Mated to the Demon Luna

Chapter 3-False Freedom

Yuna POV

Nearly a week passed before Father allowed me to leave the basement. I subsisted on the moldy bread and hose water he allowed each night, and I managed to wash the blood off of myself in the industrial sink. The blankets coated in my blood I washed in the washing machine when I was strong enough. Clean blankets at least made sleeping like a dog a little more bearable.

"You're to go straight to the training ground. I don't want you getting soft just because you had some time off." Father snarled as I passed him through the door. I could smell the booze on his breath, it seemed that his paradise wasn't so perfect either.

"Yes Father." I mumbled. It wasn't like the 'time off' had been personal. He was lucky the whip lashes on my back were shallow and had already healed despite the poor nutrition and dehydration. Still, the prospect of having to face the other warriors had my already unhappy stomach roiling in anxiety.

Despite my rank as the strongest female warrior, there wasn't a single member of the warriors who liked me. They all reveled in their work as death-bringers, they killed without recourse and took pride in the number of people, wolves, they'd killed. I was not like them, and they knew it. Without the ability to kill me the only avenue for their hatred was to hurt me as much as possible during training. Alpha would ensure I received top medical treatment before any battles, but it could be months before I'm called on to kill again.

"Oh look, the pack i***t returns. How many lashings did your pop's hand down this time? By the smell of it, I'd say not nearly enough." Thomas called out as I entered the training arena, a large enclosed sand pit. The inside of the arena was always boiling hot in the summer, only serving to nauseate me.

"Coming from the lips of a monster, I suppose I'm not surprised." I gulped the bile down and sneered at him, it had been six years since our first big fight, but our hatred for each other only festered and grew with each passing year. Thomas was the sort of man who greatly enjoyed harming others, his loyalty to Alpha was not in question and because of that there was talks of promoting him to Beta. The current Beta was about to age out of his position, and his son had died in battle a few years ago dishonoring his bloodline.

"Says the girl who couldn't even snuff out a mewling kit. Come on Yuna, no one else gets to disobey Alpha, what makes you think you're so special?" He snapped as he marched up to me. I didn't flinch away as I raked my eyes over his apperance. He hadn't grown much from the time he had turned 18, perhaps his face became more defined. He had dirty blond hair that he kept trimmed just above his ears and now he had a five-o-clock shadow which he usually did not have. Of the warriors he was the shortest, but his muscular frame made up for it. His blazing brown eyes were as boring as the rest of him.