Chapter three
1123 Words
Bailey’s POV
The cold of the pit gnawed into my flesh and bones. Every movement sent a fresh wave of searing pain through my body as the silver shackles burned against my skin, slowing the healing of my scraped knee and sprained ankle.
The four walls around me felt endless, stretching into darkness, yet at the same time they seemed to close in, shrinking the space until it felt like a coffin.
The suffocating darkness was the worst part.
To think that I, the Luna of Grim Hallow, had been thrown into a place reserved for traitors, rogues, and criminals.
What was even more unfathomable was that it had happened on my mate’s orders.
The stagnant air of the windowless cell clogged my throat. Every breath felt thick and heavy, as if I were swallowing knives, but I forced myself to breathe anyway.
It was the only thing keeping me alive.
Three days had passed since I last tasted real food.
Every day I would lose consciousness from exhaustion, only to wake up later and find a piece of bread on the floor beside me, bread so hard it felt like concrete.
The first day, I threw it away.
The second day, hunger forced me to scrape at it.
By the third day, I tried to bite into it.
It wasn’t exactly successful. It felt like I was chewing on stone, but I managed to swallow a few crumbs. The small amount of food settled in my stomach just enough to dull the sharp edge of hunger for a little while.
“I didn’t do it,” I would whisper hoarsely to anyone who might be listening beyond the thick metal door. “I would never hurt my own sister. This is all a misunderstanding. If someone would just listen to me–”
“That’s enough!”
The guard’s voice snapped through the hallway like a whip.
“We’re tired of listening to you lie to yourself every day!” he barked. “Do you think we’re blind? Everyone has seen how jealous you’ve always been of your sister even after she took you in when your parents disowned you!”
A lump rose instantly in my throat.
His words stirred memories I had been desperately trying to ignore.
Suddenly, I found myself replaying every moment of my relationship with my twin sister, Hailey, searching for something, anything I might have missed.
And once I allowed myself to look back honestly, so many things began falling into place.
Growing up, Hailey and I had been inseparable.
Despite our completely opposite personalities, we were closer than two halves of the same soul. Everyone in our pack–Wind Creek, knew it.
At least, that was how it used to be.
Until the night that changed everything.
The night he chose me.
Our pack had been hosting a mating ball that evening. Under the bright glow of the full moon, wolves from neighboring packs gathered in the grand hall, each hoping to find their destined mate.
I wasn’t one of them.
While everyone else dreamed of romance, I had spent the entire evening worrying about how to tell my parents that I had been accepted into my dream college to study Business Administration.
They would be proud.
But that pride would only make things worse for my sister.
Hailey had barely graduated from high school, and even then, her grades had been terrible.
“If only Hailey could be half as responsible as you,” my mother would often say with a sigh. Then she would glance at my twin as though she were a defective product that couldn’t be returned to the factory.
Unlike me, Hailey was free-spirited.
She hated rules, hated expectations, and hated living under the suffocating control of our parents. That was why she had always been so desperate to find her mate.
In her heart, she hoped he would be someone powerful, someone strong enough to stand up to our parents and take her away from Wind Creek forever.
But fate was cruel that night.
Cruel in the most twisted way imaginable.
Hailey did find her mate.
He was everything she had ever dreamed of.
Handsome. Powerful. Commanding.
The kind of man our parents couldn’t ignore, wouldn’t dare to challenge.
I saw the moment it happened.
Her entire body stiffened.
Her wolf pulled her toward him, even though her feet remained frozen in place. Her lips parted, and the single word slipped out like a sacred whisper.
“Mate.”
Joy and relief shone in her eyes.
I should have been happy for her.
After all, my future was already planned. College came first. Relationships could wait.
But those plans were about to crumble.
Because the man the Alpha chosen by the Moon Goddess for my sister did not walk toward her.
Instead, he walked past her.
Straight to me.
His golden eyes locked onto mine, burning with an intensity that made my heart stutter.
Then he spoke the word that shattered everything.
“Mate.”
Even now, remembering that moment filled me with shame.
I hadn’t thought about Hailey.
Not really.
My mind had gone blank, drowned beneath the overwhelming pull of the mate bond. My heart had taken control, racing wildly as though it had finally found the place it belonged.
That night, I gave myself to him.
Again and again.
And when I returned home from his hotel room, my legs trembled beneath me.
I found Hailey standing outside the door of our shared bedroom.
For a moment, neither of us spoke.
My cheeks burned with guilt as I lowered my eyes.
Finally, I forced the words out.
“Hailey… I never meant for this to happen,” I said weakly. “Just know that whatever came over me last night… I… I won’t see him again.”
Even as the words left my mouth, I knew they were a lie.
And she knew it too.
Hailey said nothing for a long time.
She simply looked at me slowly, carefully, from head to toe.
The rims of her eyes were red and swollen from crying.
The sight twisted painfully in my chest.
But then, to my surprise, she stepped forward and wrapped her arms around me.
“Do you think he’ll make you happy?” she asked softly, her arm resting around my shoulders.
“Y-yes,” I answered hesitantly.
Memories of the night before flooded my mind.
He wasn’t like any man I had ever met.
There was something irresistible about him–something magnetic that made me want to stay wrapped in his arms forever.
Being with him felt like standing beneath the full moon itself.
Warm.
Bright.
And impossible to turn away from.
- Writer
