Chapter 5 : Prisoner of the Alpha

*Tiessa*

There was a monotony to my time here. A kind of sameness and dullness that hadn’t been in the Silver Stone pack, even though I had no official title there.

I was no princess, no matter how Varon may mock me with the title. A pack had an Alpha and Luna, and the children of the bonded pair were just that, children of the Alpha and Luna. The eldest Alpha son was considered heir until his father died, but that was all the recognition that was given.

I had freedom in my father’s pack.

But I had none of that here.

Here, I was a Luna. And a prisoner.

It was a strange combination, one I had never heard of before.

Packs had forced unions between Alpha and Luna before, but there had been a degree of freedom in the choice. Varon had just taken me and then threatened the eradication of my entire pack if I tried to leave.

There were invisible ironclad shackles around my wrist that I couldn’t break off even if I tried.

And now, for the first time that I had ever heard it, Luna meant prisoner.

The house that I lived in now was a shadow of what I had lived in before. Varon’s home, the home of the Alpha, was no citadel. It wasn’t tiny though. The walls were made of stone, a very similar stone to the one that made up our citadel.

But the stones were cold here. I guessed that explained all the animal furs that were strewn all over the place. But it didn’t look excessive. Especially not since their absence would mean the place would be cold.

We were wolves, but in human form we still needed clothing. And the cold stone wouldn’t have helped.

“Lady.” I turned as the servant called for me. Her name was Lily, but I hadn’t learned anything more from her other than that. “Do you need help getting ready for bed tonight?”

I had been in this pack for three weeks already. And each night, Lily came to me and asked the same thing. And each night my answer was the same. I had expected her to stop asking after the first week, but I guessed that she was ordered by Varon.

And there was no getting around an Alpha’s edict.

“No, thank you,” I told her gently.

I didn’t think badly of any of the wolves in the pack. Lily wasn’t my captor and had nothing to do with my predicament here. And there was no way that she could be expected to help me, let alone actually help me.

If another wolf had taken me, I would have blamed the Alpha, and I would have held any other wolf responsible that did nothing to help me. But it wasn’t the same when my captor was the Alpha himself.

There was nothing anyone else could do.

“All right,” Lily said, nodding her head. “Goodnight, Lady.” And though she didn’t say it, I heard the word Luna every time she spoke.

The servants—and I think the entire pack—knew I was taken against my will. And though there was nothing they could do to help me, they didn’t throw salt in the wound. They were all kind and considerate.

She then turned and left the room, and I turned to the balcony doors, pushing them open and stepping into the moonlight like I had been doing since I got here.

Varon and I performed the mating ceremony three weeks ago, and our bond still had no recognition from the moon. None of the abilities that came to bonded pairs came to us.

I couldn’t even feel the trace of Varon’s emotions, where I should be able to hear his thoughts.

I stood beneath the Moon each night. And I made Varon stand with me. It wasn’t that I wanted the Moon’s blessings, it was that I wanted her power.

I came up with a solution to get me out of there. But for it to work, I needed the moon to bless me. If she honored this union, then Varon and I would be truly mated. Which meant that I would be a true Luna.

And the gifts of a Luna were almost too many to count.

I took a deep breath, standing on the balcony of the room that was meant to be mine and Varon’s.

I was grateful that the room had this balcony, even if it wasn’t as big as the citadel. It gave me a way to look out of the room, out of the house that I was ensconced in. I felt a little freer, even if it was only my imagination that felt free.

I leaned on the railing, feeling the cold stone beneath me. I was standing directly in the moonlight now, and nothing was happening. Everything felt the same.

The door opened then, and Varon strode into the room.

He slept in here with me, though I sometimes waited until he was asleep so I could go to the floor.

“Anything?” he asked conversationally. It was something he had taken to doing when he first discovered that I was standing beneath the light of the moon.

“The moonlight feels like it has a distinctive tingle tonight,” I answered dryly.

He wasn’t doing anything to help me. And he had taken to ridiculing my efforts so far.

I knew that what I was doing was insanity. But there were so few things that I could do.

Still, even I wasn’t sure what was going to happen. Did I hope that the Moon would see me in distress, and then make an effort to give me something that would help me escape my prison?

