Melissa

I woke up and the first thing I felt was the stinging soreness between my legs that reminded me of everything I had lost the night before. I lay still for a moment and stared at the high ceiling while the memories of Draven's rough hands and cold lips washed over me. I felt dirty and used in a way that no amount of scrubbing could ever fix. I tried to sit up but my body protested with a sharp ache that made me gasp and fall back against the pillows.

My phone buzzed on the bedside table and I reached for it with a trembling hand. The screen lit up with a message from Aunt Leyla.

"Are you fine Melissa? We hope you reached safely and settled in well. We love you."

I stared at the words and a hiss of pure venom escaped my lips. She had the audacity to ask if I was fine after she sold me like cattle to a monster. I threw the phone back onto the mattress and forced myself to sit up despite the pain.

The door opened and three maids walked in with their heads bowed low.

"Good morning Luna," the lead maid greeted me as she kept her eyes on the floor. "Your bath is ready and the Alpha has requested your presence at breakfast."

I didn't answer them as I dragged my body out of the bed and wrapped the silk sheet around me. They rushed forward to help me but I waved them away. I walked into the bathroom and sank into the hot water but it did nothing to soothe the burning rage inside me.

I stepped out twenty minutes later and the maids were waiting with a dress that made my breath catch in my throat. It was a floor-length gown made of deep emerald silk and the bodice was encrusted with real diamond stones that caught the light with every movement. I had never seen anything so expensive in my life let alone worn it.

They dressed me in silence and arranged my hair until I looked like a queen but I felt like a prisoner wrapped in glitter.

I walked out of the room and a guard escorted me to the dining hall where Draven and Briston were already seated. The table was laden with more food than I had seen in years but my appetite was nonexistent.

"Good morning," I greeted them quietly as I pulled out a chair.

Draven looked up from his plate and scanned me from head to toe with a possessive glint in his eyes while Briston just stabbed his fork into his eggs and ignored me completely.

"Sit," Draven ordered as he pointed to the chair on his right.

I sat down and placed a napkin on my lap. The silence at the table was suffocating. Briston glared at his food with a clenched jaw and Draven ate with a calm detachment that was even more unsettling. It was obvious that the father and son were still keeping the malice from the previous day alive.

The doors pushed open and Beta Luther walked in with a grim expression on his face. He bowed deeply to Draven before he straightened up to speak.

"Alpha we have a situation at the western border," Luther announced as he glanced at me and then back to Draven. "We caught a family of four from the Sun Rock pack trying to cross into our territory to hunt. They claim they are starving and begged for mercy."

I looked at Draven and waited for him to show some leniency. They were just a starving family trying to survive.

Draven wiped his mouth with a napkin and took a sip of his coffee before he answered.

"Did they have weapons?" Draven asked calmly.

"Just hunting knives for the game," Luther replied. "They have two children with them."

"Kill the parents and hang their bodies on the border trees as a warning," Draven commanded without blinking. "Take the children to the mines. We need small hands to clean the machinery."

I dropped my fork and it clattered loudly against the plate. I looked at him in horror.

"You can't do that," I whispered as the blood drained from my face. "They are just hungry."

Draven turned his head slowly to look at me and his eyes were void of any humanity.

"I can and I will," he stated coldly. "Mercy is for the weak Melissa and I am not weak. If I let them steal my game today then tomorrow an army will come to steal my land."

He turned back to Luther.

"Do it now."

"Yes Alpha," Luther bowed and turned to leave.

I looked at Draven and I knew then that I was truly dealing with a demon. He had no heart and no soul. He was a monster who killed parents and enslaved children without a second thought.

My phone beeped loudly in the pocket of my dress and the sound shattered the tense silence. I pulled it out to silence it but the notification on the screen made my heart stop.

"Breaking News: Alpha Heir Kelan of the Slytherin Pack officially announces his upcoming wedding to Cindy, the daughter of the pack Beta. The union is set to take place in two weeks."

A picture of Kelan and Cindy smiling and holding hands filled the screen. They looked happy and perfect.

I felt the sweat break out on my forehead and the room began to spin. Kelan was getting married to the girl who stabbed me in the back while I was sitting here eating breakfast with a murderer who had bought me.

I looked up at Draven who was calmly buttering a piece of toast. I looked at Briston who was radiating anger.

I had lost everything. My parents were gone. My freedom was gone. My virtue was stolen by a cursed Alpha. And now the boy I loved was marrying my traitorous friend.

