2
I kept my eyes shut, my hands clasped behind my head on the pillow as I lay on the narrow prison-sized bed. My mind drifted away from the prison room, taking a flight to the good-time memories I had in Alpha Rhys's mansion, but not with him. I'd prefer living in the suffocating prison, gazing at the cracks that formed tree branches on the walls, than in my memories with Alpha Rhys.
My eyes still burnt with tears and my heart tightened each time I thought about him. In my vision, he always stood with a faceless shifter, the lady he was getting married to. I never cared to give her a face because I didn't care what she looked like. The mere idea of her standing beside alpha Rhys, locking hands with him, was enough to shatter my heart in pieces.
The distant sound of footsteps tugged me away from my thoughts. My eyes snapped open, and for a moment, I forgot where I was, and rushed out of the bed, only to ram my head against the iron frame of the upper bunk. Pain exploded through my skull, and I let out a muffled groan, crouching on the hard cemented floor. My hand flew to the throbbing spot, pressing hard against the affected area in a futile attempt to dull the sharp sting.
"Not again," I muttered, my voice barely disturbing the silence that ruled the cell. Hurting my head most of the time I heard footsteps in the hallway had been a routine I couldn't shirk from. The thought of alpha Rhys coming to rescue me always accompanied those approaching steps.
I had to leave the cell before my pregnancy became obvious through a protruding stomach. The fact that Alpha Rhys and I were cautious about having a child made me doubt my chances of getting pregnant, but four months of missing my period were enough to conclude I was pregnant. I tried to remember how I conceived, but all I kept thinking of was the consequences of being pregnant for Alpha Rhys. The Luna would kill me for carrying the Alpha's child, so I had to escape that event of getting caught.
Despite the effort of bearing my pain in silence, my ginger cellmate burst out laughing. She was laughing at me, especially since she had no phone and no entertainment to make her laugh, except for my consistent accident with her bunk. I didn't know what I was thinking when the sound of the collision vibrated through her, giving my accident away. I was making her prison moment worth the stay.
I sighed and sat on the cold floor, my hands wrapped around my curled-up knees. Averting my gaze to the cell door, I lay my cheek on my knees, wondering if I'd ever leave this cell. At breakneck speed, four months had slipped by, and I was still here, waiting for a marriage I doubted would be taking place any moment. I began thinking if Luna meant what she said about releasing me after alpha Rhys's marriage to goddess knew who.
When my cellmate found my accident no longer funny, she said, "You forgot the most important thing."
I felt an impulse to take my anger out on her, but I chose to keep my emotions to myself, remembering what the police officer said about her. He advised me to steer clear from her when he transferred her to my cell.
"Hey." Her sheets rustled as she stuck her head out from her bed, staring down at me. "You heard what the police officer said earlier. You might be my next victim."
Scared of being her next victim, I trudged to the door, peeping through the prison cell window in the metal door. The gray empty hallway made me sick in the stomach even though I wasn't expecting to see anyone that would let me out of the cell.
Satisfied with how docile she made me behave, she laughed before asking, "Will this shifter ever come for you, or will you be stuck with me forever."
"I don't know." Definite she was pleased with my compliance, I edged away from the door and sat on my bed.
"Tell me, why is an innocent, young-looking shifter like you doing in a cell like this?"
"A misunderstanding," I lied. "Soon it'll be sorted out, though."
"Average or high?"
Wait. Was she a shifter? How come she couldn't tell I wasn't in any of the options she just listed? Anyway, I went with the flow. I'd be in much danger if I should tell her I was a low-class shifter. "Average."
"Hmm." She laid back on her bed, finally releasing me from her amber stare.
After a few seconds, she asked, "Are you desperate to be famous?"
I didn't know what she meant by that and didn't care to ask. "I just want to leave here."
"Mum's baby girl." She adjusted in her bed, the bedding rustled, and the entire bunk quivered, shaking me a bit.
She wasn't mistaken when she called me that. I was the only one my mom had, no husband, no relatives, just me. I missed my mom a lot, and I knew she missed me a lot, too.
Feeling she wasn't as bad as the police said, I itched to ask her about Alpha Rhys and his love affairs. Maybe the officer judged her by the color of her hair, ginger, just like fire. Nobody wanted to get burned.
"How long have you been in prison?" That wasn't on my mind to ask her. Goodness.
"Why do you wanna know?" she asked, curious.
"Just wanted to know if you attended alpha Rhys's wedding before getting…" I completed, in a whisper, "arrested."
"I've been waiting for this question for so long."
"Do you want to talk about it?" I asked, then sighed, relieved she didn't pick up a fight.
"Sill having cramps?"
Confused why she brought that up, an uneasy feeling deluged me. The police officer's words screamed so loud in my ears as I answered, "It stopped. Thanks."
