I wake up to the sweet aroma of food. Rising from where I lay on the dusty ground, I move toward the direction of the scent. To my amazement, I found Massa. I rub my eyes in disbelief, but there he is, in my cell with me, and he’s brought food.
“You didn’t show up for two days,” I accuse him, scratching my itchy skin.
Massa smiles, displaying his pearly whites. “I was going to make it five days,” he says with a laugh.
“What do you have there?”
“Food. It’s yours.”
He hands me the polythene bag. I open it, taking out the plate of food inside. I sit on the ground, devouring the food hungrily, and then chug down the bottle of water he got me.
“Thank you.”
“You should thank Sia. He’s the one who made it.”
I resist the urge to vomit. “If you had told me he made that, I wouldn’t have eaten it.”
“So you prefer to starve? Crinka, you can’t stay mad at him forever.”
“I can. I have every right to be mad at him. He’s the reason I’m here. You were there when he said all those hurtful words to me.”
“He didn’t mean it, Crinka.”
I snort. “I know what I saw, Massa. He did mean it.”
“Just hear him out. Don’t be so quick to conclude.”
“It took me two days to conclude, so I wasn’t being quick. Plus, I don’t want to hear anything regarding Sia. I don’t want to see him, nor do I want to talk to him.”
“Well, it’s too late for that now because he is already here.”
Massa moves further into my cell, giving Sia room to step in. Sia looks worn out, his eyes hollow, lips chapped, shoulders slumped. We stare at each other for a while before Massa breaks the silence. “Um, I’ll leave you two to it.”
Sia speaks up once we’re alone. His voice is hoarse and croaky, but he manages to croak out, “How are you?”
I laugh, and it isn’t a pleasant sound. “How do you expect me to be, Sia? Jovial? Excited? Oh no, dead?”
He flinches. “Just answer the question, Crinka.”
“I’m not fine. I have been locked up here for days, surviving only on hard bread and raw meat. I feel so disgusted with myself, I wish I was dead.”
His expression shows pain. “Don’t say that, Crinka, please.”
“But it’s okay for you to say it? It’s okay for you to remind me of my status? It’s absolutely fine for you to wish me death? Sia, you have no-”
The words die in my throat as his lips connect with mine. I push him away, wiping my mouth clean. “What the hell? You had me thrown in jail after breaking my heart, and now you’re kissing me? What the heck do you take me for? Some slut?”
“I’m sorry if my action has offended you, but you were talking too much, and…”
The nerve of this man. “I was talking too much? Do you seriously expect me not to lash out at you after all you’ve done? Sia, your words broke me. They destroyed me. If my wolf hadn’t shown up when she did yesterday, I would have contemplated suicide.”
“Your wolf? I thought you said she left?”
“She returned, so I won’t be alone.”
“That’s good to hear.”
We lapse into silence. I’ve got a lot to say, but I want him to be the one talking. I want him to apologize, and maybe, just maybe, I would forgive him. He does speak, but it’s not the message I want to hear.
“Why did you do it?”
“What?”
“What made you stay?”
“I don’t know,” I confess, scratching my skin. “I guess I was just blinded by my love for you, that I hoped that maybe you would love me back if I stayed. I was such a fool for thinking that.”
“You shouldn’t love me.”
“You think I want to love you? Sia, if there was no bond between us, nothing would have made me fall for an asshole like you.”
Sia’s eyes flicker with a hint of surprise, and I can feel him studying me. After a long pause, he speaks. “You know, you’re not the only one who’s been hurt in this. It’s not like I wanted to hurt you, but I didn’t know how to deal with my own feelings.”
His words feel like a punch to the gut. I had been so consumed with my own pain that I hadn’t even considered his perspective. But even as I feel a twinge of empathy, I can’t shake the anger that has been simmering inside me for months.
“I don’t care what your excuse is,” I spat. “You had no right to treat me the way you did.”
Sia’s expression hardens, and I can see the walls starting to go up.
“I know I messed up,” he says, his voice low. “But you have to understand, this is who I am. I’m not good at this kind of thing, relationships and love and all that. I’m better off alone.”
I snort. “Then you shouldn’t have bonded with me in the first place!”
Sia’s eyes darken, and that damn purple dot reappears. He takes a step toward me.
“What did you just say?”
“The truth.”
Sia lashes out his arm at his brother, and I quickly jump in, so instead of having Massa in a chokehold, he has me in a chokehold. His grip is tight, and I struggle for breath.
“Sia,” I force out. “Sia, you’re choking me.”
He doesn’t even blink, tightening his grip. “Massa, do something.”
Massa punches Sia in the arm, and Sia lets go of me, turning to Massa with pure hate in his eyes. I stagger to my feet, massaging my throat.
“Sia… Sia, look at me.”
He doesn’t. I grab his arm, forcing him to look at me. “Sia… let me go with him.”
“No.” His tone is curt.
“Sia, listen to me. I’ll be fine. Massa will be there, and he will make sure I don’t get hurt. Let me go with him, okay?”
He swallows, his eyes going back to normal. “I’m sorry, for strangling you. I didn’t mean to. I just snapped, and…”
“You want my forgiveness? Then let me go with Massa.”
He glares at me. “You little… Fine,” he agrees before turning to his brother. “Next time you mess up, I’ll put a bullet in your shoulder. She’s not property. Got that?”
Massa nods. “Good. I’ll send you the money.”
“I don’t need your money. I’ve got plenty of mine to win an auction,” Massa replies smugly.
“Whatever. Now get out. Crinka and I would like to spend quality time together. You know, discuss a few things.”
I raise my brow. “Discuss? But we’ve already discussed…”, I let out an oof when Sia grabs my arse, pulling me closer to him. I hit his chest roughly. “Oh.”
Massa rolls his eyes. “I was just leaving.” And with that, he walked out.
Sia descends on my lips once we’re alone. I stand on my toes, pulling softly at the brown strands of his hair. We kiss for a while before I pull away, breathing hard. His eyes are wild, pupils dilated.
“I want to take you right here and now in this damned cell,” he murmurs against my skin.
“Then what’s stopping you?” I ask coyly.
“Here’s dirty and it’s no place to fuck a queen.”
“Then let’s go up to your room.”
“I can’t take you there, love. I’m not even supposed to be here.”
“But here you are. I can’t stay here forever Sia.”
“You’ll be out by noon I promise. Mila would come get you and help you prepare for the auction.”
“I don’t like this Sia. I hate it when you leave me.”
“I’ll be back love. We’ll go back to being together once more.”
“Don’t make promises you can’t keep Sia.”
“Oh, baby this is a promise I’m definitely going to keep,” he says, sealing my lips with his.
I don’t push him away because if I did, I wouldn’t have had my first prison orgasm.