The iron door to the dungeon groaned open, jolting Freya to sit from her curled position on the floor. Rats scurried around in front of her but she had learned to get used to them during the past days.

Her main concern now was the two muscular men, who she already identified as wolves, padding towards her.

She matted her cracked lips together as they enclosed her. It was easy for them to grab her because she hadn’t eaten anything after Beta Caleb brought her food the previous day.

Her wrists, raw from the silver cuffs, were crusted in dried blood.

“On your feet,” the scarred one barked as they grabbed her but left her just as immediately.

She tried to move, but her body betrayed her. Her legs gave in, and she collapsed again.

The second one clicked his tongue in irritation. “Pathetic. Thought I heard she has powers.”

Without waiting for her to try again, they dragged her up between them like a rag doll and began the long walk up the stone corridors toward the pack’s hall. Her bare feet scraped against the floor, leaving weak trails behind her. She had no energy in her to protest at this point.

When they got to the main hall, Freya, already smelling the Alpha’s scent and feeling his heavy presence, averted her gaze. Something growled weakly inside her. That same thing that usually growls whenever the Alpha is within close proximity.

The crowd had dispersed, but Alpha Torin was there, awaiting her. And across from her, Luna Athena was also seated beside her Alpha.

Freya’s legs gave way again when they forced her to kneel before the Alpha. She kept her gaze lowered.

“Oh goddess, she stinks.” Luna Athena commented with disgust, her hand flying to cover her sharp and small pointed nose”

Alpha Torin’s jaw clenched as he looked at her. There again, was that raw connection. He didn’t want to deal with it at the moment.

He signaled for the female Omegas, and they came rushing forward. “Get her bathed, dress her in the maid's uniform, and feed her. She will need the strength.” He ordered and they bowed respectively.

Freya didn’t have enough time to rejoice that she would finally have the bath she had longed for. Maids clothing? She didn’t have enough time to process that either.

“Take her to the pack doctor afterward, her wounds should be tended to. She would begin her duties as my slave afterwards.”

Freya blinked repeatedly. The words didn’t register at first. Then they did.

Duties as the ruthless Alpha’s slave?

Still, she said nothing. Her body was trembling too hard. Her mind spun, grasping at what this meant. She didn’t even know if that was better than death at this point.

Whatever he meant by being his slave didn’t sound good at all.

The three Omegas stood before her. The older one was named Merilyn, she had tight features and a pinched mouth. The other, younger and wide-eyed was Kiera. A pretty omega who looked dead in the eyes. Another younger one named Kiera grabbed her first. Freya was handed over to them like livestock, and they didn’t spare her a second of care.

“She stinks,” Merilyn muttered as she led Freya down the hall. “I don’t know what our Alpha’s thinking. Should’ve burned her in the dungeon.” Freya muffled her gasp. She wasn’t expecting such comment.

“Now, she’s an unworthy liability for us to cater for,” Lenora added, digging her nails into Freya’s arm as they dragged her along. Only Kiera said nothing.

When they reached the baths, Freya was stripped without ceremony. The tub was filled with steaming water laced with herbs, and the omegas scrubbed her down with rough hands while muttering unfriendly words.

Freya didn’t enjoy the bath, but at least, they were getting her dirt off. She was given a toothbrush to brush her teeth with afterwards.

“So, you thought you were special?” Merilyn hissed, dragging a cloth along Freya’s back. “Bet you thought the Alpha would sweep you into his bed soon. Well, wolves don’t mate with filth.”

Freya said nothing. She bit her lips inside her mouth.

“So the rumored power human doesn’t talk? What a weakling,” Lenora said with a short, dry laugh. “They always are when they're on their knees. I bet she was hoping he’d touch her. Poor thing. Instead, she was caged like a fowl” Merilyn and Lenora burst into mock laughter.

From the corner, the younger omega, Kiera, looked at Freya, her gaze lingered on her face for a moment but it then dropped quickly.

She didn’t say a word. But she didn’t mock her either.

Freya’s fingers gripped the edge of the tub as the taunts went on. She let them scrub her until her skin burned and her bruises stung. Her silence was not weakness, it was preservation.

When they were done, she was dressed in a plain gray uniform. It fit too snug at the hips and too loose around her shoulders, but it was clean, only that she felt so low in it. Her washed hair was packed into a messy bun.

After eating, they led her to the infirmary where the pack doctor waited. A man who looked his late fifties, white-haired and bespectacled, looked up from whatever he was mixing together.

“The infamous supernatural human,” He greeted Freya without looking up yet. Then he looked up. Freya had a frown on his face.

She watched the Omegas as they left after telling the doctor he was to treat Freya.

“They finally let you out.”

She didn’t reply.

He examined her wounds carefully, frowning as he went.

“These wounds should’ve closed by now. Your body isn’t healing at the right pace. Even the weakest wolves recover faster than this.”

“I’m not a wolf,” Freya whispered. They were the first words she had spoken since she left the dungeon. How could anyone say she was what she had lived her entire life to hate and hunt?

He paused.

“What are you, then?”

“I was human,” she said, her voice barely audible. “Until I got here. Then everything changed. I…I think I was cursed here. The powers… they aren’t mine. They feel cast upon me. Like it’s a burden… I can’t explain what happened to me”

The pack doctor’s gaze fell onto the Sigil signs on her left arm, then he tilted his head with curiosity.

“No one casts powers into someone, girl. You can’t curse a rabbit into becoming a lion. Powers don’t work like that.”

Freya looked up from the wound he was treating to him.

“You’re saying… I was born with them?”

“I’m saying,” he replied, “that you should start asking about your bloodline. You may have been claiming wrong all this while.” A cold chill of dread swept through Freya’s body at that moment. If she had been ignorant before, she was more concerned than confused now. Who the hell was she?

After the bandages were reapplied and the healing ointments smeared across her cuts, the Omegas returned to take her back to the hall. It was empty.

“Oh, the Alpha is not here.” Lenora said then looked at Freya with a mean glare. “I guess we will have to return you to the dungeon then,”

Before anyone else could speak, Alpha Torin emerged, descending down the stairs in the hall, in his oversized cloak that made him look like a dark-lethal but extremely attractive lord.

Freya swallowed hard. His presence intimidated her yet excited something deep inside her. Left to her, she hated him with every inch of her.

“You all can leave,” He ordered, his gaze stopping on Freya’s frail but refreshed form. The Omega padded away, leaving only Alpha Torin and Freya in the hall.

His gaze slid from her bare feet to her wrists, then slowed over the curve of her hips, the slope of her chest where the gray fabric clung damp from the bath. And her eyes…it was now pairs of beautiful blue lenses, which meant her former Brown eyes were fake lenses.

His jaw tightened. His nostrils flared.

He frowned as if angry, but he wasn’t. It was lust he felt. A dark twisted lust that made him want to strip her naked right there and attack her body till she was filled with every inch of him.

He stared at his mate for too long. Maybe, just maybe, if he rejected her as his mate, this intense feeling of desire for her would stop.

He walked towards her. Freya flinched as he reached her front. She could smell his alluring scent even more closely now. She couldn’t understand why the scent was pulling her in, making her want to curl into a devil’s embrace.

And just like she wished, like a dream, she would detest but also revel in, she was drawn forward by the Alpha, and before she could comprehend what was going on, his lips were on hers, giving her the most intense kiss she had ever had in her life.