Prison

“I swear to you, Cass. This is only going to be temporary,” My brother said to me as the police men waited to take me away for god knows how long. I was so scared; I had never been this scared in my life. He touched my face gently, drawing circles on it as a way to comfort me. “I will come for you very soon. I won’t let you rot in there.” He flashed me a sad smile. 

I forced one back at him. “You promise?” My voice broke when I spoke, tears slipping from my eyes at the same time. 

“Hey, hey…” He said softly as he wiped away my tears. “I promise…I will come for you.” With that, he pulled me in for a hug, closing the distance between us and wrapping his strong arms around me. 

I hugged him back, holding onto that promise tighter than I was now holding onto him. 

I was then taken away, stripped of everything I knew and owned. I was locked up in the lowest part of the prison, treated worse than a slave. I once had everything that life had to offer, but now…I had nothing. I was nothing. 

But something kept me going. Something kept me waking up every morning with light in my eyes and strength in my bones. And that something was the hope that my brother would come for me. I did not know the particular day, but I knew that it could be any day. 

So I kept hoping. I kept enduring. I kept suffering…never losing my hope. Days soon turned into months. And months started slowly turning into years. Yet, I chose to still clutch at the hope of my brother’s promise. 

But every day was just the same. Every night was the same. He never came. My brother broke his promise to me and never came for me, leaving me locked behind bars. 

And that kind of thing breaks you to the core. 

Three years. It had been one thousand and ninety-five days of pain, misery, and hopelessness. Three freaking years of being treated like I was garbage, all because I had chosen to do the right thing. All because I had chosen to be kind. 

I have never felt so alone in my life. No one cared about me anymore. Not since they found out the truth. Not since they found out that I was nothing but a fraud. Even my wolf had abandoned me. I felt like there was no point in going on, but I just kept at it. 

Everyone in the pack saw me as a traitor, the one who had betrayed them. But little did they know that the real culprit was still out there, living life like a princess and having the time of her life. It wasn’t fair, I swear, it wasn’t. 

But there was no going back; I had made my bed, now I had to sleep in it. 

“Oww,” I said to myself as I tried to adjust myself on the bed that I was lying on. It was hardly a bed; it was just a bunch of dirty towels that smelled like sh*t that had been sprawled on the floor. Every move I made would cause me discomfort, if not pain. But this was my life now, and even though I should have been used to it by now, I still was not. 

My stomach growled; I had not eaten anything since the leftovers from the other prisoners this morning. And that was hours ago, night had already fallen, and I was starving. But I would not dare to even try to voice this out because I knew that it would get me a solid whipping. 

So I kept quiet; I kept it to myself as I hugged myself… lying on the towels. I closed my eyes and prayed for sleep to come. I knew that it was going to be hard, but I just needed an escape from all of this. But as soon as my eyelids shut, a sound startled me. 

My eyes shot open, and I looked up to see a guard standing at my cell. He had a tight frown on his face. “Get up. The Alpha is here to pick you up,” he said to me, his voice hard as he stared at me with disgust. “You’re lucky. Hurry up.” He looked impatient. 

I immediately got up on my feet. I was confused by this. This did not feel real. Was I being pranked? But from the look on the guard’s face, I was sure that he was not the kind of person to prank anyone. But I am not going to lie, I was in disbelief. 

This felt like I was dreaming. Was my brother finally here to pick me up? After all these years? Tears burned my eyes, and my heart squeezed as I made my way over to the bars of the cell, waiting for the man to open it up for me. 

When he did, he grabbed me harshly by my arm and started to lead me down the hallway. The same clothes that I had worn three years ago when I had been sentenced here were the same ones on my thin body. They smelled so bad, but I had gotten used to them. 

When we reached out, there was some paperwork that I had to sign, but that did not take long, and I was released. I could not believe that this was actually happening. I pinched myself over and over, but this was reality. This was actually freaking happening!

As soon as I was out of the property, my eyes landed on him…my brother. Gosh, he had grown so much. He looked more mature than he had the last time I had seen him. He looked more like a true Alpha now.

It felt like it was just yesterday when I had found out that I was not really his sister, and that I was not the actual daughter of the royal family. Three years ago, the real daughter of the royal family had returned, and it had felt like everything had been slowly stolen from me. 

All the love that I had once had was then given to her, and although they still used to show that they cared about me, it had been obvious that love and care had begun to fade. It had not even taken long, and the girl had done something by accident…something that should have landed her in prison. 

But my brother had told me that she would never be able to survive prison and that I should take her place since she was a very sickly person. So I did. That was why I had been in that hellhole for all these years…suffering. All because I had chosen kindness. 

I had felt like they had been such a good family to me and had taken such good care of me for so long before they had found out that I wasn’t their real daughter. So yeah, I had felt like doing that would have been a great way to try to repay them. 

“You look…” My brother began, but he stopped himself. “The Lycan King is searching for a mate, and every female werewolf has to be present. So that’s why I’m here to take you back.” He flashed a forced smile at me before turning and opening the door of the car for me to get in. 

“Thank you for taking care of me, Alpha,” I managed to say, showing my appreciation. I just wished that things would have been like how they used to be, when he used to show that he really did care about me. 

Now it felt like we were strangers. 

“Why are you so timid? You’re part of the alpha family, too.” He shrugged weakly. 

I smiled bitterly. Since taking the blame for Sage and going to prison, my status had dropped even lower than that of an omega. And years in prison had taught me to stay to myself, to speak softly, and to never provoke anyone to anger. “Hmm…” 

“Who are you putting up an act for? Get in the car, Cassie.” He continued to hold the door open for me. 

I sighed weakly and made my way towards the open door, but he soon let go of it and proceeded to the other side of the car. But I was taking a bit longer because my legs had been broken so many times in prison, so they had left some injuries over time. I could feel his eyes on me. 

“Look, who are you doing this for, really?” He asked as he lingered at the other side of the car. “If you don’t want to come back, then go back to prison. Are you doing this on purpose? Trying to make everyone think that you’re suffering?” He scoffed. 

“Leon…please, you have no idea…” I tried to explain, but he did not want to hear it. 

He rolled his eyes. “You enjoyed Sage’s life for over ten years. You have only literally suffered for three for her. What do you have to complain about?” He narrowed his eyes at me. “You know what?” He made his way back to my side of the car, where I was, closing the door before walking to the driver’s area again. “F*ck this. I’m leaving. You know the way home anyway. Walk back yourself.” 

I could not believe my eyes. I watched him get into the car, drive away from me, and literally leave me standing in the cold of the night. I took a deep, shaky breath, the words of Leon echoing in my head. 

But what more could I do? 

So I started walking, shivering due to how cold it was out. My heart was in so much pain. I hugged myself as I walked, memories of how things used to be playing in my head like a broken record. 

After a few long minutes, a car pulled up near me. For a second, I thought that maybe Leon had come back for me. But when I looked at the vehicle, I knew that it was not the case. 

It was a black Toyota, and all the windows were tinted very dark. The window at the front then rolled down, and a man said, “Get in.”