“Let me know if the tingle becomes anything more,” he said, holding my gaze.

He didn’t trust me, and in all honesty, it was probably wise not to. I was only here because he was threatening the death of every one of my packmates, after all. And while I didn’t care much for my father, the rest of the pack didn’t deserve to suffer.

Still, if I could find some way to not have to give in to Varon, or find some way to escape and still have my pack survive, then it would mean everything. And it would be a choice that I would make without blinking.

“I will,” I murmured.

Not because I owed him any allegiance. Not because I was just a truthful person by nature. But because he would know as soon as I did. And the last thing I wanted to do was lie to his face.

Varon was a powerful Alpha. And he came with all sorts of abilities. He might not have the abilities that the Moon bestowed on a mated Alpha, but he had enough. And I was pretty sure that I didn’t even know the full extent of it.

I could only wonder what he would get if he were properly mated.

“How are you liking your stay here?” he asked.

I frowned, turning to face him entirely. His voice had the tone of someone trying to sound conversational, and for some reason, it didn’t suit him. Not the conversational part, but the part where he was just trying.

He had been coming to this room to sleep beside me for almost three weeks now. But he hadn’t spoken much other than a general grunt in my direction. Some nights I had even been sure that he was beyond speech.

I looked around the room. It wasn’t the citadel as I kept reminding myself. But if I didn’t compare it to that, if I looked at it all on its own, then it was there. A certain charm to it that I couldn’t deny it having.

In the Silver Stone pack, a house like this would have belonged to one of the noble families. It would have housed a Lord and Lady. Titles that weren’t easily given in our world.

Our pack had an Alpha, and our Alpha had a Beta. And they were the authorities there. But when there were large-scale decisions to be made and duties to delegate, the lords and ladies came into play.

I wasn’t sure how things ran here. But I could appreciate the value of this place.

“The house is beautiful,” I allowed myself to say. It was the truth. “For a prison.” That was also the truth.

A look of irritation crossed his face. And I knew then that he had been trying to be civil, though I had no idea why. And if he thought that all it would take for me to be civil was one or two sentences after three weeks of ignoring me, and after taking me captive, then he had another thing coming.

“The curtains are of very fine quality,” I continued, turning back to the balcony slightly. “I’ve thought of hanging myself a few times already.”

That was just unnecessary, I thought. Besides, it wasn’t like I could actually die like that. Wolves healed at a remarkable rate. My heart would just keep restarting all the time.

Varon looked angry for a moment, but then he composed himself again.

“You still owe me an heir,” Varon said, his tone still conversational. But I could sense the underlying anger and frustration behind it, and if I pushed him, then there was a good chance that he would take that anger out on me.

But if he thought that I was just going to roll over and do as he said, he was very mistaken.

“I owe you nothing,” I told him.

I felt the shock go through the room, and given that it was just Varon and me in here, there weren't many others that it could be from.

“What did you just say to me?” Varon asked again, and the anger and frustration that I had sensed before weren’t as underlying any longer.

“I owe you nothing,” I repeated, my tone and exclamation the same. I wouldn’t let him get to me. And it wasn’t that I just wouldn’t show it, I actually wouldn’t let it get to me.

“We have a deal,” Varon spoke through clenched teeth.

But that was where he was very wrong. We didn’t have a deal. We had nothing. He escaped the fact that he kidnapped me only by the sparest of details. But the truth was that he took me against my will. We had no bargain between us.

“You made a deal with my father,” I explained, turning to him entirely. “You made a deal with the Alpha of the Silver Stone Pack. I am not the one you made a deal with. You traded the wealth that you borrowed to my father for his permission to kidnap me.”

I paused for a moment, waiting for my words to sink in.

“So, though I am here, you made no deal with me,” I said again. “You threatened that if I tried to escape your bondage, then you would kill my entire pack. That is the only agreement that you and I have. I am here. I have not tried to run away. There is nothing more that I owe you.”

I turned away from him then. I could feel his anger and could practically hear his seething.

But it didn’t bother me any longer. It didn’t bother me at all.

He was going to kill my father if he didn’t get an heir in a year. And in all honesty, I was perfectly all right with that compromise.