed. Sat on the boxes, leaned against the walls, and filled the room with their heat and silence. Like invaders claiming a space that was never theirs. I didn't sleep. How could I? Six Alphas my supposed mates had just rejected me in front of the entire pack. And now, they were here, crowding into the only space I had left, with eyes that watched every twitch of my fingers.
When I finally mustered up the courage to speak, but my voice cracked.
"Why are you here?"
No one answered for a long time. Then Ace spoke again, his tone unreadable.
"We want to know why the Moon Goddess chose you."
I blinked. That was it? That was the reason?
"Because she made a mistake," I whispered.
He tilted his head.
"You don't believe that."
"Yes, I do."
Another Alpha moved closer this one with silver eyes that glinted even in the dark. "What if we changed our minds?" he asked softly.
"Why?" I asked, my voice barely a whisper. "So you can reject me again? Humiliate me twice?" There was silence again the kind that doesn't fall it sinks. They didn't answer.
"Go to sleep" one of them commanded.
Morning came slowly. The basement had no windows, but I knew it was day by the way the cold shifted how the sounds above grew louder, how the distant scent of breakfast teased my senses.
I was starving. No one brought me food. They had left sometime before dawn, without a word. One moment they were there watching me sleep and the next, they were gone. I stumbled to my feet, head was spinning and my legs were numb. My dress clung to me like wet paper. I made it to the door. It was unlocked. I opened it and stepped into the hallway, only to freeze. Kaela stood there.
Arms crossed and a smirk on her lips.
"Well, well," she purred. "Look who had visitors last night."
My stomach dropped. She leaned in, voice laced with poison.
"You really think they care about you? They just came to laugh. To see how pathetic you look up close."
"I didn't ask them to come."
She rolled her eyes. "Oh, I know. But they'll come again. And again. And again."
She stepped closer, her perfume overwhelming.
"Because even Alphas like to play with broken things before they crush them." Then she walked away. And I stood there, my heart aching, skin crawling, wondering what hurt more Being unwanted Or being wanted for the wrong reasons.