Jessalynn's POV
…
I don't know how many hours or days I've been locked in this damp, mucky, isolated cell. Just as my mate had ordered, none of the guards bothered to give me even a handful of water to quench my parched throat. My tummy had long stopped protesting; probably it already understood that its demands were never going to be met.
No medicine was administered to me either. Despite the cell being murky, I knew even without seeing my body that I was in a pretty bad shape. I don't know how I'm able to hang on, honestly. I didn't really see any reason to hang on, yet here I was, still clinging to life.
I hadn't been able to sleep a wink. How could I when pain coursed all over my body with every slight movement? As a werewolf, I could self-heal to some extent, but it was painfully slow since I had been force-fed a small bowlful of monkshood wine, something bad for werewolves as well.
The gate was unexpectedly opened from the outside, and a guard asked me to get out. Was I being freed from this hellhole? That was unlikely.
And I was right because I was soon forced to kneel before an unwelcome visitor. Who else but the spiteful Clara?
She clicked her tongue, looking down at me with a look of derision, arms crossed and a leg draped across the other on the chair she was perched on. "Oh my! It's only been two days since we last met. How did you become like this?"
I didn't respond to her.
Turning to the guard, she called with a beckoning gesture, "Hey, you, come here,"
"Yes, your grace," said the guard in a deferential tone.
So this was what she was called now? 'Your grace?'
"Are you sure this is Jessalyn?" the conceited blonde asked, pointing at me as if I resembled a mound of dog ordure.
The guard replied with an affirmative nod, "Yes, your grace. I'm absolutely certain that she is the former luna."
"Wow, she looks so…horrible," Clara remarked, feigning shock.
I rolled my eyes, already too lazy to bother with her boring drama. "Save the pretence, Clara. What are you here for?" I asked hoarsely, but I had my jaws set in defiance already.
"I came to see you. More importantly, I wanted to show you this," she extended her left hand and fanned out her fingers. "Can you see? I'm now engaged to the alpha. He gave me a diamond ring. Tell me, is it beautiful or not?"
I didn't reply. There was no need to.
She sighed, dropping her hand. "Oh dear, I know how horribly jealous you must feel right now. I know you so wish you could hack me into a thousand pieces. Unfortunately, your wish can never come true, Jessalynn."
I forced myself to rise to my feet, using the wall as an aid. Then, without a word, I spun on my heel and was about to leave.
"Where do you think you're going?" she asked, rising from her seat as well.
I didn't bother replying to her. It would be a waste of my saliva.
"Are you pretending to be deaf and mute? Don't you take another step forward!" she snapped, but I continued moving.
"Her grace is talking to you. How dare you show her disrespect?!" yelled the guard who had rushed to block my path.
"She has nothing useful to tell me. Why should I bother entertaining her?" I said, my tone thickly laced with annoyance.
At that, the guard tried to hit me. Though weak, I still grabbed his hand with both hands. "Don't you dare think of hitting me." I spat unhappily.
The man let out a scornful laugh, "Wow, a lame rabbit has now learned to threaten a starving lion. What foolish guts!"
Clara, who had walked up to me from behind, tugged at my hair, sending fresh waves of pain coursing through my body.
"You…! Let go of me," I demanded, struggling to free myself from her grip. However, that was a futile effort. My knees were also already protesting, unwilling to support my broken body anymore.
"How dare you ignore me, huh?" Clara spat, increasing the grip of her hold on my hair.
"I said let go," I said, wincing.
She eventually did, but not without kicking the back of my legs, sending me tumbling to the jagged floor on my hands and knees.
"You pathetic, disgusting thing," she spat, kicking the left side of my ribs hard, eliciting a yelp from me. "You ought to feel honoured that I took my precious time to visit you, a walking corpse. You ought to be begging me to plead with the alpha to spare your life after everything you did to us. And you dare act arrogant before me? Have you gone nuts?" she kicked me again.
This time, only a grunt escaped as I gritted my teeth to endure the pain.
"You hare-brain!" the guard barked. "What are you waiting for? Apologise to the future Luna this instant!"
I propelled myself to a seated position and faced Clara. "You already ruined my life. What more do you want?"
"I've only broken you physically. I want to break you mentally as well," she said with an evil grin tugging at the corners of her lips.
"Why? Why do you hate me so much? Have I ever wronged you in any way? That you chose to destroy my happiness?"
"I was supposed to be Luna. But you showed up, claiming the spot I'd always wanted. How could I let you sit undeservingly on that seat of Lunaship forever? Simply being born was your crime; the alpha would have belonged to me much sooner had you been a miscarriage. I endured patiently, and finally, you, this impediment, are no longer in my way."
I shot her a hostile stare, willing myself not to cry.
Clara then turned to the guard with a fake sweet smile, "Leave us for now."
"Yes, your grace," and so, after bowing slightly, the brawny guard departed, leaving me with this evil woman.
She dragged to chair close to my spot and then sat on it, arms on the armrests, her left leg casually resting over the other. "You know one thing, Jessie? Even if you hadn't fallen down the stairs, your baby was never meant to see the light of day."
"What?" My mouth and eyes went agape. What was she saying?
"You know, Calistra, your beloved maid?"
