Double Claims: The Lost mate-Chapter 76

The morning metamorphosed into a full day, with the bright sunlight entering into the room. It hit my face with an intensity that made me want to get up from where I was and find a shade, but I couldn’t do that because of where I was bound.

Sasha was luckier that she wasn’t placed directly infront of the window. My face burned till I begun sweating.

I felt a lot of relief after reconciling with Sasha and both of us confessing our wrongs to each other. However, that didn’t change the fact that we were locked here with no escape.

I felt my wolf purr within me, a shaky fearful growl. Since we had been captured, Aria curled up in a corner dejectedly and kept whispering to me, "I don’t know what to do."

A low rumbled erupted from my stomach. I clenched it, feeling my insides biting me. It rumbled again, and the pangs of hunger didn’t conceal themselves this time around.

I let out a dejected sigh. I hadn’t eaten anything since I returned from the rogue lands to Veilwood. The hunger feelings were unbearable. I swallowed my dry saliva as if it would help satisfy my hungriness.

"Maria, I’m hungry," Sasha complained. That was a coincidence because I was also suffering from hunger at where I sat.

"I don’t think I can survive it. Maybe I’d die from hunger and not even from mother’s imprisonment." Sasha muttered again.

"We won’t die from anything," I mumbled, even though I felt too weak to respond.

I felt extremely fatigued from being in a sitting position for almost a day. I wanted to lie on a soft bed, to stretch my limbs, to eat good food and have peace of mind.

I heard footsteps approaching and my heart started beating rapidly.

Was someone here to carry either me or Sasha, or even worse, both of us?

Sasha heard the footsteps too and I could sense the fear on her face. She didn’t say anything, but she whimpered and tried hard to shift backwards.

A strange man who wasn’t Azazel entered into the room. I hadn’t seen him before since I was captured. He held a basket in his hand and cleared his throat before walking towards me.

My breath hitched and I struggled to kick my legs and run away, but all to no avail. He crouched down to my level of the floor and brought the basket closer. When he took the cloth off the basket, it revealed two plates.

He took out both and placed one in front of me before taking the other to Sasha.

"Eat your food," He ordered in a gruff voice.

I stared at my food and then, stared at my hands. No matter how much I tried, I knew I wouldn’t be able to reach the food. As if reading my mind, he moved over to Sasha and undid the binding on her hand.

He did the same thing with me as well. I took a deep breath of relief and rubbed my aching wrists.

He pointed at us. "Don’t try anything funny just because I’ve untied your hands. Eat quickly!"

He moved over to the raised slab of stone in front of the room and sat there, his eyes never leaving us for even a second.

There was a lot of tension in the air. Sasha had already pulled her plate closer to herself. She took few spoonfuls before stopping and grimacing her face like she tasted something bitter.

I brought my own bowl closer and stirred whatever food was inside there. I couldn’t quite recognize the dish, but I could recognize that there was rice in it.

I took the first spoon and my stomach lurched. There was something in the food that made it taste sour. Now, I understood why Sasha stopped eating hers after a few spoons.

The pangs of hunger continued biting me. I’d have no choice than to eat the food, except I wanted to suffer and die from hunger. I felt angry that they’d give us food that had started going spoilt.

The man watched us with eagle eyes, like a predator scanning his prey.

I closed my eyes and took a spoonful of the food. I ate till I was almost halfway done. The sourness seemed to decrease the more I ate or maybe I was just getting used to it.

Sasha also forced herself to eat. When we were done, it only remained very little in our plates. I held my tummy, feeling like I might vomit any moment from now.

I didn’t hold my abdomen for long before the man, sighting that we had finished eating walked towards us and tied our hands back in their former place.

He picked his plates out and we were alone in the room once again.

Sasha gagged like she wanted to throw up.

"The food was bad. I only ate it because I was hungry," Sasha complained and leaned her back further on the wall.

"Yes, it was sour." I also admitted.

I hoped that eating the food won’t make us feel worse than before. It didn’t do anything to my body at the moment and I hoped it won’t make me feel sick later.

On the bright side, I didn’t feel hungry anymore.

"Should I try again?" Sasha asked, making me quite confused at her question.

Before I could ask any question for clarity, she continued, "Should I try mindlinking him again? Maybe he’d hear me this time."

"I don’t know," I mumbled faintly. "I really don’t know."

Sasha closed her eyes and spread both arms, concentrating to mind-link Brian. Her eyes tightened with each second that passed, until she finally opened them.

"Nothing?" I asked with a voice full of concern.

"Nothing at all."

I sat down there, my eyes focused on the wall, thinking about father and Alice. Wondering where they were taken to, what had happened to them and most importantly, if they were alive.

I shut my eyes to return back to sleep. I wished that when I woke up I would be back in Trevor’s land, lying in bed with him and everything would be back to normal.

Before I could put myself together to sleep, I heard footsteps approaching again. We had already been given food, so what could the person be coming again for?

To take one of us?

My breathing became ragged and I shut my eyes, pretending to sleep. I looked from the corner of my shut eye and saw that it was the same man who brought food for us that had come in.

He cleared his throat in a way that even the sound of it made me cower in fear.

I shook from where I sat while praying to the moon goddess to spare my life. The man stood in the middle of I and Sasha.

He then brought out a cigar from his pocket and lit it. The smoke from it blew in my direction, making me cough and blowing my cover where I pretended to be sleeping.

"Which of you is Maria?" The burly guard questioned in his deep voice.

My heart sank instantly. I locked eyes with Sasha and she shook her head, while telling me something inaudible and she spoke by only moving her lips. I read her lips, "don’t tell him."

I nodded my head and stared into the distance. Both of us kept quiet.

"Who is Maria?" The man thundered again. "I’m asking for the last time before I slit someone’s throat." He brought out a dagger that was sheathed around his waist.

He moved towards Sasha and grabbed her to her feet. "Are you the one?"

Sasha whimpered as he grabbed her hair.

"I’m...I’m..."

"I’m the one," I admitted finally.

The man tossed Sasha towards the floor recklessly and advanced towards me.

He slapped me hard across the face causing me to almost collapse to the side. He bent down to my level and pulled my hair hard.

"Next time, don’t play games on me, understood?"

I struggled to nod my head in respond while trying hard to blink back the tears that were about to fall.

My face stung and hurt me. He grabbed me roughly by the shoulder.

Sasha screamed my name. "Maria!"

I didn’t try to wrestle with the man. I simply accepted my fate, knowing that even if I died, I died trying to save myself and my people.

His grip on my shoulder didn’t falter, he even tightened it, making me feel more uncomfortable. He shoved me around the corridors roughly as though he was carrying a nonliving thing.

His hurried steps stopped in front of a room. He left me standing and went ahead to talk with a man. They kept throwing glances my way while talking.

This could be my chance to escape if I could run really fast. He was already done talking to the man and was walking towards me.

I turned around and took to my heels, running as fast as I could.

Fast? That was an irony. I could barely even hurry because my legs were tied too. But if I didn’t attempt escaping when there was chance, I’d never forgive myself.

I had to run.