Cornered Prey

Agony jolted through my frame as the guards hurled me onto the freezing cell floor with enough violence to fracture my skull, and it was pure luck that my head remained in one piece.

I tried to hide the fact that I was terrified for my life, though my relentless trembling definitely gave me away. The guards paced around me, letting out vicious growls with their claws fully extended. They could tear me to shreds at any second, and I was completely powerless to stop them.

Hours of running had drained all my strength. My joints felt ready to give out if I shifted too much, and my heart hammered so hard against my ribs it felt ready to burst. Why the hell had I bolted in the wrong direction? How was I supposed to convince these massive, brutal men that crossing their border was an accident and they should just let me walk free?

“I-I-I can explain,” I stammered, scooting backward across the floor until my spine hit the wall, trapping myself in a spot where they could easily pin me down and tear my head right off my shoulders.

“This whole thing is a mistake,” I rushed to add as the image of being decapitated flashed through my mind, though my plea only earned a low, menacing rumble in return. One of the men lifted his arm to strike, and my hands immediately flew to cover my belly. Nothing was going to touch my unborn child. I would never let that happen. I would fight until the very last breath left my lungs.

I braced myself for the blow, yet it didn't land. Glancing up, I saw his raised hand frozen mid-air while he stared down at me as if I were a rabid stray.

“Hold off on hitting her, we need to wait for orders,” another guard spoke up. He was clearly calling the shots among the three of them, since the others instantly obeyed his command.

A small breath of relief escaped me; at least I had bought myself a tiny bit more time before losing my head.

“You have no business being on this land,” the lead guard stated, peering down at me with utter disdain. He didn't look much older than me, yet he carried the heavy authority of someone far more seasoned, someone who wasn't to be messed with.

“I had no idea I was trespassing. I was just trying to get away from people who were trying to harm me,” I said, hoping to spark a shred of sympathy, though my words only seemed to piss him off further.

“You’re lying through your teeth, nobody would have the guts to lay a finger on a pack’s Luna,” the man snarled, his eyes flaring bright red with fury. Panic seized my chest and my fingers trembled violently as I fought back the tears stinging my eyes; the weight of everything crashing down on me was simply too much to bear. He looked ready to slaughter me on the spot just for speaking up in my own defense.

“I’m telling the truth, though I get why it sounds impossible to believe. I’m barely making sense of what happened myself, presenter—”

“Save it!” he barked, cutting me right off. “Did your mate send you across our border to spy on us?” he demanded, and the mere mention of Cade after his vile betrayal sent hot rage surging through my veins.

“He isn't my mate! Not anymore, at least! So drop the bullshit and let me the fuck out of this place! I shouldn't even be here!” I shrieked at the top of my lungs, and he answered by backhanding me hard enough to send me sprawling across the floor. Pain radiated across my cheek as the coppery tang of blood filled my mouth.

“I’ll come back when you’re ready to talk without acting like a lunatic,” he spat before turning on his heel, leading the other two men out of the cell with heavy footsteps. As I glanced around the dim room, it finally registered that I wasn't the only person locked in here. My pulse jumped in my throat.

The temperature inside the cell seemed to drop even lower, turning my ragged breaths into visible white puffs. Pressing against the unforgiving floor, my body shook without control. All I wanted was somewhere safe to hide. Everything hurt, the cold was biting into my skin, and I knew I had to find a way out of this place the very first chance I got.

“You’re alright,” a soft voice murmured from the dark corner of the enclosure, distinctly belonging to a woman. “It’s fine now, they’ve left.” Her quiet reassurance eased a fraction of my tension, though I refused to drop my guard entirely. These people were total strangers to me, and a prison cell hardly seemed like the ideal spot to strike up a friendship. Having survived this far, I couldn't afford to take any risks with my baby's life.

Backing into the farthest shadowy corner of the room, I pulled my knees tight against my chest and locked my arms around my shins. The cold was unbearable.

“Neither of us is going to harm you,” the woman spoke again. Even knowing she was just trying to calm me down, her persistence only put me more on edge. It felt like a ploy to make me lower my defenses, and that didn't sit right with me at all.

“Blindly trusting a man is the exact reason I landed in this mess, so I’m sure as hell not making that mistake a second time with a stranger. Just do me a favor and leave me be,” I bit out, only for a quiet giggle to echo from the shadows, quickly building into a full, genuine laugh.

