Chapter 1 Trapped in Nightmare

"Quinn, where are you? !" I heard my mate's voice barking as he was forcefully kicking open the door to every room in the house. He knew where I was, but yet, he found pleasure in searching for me first then pounding on me after claiming I was hiding from him. Who wouldn't hide from such a beast?

I wanted to tell him I was in our bedroom bathroom, but I couldn't find my voice as I was feeling very sick and distressed. I've been too weak to do things myself, and the alpha denied me access to any maid; I did my stuff myself. I don't have the strength to talk back at him, and I'm what he always calls me 'The good for nothing weak luna.' I need to make an effort at least for him to know I was about to come and meet him.

I managed to tie the towel around my chest in an attempt to go to him when he pushed the door open. The door hit me on the head, causing me to fall on the bathroom's wet tiles. The aching in my head increased, my stomach lurched painfully, I couldn't get myself to stand up anymore. I shivered more in dread than with cold, wrapping my hand weakly around my body.

"So there you are, you good for nothing, and you allowed me to scream your name like an idiot?" He yelled, making me wince again at the loudness of the voice. This man lacked empathy, and I hated him for it. I don't care what kind of childhood he had; no one deserved to be treated this way.

"I... I... I'm... not..." I stammered with a shallow tone, fidgeting with trepidation. I prayed he didn't hit me or do something worse. I knew I was only deceiving myself with the prayers.

"Say the rubbish you have to say before I pounce on you." He threatened, and I knew he could do something worse if I didn't speak up now. This man is a beast, and everyone knows it. The moon goddess probably hated me from birth before allowing me to get mated to such a man.

"I'm... I'm sorry... I'm si.. sick..." I forced the words out of my quivering lips, and I hoped he believed them this time. He rarely believed me, and listening to me is like a premium feature, once in a blue moon.

"You're sick and couldn't tell me, so people will think I'm maltreating you, right? You didn't tell me about your sickness, so when you die, they'll say I killed you?" He growled into my face, terrifyingly. I wasn't expecting it to take a dark twist this fast, but I knew he was going to switch up on me.

"No. I'm... I'm sorry, my... my Alpha." I apologized.

"What if you're pregnant? Yes, you could be pregnant." He said in excitement, and I could see the happy glint in his eyes. He hurled me from the ground with one hand. "Behave like a Luna that you are; you don't know how to behave like a Luna!" He hissed as he dragged me out of the bathroom to the bedroom.

I wanted to tell him I wasn't pregnant, but he didn't even give me the chance to explain myself and how exactly I was feeling, and I was too terrified to speak, or he might hit me again, adding more agony to my body.

On our way to the bedroom, my towel loosened. He, however, pushed me to the bed without taking a second glance at my body, went to the wardrobe, and brought out a beautiful blue gown he bought for me during last year's festival.

"Put it on." He instructed, throwing it at my face.

I managed to stand up and wore the cloth for him. I turned to the standing mirror in our room to look at myself, but I couldn't recognize the person I was seeing. I became less than a shadow of myself with heavy black bags under my eyes and how skinny I had become in less than two years. He said he hated fleshy females; he wanted his wife to have the body of a model, so he made me eat broccoli and other tasteless vegetables only once a day, checking how much weight I had lost at the end each day.

"Are you deliberately waiting for me to remind you to wear your makeup?" He screamed, slicing through my chain of thoughts.

I almost convulsed at the sound of his voice. I rushed to the dressing table and wore my makeup as he liked it with trembling hands. When I finished, he brought out cologne and made me wear it. I couldn't choose, I wouldn't want something for myself, I always did whatever he wanted.

"These heels will match." He said as he handed me the shoes he loved seeing me wear. It's a pair of glassy silver shoes that made my legs sore whenever I wore them. I wasn't good with heels at all, and these particular ones were too tight for my feet. Yet how could I complain?

I wore them, and he looked at me in contempt. He had always been this way, wanting me to look like I had the world at my beck and call whenever we were outside.

