Every day of the first several months of our marriage, she would beg my men for an audience with me. Is this why? Was she trying to warn me, to beg me to stop?
The pain inside me intensifies at the realization.
Lira. My Lira. What have I done?
“She is betraying you,” Nilo states, worry etched on his scarred features.
No. I betrayed her. She rejected me. After months, she is just moving on, which is something I can never do.
I hope he enjoys his time with her, because I will get her back, if that’s the last thing I do.
~~~~~
Elelira POV
Pain. Intense, like no other, radiates through my torn and broken body.
Two weeks. I have survived two weeks in hell, and I pray this is finally the end.
Returning to the western coast to search for some sign or clue as to who my father could be was a mistake. A huge mistake.
I came to land once, but once was all it took to be thrust into a hell worse than any other.
Now, here I lay, in a bed of my own blood, locked in a cell just waiting to die. I am praying for death, and I feel its crushing weight closing in on me.
Finally.
There is no other escape. My fate is now the same as my mother’s. How much pain must I endure in my short life? Not even 21 and I have faced every torture this life could hold.
I’m done fighting. I choose death. That is the only freedom I will ever know.
“Holy shit, she is still alive,” a man snickers from outside the cell door.
“I thought she wouldn’t survive after last night,” another says.
“That was way cruel. Too much for my taste.”
“Should we help her? She is a fine thing. They left her for dead. If we help her heal, maybe we can keep her for ourselves?”
“The alpha would have our heads if he were to find out.”
“How would he know?”
“Your mate would know,” one snickers.
“It would be nothing new to her. She would ignore it and keep her mouth shut like she always does.”
“Ahh, you trained her well.”
“It’s all in the back of the hand and the flick of the wrist.”
The men cackle and snort while laughing with each other.
“I’m sorry, Ela. They inhibited me. I can not shift to change us; to save us. I’m sorry.”
“ I’m sorry too, Val. I’m done. I can take no more.”
She whimpers, knowing what’s to come, but accepting it, knowing it’s our only way out.