h4Chapter 54: Chapter 54/h4

    The dungeon smelled worse than I remembered. I held my breath as I crept down the cold, narrow staircase, clutching the small bundle of bread and a sk of water hidden under my apron. Every step felt like it echoed in the silence, as though the walls themselves were warning me to turn back. My heart was pounding so loud I swore it would give me away. If the psycho Alpha or worse, the guards caught me here, I didn’t want to imagine what they would do to me. But I couldn’t stay away. The girl down here had been left to rot. Every time I closed my eyes, I saw her face bloody, bruised, half-hidden by the matted strands of hair that had been shaved unevenly. Her arms were tied so tightly that her skin was raw, and her legs... I shivered, remembering the bruises, the cuts, the way her body trembled with every shallow breath. I had to do something. Even if it was just food. Even if it was just water. The iron gate loomed in front of me. I knelt, fumbling with the rusty lock I’d learned creaked if you opened it too fast. Slowly, carefully, I pushed it open. The sound scraped against my ears like knives.

    "Shh," I whispered to myself, ncing over my shoulder.

    No footsteps. No voices. Just the dripping of water echoing off stone.

    The girl was where I’dst seen her slumped against the wall, wrists chained above her head, body curled in on itself like she was trying to disappear into the shadows. For a horrible moment, I thought she was dead.

    "Hey," I whispered, kneeling down beside her. "I brought something. Please... wake up."

    Her head jerked at the sound of my voice. Slowly, painfully, her eyes fluttered open. Those eyes bloodshot, hollow, filled with so much suffering it made my chest ache. When she saw the bread, her gaze sharpened like a starving animal’s. She tried to speak, but it came out as a dry rasp.

    "I know," I said softly, pulling off a piece of bread and holding it to her lips. "Eat. But slow please."

    She snatched it from my fingers with trembling hands. The chains clinked, her nails broken and bloodied as she crammed the piece into her mouth. She didn’t chew properly she just swallowed like she hadn’t eaten in weeks.

    "Wait—slow down!" I hissed, looking around as though someone would burst in any second. But she didn’t listen. She shoved another piece into her mouth, then another. Her throat worked furiously, her eyes wide, desperate.

    Then it happened. She started choking. Her body convulsed, and she wed at her throat, gasping, gagging. The sound was horrific like someone strangled by invisible hands. The bread was lodged in her throat.

    "Breathe! Please—" My own hands shook as I dropped the sk and grabbed her shoulders. "Don’t-don’t die!"

    Her face turned red, then purple, veins bulging against her neck. The sound of her choking filled the dungeon, loud and wet, bouncing off the walls. It didn’t sound human. It sounded like something dying. I panicked. I didn’t know what to do. I pounded on her back, my heart racing faster than it ever had in my life. Her eyes rolled, foam bubbling at her lips, her legs thrashing weakly against the stone floor.

    "No, no, no, no—" I cried, hitting her harder, my own voice breaking.

    Finally, with a horrible, wet gag, the lump of bread flew from her mouth and hit the ground with a sickening st.

    She copsed forward, coughing violently, strings of spit and blood dripping down her chin. She sucked in air like it was the only thing keeping her tethered to life.

    I sat there frozen, my hands covered in her bloodied spit, my chest heaving. The girl looked at me, her lips trembling, her eyes wild. "M-more," she croaked, her voice raw.

    I couldn’t breathe. "You almost died." But she didn’t care. She reached for the bread again with trembling, blood-stained fingers. The chains rattled violently as she tried to rip another piece free.

    Her desperation was terrifying. She wasn’t human in that moment she was a starving, broken creature, half-dead and yet clinging to the scraps of survival.

    "Please," she whispered hoarsely. "Don’t stop. Don’t let them take it away."

