Always Alone

Chapter 19

Flora's POV

My throat was so raw from screaming. At one point, I didn't think I'd ever stop. The light that was above my new hell was so bright it made my skin heat, but there was no point in asking them to turn it off, I knew they would only bask in my discomfort and pain more. The only thing that kept me going this long was my sister, Fauna.

What seemed like only days ago, but could be years for all I know. We set out to leave our herd. My sister was my world, and I would see to her happiness.  Back in our herd, she was a happy young woman with so much promise. She had grown so beautifully into her own skin after years of being picked on by so many of our own. All I wanted was for her to stop hurting, and now here I am, the one who's dying on a table from my mate. It was all so poetic it was almost as if the Goddess herself wrote out my wretched life. My poor sister sat in a cell three doors down from me, and I couldn't even tell if she was ok or even alive. Goddes, how I hope she was alive. She had had enough heartache to last a lifetime, my poor Fauna. Years of being picked on and outcast, and then to be rejected by her mate. The one Stag who was meant to love her had left her to be with a "normal" doe. What a pathetic excuse for our kind, but my mate was no better. Some would say worse even.

I could hear footsteps coming down the hall. They were either coming to end me or move me to my cell further from my sister. Either way, I'd let the dark take me. My body was broken beyond repair, and my heart shattered. There would be no escape for me, and the thought of that didn't seem to frighten me. I knew one way or another my body would remain, but my soul would leave it's shell.

The door to the room I was placed in opened, and in walked my mates right-hand man. The man who had been mostly responsible for my blood and broken bones. I couldn't blame him though. I looked up to see his dark eyes take me in. He knew as well as I did that I didn't have much time left. My body would give him no more. He grabbed my legs and hauled me off the table, scrapping my back along the dirty floor. Odd... I couldn't even feel it anymore.

We made our way, albeit slowly, to the other cell, and he didn't even care to set me on the cot. He just plopped my body down on the cold stone floor and shut the barred door with a grunt. Probably disappointed he couldn't play anymore. What a pity. Without another look back, he walked back up the stairs, and once again, silence filled the dungeons. Or so I'd thought... "Are you ok?" A small voice drifted through the bars across the hall and into my cell. My body was so broken that all I could do was turn my head to the door to see if I could see who was talking. "I'm dying, but other than that, I'm fine." Odd that someone would ask another prisoner if they were fine, no prisoner ever was.

"I'm Celeste. What's your name?" Her soft voice was somewhat comforting in the darkness of the cell. "I'm Flora. How long have you been here?" I tried my best to speak up, but that required more energy than I possessed. Thankfully, she seemed to hear me just fine. Another shifter, I guessed. Any normal human wouldn't make it in my mates dungeons for more than a day. "I've been here three days now, I think. And don't talk like that. My mate is coming, he'll free us all once he's here." I smiled at her confidence, I knew I'd be long gone before any mate would come and rescue us. "I'm not going to be here much longer, Celeste."  I didn't want to trust her, I didn't know her. I had no other choice though, when it came to my sister. " My sister is down the hall. She's twenty-two years old but still acts like a child. She needs someone to take care of her, please.  Her name is Fauna, she's a doe shifter like me, but her doe is an albino. She needs a place where people will accept her, love her. I can no longer take care of her. Please do this for me?"

I waited with baited breathe for an answer. I couldn't leave this earth with peace unless I knew Fauna was taken care of. My precious Fauna. "I come from a pack that has all manner of shifters. She'll be welcome there, I can swear to it. I'll make sure she's taken care of." A sense of peace camenover me at her words. She'll be safe, she'll be taken care of. Maybe one day, she'll find a shifter who'll lover her in all her ways.

As peace over came me, so did the cold. My body was failing, and my time had come. Goddess... I go to you now.

"Tell her I love her and that I'll be with her always."

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Celeste's POV

Sitting at the door, I could hear her last breath just as she told me her last words to her sister. Fuana's unusual colored hair laid limp on her round face, her hazel eyes closed as if in a peaceful sleep. It was at that moment I knew, I'm going to kill Nox if it was the last thing I'd ever do. For a mate to kill another... was unthinkable to our kind. The greatest sin you could commit against the Goddess. I could feel the rage begin to boil within my veins as if a river of lava was unleashed within me.

"Celeste? Sweetie, you have to try to leave. You have to try to escape. If he will kill his own mate, then he won't hesitate with you." I could hear my old Lunas words wring true, but I couldn't move, couldn't think. All I wanted was my revenge on Nox and to break him like he broke her. "I'm sorry, my Luna... but I will not leave. Not until I can hear his cries for mercy, which he will not receive."

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Finn's POV

Sitting in the woods was not something I wanted to do. Not when I wanted to rampage and maim anything within my path to get to Celeste. Senan was beyond furious still and always on edge. Every snap of a twig, every rustle of the leaves made him grow more unstable by the minute.

I'm coming for you mate, please just hold on.

I looked to my left at Thomas. He'd been just as upset as any that Celeste had been taken. It took five of my best warriors to hold him down so his mate could touch him to calm him. I glanced to my right to see Brutus had taken his post as well, all was in order. We would storm his pack lands and take back what was mine.  The last few attempts at a small recon failed, he thought there wasn't that many of us to take him over. Good, that's what I wanted him to believe.

I looked behind me to Ciane, h and called in his best to help me, and with his numbers and mine, we had over three hundred strong to take down this pack. That was three times more than what they had. It will be an easy fix.

I'm coming Celeste...wait for me.