Sentenced to The Ruthless Alpha

Chapter 10: Trapped!

Thora POV

It felt like a dream. She wasn’t sure. One second, the ruthless alpha who hated her guts was standing over her. Then she blinked, and he was suddenly gone. Her eyes kept drooping, lulling her into intermittent sleep.

Once, she woke up to Matilda kindling a fire. Another time, she and the pack doctor were hunched over Thora, pulling at her eyelids, checking the strength of her pulse.

When she finally felt wide awake, it was daytime. Matilda wasn’t in the room, but a few omegas were cleaning. Thora’s ears twitched with their bold gossip.

“Isn’t it convenient? The moment she’s assigned to the omega wing, she finds a way to skip her duties by playing sick. Humans are pathetic!” A hyena-like cackle followed.

“She’s got a mouth on her for someone so weak. Imagine how she squared up to alpha Roman. She actually thinks the title of a human Luna means something around here.” More cackling.

“I can’t wait for her to wake up. I’ll make her work for all the days she’s been bedridden…”

They were startled by the deep clearing of throat.

“Go clean somewhere else if all you’re good for is lame gossip.” Came a very stern voice.

The girls tendered profuse apologies and skipped out of the room in a flurry of cotton. Thora still kept her eyes shut when her bed was approached. She felt him, smelt him.

“You can open your eyes now.”

And she did. They widened like saucers at the sight of Roman’s mean-looking, right-hand man glowering down at her. What did Roman want from her now?

Dax’s frown twisted into the Joker’s smile. “Are you happy?”

Goosebumps erupted all over her body. Her head may have been hurting, but she knew Dax had never smiled at her or tried to hide his contempt for her kind before.

“W-What?”

“You must be happy with yourself. Your fellow human trash attacked and killed five of my people. I bet you’re over the moon.”

Without giving her a second to process his words, his left fingers extended into claws and dug into her thigh, where Penny’s bite scar was. Thora let out a bloodcurdling scream.

Dax’s other hand closed over her mouth. While she weakly tried to fight him off, tears slithered down the sides of her face. His eyes flashed with something vile and wicked. He twisted his claws, relishing Thora’s reddening face and the guttural scream he’d trapped in her throat.

“I killed every last one of those hunters,” He informed her smugly. “I made them suffer, clawed their intestines and made them hold it in their palms.”

“Mmmmmm.” Thora’s muffled cries seeped out of the cracks in his fingers.

“But I didn’t stop there. I will never stop there.” He leaned closer. “I paid a visit to the bar where you formerly worked and gutted your colleagues, all seven of them. It won’t make the local news because their bodies will never be found.”

Thora’s eyes burned with more tears. She may not have cared much for her co-waitresses, but nobody deserved to die because of her.

Blood spilled from her thigh till it made the sides of her leg stick to the bed. She was already dizzy.

Someone appeared in a blur, yelled Dax’s name and when he didn’t budge, pulled him away from her.

She cried out now, pulling her leg close.

“What the hell do you think you’re doing?”

Dax’s claws drew back till his bloody fingers remained. He wiped the sweat off his face with them and flashed a disturbing smile.

“Payback, but only the preview.” He glared down at Thora again with a deadly promise. “This is just the beginning…”

“She’s already been punished for days and barely survived that,” Regan snapped.

“Death is the only punishment she deserves!” Dax countered. “One as slow and as painful as…” He trailed off, catching himself. “Her kind deserves no sympathy. They’ll kill you in a heartbeat if they knew what you were.”

“I have no sympathy for them. But I will not let anyone jeopardize my brother’s already terrible sentence by killing this human before the divorce can be finalized. How many times do I have to ram that into your skull?”

“I guess it’s going to take more than once.” His humor was gone now. “Don’t overstep, Regan. This is…”

“Personal?” Regan grated his teeth. “I can tell.” Dax’s shoulders visibly sagged. “But you’re the one overstepping here. Does Roman know what you came here to do? Did he approve of you hurting her just like he approved the extra killings of innocent humans outside the ones you were cleared to eliminate?”

Seeing a glimpse of Dax’s wavering confidence felt rewarding for Regan.

