Time's Up

My eyes felt heavy as I tried to open them, they stung with every moment I pinched them open, with a lot of pain and struggle I was finally able to open my eyes to see that I was thrown into a cell whose walls were made of stones, dungeon, I was thrown in a dungeon. I moved my head straining my sore neck, observing my surroundings and that's when my nose picked up the scent of my mate, I let out a whimper of pain as I see him too far across from me, there was another cell just like mine, attached to the bars of my cell.

My whimper woke him up from his deep thoughts, he looked at me and smiled but then his smile turned to frown as his eyes trace the wounds down my body, he growled thunderously, I would not be surprised if someone came rushing in to see what caused such a sound but he was not in much better condition himself, I think he has way too many injuries than I do.

There was fresh blood on his head that dripped down his face, and neck. The side of his face was blue and purple, and everything else was swollen, you could barely find unscathed skin on his body, I tried moving my body towards the sidebars of the cell where his cells were attached to mine, he too began moving closer and we together glued ourselves to the bar moving our hands so we could grab any part of each other's body, the physical assurance was a priority.

"What did you mean by Claudius is your great-granduncle?" I ask leaning on the bar side because the bars were laced with wolfbane but the wall was fine, I held on to the fingers of his hand.

He sighed knowing he had no choice but to explain his bizarre, announcement that the psychopath was related to him by blood.

"When dad sent me away to live with my great grandfather he didn't know, what he had done trying to save me from public bullying he had, sent me to the far worst place, " his voice hardened and his fist balled, trying not to relive those moments again.

"My grandfather was not pleased receiving an early package, usually the heir undergoes training at the age of fifteen and I was eight years early, he was not a patient man, his training was hard he didn't pity the poor seven-year-old kid who had lost everything, no, he was unbiased, my training was hard but it was bearable after a while, hunting, fishing, fighting, sleeping on the rocks without food or water in heavy snow also somehow became tolerable but one day he left me for a few days, he left the small makeshift village we had made for ourselves, he didn't return for days so I followed his scent," he paused leaning on the other side of the wall. His voice held regret like never before.

I stretched my arm and placed my hand on his squeezing in comfort, he sighed squeezing back, and continued " it's was stupid I shouldn't have gone after him but what done is done, "

"There was a place where no person was allowed to enter a cave, far deep behind a waterfall, grandfather had warned me not to enter that place but his scent ended there when I went looking for him, I was not sure if I wanted to anger him but with no other choice left I walked in, I was eleven years old then, my alpha instincts warned me to find my grandfather, only one thing that was somehow the closest thing to a family, no matter what he thinks of me but he was family to me," he sighed playing with my fingers

"There were so many traps, by the time I was at the end of the cave I could barely walk, blood and sweat alike decorated on my skin, but yet I was determined to look for him, and then I saw it, the thing he never wanted to encounter, I saw the real monster."

" Claudius was chained to the wall with his arms in the air, in the middle of the cage, there was a huge cage in the middle of the cave big enough to fit ten people, he was badly beaten and bruised, he looked like a person in need, I didn't know or think twice before what I had done, I was so stupid, " he leaned on the wall and his face pinched in anger.

"he woke up when I approached him, he looked a lot like me, a victim of hatred, he spoke to me with calmness and with no hostility he told me he was my uncle and my grandfather was torturing him because he was the rightful heir to the throne, he was so sure about it that for a millisecond I believe him because for the first time someone spoke nicely to me and I felt overwhelmed, he told me, my grandfather had wrongly imprisoned him and I felt that we were the same, my great grandfather had entered the cave but it was too late, too late that he couldn't stop me or him, my grandfather hardly moved a muscle before he was torn apart, Claudius was a monster he didn't know he left my grandfather alive but the village was not that lucky, he killed everything and everyone

I have never felt this much at fault in my entire life, I did this, I caused the deaths of the villagers, my grandfather almost died at that time because of me, I didn't get much time to dwell on it because Claudius forcefully took me away, thinking I was my father, that made me think for how long was he captive in that cave, " he sighed holding my hand then looked at me. his face marred with guilt and grief.

"I did this, I unleashed the monster, this is all my fault," he said his voice filled with pain and sadness, I moved closer to hold his face and shook my head

"This is not your fault, he is the monster, you were just a kid it's ok, we will figure it out," I tried a lot to move closer to comfort him but the bars laced with wolves bane sizzled my skin on contact.

we were quiet after that just in our thoughts but what bugged me was after Alejandro had stopped speaking, what had happened after Claudius took Alejandro away, I wanted to know so I could understand the situation better but I didn't have the heart to ask him to relive the torture again, he will tell me when he is comfortable with it, I can wait.

Right now we had a bigger problem, a much bigger one with powerful witches by his side.