Chapter 1
“Hush little one,” Cara cooed, praying the infants wails wouldn’t bring the others.
She knew she’d be punished severally if she couldn’t get her baby to quiet down. He was hungry, and she knew he wasn't getting enough milk, but without more food there wasn't anything she could do for him.
“Shush, please,” she begged, bouncing the small bundle in her arms. Reaching into her bucket of water, Cara gently fed him drop by drop hoping it will help ease his hunger.
Hearing the locks on her cell being disengaged, Cara pushed herself as far back on the ledge that served as her bed as she could, her son held closely to her chest.
“Out,” a voice barked.
When she didn’t move, the guard stepped into the cramped space, grabbing her ankle and pulling her to the ground.
“I said, out!” the guard barked, releasing her ankle only to grip her painfully around on the nape of her neck.
Shoving her ahead of him, his grip never loosening, Cara was marched out of her small sanctuary in this hell she called a home, and forced into the harsh light of day.
Bowing her head to escape the blazing sunlight, she allowed herself to be maneuvered towards the cabin that the men of the pack used to bed her.
Cara began to prepare herself for what she knew was to come.
‘Submit and live, fight and pay, give what is demanded and survive another day,’ she repeated to herself, all the while looking down at her infant son.
She knew it was too soon for them to use her. Her baby was only four weeks old, but that would not stop them.
Reaching the cabin door, her guard pushed it open and shoved her inside.
“Wash yourself and get ready,” he spat, his eyes looking at her with disgust. “You have thirty minutes.”
With that, the door was closed and locked leaving her to tremble in silence.
Knowing there was nothing else to do but what she was told, Cara bared her breast to feed her hungry baby hoping she could get him sleep through what was to come.
When he was finished, Cara patted his back until he burped and fell sleep.
Not knowing how much time she had left, she swaddled the infant and laid him gently in the drawer of a dresser. There was no other place to put him.
Quickly, she stripped and scrubbed her body with soap and a rag, making sure every part of her was clean, trying to ignore the scars and bruises that covered her body.
Once that was done, she pulled on a clean over sized shirt and sat down on the edge of the bed to wait.
‘Submit and live, fight and pay, give what is demanded and survive another day,’ she said to herself again.
The male would come, use her body to fulfill his needs and she would be taken back to her cell and left in peace until the next time.
With luck it would be just the one, but she never knew how many would come.
Hearing voices approach, Cara turned her head and looked straight ahead.
"This is what we call our pleasure palace," she heard the Alpha of her pack saying as he unlocked the door.
Hearing it open, she stood on shaking legs and waited to be told what to do.
"This is Cara," the Alpha said, leading another man into the room.
Cara kept her eyes straight ahead as her Alpha approached, praying he would be as quick as he usually was.
"She provides... comfort to those males who are unmated or whose mates have died," he continued, circling her, his fingers trailing across her jaw.
"You keep a human as your pack whore?" the stranger asked, looking Cara up and down.
"Well, yes," he Alpha replied, looking a his companion, "but she's a foundling taken in years ago. There was nothing else in the pack she was suited for. It's not like she'd ever have a mate."
"But she does," she heard the stranger say, his voice low and dangerous.
"What?" her Alpha asked, seeming confused.
"She's my mate," the stranger roared, grabbing her Alpha by his throat.
Terrified, Cara watched as the largest man she'd ever seen tackled her Alpha, knocking him to the ground, hold him by the neck while punching his face with relentless ferocity.
With all the growling and screams of pain, Cara heard her baby wailing in fear.
Dodging around the flailing legs of her Alpha and the enraged man that seemed intent on killing him, she made it to the dresser and lifted her son into her arms.
Running to a corner, Cara cowered with her back to the fighting, using her body to protect him.
