Sacrifice to the Cursed Alpha King

Chapter Three

Ivy.

The cold woke me before the pain did.

I was on my knees on stone, wrists chained above my head to a rusted ring bolted into the wall, and for one merciful moment I didn't remember why. Then the ache in my chest reminded me, a phantom echo of a bond that no longer existed, and everything came flooding back at once. The fire. His smile dying. Dahlia's laugh.

I let my head hang and didn't fight the chains. There didn't seem to be any point.

I don't know how long I stayed like that, listening to someone shout somewhere in the dark, before footsteps echoed down the stone stairs. Then the cell door opened. Alpha Ethan Laurent stepped through like he was entering his own study rather than a dungeon beneath his housedid.

“Awake,” he said, sounding almost pleased. “Good. I dislike repeating myself to the unconscious.”

I said nothing. My silence seemed to irritate him more than any answer could have, and he crossed the small cell in two strides, crouching until his face was level with mine.

“You understand what happened tonight,” he said. It wasn't a question, but he waited as if it were.

“I understand what your son did,” I said. My voice came out cracked and thin, but it held.

Something flickered behind his eyes, gone before I could name it, and his hand shot out and struck me across the face hard enough that my vision whited out for a moment, my cheek slamming into my own shoulder.

“You will speak of my son with respect,” he said, perfectly calm, as though he hadn't just hit a chained girl with half a moon's strength behind it. “Now. Answer me plainly, so there's no confusion later. Have you accepted his rejection?”

I thought of the pain that had torn through me twice already, once in front of two hundred witnesses and once alone in a doorway with Dahlia's laughter ringing behind me. I thought of what it would cost me to say it a third time, out loud, to this man who wanted it so badly he'd come down here himself to hear it.

“Yes,” I nodded.

Something in his face settled, satisfaction smoothing out whatever tension had been there, and he rose to his full height, looking down at me the way a man looks at a debt finally collected.

“Good girl,” he said, and the words were somehow worse than the slap. “That makes this so much simpler.”

“What does?”

He didn't answer. He simply turned and left, the door swinging shut behind him, the bolt sliding home with a sound of terrible finality, and I was alone again with the drip of water and the throb spreading across my cheek and no answer at all to the one question that mattered.

*

*

*

Time in the dark stopped meaning anything.

Someone brought me water and a piece of stale bread at some point, though I couldn't remember when. They placed them near the wall and left without saying a word.

I did not want to touch them but finally did when I couldn't stand the hunger anymore. After that I stayed in the silence, memory of Vincent's rejection coming back in full force.

Then a voice shattered the silence.

‘Ivy.’

I looked around wildly but there was no one there.

“Who's there?” I panicked, the chains bound on my hands rattling as I tried standing on my feet.

‘No one but you and me.’ The voice came again and this time, I realized that it came from within me. Could it be… ?

Hope and love blossomed in my heart and my eyes filled with tears.

‘My name is Zara and I’m your wolf,’ It felt as though she was blushing and for the first time in a longest time, a genuine smile spread across my face.

‘You have a lovely name,’ I murmured.

‘And so do you,’ Zara told me. I kept smiling widely.

‘I am sorry you hurt this much, she whispered. But please don't give up. The Moon Goddess has a reason for everything. She wouldn't give you a path without a purpose. But soon, everything will make more sense’ she added, and I could feel her pain mirrored mine. Of course, she too had lost a mate.

Tears burned my eyes.

“She gave me him,” I whispered. “And he threw me away.”

There was no answer.

Only a gentle presence wrapping around my heart before slowly disappearing, and for a moment, I wondered whether I imagined it all.

The following days passed by quickly without event. I was fed the same piece of stale bread once a day, but I didn't dare complain because that would mean not getting any at all.

When they finally came for me, it was without warning, two warriors unlocking my wrists and hauling me upright on legs that had gone half-numb from kneeling. I stumbled between them up the stone stairs and out into daylight so bright it burned, and I had to blink hard before the courtyard resolved into shapes I recognized.

Pack members were gathered and murmurs immediately rang up the moment their eyes fell on me. Most of them glared angrily at me while some eyes held pity.

Dahlia stood near the front steps, arms crossed, wearing an expression of pure gleeful satisfaction that made my stomach turn.

“On your knees,” one of the guards said, shoving me down before the steps, where Alpha Ethan stood waiting, freshly dressed, looking rested in a way that made the ache in my face burn hotter with fury I didn't have the strength to voice.

“Elders. Warriors. And members of the Crescent pack.” Alpha Ethan said, his voice pitched to carry the way Vincent's had at the fire, “you all know what this girl's parents did to us. You know the cost this pack paid for their treachery, in blood and in trust neither of which has ever been repaid.”

Murmurs rippled through the crowd.

“I have decided,” Ethan continued, “that the debt will finally be settled.’ He looked down at me, and there was nothing in his face but cold calculation. “You are to be sent as tribute.”

The word landed strange and heavy in the winter air, and I looked up at him, not understanding, my mouth already forming the question before I could stop it.

“Tribute to whom?”