Chapter 11: Chapter 11

[Nivera’s POV]

Tears streamed down my eyes as I sat in the far end of the dark cell, isolating myself even when I was already isolated. My ripped blouse was held firmly to my chest and I kept on rubbing my fingers again and again as the event that took place an hour ago kept on playing and replaying in my head.

Maybe it was no big deal to be seen in just a bra by most people, but often, Omegas were paraded and used like sluts and so, it sent a negative message like I was no different from them. It made me feel really uncomfortable and even though my stomach was empty, it wretched with disgust and I wanted to puke.

I might have ended up in a bar, serving customers while topless, but somehow, I had been lucky enough to end up as a maid in the palace where everyone saw me as cursed and wanted nothing to do with me. I might have been treated like dirt all my life, but I found it way better than being forced to live a life as a sex worker, and after what happened earlier on, I felt like I hadn’t escaped that life.

The looks on the faces of the guys showed that right there and then, they forgot I was “possessed” and it made my skin crawl. As if that wasn’t enough, I had overheard two of them try to bribe the guard outside to just have a minute alone with me. Thankfully, he wasn’t interested in the money they had to offer.

I was scared. When I was out of prison, when I had rejected the Alpha and was now free from the mate pull, what would be my fate? They could always find me if they wanted to, and now that I had been exposed and they obviously lusted after me, I didn’t feel safe.

I heard the guard’s footsteps and I buried my head in my knees, frightened. Had he finally accepted an offer he couldn’t resist?

“Hey, slave!” he yelled.

I looked up, only being able to see through the dim light that came from the small opening in the wall.

“I have something for you,” he said, and threw a thread and needle through the bars.

I crawled to the middle of the cell where the needle and thread had fallen off and picked it up. “What… what’s this for?” I asked.

They had sent me needle and thread, but not the food and water I desperately needed?

“What do you think? Sew that shit up,” he responded.

I was surprised. I didn’t know they actually cared that my blouse had gotten torn. Then, a thought crossed my mind. Alpha Tyler had seemed sorry for the first time after he ripped my blouse and he had tried to explain that he hadn’t meant it. Perhaps, he was the one who had sent me this.

“I’m sorry, did Alpha Tyler send the needle and thread?” I inquired.

He burst into a fit of laughter. “You wish. Tami sent it. Now, get lost and stop asking me stupid questions,” he said.

Yet again, I had been disappointed. Seriously though, I really needed to stop thinking that Alpha Tyler had some good in him. He was a monster and I really shouldn’t have even the slightest belief that he was a better person than he appeared to be.

Suddenly, I remembered. It was eight years ago. The former Chief Maid had sent me to get some mushrooms from the farm and I had done exactly that. It had been drizzling when I left, but she had specifically told me to return with the mushrooms even if the rain later became heavy to the point where it could sweep me away. According to her, that outcome would even be better for everyone.

The rain was so heavy but I didn’t have a choice and attempted to run to the palace when a hand stopped me and pulled me under the shade of a tree. When I looked up, it was none other than the youngest Alpha the world had ever known; Alpha Tyler. I was able to recognise him since I lived in the palace. He asked if I had a death wish and when I explained the situation to him, he told me he would take care of it.

True to his words, we ended up going to the palace together when the rain had subsided and he instantly fired the Chief Maid. Unknown to me, there had been other complaints about her and the Alpha decided it was time to let her go. She couldn’t keep seeing to the affairs of little maids in the palace when she had no sympathy whatsoever.

Looking back, it was probably why I had fallen for him and although we never spoke again after that, I always watched him from a distance. He was my first love, and that was why I hoped that somehow, he accepted me and still had some good in him. Perhaps, we had been fated for each other from the very beginning, but I knew all too well that I was merely deceiving myself. He wasn’t the young thirteen year-old boy I had fallen for; he was a twenty-one year-old man who didn’t give a shit about me.

The realisation of that hurt so much and I began to sob uncontrollably, then I unconsciously pricked my index finger with the needle.

“Ow!” I winced and began to suck on the injury, when it struck me.

On the day of the full moon, I had been bleeding after hitting my hand against the bark of a tree and the stranger had appeared. When I had been bleeding from the beating the other girls had given me, he appeared. He was right. My blood called him, and no, it was no coincidence that he had appeared anytime that happened.

These people had clearly never wanted me and I had been a fool to think that I belonged here. I didn’t, and although I wasn’t sure about where I belonged yet, I was sure that I would rather be with people who want me.

To that effect, I picked up the needle and pricked my index finger the more, and as the blood gushed out, I pressed the finger tightly, as though encouraging more drops of blood to rush in torrents and spill on the ground.

“Come, stranger, come,” I tried to summon him.

I already knew he was no ordinary human being. I wasn’t sure about what he was, but I knew he could break into a tight cell like this one unnoticed and get me out before I got embarrassed further, starved to death or compelled to accept the Alpha’s rejection.

I cried harder as moments had passed and he still wasn’t present. Had my theory been wrong? Didn’t my blood call unto him? “I thought I had found someone at last… my own person who would always be there for me. I guess I was wrong,” I said in a defeated voice.

“Am I the person you speak of?” I heard him ask. I would recognise that voice anywhere. It was deep and ethereal.

When I looked up, a broad smile lit up my face. It was the first time I had smiled so genuinely in years and I raced towards him then just looked at him, holding his hands in awe as I still couldn’t believe he was right there with me. He was dressed in a gentlemanly way, wearing a three-piece navy blue suit with a black tie and black pocket square. I just realised he was actually the most handsome man I knew, and it was the first time I actually took in his features.

With a 6’4 tall height, sharp blue eyes, a muscular frame, highly defined cheekbones, pointed nose, that sleek olive skin and his neatly styled jet-black hair, he definitely trumped over Alpha Tyler in more ways than one. Eloise, whoever she was, was lucky to have him as a former lover, and if I were her, I would have never let him go. He wasn’t just sexy, he also seemed to have a good heart.

But then, I realised. His eyes weren’t on me, they were somewhere else, and when I followed them, I was mortified to find out that he had been staring at my breasts just clad in bra as in my excitement, I hadn’t held the ripped blouse over my chest and it had fallen to the floor.

“Shit,” I muttered under my breath and attempted to leave to get the blouse which was still laying on the floor at the corner of the cell I had been in.

However, in that moment, he stopped me by holding my hand and pulling me back to him. The next thing I knew, he drew me to his chest and wrapped his arms around me. His breathing was steady and it rhymed with mine, unless that as I relaxed in his embrace feeling comfortable even though I had just my bra over my breasts, my heart skipped a beat the moment I returned his hug,

I couldn’t tell what was going on. Deep down, I knew I still had feelings for the Alpha, but now, it was also clear that I did feel something for this man, but I didn’t even know who he was.

“I’m sorry. I should have come sooner, and I promise I was about to come to you before you even summoned me. I’m never going to let you suffer again. I promise, Nivera,” he whispered into my ear.

Somehow, I believed him. Somehow, in his arms, I felt the safest I had ever been.