Never Let Go

1

Ash POV

I am now 17 years old, and living in the dungeon of the castle. If I had known that I would end up in here when I was younger, I would have told on Mark for all the things he did to me. Well, maybe not. I really do hate getting other people in trouble.

I thought as I rolled over in my bed to face the clock staring back at me from my night stand.

8:30, it read. Usually, I would have been up, cooking and cleaning the house. But not today, today is Sunday, and that means I get to sleep in. Snuggling further into the thin blanket they gave me, I looked around my "room", taking in the the black walls and the little bitty window that gave just enough light to allow the shadows to dance around. There was a dresser by the left wall, closer to my bed, and a beat up desk opposite of it by the right wall. The desk was for doing my home work. The only other source of light I had in the room was my lamp that sat neatly on the desk.

My night stand had my clock and a cup or water sitting on it. (I don"t know about you, but if I wake up in the middle of the night I"m usually thirsty).

I decided to leave the comfort of my bed and take a quick shower. Hopefully, I"m the only one up; so I can sneak off to the woods for a run.

Right before I was about to get in the shower, my pixie little red haired friend, Alice, came running down the dungeon stairs.

"Ash! Good morning!" She yelled, giving me a big hug.

"Really, Alice, why are you so happy?"

"It is officially the week of the Mating Ball. A week of us getting out of this hell and away from this pack!"

She plopped onto my bed, looking up at the ceiling. Even though she is the alpha"s daughter, I think she might be adopted. With her red hair falling to her shoulders, green eyes and tan skin, she looks nothing like her parents or even her brother.

"Yeah, I know," I said, plopping down right beside her.

"What do you think he will be like?" Alice asked.

"Who, my mate?" I replied.

"Duh."

"Oh I don"t know, hopefully he is nice and kind."

"Yeah... I can picture that for you. Someone that will be able to protect you and help you grow stronger," she said, smiling at me.

"What about you?" I ask.

"Uh." She smirked while combing her hands through her hair. "I truly don"t know, maybe someone to counter my aggressiveness and my overprotective ways, but also feed into them."

I looked at her in a way a daughter would look at her mother. She was always there for me, even though she was the Alpha"s daughter, she cares for everyone she meets, but me even more so.

"I hope my mate and yours are in the same pack. I don"t know what I would do with out you in my life," she said, reaching over for my hand.

"Me either," I said, entwining our fingers.

Bang.

We jumped out the bed upon hearing the dungeon door slam shut and foot steps coming down the stairs revealing Mark, the devil himself.

"Alice," he growled upon seeing her down here with me.

"I thought I told you to leave this thing alone. I know you like to help the poor, but this thing needs to be left alone in the dungeon to rot away." He said, looking at me with hatred.

"You are not my dad so you don"t get to tell me what to do. And this thing has a name, and it"s Ash." She replied back.

With one final glare at me, he turned to leave but was stopped by my question.

"What have I ever done to make you hate me so much?" I asked. I was sick of the bullying and the beatings. Also the hateful presence I get when I am around my fellow pack members.

"You are alive," he replied back before leaving, slamming the door after him.

"Why?" I whispered "Why do I have to go through this? Why did my parents have to leave me? Why do people have to hate me, beat me?"

I looked to Alice for the answer but she came up with nothing. So I wiped the tears that were falling from my eyes, squared my shoulders, and left the room, heading to the bathroom, leaving Alice to let herself out and I cried.

•A week later•

It was officially the day of the Mating Ball and I was so excited even though I hadn"t seen Alice since the mess with Mark, but I knew she was happy too. I had just finished putting on my clothes, being careful not to mess with my newly made marks and bruises when Mark called me.

"Ash! Get your stupid ass up here now." Yelled Mark from the entrance to the dungeon. I slowly walked towards the door.

"Yes" I whispered.

"Tonight is the Mating Ball and I want you to be presentable. Even though you will not be getting a mate." He said smirking at me before turning around, motioning me to follow. "Dad wants you to help put everything together."

With that, he left, leaving me at the doors leading to the kitchen.

When I walked in, the staff were already busy working. Only pausing to look at me before going back to work. Nobody really liked me, even the other servants. Except Ollie. He always tries to help me when no one was around.

"Good evening Ash!" Oliver sings, coming towards me. Catching my hand in his and pulled me to him. Kissing me on the lips before pulling back to look at my face. I never really had a problem with him doing it because he"s flamboyant and a close friend, he doesn"t mean anything by it.

