Alpha King’s Wolfless Mate by Scarlett Higgins
Chapter 3

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Chapter 3 The guards forcibly threw me into a dungeon cell, leaving me alone in the damp darkness. The cement floor is and wet against my skin, and the overwhelming damp stench assaults my nostrils. I curled my knees to my chest and rocked back and forth. Tears stung my face as I lay there, humiliated, and completely alone. No one was coming to my rescue. No one even believed me. I couldn’t understand how the people that had known me my whole life could turn on me so quickly. Spies were a major threat in the pack but I wasn’t a spy. Jeremy was one of my best friends and I’d sat with him when we learned of Gavin’s death. He’d died as a result of spy intelligence. I would never hurt Jeremy like that. I must have fallen asleep because I woke up to someone grabbing my hair and dragging me out of the cell. I screamed in pain and struggled, but the guard that had me just laughed. He dragged me across the floor, my clothes ripping. “Let me go!” I cried. “Shut up!” the guard snapped. He stopped dragging me and grabbed my arm, pulling me into a standing position. “What are you doing?” I asked. “It’s time to get some answers out of you, girly,” he said. He shoved me into a chair. My bones and muscles already ached from sleeping on the floor. The guard strapped my wrists to the chair first and then tied my ankles on too. “I don’t know anything,” I said, shaking my head. A sob stuck in my throat. “You better come up with some good intel, cause that’s not going to fly!” the guard shouted. I sighed and closed my eyes, tears soaking my cheeks. I couldn’t believe that this was happening. “You know we’ve been looking for the leak since Gavin was killed in the last war,” the guard told me, rubbing his hands together. I hung my head. “It isn’t me. I knew Gavin. I cried with Jeremy when we got the news. Gavin was my friend, too!” “A convenient cover story,” the guard said. He chuckled and pulled a wheeled table over. He pulled a blanket off, revealing several sharp knives and tools. “I’m telling you the truth! Why would I betray my friends?” I wailed as he picked up a sharp, serrated knife. “You’ll tell me. They all do, eventually,” the guard said. I realized now that he wasn’t just a guard. He was a torturer. “When you’re ready to talk, just say the word.” He pressed the knife to my bare arm and pulled it across my skin. My arm stung as the skin tore and blood pooled in the open wound. I groaned and whimpered, curling my toes as the searing pain shot across my entire b*dy. “I don’t know anything!” I screamed. “You will,” the torturer said. He cut my arm again and I screamed a second time. Warm blood dribbled around my arm. “I don’t know! I’m not a spy!” I cried. Tears streaked down my face and I couldn’t breathe. “It is a big fall from grace, isn’t it?” the torturer asked, laughing again. “You go from being Jeremy’s little pet to the end of my knife.” He laughed again. I whimpered as he put the serrated knife away. He grabbed my chin and forced me to look up at him. “Are you ready to talk yet?” he asked. “I don’t know anything,” I said through broken sobs. “That’s what they all say, at first,” he said. He smirked at me, a huge gap in his mouth where he was missing his front teeth. He snarled at me and squeezed my chin until I thought my jaw would break. His black hole eyes just stared at me. They flickered and I could see his bloodthirsty wolf just under the surface, dying to come out and sink his teeth into me. I needed him to let go of me or he’d crush my jaw. I opened my mouth and spit at him. The wad landing right on his cheek. The torturer growled and pulled his hand away to wipe my spit off him. With another snarl, he slapped me hard across the face. My teeth rattled and I bit my own tongue. Coppery blood filled my mouth. “You b*tch! I’ll get you to talk,” he warned. He grabbed another sharp knife and stabbed it into my hand. I screamed, staring at the blade as it stuck out of my hand. My hand seared with pain and then went numb as shock set in. My vision blurred and all the strength left my b*dy. I slumped forward, breathing heavily. Everything went dark. I prayed: the next time I woke up, I would find it was only a dream. Groaning, I opened my eyes. I was back in my cell. There were bandages on my cuts and the knife wasn’t sticking out of my hand anymore. There was a bandage and gauze around my hand too. At least they were trying to keep me alive. I sat up, rubbing my n*eck. It was sore and bent in the wrong direction. I’d slept on it funny while I passed out. “You’re awake,” a deep voice said by the cell bars. my I spun around, my n*eck twinging again. I winced and rubbed n*eck harder. My whole b*dy hurt. When I finally turned around I saw another guard at the cell bars. He wasn’t the same one that had tortured me. He almost looked friendly. “What now?” I asked. “I brought you food and water,” he said. He shoved a plate of stale bread and a bruised apple at me and a small cup of water. I jumped on the food as my stomach growled and I devoured everything. I guzzled down the water too, even though it was warm and tasted gritty. “Can you bring Jeremy Rays to see me?” I asked. “I need to talk to him.” “Jeremy isn’t coming to see you,” he told me. “Why? I need to talk to him,” I pleaded.