    I wanted to run. The way she looked at me, like she’d kill for another bite, chilled me to the bone. But I forced myself to tear smaller pieces, cing them against her lips, making her chew slowly. Her eyes never left mine. Desperate. Hollow. Begging. She devoured each piece like it was thest food she’d ever taste. And maybe it was. When I offered her the sk, she nearly tore it from my hand. Water spilled down her chin as she gulped greedily, coughing and choking again but refusing to stop. I pulled it away. "Enough, you’ll drown yourself."

    Her head snapped toward me, a low, guttural sound rising from her throat. For a split second, her face twisted into something feral, her teeth bared. My stomach dropped.

    Then the sound faded, and she slumped back against the wall, sobbing weakly. I sat there, shaking, the weight of what I’d just seen pressing down on me. The girl wasn’t just broken she was unraveling. And I had a horrible feeling that if the psycho Alpha discovered I’d been here, if he learned I’d fed her I touched her trembling hand, forcing my voice to steady. "I’lle back. I promise. But you have to stay alive. Please. Don’t give them the satisfaction of breaking you."

    Her eyes flickered, somewhere between hope and madness. I stood, wiping my hands on my apron, my legs weak beneath me. I picked up the soggy piece of bread she’d choked on, staring at it in horror. It was a reminder she wasn’t just starving. She was dying.

    As I slipped out of the dungeon, locking the gate behind me, the echoes of her choking still rang in my ears. Her breathing slowed after a while, though each inhale still rattled in her chest. I sat across from her, clutching my knees, trying to calm my own shaking hands. The silence in the dungeon pressed down on us like a suffocating weight. Finally, I whispered, "why is he doing this to you? What did you do wrong?"

    Her head lifted slowly, her face pale, streaked with sweat and tears. For a long moment, she just stared at me, her eyes unfocused, like she was deciding whether to answer. Then, in a voice that was little more than a rasp, she said.

    "I was my father’s only daughter. He was Alpha of the Grayfang Pack... a proud man. Strict. But he loved me." She coughed, blood flecking her lips. "When I came of age, I told him I had fallen in love with him."

    Her voice broke on the word, though there was no love in it now. Only horror.

    "The psycho Alpha?" I whispered.

    She nodded, chains clinking with the small movement. "I saw him once at a gathering. I was foolish. Blind. I thought his strength was... beautiful. I thought he was untouchable, that he would protect me if I was his mate. I begged my father to let me have him. To im him."

    She shivered violently, as though the memory itself cut her open.

    "My father..." Her voice cracked again. "He agreed. He sent a message to Alpha Zach, proposing an alliance me as his mate, to join our packs. I thought I thought it was fate."

    Tears pooled in her eyes, glinting in the dim torchlight.

    "But the next day..." Her lips trembled, her breath hitching. "He came. Not with words. Not with peace. With warriors."

    I pressed my hand to my mouth, my stomach twisting.

    "They stormed our pack at dawn. Burned the houses. Tore apart the warriors. My mother... my brothers..." Her whole body convulsed, chains rattling above her. "He killed them. All of them. My father died trying to shield me. And when the ground was soaked in blood, he looked at me and smiled."

    Her voice dropped into a chilling whisper, her eyes locking with mine.

    "He said he would spare me. That he would make me suffer until I begged for death. That every she-wolf would see what happens when they dare to love him. He wanted me to be the example."

    The air in the dungeon grew colder. My skin prickled with goosebumps.

    I stared at her, horror gripping me tighter than the Alpha’s hands ever had. She hadn’t just been unlucky. She had loved him chosen him and he had butchered her entire world because of it. My throat went dry. I wanted to say something anything but no words came. The girl gave a brokenugh, bitter and hollow. "Love... it killed them all. And now I’m nothing but a ghost rotting in chains."

    Her head fell forward, her shoulders shaking as quiet sobs tore from her chest.

    I sat frozen, tears burning my own eyes. And for the first time, I realized the truth the psycho Alpha didn’t just crave control. He wanted destruction. He wanted fear. And he wanted the world to know that love, in his hands, only led to death

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