"Get your hands off me! Now!"
Selena shoved my shoulder, pinning my shoulder blades against the cold masonry of the wall. Behind her loomed two guards and several maids, their faces frozen in anticipation of a spectacle. The loud clatter of a fallen mop echoed through the empty gallery.
"I was just doing my job..."
"Your job?" Selena slashed me with a look burning with near-physical triumph. "Your job is to scrub the floors, not pick the pockets of the lords. Where is it?"
"I don't know what you're talking about."
"Search her."
Rough fingers dug into my shoulders. A guard ripped the edge of my apron, making the fabric tear. I jerked away, but the second one caught my wrists, twisting them until my vision went dark.
"Hey, easy on her, she's fragile," Rain said, leaning against a nearby column and twirling a practice knife on his finger. "Though Omegas have always been greedy for someone else's glitter. Right, Alina? What did you want to buy with the money from the ancient gold? Freedom?"
"I didn't take anything... let me go!"
"Oh, look at this," Selena stepped toward me, reaching for my waistband.
She pulled a thin gold chain from beneath the apron strings. A heavy sapphire, surrounded by a dusting of small diamonds, flared in the light. The pack's family heirloom pendant. A piece I'd only seen in portraits of the Alphas' mothers.
"How lovely," Selena raised the jewelry over her head, catching a ray of the grey morning sun. "Got tangled in the folds? Or were you hoping no one would notice the relic was missing?"
"That... that's not mine. You put it there yourself..." My voice broke. A lump formed in my throat, making it hard to breathe.
"Did you hear that?" Selena turned to the crowd of servants starting to gather at the noise. "The thief is accusing me of a frame-up! A filthy, low-born girl dares to open her mouth."
"Thief!" spat one of the laundresses. "I always knew she was nothing but trouble."
"Omega scum," someone whispered on the right.
Footsteps. Heavy, measured, sending a faint vibration through the floor. The crowd parted instantly. Silence blanketed the gallery like a shroud.
Cale.
He walked without looking left or right. His heavy leather cloak rustled against the stones; the scent of soot and cold metal hit my nose before he stopped a few paces away. My bond with him, that thin, grueling thread, suddenly tightened and burned with cold.
"What is happening here?" Cale's voice was devoid of emotion. Dry, like the snap of breaking bones.
"Cale, look," Selena stepped toward him, her voice instantly turning soft, with notes of righteous indignation. "I found this on her. Your family pendant. She was hiding it under her clothes."
Cale shifted his gaze to the pendant in her hands. Then to me.
I looked up, catching his eye. Please. You know. You can feel that I'm not lying.
His eyes were like a frozen lake. Deep, inscrutable, and completely empty. The bond pulsed with a dull ache, telling me only one thing: he was closed off. He had cut me off.
"Where did you get this?" Cale didn't ask "Did you take this?" He had already established the fact.
"I... I don't know... Selena approached, and..." I gasped for air. The pressure of his aura pinned me to the floor. "Please, Cale. I didn't do it."
"Lord Alpha," one of the guards interjected, tightening his grip on my arms. "We found it on her. The gallery is full of witnesses."
Cale took the pendant from Selena's fingers. He ran his thumb over the stone.
"Rain?" he asked curtly, without turning around.
"What about me?" Rain smirked, pushing off the wall. "I saw how she squirmed when Selena cornered her. Typical behavior of a rat caught by its tail. Come on, Cale, everyone knows Omegas have a weakness for shiny things. They think if they put gold around their necks, they'll become part of us."
"Did you hold it in your hands?" Cale looked at me again.
"No! Never!"
"Strange," he stepped closer. His scent became suffocating. "Your traces are on the clasp. I can smell your scent on the metal, Alina."
"That's... that's a lie..."
"You accuse your Alpha of lying?" Selena's voice rang with delight.
Cale slowly turned to Selena.
"She has encroached upon pack property. What punishment do you consider fair?"
"Exile is too lenient for such insolence," Selena narrowed her eyes. "Let her sit in silence. Let her reflect. Twenty-four hours in the dungeon without food or warmth will show her the difference between a master's jewel and her own place in this house."
I stared at Cale, my lips moving soundlessly. Don't. Don't leave me there.
Cale remained silent for a long minute. The pack waited. The social code demanded firmness. A leader cannot cover for a thief, even if that thief is his mate, whom no one is supposed to know about.
"To the dungeon with her," Cale turned away, slipping the pendant into his pocket. "Until tomorrow morning."
"Cale!" my scream broke into a rasp.
He didn't even flinch. The guards yanked me so hard I nearly dislocated my shoulders. My feet dragged across the stones.