“Isn't it hilarious how the two of us wound up in this exact same hole for the exact same reason? Men really are the root of all our problems, huh? Honestly, there are days I wish we could just wipe every last man off the face of the earth and get on with our lives,” she chuckled, though she had already hooked my attention the second she mentioned we shared the same reason for being locked up.

Curiosity got the better of me, and in a strange way, it brought a bit of comfort knowing someone else in this dark pit understood the kind of pain I was carrying.

“He was supposed to be my mate, my one true match, though as it turned out, I was the only one who actually believed that,” she remarked quietly, causing fresh tears to prick the corners of my eyes. Just like her, I had foolishly believed Cade and I were unbreakable, completely convinced our bond would last forever. I had been so damn sure nobody on earth loved me more than he did.

“I never caught your name,” I offered into the gloom, prompting another laugh from her before she hit me with the absolute cheesiest comeback imaginable.

“That’s because I didn't toss it your way,” she joked lightly, and I felt the tension in my shoulders finally begin to slacken. She really didn't strike me as someone capable of hurting a fly. As for how someone like her landed in a dungeon, I was about to hear the whole story.

“You’ve been locked up in here for quite a while, haven't you?” I asked, watching as she tipped her head back and laughed even louder. The sound was so surprisingly infectious that, for a brief moment, I completely forgot about my own throbbing bruises.

“I’m Nadia,” she replied once her laughter died down. “And that’s Gemma over there,” she added, gesturing toward the woman fast asleep in the opposite corner, to which I gave a small nod.

“I’m Maeve,” I told her, earning a warm smile in return. As my eyes adjusted to the dimness, I got my first real look at her face. She was stunning. Beneath the layers of grime smeared across her smooth skin and the foul stench of the dungeon clinging to the air, she was easily one of the most gorgeous women I had ever laid eyes on.

“You’re really beautiful,” I blurted out without thinking, making her smile widen slightly.

“A shame you’re the only person who thinks so. Maybe it only shows when I’m locked inside a cage,” she laughed again, though I recognized all too well the deep, hollow ache hiding underneath her humor.

“What happened with your mate?”

“God, where do I even start? I loved that idiot like my very survival depended on him, yet the second an opportunity presented itself, he tossed me aside for somebody else,” she let out a heavy breath, folding her legs beneath her as she settled onto the floor.

“We had completed the mating bond and life seemed great, right up until the moment everything came crashing down around me. It felt like the Moon Goddess was playing some twisted joke at my expense, and damn, did it tear me apart. Another woman showed up claiming to be his true first mate, and he backed her story up without hesitation. All that time, I believed I was his first! Apparently, I was dead wrong. Things spiraled out of control fast after that—she ended up selling me off to a gang of thugs, which is how I eventually wound up rotting in here.”

Silence hung between us after she finished her story, leaving me completely at a loss for words. I had no clue how to offer her comfort, or if words could even touch that kind of wound. She had survived a betrayal almost identical to mine, if not worse, and I knew from my own raw chest that empty pity was the absolute last thing either of us wanted right now.

“We need to break out of this place,” I said impulsively, causing her eyes to fly wide open.

“That’s a pretty bold plan, don't you think? Nobody has ever walked out of this cell, at least not with a pulse,” she cautioned me, though her warning did nothing to shake my resolve. I deserved a real life for myself and my child, and I refused to let our story end on a prison floor.

Later on, the guards returned to drop off rations, giving me a chance to observe how they rotated their shifts outside the door. Searching the enclosure, the only feature that remotely looked like a way out was a small, unbarred window set high up in the corner wall. Pulling myself up to peer over the ledge, it immediately became clear why they hadn't bothered putting iron bars across the opening—jumping from that ledge meant certain death. Our cell was located several stories above the ground.

Surprisingly, the rest of the night went by quietly, almost as if my entire world hadn't just been shattered by a lying bastard of a husband before landing me in a foreign dungeon. The following day dragged past quickly enough too, though the guards didn't bother bringing us a single scrap of food or a drop of water the entire time.

Before I knew it, darkness had fallen outside once more, pushing my cabin fever and desperation past the breaking point. I couldn't stand being trapped inside this fucking cage for another second.

“Bye,” I called out to Nadia, scrambling up to the ledge and throwing myself straight out the open window, placing my life entirely in the hands of the goddess.