An unsettling feeling budded in my gut. "What about her?" I asked, alarmed.
"I found her secret and…used it to control her. Gave her a few incentives and she was bought over. So, thanks to her, you've been eating a slow-acting abortion blend faithfully for the past three months. Isn't that exciting? Don't you feel less guilty now, knowing your child never had a good destiny to begin with? So it was never your fault, honey. It was thanks to Calistra, the one whom you trust so much."
This revelation was like…a dozen brutal punches to my gut, squeezing out air from my lungs.
How could that be? I recalled how miserable my maid had looked throughout my ordeal. How could she have been poisoning me all these months?
"You don't want to believe? Thankfully, I got her to confess before I came here." She took out her phone and soon its screen was facing me, playing a video.
I saw Calistra, bound to a tree in who knows where, half-naked and badly injured, with both eyes swollen. She was crying while facing the camera as she confessed to having poisoned me, and she was pleading for my forgiveness.
"So you see now, I'm telling the truth. You ought to be thanking me for exposing that bitch, you know. And you don't have to worry, the maid of an abandoned and dethroned Luna doesn't mean anything in this pack. Don't worry about the pains she might be going through. I've already had two nice guards tie her in a sack and dump her into the forest lake. She'd never float right up as well. So you see, I've helped you get revenge."
I was still unwilling to believe that Calistra had betrayed me, but Clara casually talking about how she had already killed her without a hint of remorse sparked my rage.
"You're a devil!" I howled, pushing myself to stand up.
"You can say that again. But you ought to add 'ruthless' before the word 'devil' because I don't hesitate to carry out deeds that will benefit me. I know how you feel—the fact that she betrayed you just to keep her secret of secretly smelling the alpha's underwear, truly ludicrous. But you have to take heart. You need to be strong until the day you're executed, okay?" She inched forward to pat my shoulder with a revolting look of fake concern.
Feeling both repugnance and intense anger, I knocked her hand from my shoulder, my vision consumed by spiking fury.
"Oh, come on, don't get so worked up yet. I still have a few things in store for you. The alpha and I are going to make love all night. I've got everything planned in his bedroom. So, take these," she shoved a packet of aspirin into my hand. "Believe me, you'll need them. An overdose, to be precise. And don't worry about not being able to watch, I'll have the recording played by a guard outside your cell first thing tomorrow morning. The audio quality will definitely be great."
Every word she was uttering was only adding to my level of outrage. I glared at her, my chest heaving heavily, fingers rolled into fists, my nails digging deep into my palms, drawing blood.
"I told you not to get worked up, honey. There's still one more surprise I have for you, darling."
She clapped, and a guard with a dark skin tone made his way over, carrying a white porcelain bowl that had a lid covering it.
The man bowed to Clara before turning to me. "Her Grace's order—you are to ingest this bowl of Devil's Nectar," the man said as he removed the bowl's lid, uncovering the pungent and brownish content within the bowl.
Devil's nectar, once consumed by a werewolf, would cause one to lose the ability to speak. Permanently.
"You…"
"You're better off mute, Jessalynn. A mute person is easier to torment. And I plan on tormenting you every day until you reunite with your unfortunate son,"
"No." I shook my head, trying to fall back.
"You don't have a choice, woman!" the guard coldly said as he forced me to drink the disgusting liquid.
My tongue seemed to want to detach itself from my mouth, feeling violated. My throat felt like it was being scorched. I needed something to quench it; unfortunately, there was nothing.
My chest hurt too, and tears flooded my vision. My hands flew to my neck, clutching at it, trying to get myself to barf, to no avail.
"I advise you to struggle less. For what's about to come your way will be worse than losing your voice, honey."
"Y-you…monster," I managed with great difficulty, blood seeping out of my mouth.
"Oh, you can still talk?" Clara asked with a brow raised in displeasure, "Arnold, fetch two more bowls. And have my maid give you my favourite dagger. I'd like to carve out her eyes and make her eat them.'"
"N-no..." I shook my head. That was the last time a comprehensible sentence left my mouth.
From the next minute, all the sounds I made were those belonging to someone devoid of speaking ability.
"Oh, wait, Arnold. Don't go yet. It seems the Nectar is doing its job. Still…come here," she beckoned to him smilingly.
The guard knelt at her side, and she whispered heaven-knows-what to him.
"Yes, your grace," he said solemnly as he rose to his feet, bowed and then left with brisk steps.
I felt an even more ominous premonition start to gnaw at my already troubled insides. What was Clara planning to do?
…
I got my answer in minutes.
The guard returned with a long whip. Every inch of it, except the handle, had long, thin brown spikes.
"She spoke disrespectfully to me. Give her twenty strokes and have the head guard send her to section G of this dungeon. Let her have fun with those felons until midnight. Be sure to feed her something first so she can have the strength to play." Clara instructed.
"Yes, your grace," the guard said in a reverential tone.
Clara rose and stretched her muscles, even letting out a yawn. "Jessie, honey, I have to leave now. Enjoy what I've prepared for you. Don't forget to send your thanks tomorrow morning. I'll be looking forward to it."
She turned to leave, while the guard looked at me as if I were already dead game, flexing that terrifying whip on the floor, its sound grating harshly against my ears.