"Who was it this time?" He asked, looking at the fresh new marks on my body.

"Mark"s b***h"

Yes I know, the Devil has a girlfriend. And she is a devil in her own way.

"Gosh, Ash, she did a serious number on you."

He was talking about the claw marks on my face, arms, my left arm and broken wrist.

"Yeah, I know I was there." I said sarcastically. We were putting the food into the oven when the Alpha came in with his Luna. I always wondered how such a sweet Luna could have a son like that. Even though the Alpha took me in, he never did anything to stop the abuse that was put upon my body. Till this day I always wondered why that was

"Listen up people. Today is the big ball and we need everything to go right. The people who are of age 17-28 you need to get ready once you are done. I want this to go well as we have a special guest that will be joining us today." He said as his eyes looked about the room. "That is all for now" he left, followed by Luna Jasmine.

"Well since we are done, lets go. I have something to show you." Ollie said pulling me out the back door and into the woods.

I assumed we were going to our favourite hide out. It was deep in the forest and hard to get to unless you are lost and just so happened to stumble upon it. Cause that"s exactly how we found it. We broke through the trees into a small clearing. There was a rocky wall on both sides of the small, beautiful waterfall that fell into a pool of clear blue, warm water, deep enough to swim in. Close to the water laid a blanket on the bright green grass, with three plates of food wrapped in foil and a bucket of ice that held a couple of drinks in it. I turned to Ollie and gave him a big hug before letting go and making my way over to the blanket.

"Hey, who"s the third plate for?" I asked moving sitting down.

"For me, duh" I looked up to see Alice coming out the woods.

"Hey" I said making way for her to sit.

"Me and Alice put this together for our last day in this hell hole." Ollie said, making us all laugh.

"Wow, guys, you shouldn"t have." I was speechless.

"Yea, yea we know."

"So cheers, to the last day here."

"Cheers."

We clinked our peach sodas together.

"Now that that"s over, let"s eat and enjoy the water."

And that"s exactly what we did. We must have spent a good 2 hours there before leaving to go get ready for the Ball.

It was now 8:00 clock and the Ball was just getting started. I wore a simple red fitted collar dress with no shoulders that came to my knees with some black heels on. Even though the dress showed my scars, I didn"t care. My black hair was going down my back in curls, and sculpting my face, showing off my high cheek bones, and the way my teal eye colour look more radiant against the black eyeliner I applied.

I entered the ballroom through the servant door. In the amount of time we had to put everything together, it was breathtaking. The pleasant glow of the light played upon the gold ornaments around the ball room was beautiful. Around twenty round tables, seated for 5, were spread out around the room. White cloth, with gold designs on it, spread across the tables with gold cutlery and glasses. It looked so elegant.

I met up with Ollie, who could always be found by the food table. The aroma from the food had my mouth watering and stomach growling. From what I could make out, we had a seafood section that held the shrimp, lobster etc. , regular food the chicken and salads, then it was the desserts, the sweet potato pie, my favourite cheesecake, and other pastries. I figured the finger food was being passed around on the trays.

"Wow, you look beautiful Ash" he said kissing me lightly when he noticed me before having me do a little spin for him.

"You too" I replied. He had khaki dress pants on and a white buttoned down shirt with the sleeves rolled up and blue bow-tie, with dark green suspenders and his brown hair in a half -up-half-down style to show off angular face and grey eyes that were made big by the glasses he decided to wear. His ass always had to look great with his outfits.

"Good evening everyone, as you know I am Alpha Donovan. Today, we are here for our annual Mating Ball. But this evening we have a special guest, all the way from the Blackwood pack, Alpha Knight, his Beta Distrime, and his Gamma Nicholas."

There was gasps throughout the room. The three legendary men that had fought many battles against the rogues as well as the vampires are in our presence.

"Wow, he"s my mate" I heard the newly arrived Alice say. She was wearing a floor length, heart shape blue gown that hugged her figure. Her hair was pinned up in curls, showing off her petty face and green eyes.

"Who?"

"The Beta"

"Yeah, I see my mate too" Ollie states.

"Who?" I repeat.

"The Gamma"

"I"m so happy for y"all." Even though I was happy, I was sad too. Because they were leaving me.

"Have you got a sense of your mate?" Alice said as we zoned out of the boring speech.

"No not ye-"

"Mate."