Lucy's POV
"Take off your clothes before you go inside the cell. It's the Alphas' command," the maid said harshly.
My heart dropped. What?
Rage surged in my chest. "I won't," I snapped, taking a shaky step back. "This is madness. You can't treat me like this. I'm not—"
"We have no time to waste!" a guard growled from behind her. His voice was sharp, brutal, and enough to make my knees buckle.
My body trembled.
The maid's eyes flicked to mine, there was pity there, but it was fleeting. "If you disobey, the Alpha will make sure your punishment is worse than death," she murmured. "Please… don't make this harder."
I looked at her. Looked at the guard. My throat tightened.
"I'm not a beggar," I whispered, breaking down. "I'm not..."
Tears slid down my cheeks. Hot. Silent. Humiliating.
"Then prove it," the maid said. Her voice was no longer kind, it was tired. "You want to prove you're not a liar? Not a thief? Then obey. Because the next step… will be worse."
My fists clenched. I shut my eyes tightly, willing myself not to scream.
In my kingdom, I was royalty. I was bathed in perfume, dressed in silks, and kissed on the forehead every night by my father. I was loved.
And now… here I was. A prisoner. A girl being forced to strip before strangers, like I was nothing.
Why did my father promise me to them?
I stood frozen, humiliated, hating myself for hesitating. For being vulnerable.
The maid sighed, impatient now, and without another word, she stepped forward and tore my blue dress open at the seam.
The fabric slipped from my shoulders. My skin met the cold air.
And for a moment, I forgot how to breathe.
I stood there bare, exposed in front of the guard's hard gaze, feeling the last shred of dignity I had being stripped away with my dress.
Images from that night burned behind my eyes, Xaden sitting beside me at the edge of the pool, his laughter echoing under the stars.
The way he leaned closer when I spoke. The gentle brush of his fingers against mine. That night was bliss. Pure, untainted bliss.
So how could he look at me now… and not remember?
How could he stare into my eyes, those same eyes he once called beautiful, and call me a beggar?
"Take her away!" His voice echoed in my head like a whip, slicing through my heart again and again. No matter how hard I tried, I couldn't shut it out.
And Selena…
Goddess, how did I not see her for who she truly was?
She had been my best friend since we were children.
After her parents were killed by an enemy, my parents took her in and raised her like their own.
We did everything together. Played, schemed, and dreamed. My childhood wasn't lonely because she was in it.
And on my wedding day to the Four Alphas, she stabbed me in the back?
"Go inside!" The guard barked, shoving me forward with a force that stole the breath from my lungs.
I stumbled, crashing to the icy stone floor. Pain shot through my knees, my palms scraped raw. Before I could catch my breath, the iron door slammed shut behind me with a resounding clang.
Darkness swallowed me thick, damp, and suffocating. The cold seeped in instantly, curling around my skin like claws. My body froze up, trembling violently. My teeth chattered uncontrollably.
I was so cold... I could barely keep my teeth intact.
I wrapped my arms around myself, trying to trap the warmth that no longer existed. My breath came in short, shivering gasps.
Then a laughter echoed at the gate.
A familiar voice.
It echoed through the bars, slithering into my ears like poison.
"How the hell did you get here so fast?" A female voice sneered. "And ruin my wedding?"
My head snapped up.
Selena.
She stood at the edge of the cell, her fists pounding against the bars, eyes burning with fury. The same girl I once called sister. The same girl who just watched me be stripped of everything.
"You always ruin everything for me!" She spat, venom dripping from her words. "You just couldn't stay gone, could you?"
My head remained bowed, my hair falling like a curtain over my arms, hiding the tears that burned silently down my cheeks.
I didn't respond to Selena. I couldn't.
My heart was far too shattered to form words.
What would I even say? That she had gutted me deeper than any blade could? That her betrayal stung more than the cold walls of this dungeon? No… silence was all I had left.
If not for the hairpin tucked deep into my braid, the one piece of my mother I'd held onto, I wouldn't even be here.
I would have died out there, alone in the woods, my body swallowed by the earth and my name lost to silence.
The thought made my heart burn.
Dying… with no one knowing where I was or what had been done to me.
My father… He must think I'm with my mates by now, wrapped in luxury and protection.
He doesn't know I've been stripped and thrown into a cell like filth. That the Alphas he trusted to protect me had turned their backs before they ever truly saw me.
And I… I had no way to send word. No chance to explain. No one to help me.
Only my father could save me now.
But I didn't think anyone would believe me anymore… not with how Selena had twisted everything. She had turned the truth into a lie and me into the villain.
Escape… that was the only way out of this nightmare.
A desperate thought flashed through my mind. I slowly lifted my head, my eyes locking with hers, pleading.
"I know you want them," I said softly, my voice shaking. "You can have them. I don't care anymore. Just… please, let me go."
Selena let out a low, mocking laugh. She tilted her head, folding her arms with a wicked glint in her eye.
"You must be stupid," she said. "You think I'd fall for that? Let you go so you can run back to your Alpha father and tell him everything? Pathetic."
My hands balled into trembling fists, my voice breaking with restrained fury.
"I won't. I don't care what you do with them. Just let me out of here!"
"Shut up already!" She snapped, her body tense with rage. "I'm not buying your act, Lucy!"
But something in her voice cracked. Fear.
Her body was trembling with fear at the thought of what could happen if I got out of here.
I let out a bitter, breathless laugh, the sound hollow.
"So you can be scared…" I said, my voice quiet and mocking. "That's new."
"Don't you dare give me that look," she snarled. "Or else—"
"Or else what, Selena?" I snapped back, my teeth chattering from the cold, my voice rising with a mix of heartbreak and fury.
Her eyes darkened.
And then suddenly she tore the sleeve of her dress, messed up her hair, and slapped herself hard across the cheek. The sound echoed through the dungeon like a whip crack.
I froze, heart thundering.
"What… what the hell are you doing?" My voice was barely more than a whisper, my body too cold, too weak to even react fully.
But the horror rooted deep in my bones.
Selena turned back to the bars with wild eyes and a wicked smirk.
"You'll find out soon enough."
"Someone help me!!" Selena's screams rang through the cold, damp dungeon, shrill and desperate.
Tears streamed down her face, false tears, perfect lies. She threw herself against the bars like a victim begging for rescue.
"Selena, stop!" I gasped, stepping back. "What are you doing? I didn't lay a finger on you!"
But she wouldn't stop. " I didn't do anything to you. Stop lying!" My voice cracked with panic.
Her cries only grew louder, more pitiful.
How could you be this cruel to me, you shameless maid?" Selena cried out, her voice breaking—fake tears spilled down her cheeks.
"I begged the Alphas to show you mercy! I came here out of pity to help you, to speak gently, and this is how you repay me?" She gasped for breath, eyes wide in feigned horror. "You slapped me and ripped my clothes!"
She collapsed to the floor, wailing like a shattered doll, as if she were the one wronged.
I stood frozen, my heart pounding. She wouldn't stop. She was determined to bury me beneath her lies.
I took a trembling step back. "Selena... please… don't do this. You know I can't do that to you…. I didn't."
But then I heard it.
A growl. Deep and dangerous.
I froze, breath snagging mid-inhale.
No one had to tell me who it was. That sound, so raw, so terrifying, could only belong to one of them.
The Alphas were coming.
And Selena had laid the trap, and I had walked straight into it.