Page 41

G annon is off doing an errand for the King.

He had been nagging me about Cassandra and what I wanted to do about her, but I still have no idea.

I don’t like the idea of having someone’s life in my hands, especially when I’ve hardly had any control over my own.

Yet, when Gannon goes off with the King, I wander around the castle.

I explore the wine cellars and am getting ready to clean them when I hear a familiar voice calling out from the cells down the corridor.

The wine cellar runs what appears to be the entire length of the castle, with different underground corridors leading off in different directions, and the one to my left I know goes to the dungeons.

Guards stand on either side of the arched tunnel leading to them, and I glance at them.

They pay her no attention while she continues screaming out for them to set her free.

Finding the cobweb brush, I head back toward the stairs leading into the kitchen’s huge pantry.

Only once I am halfway up do I stop. Cassandra has three children, which has been nagging at me.

As much as I want the woman dead, I don’t want to punish her children for her crimes.

Her husband and their father are dead, and her life is now resting in my hands.

Leaning the cobweb brush against the stairs, I walk back down the steps, over to the corridor, and stop in front of the guards.

“Miss Abbie?” one asks, and I chew my lip, glancing toward the dark dungeons.

“Can I see her?” I ask, looking at the man. He has a mustache and light blue eyes that are almost white they are that light. He glances at the other guard, who has a full beard, dark eyes, and long hair that cascades almost to his waist and is tied in two braids.

“One of us will come with you,” the other man says, and I nod.

I start walking down the corridor when I hear her screaming out again, and I stop.

Her voice grating in my head as memories of the same voice teased and taunted me while she would hold my head to stop me from trying to pull away from him.

She is just as sick as him to do that to another woman.

I hadn’t realized I had stopped moving until the guard’s hand falls on my shoulder.

Only then do I realize I am shaking like a leaf.

“I’m right here. She can’t hurt you, Miss; I have mindlinked Gannon,” he says, and I swallow.

“Maybe this was a bad idea,” I murmur.

“It’s up to you. No one will force you to go in there, Miss Abbie,” he whispers.

I look at the man, and his dark eyes look black under the dim lighting.

I should feel embarrassed that he knows what she did to me, yet his gentle voice holds no contempt.

I nod but force myself to keep going until I am stopped outside her barred cell.

She sits in the cell’s corner sobbing, her head in her hands and knees to her chest.

Cassandra looks up, and I can tell she is about to scream out again, but her words die out when she notices me standing there.

“I suppose you’re here to gloat?” she says, resting her head back on the brickwork. She turns her face away from me. She looks like crap, her nails all chipped, her hair a mess, her clothes wrinkled, and she has no shoes on.

Turning to the guard, I hold my hands out for the keys, and he looks at me. “Abbie,” he asks questionably.

“Keys, please,” I tell him, and he pulls them off the key chain and hands them to me.

Cassandra looks at me and jumps to her feet as I put the key in, but I don’t turn it.

Instead, I notice the bottled water just outside the cell door and pre-packaged sandwiches.

I move to the small table and grab two of the triangle packages and a water bottle before tucking them under my arm.

My hands shake as I open the cell, and my eyes move to her when I notice the chain around her ankle that is attached to the wall.

Cassandra watches me warily as I enter, closing the door behind me. This isn’t the same scornful, confident, and entitled woman I knew. This woman is helpless and looks petrified of me. She knows her life is in my hands. Gannon told her that much.

I take a step toward her, and she takes one back, her back hitting the wall. I hold the water bottle out to her, and she looks at me funny, tilting her head to the side. She reaches forward and grabs it like she thinks I will toss it at her.

She opens the cap and starts gulping it down thirstily. When she is done, I hand her the sandwiches, which she takes, and I watch her for a second before taking a few steps back and sitting next to the cell door. She eyes me suspiciously before also sitting.

“Eat. You look hungry. I am not here to hurt you, Cassandra,” I tell her, and her lip quivers. She seems shocked by my words.

“Why not?” she asks, but peels the wrapper back on her sandwich and moans as she takes a bite.

“Because I am not you, I am not a monster,” I tell her, and she stops mid-bite and looks at me.

She chews slowly and swallows, picking at her sandwich with her fingers.

I observe her, and she can’t be much older than me.

