**TRIGGER WARNING This chapter contains sexual assault and/or violence, and suicidal thoughts that may be triggering to survivors.**
Dream
Adea
All those years, he never let me down. He wasn’t a man of many words but I always knew, I just knew. It was in the way he looked at me, the way that he touched me, the way that he did things for me, the way that he jumped in the way when I was going to get hurt.
Yes, his way of showing affection wasn’t normal but… how many people were actually normal in this Goddess-forsaken world? If that was how he wanted to show me he needed me, loved me, I didn’t care.
Sometimes, yes, he hurt me, his love was painful but good, so good. I could take it and knew when we mated, I would do anything and everything to make him happy. Did that make me like Alpha’s mate? I don’t know.
I could see the light at the end of the foyer that waited for us on the other side of the hallway. If we could just get there we would be okay. We’d be free and I’d never have to see Alpha ever again.
The walls and doors blurred beside us as we ran as fast as we could. Body parts were flying in directions they shouldn’t be but I didn’t have the time to be embarrassed. He would shift as soon as we were outside anyway.
So long as we could make it, I could ride him or shift. We were just about to make it out of the hallway. I could almost taste the fresh air on my tongue. I was so close. One of the doors on our right opened a flash of light hit him and my mate went flying into the wall.
I stumbled and fell to my feet in the foyer. Whipping my head around, my mate was on the ground thrashing wildly around. Out of the door, a woman with silver-blonde hair floated out.
For a moment too long, my jaw dropped and I stared in shock at the stranger. Her hair was cut short and hung just above her shoulders. Her eyes were a soft light lavender, a color I’d never seen before.
Her feet hovered above the ground as she glided closer to my mate. No, anything but that. I wouldn’t let her touch him. I jumped to my feet and ran at her. I couldn’t let her do anything to him.
I didn’t know who she was but I had an idea of what she was. She didn’t even look at me as I slammed into an invisible barrier. I was right. Now that it was confirmed, I knew there wasn’t much we could do.
Her outreached hand formed a c-shape as she rose it slowly into the air. My mate was lifted off the ground and he snapped and growled at her. Only when my mate’s head touched the ceiling did the witch turn to face me.
I was lifted into the air, helpless as I stared at my mate. We’d been so close to escaping, so close to being free. I had no one but myself to blame for getting my mate involved. I should have told him no, I shouldn’t have let him come here.
I should have don’t everything I could to keep him away, to believe I didn’t want him. I shouldn’t have been so selfish. I know he wouldn’t have listened at first but I should have at least tried to keep him away from me.
I should have pushed him away and lived this miserable life under the Alpha. I should have convinced him to give up on me, maybe then he would have been able to move on. It would have hurt but wouldn’t it have been better if he were safe?
Now, we were caught, we weren’t escaping, and there was a high chance we wouldn’t live to see tomorrow. What had I done? I had doomed my mate and sealed his fate. We were taken into the room she had just come out from.
My jaw dropped as we descended the stairs to a floor I didn’t know we had. When we hit the landing, my heart raced as I realized where we were. I’d been here once but had been so drunk with pain.
We were in the dungeons, the one below the castle. There were no windows, no outside light, and no real furniture other than the one in the middle of the room. It was a metal table bolted to the ground.
The walls were littered with chains, weapons of torture, and pleasure toys. I gulped as I looked around the room. This was a torture cell, no, a torture room for prisoners. I watched as my mate was thrown against the wall.
He was powerless to do anything as wolfbane chains wrapped around his wrists and chains wrapped around his body. He cried out as the metal burned his skin and the smell of burnt flesh filled the air.
“Fuck you,” he growled as he glared at the witch. “What do you want with us?”
“Nothing,” she said quietly. “I want nothing with you.”
“Can’t you let us go?” I asked.
“My master wants something with you. That’s where you were headed before your sister was knocked out,” She said pointedly. I swallowed as I thought of Alpha. “He’s not happy you know. Men aren’t allowed here.”
“Please,” I started. “Just let him go.”
She didn’t flinch, she didn’t even pretend to consider it. Her gaze was hard and uncaring as she looked at me.
“Don’t waste your breath. I’m loyal to my master, if you would have been too, you wouldn’t have had to lose him,” she said as she looked at my mate.
She was right. This was my fault. I knew it already. I didn’t have much time to think about it. I flew through the air until I was seated on the medal table in the middle of the room.