Cruel Beauty

Chapter 2

Like most times, you don't always get what you pray for. My eyes were wide open, and I could see clearly. I came crashing back to earth in time to hear someone talking about the cursed alpha—the alpha of all alphas.

"He's ugly, I tell you." The man spoke.

"Have you ever seen him?" Another question.

"With my own two eyes. He is a beast, I tell you. A real ugly beast." The man boasts, puffing out his chest.

"That's impossible." A woman in the cell beside mine says calmly.

"And how would you know that?" The man frowns, upset that the woman was making him out to be a liar.

"Because you're still alive." A deadly silence hung over the room after her words.

"Are you calling me a liar?" The man raged, pressing his body against the metal bars of his cell with one hand sticking out, thrashing wildly. His face was turning a deep shade of red from anger.

"Yes." Her voice remained calm, completely unaffected by the man's futile attempt at getting to her. "That's exactly what you are... A liar."

"You-you-you-you-" the man stammered, pulling against the metal bars wildly.

Whispers erupt among the other prisoners as the man pushes violently against the metal bars, baring his canines.

My eyes move on their own accord as I peer over at her in her cell. The cells were just bars of metals separating each cell, so you could easily see each other. There was no privacy, not even when you were going to the loo—which was just a pan in one corner of the cell. It had a rank smell that assaulted the nose.

She was leaning against the wall with her eyes closed. Her pin-straight hair was midnight black that stopped at her shoulders. Her face was dirty, yet she still managed to look beautiful with long lashes that fanned against her cheeks, thick eyebrows, button nose, and pouty lips. She had a weird scent, one that I wasn't familiar with?

"You're staring." She says this without opening her eyes. I look away, heat creeping up my neck in embarrassment. "What's your name?" She asks a moment later, while I was busy dying of embarrassment, having gotten caught staring at her.

It was a simple question, yet it felt like I didn't know the answer. I thought about her question, wondering whether I should ignore her or answer. No one has ever asked me that question before. Prisoners usually ignore me and gossip behind my back, even though I could hear them.

"Aurora." My voice comes out hoarse and scratchy.

"It's nice to meet you, Aurora. I'm Riley." Her eyes snap open to reveal mesmerizing hues of blue. She offers a small smile.

It seemed like a genuine smile, one that I was unaccustomed to. The last person to offer me a genuine smile was my mother. That was twelve years ago.

Hesitantly, my cracked lips pulled up to form a smile of my own, which only made her grin even wider, showing off her pearly whites. I haven't smiled in years. Being trapped in here didn't really give a person much to smile about, unless you were a psychopath.

"Where are we?"

"A dungeon?"

"No silly. Which pack is this?"

"Oh, oh, ohhhh." My mouth formed an 'o' shape as realization dawned on me. "The Blue Moon Pack."

I watch as she allows the information to sink in. With furrowed brows, she stares straight ahead at the next cell over. She twirls strands of hair around her finger, lost in thought.