Earlier in the day, when Miss Ginger was being transferred to my cell, I lay cuddled in my bed, shivering. When one of the police officers asked me what the problem was, I told him what Miss Ginger believed, that I was having cramps. A severe one. After missing my period four times in a row, I wouldn't need a test to know that I was pregnant. Alpha Rhys was the only one I could tell about the pregnancy, no one else. Not even my mom.
She let out a heavy sigh. "Do you wanna hear a story?"
"I'd like that," I replied, attempting very hard not to be her next victim.
The instinct to scurry out of the ginger's presence surged through me as she jumped to the ground, staring at me with an expression I couldn't comprehend. Her prickled face looked innocent, but I wasn't going to be fooled the second time. Never judge by appearance; I learned that the hard way from Luna.
On my guard, I watched her sit next to me on my bed. Her gaze scanned me like I was a bar code. Her proximity made me feel hot, clotting my pores with sweat.
"Only a guilty person will act this way." She tilted her head and asked, "Are you?"
"Trust me, you'll act the same if you were in my shoes right now." I cleared my throat. Was she a judge sent by Luna, or was she just demented?
She stood, drawing a sigh from me after she began pacing. "Before Oakley took over this pack, after brutally killing the sitting alpha, his family, and those who believed in him, there was an agreement that Oakley would always yield to the eight pack alliances of the late alpha."
Taking her pause as a chance to speak, I said, "I know the story."
She stopped a few inches away from the wall and pivoted, facing me. "You don't know the story too well."
"Why would you say that ?" Only the dead would know nothing about the story she was telling. The story was called End of Rogues. Oakley, alpha Rhys's father, who was a rogue then, mocked the power of alliance and slaughtered alpha Tyson and everything he ever cherished. That fight turned the pack into what it was now: division of pack members and fear of insurgency.
"If you knew too well, you would have known that nothing was to come between Alpha Rhys and Danica." She began edging towards me.
"Who's Danica?" The question popped out so fast before realizing Danica could be the female shifter alpha Rhys would be getting married to. The realization chilled my blood.
"Who are you?" she answered my question with a question.
"Why don't you tell me?" I asked, scared she was the television Luna gifted me with. "You sound like you know me already."
"Of course, I know you. One of the whores alpha Rhys slept with. Tell me one thing, are you pregnant?"
"I don't know what you're talking about." I scurried out of the bed, darting to the other side of the wall to create more space between us. Looking at the door, I swallowed hard and quickly turned my attention back to her.
"Don't play with me, Jasmine. The mad Luna told us about you. I'm asking you this one more time because I don't kill pregnant shifters, are you pregnant?"
"Offi—" I tried to bellow, but her calloused palm came against my mouth, denying me the right to speak.
I struggled to pull her hand away from my mouth, but it only got worse when she pinned my hand on the wall and placed her knee on my stomach, stilling me from taking any further action. I only watched her with dilated eyes that were laced with fear; my breath went off and on.
Through gritted teeth, she said, "I'll ask one last time, Jasmine, are you pregnant?"
Tears started streaming down my eyes as I was about to admit to the truth before I heard, "Hey. Get away from her."
My help came when I least expected it. No sound of their feet was held, not even the clanking of the metal lock, as if they were sent from the goddess above.
Two police officers came to drag her away, but she saved the officer the stress by backing away. The wicked smirk on her face made me believe she had more plans rolled up in her orange sleeves.
"Miss Jasmine, you're free to go."
Without wasting another second inside the cell, I scurried off, ignoring the burning sensation I felt from the friction of her hands against my mouth and wrist.
After changing into my white robe, I went to the reception where a pudgy officer gave me a golden envelope that had alpha Rhys's scent on it—musky. Though most shifters found his scent harsh, it made my mouth water. But where was he? I looked around the perimeters of the reception.
Assured by his absence in the reception, I hurried out of the building entirely, with a wish that the fire-hair shifter would rot in jail. The brightness of the sky, which I hadn't seen in four months, threatened to make me go blind. I shaded my eyes with my palm kept closer to my eyebrows while I searched for alpha Rhys among the parked cars.
Seeing a white sports car parked a few distances away from the police station, I strained my eyes to see who the driver was, while I advanced towards the car. I blushed when I saw his sophisticated, handsome face staring through the rear mirror he stared at. That feeling suddenly disappeared as I thought of the chances of him canceling the contract and hurting me more by talking about his marriage. And the baby, what would I tell him?
I tucked those thoughts aside as alpha Rhys's engine roared to life. Afraid he was going to leave without me, my bowel system watered, causing my stomach to rumble. Feeling I wasn't walking fast enough, I ran towards his car, but he drove off at a speed that my wolf wouldn't cover.
"Alpha Rhys," I bellowed, standing in the middle of the road, panting. Tears wet my face, and I kneed on the asphalt, wailing. I couldn't shift while I was pregnant, and I couldn't go after him knowing there could be a bounty placed on my head.
Whimpering, I stared down at the envelope tightly clasped in my fingertips, wondering what could be inside.