Chapter 3.
I opened my eyes to the harsh brightness of the dungeon. If the darkness was punishment in my cellar, the light was twice as worse in here. I was locked in a cell directly under the light. It seared my eyes and made my head hurt. I couldn't move, I could smell the coppery scent of blood all around me and every inch of my skin hurt.
I heard a person approaching my cell and a rough hand grabbed my face.
"So you survived after all!" an unpleasant scratchy voice said "I was sure you were going to bite it. Not an inch of you untouched. Nasty job they did." It continued but I couldn't speak. "Shame they marked that face of yours though. That was just malice all around."
I managed to croak out a noise but I could not make it form a word. My mouth was so dry and sticky and the taste of blood made me nauseous.
"Ah ah ah. Don't go trying to move too much there girly. You are in no shape to even breathe hard. Here let me wet your mouth. It will help." A hand, old and thin brought a wet cloth to my face. "Here, let me wet your lips and try to get some of the blood away, then I'll try to get some water into your mouth, just mind you don't drown."
My brain was so foggy. Who was this? Why were they helping me? Were they helping me? It didn't matter, the cool rag they used felt lovely against my skin and the blood was starting to smell less strong. Whatever I laid on was hard and cool so I would likely think it was a table of some sort. After a moment I tried to move my head a bit to the side to get the bright light out of my eyes, but I couldn't manage to move but an inch.
The voice spoke up again "I will place a cloth over your eyes if you want, if you can move your hand tap the table once for yes, twice for no."
I tapped the table once with my left index finger. Soon a face came into view and although my vision was blurry I could make out tan skin and graying short black hair. Was this a man? A woman? The voice was no indication of who or what. I didn't care. Or I tried not to. I couldn't even be sure I was dressed or even covered properly. But this person, whoever they were, seemed to be trying to help me and I wouldn't be ungrateful.
The cloth was put over my eyes and the immediate darkness felt like a blessing. Soon I felt a cup touch my lip as the voice instructed me to part my lips only a small bit and take small sips as the water ran. It wasn't graceful, and I felt the water soak my neck and hair, but I managed to get enough to wet my mouth and clear it of most of the blood. The water was cool and I could feel it sting my lips and part of my cheek.
"Whoever did this to you left a pretty awful gash from you left eye to your chin. What on earth did you do to get beaten 140 times?" the voice asked.
I managed to croak out "140?"
"Yep. Whatever you did they really made a mess of you."
"It was…my mate…he rejected me and chose a luna and she accused me of trying to harm her" it took me a while but I managed to get it all out. After a little more water I managed to somewhat get my voice back.
"Who are you? Why are you helping me?" I asked.
"Names Aggie. Been in this place for more years than I can count. And what did you do girl? They nearly beat you to death!"
Ah so it was a woman. I felt slightly better at least knowing that if I am naked, at least it wasn't with a man.
"I honestly don't know what happened, things just happen around me sometimes. Natalie was telling me how I was going to be in charge of their Alpha and Luna Ceremony and how it was only fitting that I be made to watch her take the title that should never have belonged to me in the first place. I thought mates were supposed to love you, mine only hates me." I said on a half sigh.
"I know my mate is still alive, I feel his sorrow and longing when they're late with my wolfsbane shots. I think they let it lapse the half day as merely more of a torture, as I'm not strong enough to shift, but I can feel my wolf, and my mate. Sometimes it's the only thing that keeps me going. Knowing that my dear James is still out there, searching for me." She said. "you got a bad mate dear, that spineless prick is not fit for a woman like you, and certainly isn't fit to be an Alpha."
"I don't really suppose it matters now. They'll mark and mate each other officially as luna and alpha and I'll spend the rest of my days here in pain rather than the cellar of the packhouse. Not so much different really."
"cellar? They made you stay in the cellar? That is just inhumane. Didn't the gamma sense you? Why didn't he protect you?"
"Gamma? This pack has no gamma Aggie. None I've ever met. Just the beta couple and the delta couple. And they're no better than Luke and Natalie. Just as mean."
"Huh, I wonder what happened to them…" she said at a length.
We chatted a little more and I learned that she and James had three pups, grown now no doubt, 25, 22 and 19 best I could figure from their birthdays, and that she was accused of stealing the luna's favorite ring. She insisted that the luna had given the ring to a visiting luna but she wouldn't listen and had her locked away. The lights were left on for twenty hours a day and we only received a small four hour break of darkness from midnight to four am. We were allowed out of our cells only twice a day for lunch and dinner and there were five other prisoners in this dungeon currently. Seven of us total, 4 women and three men. It was ran like a prison. We were expected to spend our time atoning for what we had done wrong, never talk back to the guards and do as they demanded or face the punishments.
Aggie explained that one guard in particular enjoyed giving the prisoners impossible tasks in order to be able to punish them. His name was Mace. She said to always try to avoid him. To act like I was asleep when he passed by.
"He's not allowed to open the doors, only yell and taunt. If he catches you at mealtime, well, there's no helping it then, but any other time he can't really do anything more than verbal attacks. NEVER turn your back to him. He's been known to take some women into the shower and do what he wants. If he catches you off guard, you'll be dragged in too…. And he's brutal. He will harm you any way he can." She warned.
The first day went by like that. I drifted in and out of sleep. I was so tired. We talked when I could stay awake and I slept when I needed to. At midnight the lights went out and Aggie removed the cloth from my eyes, it felt nice to not be completely blinded for a little bit. There were no windows that we could see out of. Either we were underground or in a windowless building.
It was heartbreaking to think of never seeing the sun or moon again. Never seeing a star. Maybe if I were lucky when Luke marked Natalie in a week and a half it would kill me. He refused me the right to reject him and though he didn't mark me, placing his mark on Natalie could very well kill me. And in a small sick way, I hoped it would. Then I wouldn't have to live through this.
By the time the lights came back on I was able to roll over just a bit, Aggie had put me on my bunk without the mattress so that the blood wouldn't ruin it. She used sheets and blankets to prop me slightly to my side as my nausea and fever had returned. She seemed worried about infection setting in. I felt like I couldn't get warm. My body shivered and shook, I was in and out of consciousness and next I came around I could hear Aggie talking low and urgently with a man, she was asking him to get her supplies. I couldn't hold on so I fell back to sleep.
Somewhere in the hours I was sleeping I was cleaned up, put in a sleep gown, and bandaged. I also had an injection of antibiotics administered according to Aggie's report. One of the other women, Jeanna, helped Aggie wash and bandage me as well as gave me the shot.
Jeanna was a nurse at the pack hospital but one run in with Natalie, and she was thrown in the dungeon for "mistreating" and "abusing" Natalie when she came in with a sprained ankle and Jeanna wrapped it "too tight" and not giving her enough pain medication.
Jeanna reckons the real reason was that Natalie had always hated her for getting a higher score than her in our standard school testing.