Something snapped inside my chest. The fear that had been consuming me since yesterday suddenly turned into something cold and hard.

I looked at my evil husband and realized that he was the most powerful wolf in the region. He was cruel and he was a monster but he had power.

If I was going to survive this hell I couldn't be the victim anymore. I wiped the sweat from my brow and sat up straighter in my chair.

I was going to make Kelan pay for humiliating me. I was going to make Cindy pay for betraying me. And I was going to make Draven pay for buying me.

I needed a plan. I needed to stop crying and start plotting.

I looked at the diamonds on my dress and then at the cursed Alpha beside me.

"Is everything alright?" Draven asked as he noticed my change in demeanor.

"Everything is perfect," I lied smoothly as I picked up my fork and forced a smile onto my lips.

I had to be smart. I had to learn how to play this game. And when the time was right I would burn them all down.

Melissa

In a matter of seconds Draven had cleared his plate. He pushed the plate forward and used the napkin to clean the sides of his mouth.

"Come with me Mel," he ordered in his deep baritone voice.

I didn't answer. Did he expect me to leave my food simply because he was done? Hell no. I kept on eating.

Draven walked farther from the table, maybe he thought I was behind, which made Briston laugh and nod his head.

It was at that moment I knew my day was going to be hell.

Draven turned back in anger, reached for my hair and held it, then drew me forward.

"Ahh ahh," I screamed.

"Didn't I say come with me? Didn't I fucking ask you to come?" he growled.

I could see the genuine concern in Briston's eyes but he didn't say a word.

Draven yanked me forward and off we went. I followed him behind and we walked into what looked like a council room.

Immediately Draven walked in, all of the council members bent their heads.

"All hail the Alpha," they all shouted in unison.

"Please sit," Draven commanded.

I walked to the chair beside my supposed mate and was just about to sit when he shouted.

"How dare you!" He growled and it was as though his wolf was going to leave his body and eat up my tiny wolf.

"How dare you sit in my council chamber?"

I got up in shock. Was I some guard? Did he expect me to stand?

I rose quickly and he gestured with his hand.

"You'll stand behind my seat, always, in every meeting. That is your position," he stated coldly.

I could see eyes glare at him in shock.

"But Alpha..." an old man tried to protest.

"Don't Alpha me, boy," Draven spoke rudely to him. "Let's begin with pack matters."

I felt more than anger boil in my chest. This man was more than the devil.

I stood behind Draven's chair and tried not to let my knees buckle under the weight of being invisible while every eye in the room tracked my presence. Beta Luther stood at the front with maps and reports spread across the table, and the council members sat in their high-backed chairs waiting for the meeting to begin.

"The rogue attacks have increased by thirty percent," Luther announced as he pointed to marks on the map. "They are testing our defenses."

"Then we eliminate the weakness," Draven replied without emotion. "Double the patrols and execute any rogue caught within five miles of our border."

The council members nodded in agreement and I felt my stomach turn at how casually they discussed killing wolves. I shifted my weight slightly to ease the ache in my lower back, and immediately a guard stepped forward and placed his hand on my shoulder. It wasn't a grip but it was a warning that I understood perfectly.

A younger council member glanced at me and cleared his throat.

"Alpha Draven, may I ask Melissa about her perspective on the alliance with her former pack?"

The room went silent and I felt Draven's body tense in the chair.

"You may ask the Luna," Draven corrected him coldly. "She is not Melissa to you or anyone else in this room."

"My apologies Alpha," the man stammered. "May I ask the Luna?"

"The Luna has nothing to say," Draven answered for me. "She belongs to Dark Moon Valley now and her past is irrelevant."

I stood there and swallowed the humiliation while my hands trembled at my sides. He had erased me completely and turned me into nothing more than a title that he controlled, but inside I was cataloging this moment along with all the others and storing it in the part of my mind that was building a map of how to destroy him.

The meeting dragged on for another hour and by the time it ended my legs were numb. The council members filed out while bowing to Draven and barely glancing at me, and when the last one left Draven stood and took my wrist in his hand.

"Come," he ordered as he pulled me toward the entrance hall.

I followed him without resistance and we walked through corridors lined with guards who bowed as we passed. When we reached the entrance hall I saw a group of visiting pack leaders waiting with their entourages, and Draven stopped in the center of the room and turned me by my shoulder to face them.