“You might be his best friend, but you know better than to come between Roman and his goal for the Valcourt name. Killing the human is a direct threat to everything Roman’s working hard for.”

Regan balled his fist. “LEAVE, NOW!”

Working his jaw, Dax stomped out.

When he turned to her, Thora was visibly shocked that the anger in his eyes barely softened. She curled back when he inched forward, swiped her blood and rubbed his fingers.

When he spoke, he didn’t look at her. He kept staring at the blood on his fingers.

“You might consider us ‘rabid dogs’ and there might be a lot each race doesn’t know about the other, but I believe certain principles are common between us.” He looked at her deadpan. “Where we both come from, actions have consequences.”

With a deft stroke of his fingers, he slipped out the silver blade that she was sure she hid in her boot. She gasped, panic flooding her system.

“Dax didn’t even see this, and he was going to kill you. Imagine what would happen if he were to learn that you snuck in a weapon into our pack with ill intentions. Imagine what the pack would want to do to you.”

Anger shimmered in his eyes.

“I…I…”

She gasped when he stabbed his palm with the blade. Purple streaks branched out across his palm. Blood ran until he pulled out the knife. The wound closed up seconds later. He flashed his palm in her face.

“Not what you were expecting?”

Thora was still reeling in shock. What? They healed that fast? That was a rude shock, considering humans took longer to heal and, unfortunately, quicker to kill. Hope of escape deflated in her eyes yet again.

Regan wiped the blade and tucked it back into his pocket. “Consider this my official warning to you, human. Don’t ever get on my bad side. That’ll be a grave mistake. I’ll be watching you. If you try anything to hurt my people or MY brother, Dax and Penny will be the least of your problems.”

He didn’t have to make a scary face for chills to run down her spine when he said that. Somehow, she was convinced he was more trouble than he looked. Silently, he stepped out, while she shuddered in fright and pain.

***

She spent a week in Matilda’s quarters while her injury healed. When she was able to limp, the old lady put her to work. She helped ground spices, scrub the floors, do Matilda’s laundry and run errands to short distances.

Though she had to power through the pain in her body to get her tasks done, she was grateful to be restricted to Matilda’s quarters, away from the other omegas who wanted to have a field day tormenting her.

She tried not to wonder why Roman hadn’t stopped by Matilda’s, especially after Dax tried to kill her. No, she wasn’t dumb enough to think he gave a damn about her. She just had a hard time processing the dream she had had of him kissing her passionately.

As the days passed, it felt less like a dream, because she could recall every detail of what he wore, how he smelt but most importantly, how the kiss made her feel alive.

She still and would continue to loathe his kind, and she worried that if the alpha started to get sexually attracted to her, it would jeopardize his promise to free her from their union in three months.

For that reason, she needed to see him. She needed to make sure he was still sticking to his promise, as that may be her only way out of the hellhole called his pack.

“Take this to the alpha’s study,” Matilda called to her. “It’s very precious. Be extra careful with it. Drop if off and return immediately before anyone sees you.”

Thora had seen her make batches of the purple tinted liquid a lot. “What is it?”

“Don’t ask questions!” Matilda snapped at her. “Just do as you’re told, human. Take this backdoor. There’s a narrow passage that leads to the alpha’s study. You won’t encounter cranky pack members that way. Hurry. The alpha needs his medicine.”

She obeyed, took a flashlight and followed the dark passageway. She could hear music and chatter humming beyond the walls as she moved. Then she came upon a door and slowly pulled it open into the alpha’s study. It turned out the secret door was masked as a bookshelf in the study.

Thora eyed the space. It had a rustic charm. The alpha was nowhere to be seen. She headed to the desk to drop the tincture and be on her way like Matilda warned. But as she was about to, her eyes caught something. There was a file with her picture on it. Most of its pages were dog-eared. How long had the alpha been studying her file?

“What are you doing in here?”

Thora whirled around in shock at the alpha’s deep voice. Accidentally, she dropped the tincture in the process. It shattered on the floor. The alpha’s eyes honed in on the liquid, before they flicked to her face. She gulped. His eyes were glazed over with a fiery red.