Without all the makeup staining her face, she looks very youthful, making me curious about who she really is.

“How old are you?” I ask her.

“Twenty,” she answers with a sigh.

“Twenty!” I ask, knowing her oldest child was six years old.

“But Micheal is six,” I tell her, and she chews slowly and nods her head.

“I had him two days before my fourteenth birthday,” she answers, and I swallow. How different our lives have been, though that must have been tough to have a baby that young.

“I thought you and Kade were high school sweethearts?”

She laughs and shakes her head.

“No, that’s what he tells everyone. He is eight years older, although he doesn’t look like it. I was one of his working girls,” she says with a shrug.

“But you just said you were fourteen when you had Michael?”

“Yeah, I was also a rogue. Kade took me in when he met me at another pack, I was placed in when I was thirteen. He saved me.”

My eyebrows raise at that. Saved her? Knocking a fourteen-year-old up is saving her?

“I know it sounds bad because of the age difference, but he saved me. I was to be sold off to another Alpha regardless.”

“He bought you?” I ask.

“Yes, and I worked at his brothel for a couple of weeks.”

“That is not saving you,” I tell her, and she looks down at her hands.

“I know, but it’s better than who Alpha Dean would sell me to,” she says.

“Pardon, did you say Alpha Dean?” she nods.

“Yeah, my family was picked up outside his borders. He said I was old enough to be sold off, and he needed the money. He killed my parents right in front of me and handed me over to his son,” she says with a growl and shakes her head. A lone tear slips down her cheek.

“Then what happened?”

“His son was done with me, and Kade was visiting. He offered me to Kade, but then Kade said he would buy me off him under the table, that no one had to know. They have been dealing in sales of the flesh ever since.”

“You mean trafficking?” I ask, and she swallows.

“I know what I did was fucked up, but,” she stops.

“When he brought me back, you figured I would replace you,” I tell her.

“I didn’t want to go back to work, and I have children now.

What would become of them?” she asks before stopping, hearing footsteps coming down the corridor, she glances behind me and gets to her feet, and I hear a thunderous growl echo off the walls and I stand quickly. Gannon steps up next to the guard.

“Why is she in there with her?” he demands, and the man steps away from him.

“I’m fine, Gannon,” I tell him, and he looks at me, tearing his eyes from the guard. He sighs and twists the key in the lock, and opens it. Cassandra whimpers and presses into the corner further.

I put my hand on his chest when he moves toward her. “Back off,” I tell him, and he looks at me.

“You’re not touching her,” I tell him.

“She helped him. How can you say that?” Gannon snaps at me.

“And she will have to live with what she did, she is a monster, but even monsters have a story. Even monsters can feel, but I am not a monster, and I won’t be responsible for her children being orphaned,” I tell him as my eyes move in her direction.

“She is just as much a victim as I am,” I say, tears burning my eyes. Gannon growls.

“No!” he snarls.

“It’s my choice. You said it’s my choice,” I whisper, and he looks at me.

“She needs to be punished for what she did. She doesn’t deserve to live after that,” he snarls, stepping toward her, and she whimpers, cowering away from him and I grip his shirt in my fist, making him stop.

“My choice, what she did was wrong, but-” I look at Cassandra. “Fear makes people do foolish things. That is something I do understand,” I tell him.

“No, I am not letting her go,” Gannon says, shaking his head.

“You said I got to choose what happened to her, so mindlink the King.”

“Abbie!”

Gannon snarls, his anger rolling off him in waves as he paces the cell, but I stand my ground.

“No, Gannon, either you get the King, or I go see Azalea. I won’t allow you to kill her.

She has kids, and I am not leaving them orphaned to suffer the same fate I did,” I tell him, my voice firm despite the fear in my chest. His lips pull back in a snarl, but he stalks out of the cell, slamming the door behind him.

Cassandra collapses the moment he’s gone, her body trembling as sobs wrack her frame. “Thank you, thank you,” she cries, her voice breaking, and I watch her for a moment, the bitterness inside me battling with pity.

“Go home to your children and forget about me, Cassandra. I was never a threat to you. But if you come back, I will let him skin you alive like he wants to, and I will hand him the tools while he does it,” I tell her coldly.

I mean every word—this is her only chance, and I won’t be so merciful again.