"Now, let's go." He ordered, and like a child, I followed him without complaining. "Is that how you walk? Is that how Lunas walks?" He snapped at me, looking down on me like a worthless piece of shit.

"No, my Alpha," I replied, bowing humbly. We are going out; I better get my pretending mask back on. Act like the luckiest girl alive with the most caring mate.

"We're going out, don't call me your Alpha; call me my love, baby, sweetheart, and all the sweet monikers you can remember; I don't have to remind you of these things." He growled.

"Yes, my... my love."

"Better don't go out there and start stuttering like a pigeon." He said, and I nodded.

Soon we were on our way to the hospital. We were both seated at the back seat of his limo while his driver drove.

When we arrived at the hospital, the doctor carried out some tests on me, and before long, the results were ready. I was visibly shaking, hoping I'd be pregnant so I'd be free from his torture.

We were at the pack doctor's office waiting for him when he arrived with an envelope, probably containing the results of my fate.

"I'm sorry, Alpha Ryan Rush, your wife is not pregnant." He said in a voice laden with regret.

Immediately my mate turned to me and gave me a stern look. "Why then did you lie to me that you were pregnant?" He asked, and I bowed my head. "Thank you, doctor." He said, and they exchanged handshakes.

"Thank you, doctor," I echoed and followed my mate out.

Our drive home was eerily quiet and uncomfortable. When I soon reached our building and walked straight to the bedroom, I sat down on the bed, breathing hard from exhaustion.

"You're not even fertile. One whole year, one bloody good year, in fact, almost two years, and you're still not doing anything about your infertility. I blame myself for accepting garbage like you from your useless pauper father and his good-for-nothing wife." He spat on my face and marched out of the room.

I didn't blame him for insulting my father; my father gave me to him without thinking about how I felt and what will become of me. They had no idea the hell I was enduring here, neither did they care.

My mom died when I was 12, and in the space of one year and six months, my dad remarried a wicked witch who made my life unbearable. I always wanted to escape the house, but I had no means.

I didn't know how my dad was indebted to the late Alpha, who was patient enough not to ask. Sadly, when his son took over, he started threatening my dad with death if he didn't pay.

My dad and his wife agreed to use me as a means of paying their debt. The new Alpha hadn't met his fated mate yet, and he declared, much to my horror, that I looked like a female he'd like to make his Luna even though he knew I was human, my parents were more than happy to sell me off despite how much I begged and pleaded with them.

I was still lost in thought when a sharp pain shot through my heart; it felt like an arrow piercing through me.

Alpha Ryan Rush was with another woman.

This wasn't the first time he was cheating on me. I was supposed to have gotten used to it by now, but how can a living creature get used to such torture? He knew I would be hurting; he knew but had never cared to give a fuvk how I felt.

I squeezed myself on the bed, clutching my chest the way I usually did whenever he was doing it. I was already expecting it because I wasn't pregnant. Hot tears rolled down my eyes as choking sobs escaped my throat. I was finding it hard to breathe or move. This was anguish added to the torture.

The pains continued for about fifteen minutes and stopped. It soon started again. It went on and on and on until I was too weak to cry.

I felt my head aching so badly, my heart throbbing in my chest, I was feeling dizzy....this time, it was different. I felt my whole world crumbling before me in many pieces and realized I couldn't take this anymore, I had to leave, or I'd die in this hell.

I crawled out of bed slowly, mustering all the strength left in me; I didn't have a wolf-like werewolf, so in moments like this, I had no one to give me strength; I was a weak, miserable human like the alpha always called me.

Having successfully crawled out of bed, I went to my wardrobe to pack some clothes but thought better of it. Carrying loads would slow me down, and all of the clothes currently in the closet were all bought for me by the Alpha. He burned all the clothes I brought from my father's house, saying they were rags and none suited his taste.

I slowly peeled off the blue dress he picked out earlier from my body and slipped into something more straightforward, something I could run and escape in. An oversized black hoodie, black joggers with a pair of black sneakers I had hidden in a secluded part of my wardrobe a few months back because somehow, I knew this day would come.

The day when I would grow the nerve to once in my life choose for myself, and that day is today.