ARIA'S POV:After a long time, the tears stopped flowing. I stood up from the bench and left the garden for my room. I walked back to my room pulling my legs with me as if there were a heavy burden. The weight in my heart had spread round my body and I felt very heavy.As I walked through the hallway, my mind was not with me, it was deep down in the pain and agony of my heart.Walking through the hallway, I heard greetings of servants and guards directed at me but it all sounded like it was far away from me. I was lost in my head, lost in my heart. I didn't know the next step to take, all I could think about was that my younger sister was pregnant for my husband or rather, my ex-husband and it hurt me so much. I couldn't even explain how it felt. I just felt like I was being strangled. My heart felt like it was being embraced by a thousand and one daggers. The pain was so much that I had to force my lungs to receive the air that I was breathing.The feeling was painful yet numb. It
ARIA'S POV:The Crescent Pack men were here! I gasped. How much worse could my day get?What did they want? What does Dane want this time? I asked myself. How did he even find me?Turning to me, uncle Jeremiah said in a warning tone."You stay here Aria, no matter what comes up, no matter what happens, do not come out. Is that understood?" He said.Without waiting for my response, he left with his beta to go and investigate what going on outside.After he had left, I followed him knowing that if there was any reason why Dane is here, then he was here for only one reason and I was the reason.But if I was the reason, who had given him Intel on where I was?I trailed behind my uncle and his beta in such a way that they wouldn't notice that I was following them.Keeping a safe distance from them, I watched as they walked outside with guards on each of their sides.Then I saw him, my worst nightmare, Dane. There he stood in the middle of the village with his men as if he owned the place.
42ANTHONY'S POV:For the past twenty five minutes I had been sitting at the breakfast table, I had not taken a bite of the food in front of me.I was unaware of my surroundings, and all I could think of was that it had been weeks now and still, no sign of Aria. Where could she have gone? I asked my thoughts.I had sent out the first group of people under the guidance of Elijah to find her, they had found nothing. A few days ago, I sent out another group to find her.I had been waiting for Elijah's reply for days, but I hadn't seen him or returned. As I sat there looking at the food in front of me, I lost appetite.Unable to continue eating, I rose from the seat and left for my study. Finally, in my study, I found it difficult to relax. My thoughts were all over the place. Not too long into my time at the study, I began to pace.Pacing around in my study, I couldn't feel at ease. Why did she have to leave? Was it because I was too harsh with her about the purging? Was she tired of my
ARIA'S POV:Blinking, I could hear voices and laughter. It took a while for my eyes to adjust to the light, as well as for my mind to register that I was no longer in the Zilam pack.I was in the Crescent Pack! Again!Looking around, I realized that I was on the floor of the dungeon. I tried to rise, but I could not. My entire body was full of aches. It felt like I had fallen from the fifteenth floor of a building, and then been hit and beaten to pulp.With every move I made, pain was the outcome. Moving my leg was like moving a very heavy sack of bricks that weighed a ton.My head itself felt too heavy to carry. Trying to rise the first time, I fell. The second time, I could only manage to get up on one leg, and then, with a thump, I fell back down.After many attempts, I just decided to lay back on the floor until I was sure that I could rise without much issue.Footsteps were approaching the cell I stayed in. Outside the cell bars, a pair of feet stopped in front of me. "We meet a
ARIA'S POV:The dungeon returned to normal after the show I had put on. Guards continued carrying out their duties.Sitting on the floor with my back against the wall, I felt weak and hopeless. I stared at the dungeon's bars with a blank mind.For what seemed like hours, I sat there, unmoving. Until there seemed to be a grave silence all over the dungeon,. From the cell I was in, I could hear echoes of "my lord" resonating from all angles of the dungeon, followed by footsteps directed towards my cell.As the footsteps drew closer, flashbacks of the last time I had been here began to come to me.My breathing began to come in short, interrupted breaths. I could feel my heart wanting to jump out. My heartbeat accelerated, and all I could hear was the sound of the footsteps coming in my direction.Mustering up all the courage I had, I looked up just in time, and the owner of the footsteps stopped in front of me.Dane Seymour.The perpetuator of evil, the devil himself. The alpha of the C
ARIA'S POV:"Wait!" I screamed, rising to my feet, which was a miracle, and running towards the bars of the cell, as Dane was about to turn away from the cell I was in and leave the dungeon."How do you know so much about my grandfather?""Your grandfather?" He asked sarcastically, then turned to face me. "Who in the history of werewolves would not know your monster of a grandfather?"I scoffed. "Do you dare call him a monster when you are much worse?""I'm worse than your grandfather." He asked, laughing. "I'm worse than that thing?" He asked again, unable to control his laughter, which sounded like a rich blend of the sound of water waves mixed with a hint of thunder and whirlwind.It sounded rude and wicked, but also soothing and hurtful."A note of warning just for your safety, darling," he said, walking close to me with amuseme
DANE'S POV:How could anyone be as clueless as that girl? Of all positions, she was an alpha, yet she did not know anything about her family?No wonder she was able to hand her position over to her mate. What a pathetic excuse for an Alpha pack as great as Nightfang!How could she not catch on after all the hints that had been dropped? Was she really that dumb? I shook my head.For an alpha, she had no backbone. No wonder she was easy to manipulate.As I pondered on these things, I also wondered why Cordelia had not yet come to see her little prisoner.She had been savoring this moment, so why hadn't she come to say hello? What was keeping her from coming to 'pay her respects' just as Cordelia had put it.Walking towards my room, I changed my mind and decided to go to the stables instead.To
ARIA'S POV:As the sun crept into the dungeon through the six-inch windows, down to the cell where I was, a new day of torture came into the limelight.I felt like all my strength had been drained out. The previous day, I had to weed with my bare hands, and when it looked like I was lagging behind, that useless guard would hit me and make sure that I kept up with the pace.Most of the time, I had fallen, and now my body was a canvas of injuries. My entire body was on fire, and I had not eaten anything for the two days I had been here."Good morning." A voice said,.I immediately knew who was speaking to me. 'It'. I had made up my mind to call the guard that hates me, which I also hated, 'it'. I did not care about finding his name. What good would that be to me?He pushed a tray of food toward me from under the cell bars. The food looked like the watery