Melana POV
I was taken to new cells and dumped on the cold concrete floor. I groaned rolling on my back, I could barely move and everything hurt. The cell door slams and I succumb to the urge to pass out, sweating beading on every inch of my body and I shudder, letting the darkness eat me up and offer the relief of feeling nothing.
Cold hands are what kept me awake though not letting me rest, gently tapping my face and I blink up at the ceiling. The fluorescent light makes me squint as I try to regain some form of focus when I feel blood trickle into my mouth. I swallow welcoming the taste oh gosh how I was starving, I could feel the blood working through my system awakening the hunger within me and I grip the wrist of the person feeding me and sink my teeth into them..
“That’s it, Melana,” says a soft femine voice. I thought I was dreaming, it had to be a dream. I haven’t heard that voice for years. I let her arm go, turning my head and my eyes widened at the sight of her. Hollow cheeks and sad eyes peering at me. She has lost a lot of weight, but there was no doubt it was her.
“Aliza?” I whisper before rolling and propping myself up on an elbow to look at her. I reached out to touch her and she was indeed real, she was really here. She was a good woman, too good for Alpha Jamie, I had always wondered what happened to her. Rumours said he killed her but I knew that couldn’t be true because he was crazy but not batshit crazy like a severed mate bond crazy.
“How, why are you here, how long have you been here?” I ask confused. Aliza was always nice to Josie and I and it was shocking to see her in this state, so malnourished and looking so weak. We all knew he beat her, knew she feared him and I thought she ran, escaped him. I didn’t think even Jamie was cruel enough to lock up his own mate.
“How is Emily, did you see her?” Aliza says, gripping my arms with frail hands. I try to shake off the shock of seeing her.
“Um, she is fine. I have seen her a few times, she looks healthy” I tell her.
“He was always a good father unfortunately not a good mate” She says and I see relief flood her as she leans back against the cell wall. I sit up before sniffing the air and my heart beats erratically when I pick his scent up, making my head whip from side to side, looking for him. I was in a room with 4 cells. Each cell had someone in it.
“Hey baby” Nathanial’s voice says, barely a murmur before he starts coughing and I run at the bars flinging my arms through, the bars burning my skin. He looked terrible, his blonde hair was longer now, it sat past his shoulders limply and drenched in sweat, his hazel eyes looked sad and bloodshot.
“I’m sorry, I am so sorry” I whisper to him, tears falling down my cheeks. He reaches his hand out through the bars, trying to reach across to me and my heart breaks at the sight of him and what he has endured, he was just as skinny as Aliza. I didn’t deserve him but seeing him had sent the bond into a frenzy even though I rejected him, I could still feel it, feel it come to life with him this close, though it was incredibly weak and barely existent.
His fingers reach mine before his hand drops to the floor. But that fleeting touch was enough to make my fingertips burn. “Nathaniel?” I sob, I ruined everything, I ruined him.
“Don’t cry, I am alive” He says before coughing again.
“You didn’t deserve this, I never should have rejected you” I tell him, hating myself.
“We can fix it when we get out of here, if we get out of here. I know you had your reasons Mel” I let out a shaky breath looking around at the other cells, it was all the same. People in each one, all looking on the verge of death. “Carla?” I ask, looking at her.
“Hey Melana” She says, also coughing and rasping for breath.
“Does your father know you’re here?” She nods, I knew her father was a janitor from the high school. Now making me realize who put the photos up of Lucy. I shake my head before hanging it when I hear another voice, a softer one making me turn my head to the cell beside me.
“Is Mitchell okay, he was from the other pack, the Alpha King’s pack” The girl says.
“Mitchell?”
“I don’t know his last name” She says sadly, but I could tell by her scent she was from Alpha Jamie’s pack.
“He is our age though” She says looking at Carla.
“Mitchell Davis, Lucy friend?” Carla chokes out and I realise who she is talking about.
“Maybe, he is my mate, that’s how I ended up here. Alpha Jamie killed my parents and took me” She says her lip trembling, she looked around 17 but was in better shape then the rest of the prisoners. But her question made me look at Aliza wondering what she did to end up here.
“It’s ok Taylor, I am sure he is fine” Aliza tries to comfort her.
“Emily looks like you” I tell Aliza and she smiles. Her blue eyes filling with tears, she was skin and bones besides her fake boobs that now looked too big for her tiny frame. Her blonde foiled hair sat at the middle of her back and mousy brown hair had grown right out.
” How long has he had you in here?” I ask her.
“Since just after Emily’s first birthday, I haven’t seen her since, she probably thinks I abandoned her” She says, closing her eyes and resting her head on the wall behind her. She has been here for 3 years? I gasp in horror that he would do that to his own mate.
“After he found out what I did, he lost it. I was planning on leaving after I sent an anonymous letter to King Ryker about his dealings and the airport”
“You got the airport shut down?” I ask her. She nods.
“His Beta caught me packing and told him” She says.
“I was planning on taking Emily and fleeing the country, he would never allow me to take her, he said I couldn’t leave until I gave him a son but Emily wasn’t leaving, when he found out what I did he chucked me in here” She chuckles.
“What do you mean?” I ask her.
“I had myself sterilized, I knew I was a breeding machine to him, after Emily I refused to have anymore, I wanted out and I knew it would be harder to leave with more than one child, so I went to Avalon City and met a surgeon there, had them take everything out. When I told him this, he chucked me in here and said I could rot in hell” She says, shaking her head.