The cell was dark and humid. I could feel the atmosphere around me being so heavy it was almost hard to breathe. Suffocating me, making my lungs itchy.

After they threw me in this cell, they took a while to come talk to me. I was even wondering if they had forgotten about my existence. Sometimes, being forgotten is not a bad thing. It is for the best. When no one notices you, no one will care to bother you. to beat you. To harass you. By the smell, it was not the same man from before. The Alpha. I’d know if it was him. His delicious smell of soil, right after the rain, and mint, were unforgettable. He was scary, terribly scary, but also… I don’t even know. It is all so confusing!

When my adoptive parents asked me to track him down, they gave me a piece of cloth with his smell. I loved that smell the moment it hit my nose, for it had a mix of strong masculine scent, and the other two scents that I loved so much: soil after rain and mint. As soon as the Alpha got out of the packhouse, I could hear him. I could smell him. And, as much as his smell was great, his aura was frightening. My body trembled at his sight and at the urge I had to go to him. I couldn’t understand my behavior. I had never been one to want to be around anyone in particular.

‘Look at me!’. When he shouted those words at me, my whole body reacted. The great sensation I was feeling while he was approaching, soon vanished for a while, giving me the same feelings I had whenever my so-called parents got closer to me. They would scream, yell and, after that, the pain always followed. The Alpha’s voice was a strong and menacing one. I could not control myself and obey whatever he said. I could barely understand him. My brain shut down the moment he hovered above me. All I was feeling was the expectancy of receiving a beat.

“Hey!” Someone shouted and I, who was in a corner, huddled, holding my knees, and didn’t move at all. “Is she deaf?” The werewolf asked someone. He was a high ranked one. Not the Alpha, of course, but very powerful. His aura showed it all.

I listened to the key turning and the door cracking open. Footsteps. Whoever it was, he was coming to me. I could feel my body trembling, but I dared not to look up.

I had my eyes closed tight and, with every step the man would take, the harder I would squeeze them shut. It was the usual for me. I already knew some of my own reactions, having lived with them for almost two decades, or as long as I could remember. And then, I felt something poking at my feet.

“Hey!” The werewolf said, this time, not so harshly. “I won’t beat you. Just want to ask a few things. But you have to look at me, huh?”

I used all my strength to do as he asked. I had to do it. He was asking nicely, so it was always better to obey when they weren’t forcing me to do it. I took a deep breath and raised my head. Part of my hair was covering my face, but I still could look at him through my locks.

The werewolf was tall, and when he crouched and got eye level with me, I could see he had blonde hair, despite it being very short - something I once heard ‘military cut’ - and dark eyes. Very dark eyes.

“Your eyes are something else, aren’t they?” He asked me and raised his hand for me to see, as if to say ‘no danger!’, and approached by, pushing my hair away from my face and tucking the strands behind my ear. I wanted to retreat, so he would not touch me, but my body did not obey. “What’s your name?” he asked me.

I ran my tongue over my lips, something one of the rogues I lived with said meant I always did whenever I was nervous, followed by me biting my lower lip.Then, I realized how thirsty I was.Very much thirsty.

“Jay!” The werewolf shouted. “Bring me a glass of water, please!” He said it to someone who was on the other side of the door, without taking his eyes off of me. He raised his hand to his back and that was when she noticed another werewolf, in armor. A ranger, to be more specific, entering and walking into my interrogator’s direction, and handing him something small.

The werewolf, now with his hand again in front of his body, smiled at me.

“You tell me your name, little one, and I’ll give you this.” He showed me a glass of water. Full of clear water. My eyes were probably sparkling, for I felt greedy. Greedy for a glass of water. How decadent. I darted my eyes from the cup to his face, pondering if I should accept or not his deal. Then, I looked in another direction: the door.

“Don’t think about escaping. Just answer me and you’ll be fine.”

“Raelynn.” I muttered.

“Again?” He said, approaching his free hand to his ear.

I took a deep breath. I was not used to talking, let alone speaking out loud.

“Raelynn.” I repeated myself. The werewolf seemed satisfied, for he nodded. He held the glass out to me, but then pulled it back to him, smiling. Was he playing with me? Being cruel? 'He won't give me the water?' I wondered. However, he offered a more sincere smile and returned the glass to me, allowing me to hold it this time. He was, indeed, playing.