"This is Luna Melissa of Dark Moon Valley," Draven announced as he lifted my chin with one finger. "My mate and the mother of my future heir."

The visitors stared at me with expressions that ranged from curiosity to pity. I kept my hands still at my sides and my eyes level while I performed composure, but underneath the mask I was studying every face and listening to every name that was spoken.

Alpha Vincent from the eastern territories. Alpha Kael from the mountain pack. I filed each one away and noted the flickers of doubt I saw in their eyes when they looked at Draven.

"She is very young," Alpha Vincent observed carefully.

"She is exactly what I need," Draven replied with finality.

I stood there and let them examine me while my wolf Mia growled with rage in the back of my mind. Information was the only thing in this fortress that truly belonged to me.

Mellisa

I spent an hour constructing the request in my head before dinner. I kept my voice low and my eyes down as I framed what I was thinking as modestly as I could.

I had already begun learning that the angle of approach mattered to him. The exhaustion from standing behind his chair all day had settled into my bones and the thought of food made my stomach turn, but I knew better than to skip dinner without permission.

"Alpha Draven," I began quietly as I looked down at my untouched plate. "May I be excused to rest? I'm not feeling well."

Draven put his glass on the table and the room went quiet in that specific way it always did when he shifted from eating to paying attention. I felt the change in the air before I saw him stand and my heart began to pound in my chest.

He came around the table and grabbed a fistful of my hair and pulled until my face was pointed at the ceiling and my neck was stretched so tight I thought it might snap.

"Not feeling well?" he repeated in a voice that was low enough that only I could hear. "You think you can dictate when you eat and when you sleep in my castle?"

"I'm sorry," I whispered as tears pooled in the corners of my eyes from the pain. "I didn't mean..."

"You didn't mean what?" he hissed as he pulled harder. "You didn't mean to disrespect me at my own table?"

"Father, you've been pulling her hair since morning," Briston interrupted as he set his fork down with a deliberate clink. "Give the girl a break."

The room froze and I felt Draven's grip tighten even more before he released me with a forward push that sent me crashing into the table edge. The impact knocked the wind out of my lungs and I grabbed the table to keep from falling to the floor.

Draven turned to face his son with a rage that seemed to fill the entire room and his eyes began to glow with the gold of his wolf.

"What did you just say to me?" Draven demanded as he took a step toward Briston.

"I said give her a break," Briston repeated as he stood up and met his father's eyes without flinching. "She's exhausted and you've been treating her like a dog all day."

Draven moved faster than I could track and backhanded Briston across the face with enough force to send him stumbling backward into his chair. The sound of the impact echoed through the dining room and I gasped and covered my mouth with my hand.

"You dare defend her?" Draven shouted as he grabbed Briston by the collar and lifted him slightly off the ground. "You dare question how I treat my property in my own home?"

"She's not property," Briston shot back as blood began to trickle from the corner of his mouth. "She's a person."

Draven threw him back into the chair and the wood cracked under the impact. He stood there breathing heavily while his fists clenched and unclenched at his sides and I could see his wolf fighting to break free.

"Get out of my sight before I do something I regret," Draven growled.

Briston stood up slowly and wiped the blood from his mouth with the back of his hand before he looked at me with something that might have been pity. He walked out of the dining room without another word and slammed the door behind him.

Draven turned back to me and I flinched and took a step backward.

"Sit down and finish your meal," he ordered as he pointed to my chair. "You will eat every single bite on that plate and you will thank me for feeding you when you're done."

I sat down with trembling hands and picked up my fork while my stomach churned with nausea. I forced myself to take a bite of the cold food and swallowed even though it felt like glass going down my throat.

Draven sat back down and resumed eating as if nothing had happened while I choked down my dinner one painful bite at a time. When I finally finished he stood up and dropped his napkin on the table.

"Guard," he called out.

A man appeared in the doorway immediately.

"Take her to her room and lock the door," Draven commanded. "She needs rest."

The guard nodded and gestured for me to follow him. I walked through the corridors in silence while my body ached and my mind raced with everything that had just happened. When we reached my room the guard opened the door and waited for me to enter before he closed it behind me and I heard the lock engage from outside.

I stood in the middle of the room and breathed. I was not going to cry. I noted what had failed in my approach and I revised it and I filed the revision away for next time and I went to bed knowing that tomorrow would bring new horrors.