Chapter 19

Dylan POV


"What the fuck was going through your head?" The door slammed completely open jolting me out of my thoughts. The king then sped toward the side of my bed and forced me into a large hug leaving me wincing in pain, he angrily inhaled my scent before shoving me away from him. "The second I smelt all that blood I panicked, and then I saw Lewis carrying you, my beta of all people, not only have you made it impossible for me to trust you I also had to explain to the press that your ok after they got wind of what you did." The press know what I did? No! That means it'll be everywhere, that means my mom and Freddie will see it. "Do you know how this makes me look?" He was angry, great, I knew he would be, but I guess I just hoped I'd be dead so I wouldn't be on the receiving end of it.

"The important thing is that you're ok, you gave us all quite a scare." Lewis spoke calmly, as he placed a hand on the kings shoulder.

"No, this is disgusting behavior, you have made a show of the royal family and I will not stand for it." I lay completely still in the hospital bed, as the king spoke, his voice was hard and his tone was completely serious. "We were trying to bypass the rebels in the west by making you, the human mate of the king, a focal point for peace. Clearly that isn't working. No, we must show them that no matter who you are, a human must always answer to our kind. You will be publicly punished for your blatant disrespect." He growled out causing mine and Lewis's eyes to widen.

"You can't do that Josh, she's your mate!" I slowly sat up in bed with fear written all over my face, it wasn't that I was scared about the punishment, no, I was scared about my mom hearing about it. "She's our queen."

"Not right now she isn't, not unless I mark her which she refuses to let me do. Both me and my father agree that she is to be made an example." He looked at me and stalked towards me again, just before he reached me, the door opened and the person who I assume is the doctor walked in.

"Oh, you're awake. You gave us all quite a scare, your grace." He opened my file and was about to speak but the king cut him off.

"She's ok to leave now isn't she?" He snapped leaving both Lewis and the doctor to look at him like he had three heads.

"Well, yes. But she has to take it easy, no activities that will put strain on her body or mind." This news didn't sit well with the king. He grabbed my un-casted arm roughly and dragged me out of the bed.

The needles in my arm were torn out of my flesh from the force and I stumbled to my feet, blood dripped out of the needle wounds and it fucking hurt so a cry of pain left me. "A bit of time in the palace dungeon should help her heal." He began to drag me without even allowing me to get my balance.

"Josh! She needs rest, look at her, she can barely hold her own weight." Lewis was right of course, my legs kept buckling underneath me forcing the king to hold me up by my arm.

"She can rest while she rots, I've been more than generous over the past few days, and she repays me by harming herself. Punishment must and will be given." With that he threw me out of the door and sent me crashing into two other men. "Take her to the dungeon, but be careful, she's still recovering."

"No! Get off me!" I kicked out, but quickly exhausted myself after everything that's happened. I just flopped as I was half dragged half carried out of the hospital area and back through the palace. Once we got to the main staircase I was dragged to the side, and through a door leading to steps going down.

"Get off me!” I shouted but it was futile I was escorted into the darkest section of the palace, it had rooms with steel doors all along the corridor. I was taken to the 14th door, which was opened and I was thrown in.

The room was dark and the bed was nothing but a sheet on a metal table. The second the men threw my form I slapped on the floor. My hands and knees scraped, my already damaged knuckle shot with pain, and my head was pounding. I quickly scrambled onto my shaky legs and went to run to the door just as it closed.

"NO! Let me out! Don’t leave me down here…” I banged on the metal and tried to open it but it was no use, I heard the locks click and realized that I was completely trapped. If I don't let him mark me then it's going to get a lot worse for me. "HEY! LET ME OUT!"

I heard footsteps retreating and felt my hope fleeting with it. "FUCKERS!” I gave one final bang on the door before sliding my back down it. I bunched my knees together and cuddled myself, as I looked around the damp room.

"It's no use!" I jumped out of my skin when a mans voice filled the cell. My head turned to my left and I noticed a rugged looking man peering into my room through a set of bars at the top of the wall on my left. "Once your down here the only way to get out is either death or being lucky enough to be let out." He was definitely latino so I would probably say he was Costa Rican maybe.