"Heard the sentence?" Rain walked past, dousing me in the scent of cheap excitement. "I hope the rats make for excellent company."
"Off you go, thief," Selena watched me leave with a triumphant smile, adjusting her dress collar.
The bang of the iron door filled the cramped space. The sound of the bolt—heavy, final—echoed as a sharp flash of pain in my chest.
The darkness was absolute.
I slid down the slimy wall, feeling the cold of the stone instantly soak through the thin fabric of my dress. It smelled of mold, stagnant water, and my own fear. Somewhere above, muffled footsteps could be heard, but down here, time had stopped.
I hugged my knees, trying to hold on to the last of my warmth. The bond with Cale... it hadn't disappeared. It had turned into an icy needle that pricked my heart with every breath. He had done this on purpose. He hadn't just punished me; he had publicly disowned me. So no one would suspect. To save face.
"I hate you," I whispered into the void. "I hate you."
My teeth began to chatter. How much time had passed? An hour? Five? My toes went numb. I tried to recall the warmth of a fire in a hearth, but only Cale's cold, grey gaze remained before my eyes.
Sleep wouldn't come. Every rustle in the dark made me flinch. It felt like the walls were closing in, turning into stone pincers. The pain from the bond intensified, becoming almost unbearable, pulsing in time with my heartbeat.
Suddenly, a sound came from the corridor. The screech of metal on metal. Heavy footsteps.
The door creaked open, letting in a sliver of dim light from a torch. A tall figure loomed in the doorway. The scent of smoke, cedar, and steel filled the cell.
I didn't move. Even when he closed the door behind him, plunging us into semi-darkness.
"Get up," Cale's voice sounded hollow.
"Why?" My voice was barely audible. "Come to check if I've died of cold yet? It's too early. It's only night."
He stepped closer. I could see the shine of his boots. He crouched in front of me, and his aura covered me like a heavy blanket.
"You were silent when I asked about the pendant."
"What's the point?" I lifted my head, squinting from the pain in my neck. "You had already decided everything. You saw that Selena did it. You felt it through the bond."
"Selena is the daughter of an allied clan's Alpha. You are a nameless Omega."
"And that makes it okay to trample me?"
Cale suddenly reached out and grabbed my chin, forcing me to look directly at him. His fingers were hard, merciless. At the point of contact, the bond flared with a searing, furious heat. It was painful, but that heat was the only source of life in this ice trap.
"In this world, the truth belongs to the one who is stronger," he pressed harder, until my jaw creaked. "Did you think I would come out and declare Selena a liar for your sake? In front of the whole pack?"
"I thought..." I gasped at the surge of his anger through the bond. "I thought we had something... besides this collar."
Cale gave a short, bitter laugh. His face was an inch from mine. I could see how dilated his pupils were. His wolf was close, clawing at the surface, irritated by my scent and this confined space.
"There is no 'us,' Alina. There is only hierarchy. And you are at the very bottom of it."
"Then why are you here?" I tried to push his hand away, but he didn't even budge. "Leave. Go to Selena. She tried so hard for you, after all."
"You will sit here until dawn," he ignored my question. "And when you come out, you will not say a word. You will accept this punishment as deserved. Do you understand me?"
"Why?"
"Because otherwise, I will personally throw you out the gates," his voice dropped to a barely audible growl. "And you won't last an hour out there. The wild dogs will tear you apart before you even reach the forest."
I felt a tear roll down my cheek. Cale followed it with his eyes, but his face did not soften. He brushed it away roughly with his thumb, intentionally causing pain.
"You are my property, Alina. But property must know its place. Your place is in the shadows. Always."
"I wish you had just killed me," I whispered, feeling something inside me finally snap. "Back there, in the square."
"Death is too easy," he let go of my face and stood up. "Stay here and think. About who you are. And about who I am."
He headed for the door.
"Cale?"
He stopped without turning around.
"She planted it, didn't she? You know she did."
"It doesn't matter," he snapped, opening the door. "Now the pendant is with me. And you are in a cage. Everything is exactly as it should be."
The door slammed shut. Darkness again. Cold again.
I buried my face in my hands, shaking with silent sobs. The bond with him no longer pricked—it weighed down like a heavy, dead burden, confirming his every word. I was nobody. A shadow in his world.
The cold of the stone no longer frightened me. The most terrifying thing was that his scent still lingered in the cell, a reminder that even his presence was not a rescue, but another form of torture.
I closed my eyes, praying for only one thing: that morning would take as long as possible to arrive. Because tomorrow I would have to go out to all of them and confess to a sin I did not commit, looking into the eyes of the man who had just finally destroyed everything living within me.