With shaking hands, I drank the water, letting part of it fall to the floor. ‘Damn’, I thought, ‘what a waste!’.

“So, Raelynn, now that we are friends, let’s chat. I am Aaron, Beta of this pack.”

He held his hand to me. I looked at it, unsure of what to do. What did he want? Then, he looked at the glass in my hand. Just then I realized he gave me a glass cup. It was glass! He had to be very sure of his abilities, to give something that a rogue could use as a weapon. That I would ever try a move against him. I was not that bold or imbecil. I gave the cup back to him.

“The thing is, I just want to know two things: what were you guys doing here and why didn’t you fight along with your friends?” He asked and looked at me, raising his eyebrows. “Come on, Rae. Can I call you that? Talk to me.”

I am sure I must have made a face, by his looks at me. ‘Friends’. They were not my friends! They were my adoptive parents and a few other rogues that worked with them. I was just the tracker, the main reason why they kept me by their side, I am sure.

“So-someone asked them to co-come and t-talk to your Alpha.” I replied. That was what they told me, after all. Now, thinking about it, it was probably bullshit. “And yes, you may call me Rae.”

Nobody called me Rae. It was too informal, too personal. Nobody wanted to be intimate with me like that.

“Thank you.” he said and gave me a sligh and quick smile. “They wanted to talk to the Alpha. What did they have to talk about with him?”

I shrugged my shoulders. I knew they were probably lying, but, even if they were not, how could I know? Why would they give me such details? I was a nobody…

Just then, something came to my mind. I shrugged. Oh, no! I shrugged! My adoptive parents would punish me for that, because as my ‘father’ would say, it was ‘damn insolence!’, and then I would feel something being thrown at me: maybe his hand, maybe a shoe, maybe something harder, like his knee. But I’d be punished, no doubt.

I closed my eyes in an instant.…I didn’t want to see the rage in that werewolf’s eyes. The Beta’s eyes. I was more than sure he was way stronger than any of the rogues I used to live with. Instead of pain, I felt a soft touch in my arm. Out of reflex, I flinched and went backwards, feeling the wall behind me. I wanted to enter that wall and be out of anyone’s reach. I didn’t realize I was crying, until the tears fell on my arm. Crying would make my adoptive parents even more angry.

“Please, I’m sorry!” I apologized. I was terrified!

“Why are you apologizing?” he asked, slowly. He was frowning, when I looked between my hair strains that were, again, in front of my face.

“I won’t shrug my sh-shoulders.” I promised in a low voice. “I’ll be good.”

Instead of anger, I saw something else in his eyes. Was that… pity? He moved a bit, just a bit, in my direction, I saw his arms moving. If I didn’t know better, I’d think he was going to embrace me. But that was silly. Why would I ever think that? I was no member of his pack. ANd I was in a cell, as a prisoner.

“Ok. It 's okay.” He said. “I won’t punish you.” He shook his head up and down, as if to reassure me of that. I nodded in accordance, showing him that I understood him.

“I swear I do-don’t know anything.” I hated to stutter. Not because I thought it was a weakness, but because it was another one of my defects, when I was nervous. Defects meant one thing: beating.

“Hmmm. And why didn’t you fight?” He asked, but before I could answer it, he spoke again. “How old are you?”

“Nineteen,”I replied. I could see how astonished he seemed to be. His eyes widened and his mouth opened ajar. What? Why would he act like that?

“You have no wolf.” This was not a question.Of course. The wolf. By my age, I should have had my wolf for a year now. She came to me when I was eighteen, but then, she vanished. It was the happiest and saddest moment of my life.

I looked down and nodded. I heard him swallowing. He must have understood one of my reasons not to fight: I would be dead meat if I did so. Me, not a warrior, not strong, in a human body, against big werewolves? No, not only that, but warriors? I was not the brightest creature to wander the planet, but, also, I was not so dumb. The other reason was that I hated to fight, anyway.

“Ok, Rae. I got to go. But I’ll be back later.” He said as if promising me he would come back. Was that a good thing?

He got to his feet and walked away. I, on the other hand, lowered my head again, between my knees, while holding them. That was my safe position.

‘At least, he gave me water and didn’t hit me’, was what came to her mind. I was hungry, but then again, it was just another normal thing in my life. Hunger.