My Alpha Wants Two Lunas? I'M Done (Laila and Holt) novel Chapter 409

Chapter 409 The Inevitable

Third–person POV:

Three days later, Chloe Knight received word and made her way to Princess Estelle’s den.

Her mother, Diana Chandler, was still imprisoned in the underground cells. The dungeon reeked. The air carried the stench of rotting flesh mingled with moldy blood, so foul that most people would have turned around the moment they stepped inside. The ventilation shafts were opened for two hours/each day, a act Princess Estelle reportedly considered proof of her generosity and mercy.

Her generosity toward “them“.

Because Diana was not the only prisoner confined there. Several breeder she–wolves were imprisoned alongside her, together with servants who had committed offenses against the household.

Once a servant entered those cells, they never left again.

The heavy metallic odor saturating the corridors came from blood.

The instant Chloe stepped inside, nausea rolled violently through her stomach. Acid burned the back of her throat, and for a moment she thought she might vomit. But she ignored it and hurried directly toward her mother’s cell.

These were not ordinary prison chambers. A long corridor stretched ahead, divided into solitary stone cells sealed behind thick walls. Each room was completely enclosed, with only a small square opening cut into the iron doors. Meals were shoved through that opening. Occasionally, hands reached through as well, either to deliver food or drag someone away.

The prisoners had no company except rats. The creatures had long since lost their fear of humans. At night, they crawled over the stone floors and onto the beds, gnawing at wood, bones, and sometimes living flesh. Fingernails, cracked heels, scabbed wounds… it made no difference to them.

Inside every cell stood a narrow stone slab covered with mildewed bedding. A rusted metal bucket sat in the corner to serve as a toilet. The prisoners were permitted to bathe once a month. That had been one of Estelle’s rules. Hugo occasionally visited these women, and according to the Princess, they were expected to maintain “basic decency.”

If an entire month passed without screaming, sobbing, or someone smashing their head against the wall. the prisoners earned half a day outside their cells at the end of the month. Guards would escort them through the corridors to walk beneath the open sky, feel moonlight on their skin, and glimpse the faces hidden inside neighboring cells. It was considered a reward.

Chloe had been here once before. Before they sent her out on her mission, Princess Estelle had granted her a special mercy–permission to come down and see for herself what had become of her mother.

Rosie ordered the door unlocked. Chloe threw herself inside.

A woman lay curled upon the stone bed, so thin she looked scarcely alive. She was coughing violently, but when she lifted her head and realized who had entered, she struggled upright at once.

OLG

O

1/3

“Mother!” Chloe threw herself into Diana’s arms, tears streaming down her face. “They said they brought a wolf healer to treat you. Why are you still coughing this badly?”

Diana clutched her daughter fiercely. Her body had wasted away to skin and bone, yet somehow she stijl possessed enough strength to nearly crush the breath from Chloe’s lungs.

“I thought I would never see you again,” she whispered brokenly. “How are you? Are they treating you well? What about your sister?”

Chloe fought to steady herself, though her voice still trembled. “I’m fine. Princess Estelle treats me very well.”

Diana did not believe a word of it. The older woman began to cry harder. “If she allowed you to come here, it means she intends to use you.”

She leaned close to Chloe’s ear. After a few strangled sobs, her voice dropped so low it was barely audible “Forget about me. Run. Run as far away as you can.”

Pain stabbed through Chloe’s chest. Deliberately raising her voice, she said, “Don’t worry, Mother. I’ll complete the task Princess Estelle assigned to me and rescue you from here.”

Diana’s fingers tightened desperately in the fabric at Chloe’s back. But the words her lips silently formed were entirely different. Run.

“Good. As long as you trust me.” Chloe nodded firmly, a cold determination surfacing in her eyes. Leaning close to her mother’s ear, she lowered her voice to a whisper. “If Father comes to see you, convince him to cooperate with my plan. There’s no other path left for us.”

Diana slowly released her and stared at her daughter through tear–blurred eyes, confusion and fear filling her expression.

“Trust me, Mother. I can get you out.” Chloe drew a deep breath and mouthed the next words silently: And the other breeders.

Then she raised her voice once more. “Don’t worry! I’ll obey Princess Estelle and complete everything she asks of me. Once it’s done, our family will be reunited again.”

Diana’s eyes widened. Her face had already become gaunt from starvation and illness, her eye sockets hollow and shadowed. The terror now flooding her expression only made her appear more fragile.

Chloe lowered herself to her knees and pressed her forehead briefly against her mother’s in a solemn gesture of promise. “Remember what I said, Mother. I can do this.”

“Remember what I said,” she told her quietly. “I can do this.” When she lifted her head again, Diana saw something in her daughter’s eyes she had never witnessed before–cold, unwavering resolve.

Fear gripped Diana’s heart instantly. She wanted to seize Chloe and beg her not to do anything reckless. Not to hurl herself against an enemy as immovable as a mountain. People who challenged forces like that rarely lived long enough to understand how they died.

But she looked into her daughter’s steady, unwavering eyes, and slowly, she withdrew her hand.

6

OOG

23

|||

VERIFYCAPTCHA_LABELVerify