“He wants nothing to do with you. Especially since your spying is what got Gavin killed,” the guard told me. “That’s not true!” I cried. The guard scoffed at me and left me alone in the dark again. I curled up in another ball and cried myself to sleep again. The torturer returned several more days in a row. At least, I thought it was several days. I couldn’t tell day from night in that hole in the ground. He cut me and beat me. I could never tell him what he wanted because I wasn’t a spy. And finally, that day came. One day when I woke up, I saw Jeremy standing over me. “Jeremy?” I asked, gasping. I sat up. I tried to smile but I was really weak and still in a lot of pain.  “It’s time to face the werewolf council,” he said. “A trial?” I asked. “The investigation is over. They’re ready to make their ruling,” he said. He grabbed my arm and pulled me to my feet. “Jeremy, I’m not a spy. I went through all that torture and I have nothing to reveal because I’m not a spy,” I said. I needed him to believe  me. “Let’s go,” he said. He half dragged me from the dungeon without looking me in the eye. The pack house was empty. I was glad there wasn’t anyone there to stare at me but I knew it wasn’t good. They only emptied the pack house when something bad was going on. Whatever the torturer had decided about my guilt… I wasn’t getting out of this. “Jeremy, please,” I said as we approached the council chamber. “I wouldn’t do anything to hurt you or the pack.” Snarling, Jeremy turned to face me, a glare on his face. “Gavin died because of you! I trusted you and I trusted him. No one else. And in a cruel twist of fate, your actions are what killed him. Now you’re still lying to me,” he said with so much hatred in his voice. “I’m not, I promise,” I pleaded, tears pricking my eyes. “I don’t understand why fate would be so cruel. But this is the truth and I’ll never forgive you,” he said. Jeremy opened the council chamber door and pushed me inside. He walked with me to the table where the werewolf council members stood. “Welcome, Nora,” one of the council members said. “We’re here to decide your fate.” My torturer was standing nearby. He had an ugly smile on his face. “I’m not a spy. I was tortured for days for nothing,” I said. “We don’t need to hear your testimony,” another council member said, holding up her hand. “Our interrogator has already told us what we need to know,” another member said. “I’m not even going to get to defend myself?” I asked. “No,” another council member said. I looked at Jeremy and creased my brow. He wouldn’t look at me. “Jeremy Rays, what is your statement in regard to Nora?” another council member asked. “I considered Nora a friend. Now that I know she was involved in Gavin’s death, I’ll never be able to look beyond that. If she was capable of causing my best friend’s death then I believe she’s capable of stealing my mate’s wolf.” “Jeremy, what are you saying?” I pleaded, my heart hammering in my chest. He shook his head at me. He was so cold and closed off. “My father takes accusations of rival spies very seriously, especially since spies have caused so many casualties,” he continued. “And that is why we take precautions when they are made,” the council said. “Nora, you’ve betrayed the pack. You’ve been responsible for the deaths of pack members and you’ve hurt individual pack members by tampering with their wolves. What do you have to say for yourself?” a council member asked me. I shifted my weight from one foot to the other. They’d decided my guilt without ever hearing my side of the story. Misery, and then came the anger. The towering rage. “I’m not guilty. I’m not a spy and I didn’t steal anyone’s wolf!” I snarled. “The evidence against you is very compelling. Do you have any proof to dissuade us?” a council member asked. “That torturer cut me, beat me, and interrogated me for days. If I was a spy, wouldn’t I have given in by now? He told me he always breaks spies. I didn’t because I had nothing to reveal,” I said, pointing at the torturer. “Or you are just better trained than the others. You’ve sl*pped among our ranks much longer than the others so it would make sense that you’re interrogation resistant,” a council member said. I hung my head and covered my face with my hands. They weren’t going to listen to me. I’d tried everything to talk my way out of it and they wouldn’t believe me. I didn’t know what proof they thought  they had against me but it was convincing enough. “So that’s it? You won’t believe anything I say, despite my history with the pack?” I sneered. “We can’t risk you endangering the pack anymore,” one of the council members said. “So, what’s going to happen to me?” I asked quietly, blinking back the tears forming in the corner of my eyes. “You don’t deserve to die, dear,” one of the council members ordered with a slight smirk, “Take her back to the dungeon.” “She is to be exiled to the Rogue Zone forever.”

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