Denied by Destiny: Trapped in the Shadows of the Mate Bond

"I...I just need a moment." I respond, clutching at my stomach, excruciating pain cramping at me. "Here take some of this?" The old woman hands her hip flask out to me, a groan escaping me as I bend over...I was going to hurl at any second.

"What is it?"

"It will help, it will take the pain away."

I take the hip flask off her, sniffing at it only to push it away from me...the potent smell of wolfsbane burning at my nostrils.

"It's wolfsbane." My pain is too intense to really sound how horrified I am that not only she was willingly sipping on this but she was offering it to a pregnant woman.

"Yes."

"Why would you think I would want that?"

"It will stop the calling to the pack, to the baby's father."

"It will kill the baby."

"No, I've been taking it for decades and I'm still standing." I'm torn between crying and laughing at her comment, the severity of my current situation hitting me like a ton of bricks.

My blood turns cold when I hear a scream coming from the beta household, a female scream.

"Freya?" My feet are already moving, all nausea leaving me...now replaced with concern for the female beta.

"Freya?" I knock on the front door, only for another scream to echo out.

"Freya!" Enough of ignoring this inner sense that something was wrong, enough of being polite...I may not be part of the pack link yet but I knew she needed help.

I kick the door in, a gasp coming from behind as I hear both Than and Luna Medea exit the alpha house. "Cleo?" Than roars out to me, but I don't wait, I cross the threshold of the beta house...following

the sound of whimpering.

I move with speed, my eyes searching the living space to find it empty...I head to the stairs where I listen intently, my wolf letting me use her enhanced hearing even though she was still ploughing all of her energy into growing our child.

The noise wasn't coming from upstairs, it was coming from downstairs.

"Freya? Zane?" I call out with urgency at a door that must lead downstairs to a basement.

"Cleo, no." Than grips my elbow.

"What is going on?"

"Nothing, we can't just barge into our pack member's homes. This is their private space."

Another scream has me forcing the door open, moving past Than and running down the basement steps.

The smell of dried blood hits me first, followed by the smell of wolfsbane.

But instead of the slight scent from the hip flask, this hits my senses full whack.

A scream has me at the bottom step instantly, my eyes scanning the basement to find a figure sitting in a chair, and a male hovering over her.

Freya.

A blood curdling scream escapes Freya again as Zane places a piece of rope across her arm, tying her to the chair.

I watch on in horror as the sound of burning flesh erupts, drowning out Freya's whimpers.

"What are you doing?" I demand out, pushing Zane to the side, my hands wanting to remove the ropes from her but in doing so I myself would be burnt.

"Help me!" I turn to Than who stands with his arms crossed, a displeased look to his eyes that I haven't witnessed before.

He looked cold.

"No...no." Freya cries out to me in pain.

"Shh, I'm going to help you."

"No, I don't want help, I need this...I deserve this."

"What are you talking about?" I

desperately scan the room, trying to find anything that could help me

remove these burning ropes without touching them myself.

"It is my punishment, leave them..." She mutters out, barely responsive. She was ghostly pale, her eyes rolling into the back of her head.

"Punishment? Punisment for what?"

"Freya is a pack traitor, she remains here under the kindess of the alpha." A coldness radiates of Beta Zane, his words laced with venom.

"What? You knew about this?"

Aghast, I turn around to Than,

expecting his help, that he like me was just as shocked by Zane's domestic abuse. But not one part of him seems surprised, not one part of him was trying to help me rip the ropes off Freya.

"A traitor's scar never heals." Than grunts out, his eyes holding mine before he turns his back on his female-beta, heading back up the stairs. Leaving me in the dark coleness of the basement.