CHAPTER TWO
1288 Words
Sienna~
I screamed and fought, but they dragged me out of the room like I weighed nothing.
“Please, Adrian! Please don’t do this!”I cried, reaching for him even as the guards held me back.
Then I saw Brielle in the doorway.
“Thank the goddess,” I exhaled as I struggled towards her. “Brielle, please…help me. Tell him this isn’t right.”
Slowly, she stepped forward and for a moment, I thought she’d come to my side and make Adrian see reason.
But she brushed past me.
Adrian’s arm slipped around her waist, and my whole body went cold. My breath caught when she picked up one of my babies and held him against her chest.
The room spun as my legs buckled. The guards had to hold me up. “Brielle… what are you doing?” I whispered, my voice cracking.
She didn’t even spare me another glance. “Take her to the smallest cell,” she ordered. “Make sure she can’t get out.”
The guards yanked me forward before I could even look back at my children. They dragged me through the halls and threw me onto the damp floor of a tiny, dark cell. These were the same men who once swore loyalty to my father, now treating me like I was nothing.
Everything hurt. My body, my heart. The pain from giving birth, from his rejection and their betrayal all blurred together until I couldn’t tell where one ended and the other began.
The room smelled like mold, the air too heavy to breathe. My dress, once white for my coronation, now ruined with blood and tears as I sank to the ground trying to steady my nerves, but the silence only made the aching worse.
Hours passed before I heard the door open and footsteps echoing down the corridor. My stomach tightened as Adrian’s shadow appeared outside the bars.
“Adrian…” My voice cracked. “Just tell me why. Why would you do this?”
“I only needed a way in. The throne demands an Alpha from noble birth, and you were the only choice.”
My hands trembled against the bars. “So, you just used me?”
He laughed under his breath. “You really would've been Crimson’s dumbest Alpha.” he mocked. “You'll rot in here until I've found better use for you.”
“I loved you,” I whispered, unable to control the tears. “How could you do this to me?”
He leaned closer, the smirk fading from his face. “Sienna…you’re still clinging to the idea that you meant something to me. You didnt. You were my breeder. A step I needed to climb. Nothing more.”
My breath shook. “You’re a monster.”
“I did what any true king would.” He leaned down until his eyes met mine through the bars. “I protected my people from a weak leader.”
He turned to leave, but before he reached the door, distant shouts echoed through the halls. The sound of a scuffle and metals clashing.
Adrian’s brows furrowed. “What now?”
The door burst open, and a guard stumbled in, bloodied and in a state of panic. “Alpha, rogues! They’ve breached the gates!”
“Rogues?” Adrian growled.
“Not just any rogues.” The guard’s voice trembled. “They’re Whitestone’s rogues—the ones who rebuilt themselves as Blackstone. They’ve come for revenge for the m******e at Black Hollow,” the guard said. “They said we killed their kin under a false treaty.”
Adrian cursed under his breath.
“Whitestone’s rogues, you said?” his gaze flickered toward me. Then, for a second, I saw the calculation in his eyes.
When the rogues stormed in with their bloodied blades, he didn’t fight. He didn’t defend. He dropped to his knees almost instantly and pointed at me.
“You want revenge?” he said blurted. “Take her.”
“Her?” They frowned.
“That’s the Lycan princess of Whitestone. The last of their royal line. It was her grandfather who cast you out from Whitestone and stole your lands.”
“What?!” I yelled, shocked. Was he insane? Where was this story even coming from?
The wolves exchanged glances. “And you’re giving her up?” one of them sneered.
Adrian shrugged. “She’s worthless to me now.”
“That’s a lie!” I stumbled to my feet, shaking. “Adrian, no—please!”
But the wolves didn’t care. They opened my cell and dragged me out as I kicked and screamed.
“You wanted freedom, didn’t you?” he mocked as they dragged me away.
They shoved me into the back seat, wedged between two wolves whose eyes crawled over me with an unsettling hunger. I shuddered with disgust.
These weren’t ordinary werewolves. They were from Blackstone, untamed, and bitter from being cast out and years of being belittled and extorted by Whitestone's lycans. I knew whatever waited for me at their Alpha’s hands wouldn’t be mercy.
Outside, howls echoed through the night, and I hugged my arms around myself, counting each breath until the car finally slowed.
When the doors opened, rough hands yanked me out and I stumbled, blinking against the bright lights ahead. I found myself staring at a massive estate that looked more like a palace than a home.
Inside, everything shone. The marble floors went on and on, and the tall glass windows caught all the bright light there was. It was spotless but the silence was heavy, making it hard to breathe normally.
They forced me to my knees in the middle of a vast room. My heart pounded as I stared at the floor, too scared to look up.
“Best say your last prayers,” one of the wolves snickered. “Once the Alpha sees you, you’re good as dead.”
The others laughed under their breath, but then the laughter stopped.
Heavy footsteps echoed down the corridor. Each step carried authority, and with it, the air seemed to tense up. My pulse raced.
When the doors opened, I didn’t have to look to know he was there. His scent hit me first, stirring something deep inside me, something I didn’t recognize but couldn’t ignore.
“Alpha Lucian,” one of the wolves announced. “A gift from Alpha Adrian. The Lycan princess of Whitestone.”
His presence filled the room like a storm. Still, I fought to keep my gaze down, trembling as he drew closer.
“Whitestone’s Lycan princess?” His voice was so deep and calm, it made my stomach twist.
“Yes, Alpha,” one of them replied quickly.
The sound of steel sliding free from his sheath made my breath pause. And before I could stop myself, my eyes lifted, and then everything stopped.
Our eyes met.
For a moment, neither of us moved. There was something in his expression… confusion, maybe even hesitation. The sound of my heartbeat drowned everything else out. I wanted to look away, but something about him held me there, like a thread I couldn’t cut loose.
Then his jaw tightened. He stepped forward, his sword catching the light. “I, Alpha Lucianof Blackstone, sentence you to death,” he said, his voice calm but sending shivers down my spine.
I closed my eyes, bracing myself as he lifted the sword. Then, out of nowhere, a voice echoed in my head.
“MATE!” My eyes nearly popped out of their sockets.
But that sounded nothing like Mara, it sounded fiercer, more powerful.
No… that wasn't my wolf.
It was something else entirely.
- Writer