I stood up slowly as to not fall over, my energy was practically non existent at that point. He gave a long whistle before speaking once more. "Jeez, who did you piss off, niña, you look like ya took one of them on in wolf form." Wait... he's human? (Niña=child/girl)

"You're human!" I simply stated, he was thin, his cheek bones and shoulders were very prominent and his brown potato sack top hung off him, his naturally tanned skin was dry and flaky showing the amount of time he had been down here for.

"Of course, there's no way in hell im one of those mutts!" I walked over to the little window like place and stood in front of the man, showing my face to him properly. "So... are you gonna tell me who you pissed off?" I sighed contemplating weather to tell him or to keep it to myself, in the end I figured why not, it's nice to finally see another human.

"King Josh!" I admitted causing the mans face to hold shock, he then chuckled and slapped his hand on his skinny stomach.

"Well, go big or go home right?!" I chuckled hollowly, but nodded my head and raised my eyebrows in sarcasm. "I like you niña. You remind me of my daughter" He had a kid, I smiled at him sadly before questioning him.

"How old is she?" He smiled brightly as he thought about it.

"Ahh she'll be coming up for 21 now, I think. You kind of lose track of the days down here." His eyes flashed in sadness, and sorrow quickly took over his features, a sorrow that I have seen many times and know all too well.

"I'm so sorry you're not with her." As quick as his sadness came it went and he smiled.

"Honestly, Im glad she isn't here to see what I've become." I can see what he means, this place is awful, I hate the world we live in so I can only imagine what his daughter would think. "You can't be more than 18. So that begs the question, what did you do to land yourself in here?"

I sighed, as I felt my stupid eyes filling up again. I'm sick of this soppy pathetic side of me. "I tried to kill myself, king Josh didn't approve."

"Awww niña, Im sorry ey, I didn't mean to upset ya. It's just I don't See many people down here, usually they are killed straight away." He explained as he apologized for making me cry, when in reality it was comforting to know someone else was down here.

"They can't kill me. I'm the kings fucking mate!" That caused the man eyes to widen drastically, he swallowed thickly while his mind fought him about what to say.

"Wow, that's tough, I hate being mates to a lycan, that's bad enough, but the king himself, no wonder you tried ending it." I let out another hollow chuckle as I thought about him, I mean he knows why I'm in here but why was he.

"It's just my luck to be honest." I shrugged my shoulders, suddenly feeling a little dizzy and in desperate need of a proper sleep. "So... what did you do to end up here?”

"Ahh, I lead the rebellion in the west for a while. Their kind forced my wife to mate with one of them so I figured Id fight against them, I can't be the only human willing to fight back. Anyway they caught me and sent me here, they were going to kill me publicly but apparently I'm mates to the king regents sister, but refuse to accept it, so here I am. She comes down maybe once or twice a week to see me, that's the only interaction I've had in about 2 years.” He explained, I didn't even know Josh had an aunt, never mind another human being forced to mate with someone from the royal family.

"So is this their solution then?!" I snapped more to myself than to the man in front of me. "Lock any reluctant mates down here until we cave?!" I was so mad I couldn't control myself as I slammed my not broken wrist into the wall next to the bar like window.

"Basically yeah, let me guess, you refuse to let him mark you as well?" I just nodded my head at him causing him to scowl. "Forcing a child into this is disgusting, I knew I hated their kind, but this is going too far even for them."

"Yeah, it started last year in school, everyone started to find their mates and since then it's just been one after another. My best friend was claimed last week, and he let her fucking mark him after two days." I explained to the man, who simply stood and listened to me. "We're getting out of here, I swear to god, I'll get us out, even if it kills me."

"Hey, I'm gonna die long before you niña, don't you worry about that." His eyes were actually really kind, he reminded me a lot of my dad. "You look like you need a rest kiddo, it's not the comfiest place but try and get some sleep."

"Trust me, I'll take a peaceful sleep down here a lot more than feeling terrified about what the king will do next up there." I said before slowly sitting down on the 'bed', pain instantly shot through my pelvis and stomach causing me to wince and groan.

"He forced himself on you, didn't He?" I carefully curled up in the fetal position on the bed and placed my hand underneath my head. My eyes closed and I sighed deeply, relishing in the quiet.

"Yeah!" I deadpanned before focusing my energy on getting some sleep, my pain began to fade quickly, along with my senses, as sleep met me quickly.