Cilla.

I always knew that my father would get us into trouble. He was reckless, and all he cared about was making money. My mother cried all the time, and begged him to change his ways before he ruined us all. He never listened, and my mother's prophecy came true.

In the middle of the forest in our pack's territory was a clearing. It was used for a lot of things; pack ceremonies, initiation rituals, and punishment among others. I had been there a few times for joyous occasions but there was nothing good about what was about to happen.

My eleven year old twin siblings and I were kneeling down, our hands tied up and chained to tree stumps in front of us. My father's hands were tied together and hoisted up with a strong rope. He was barely able to stand on his two feet at the moment, only managing to use his toes. The pack warriors would occasionally raise the rope and leave him hanging every now and then as they questioned him. My mother, on the other hand, was tied onto a long thin tree and had been crying since they took us there. Efforts made by father to stop her were futile.

The pack warriors who were laughing stopped when our alpha and his beta arrived. Alpha Aragon was a big man made of hard, sinewy muscle. Every feature on his body was hard and sharp, especially his piercing black eyes that had the power of intimidating everyone him.

Apparently his insides were just as hard as the outside and that gave him one hell of a reputation. He was a very tough and ruthless man. He was said to be very hard to kill. Many had tried and failed. Why my father thought he'd get away with betraying him was beyond my understanding.

“Has he admitted to it?” the alpha's deep voice pierced the air.

All the warriors nodded. Just a few minutes back they had been acting like they owned the world. Now they were like tiny ants standing near an elephant. The whole werewolf world shuddered at the mention of Alpha Aragon's name.

“He has,” a warrior called Tom said.

Alpha Aragon looked around. “Where are the stupid whips? I knew this bastard betrayed me.” He stalked to my father and grabbed his chin, tilting his head while one of the pack warriors ran to a nearby cabin. “You’re going to face the consequences of your actions before you die. It’ll be the last thing you remember.”

Two burly men entered the clearing.

“Alpha Aragon,” one of them said.

Aragon turned to the pack wolves. “Untie the twins.”

My mother started wailing and Alpha Aragon turned and kicked her stomach. She screamed even more and seemed defiant to not stop it.

The twins were untied within seconds.

“Take them,” the alpha said as my mother yelled.

“Stop, don't take my children. They're all I have. Please I'll do anything you want, Alpha Aragon.”

I could only sob as I watched my siblings taken away by two strangers.

The ruthless alpha was deaf to my mother's pleas. Two whips were handed to him. He threw one to the group and looked my way. Our eyes met, mine going wide with realization when he started walking towards me.

I screamed before the whip hit me on the back. Since I was chained to the stump, I could not move at all, and had to endure the hot whips hitting my back while I screamed loudly. My mother was also filling the air with her screams and pleas for the alpha to stop.

Every lash sent searing pain all over my body. My back was burning hot like fire was razing it. The whips continued, growing with intensity every time. I screamed in pain until my throat was hoarse and words could not come out.

Glancing at my father, I noticed his poker face. He just stood there doing nothing even though it was his fault. When the whip finally stopped moving, I started to sob, not only because of the physical pain, but also the emotional pain from my father's indifference to his family's suffering.

When my mother's friend Caroline had advised her to leave my father because he'd never change, my mother had thought she was jealous of our family. Caroline had divorced from her husband and lived with her two daughters, fending for them alone. My mother had thought she was jealous that she had someone who could provide for her. I wished mother had listened to Caroline.

Alpha Aragon left me and ambled towards my mother who was beside herself. “Pathetic woman.”

“Let her go, please.” she begged. “You can kill me.”

Aragon smiled and turned to a pack warrior standing behind him. He motioned for the dagger in the warrior's hand.

“Nooo,” I yelled when the alpha grabbed the dagger, turned and rammed it into my mother's chest. He twisted it while she screamed and writhed in pain.

“Please stop.” I kept yelling as I broke down, energy seeping out my body. All I could do was sob after seeing my mother's head fall limply to the side. She was gone.

I wanted to yell at my father, condemn his to the deepest pits of hell but I had no energy. I lay on top of the stump which had seen more blood than anything in all its existence. I could smell blood but couldn’t do anything about it.

I watched as a noose was placed over my father's head. I didn't feel anything as I saw him being hoisted up by his neck. Numb, I watched him die. He never screamed for help, or showed any weakness. He just let himself go, almost peacefully. When he was dead, his eyes bulged and a warrior cut the rope making father's body fall to the ground like a sack of potatoes.

My parents were dead, my siblings gone. I breathed and waited for my end. It didn't come. Instead a warrior unchained me and pushed my body to the ground. I didn't complain, didn't try to resist. I just waited, staring at Alpha Aragon who was smoking calmly as the warriors gathered the bodies of my parents near a fireplace which had been stocked with piles of wood.

Two thin men soon came to the clearing and spoke to the alpha. One pulled out a ward of cash and handed it to the beta who counted the notes before nodding his head and gesturing to me. The men walked towards me and grabbed my body as I kicked my head trying to put up a futile resistance.

One of them placed a handkerchief over my nose. The smell of a drug hit me and before long, the world morphed into darkness.

Cilla.

It was the screaming that woke me. Opening my eyes, I saw a woman screaming her head off on the bed next to mine. I opened my mouth to tell her to stop and closed it when I saw the rest of her body. Her belly was huge. She was pregnant.

There were two other beds in the room, all occupied with girls who were staring silently at the expectant woman. The room had a musky smell and no windows. It was probably why the dim lights had been left on. I tried to get up to help the woman and that was when I realized I couldn't. My legs were chained to the lower frame of the bed.

“Hey,” I said.

The woman stopped screaming and stared at me for a few seconds before resuming. Now I understood why the other girls were just looking on. I fell back on the pillow and stared at the stained ceiling and walls. What happens in this room, I wondered as I scanned the stains of all colors spread all over the place.

The door opened and an elderly woman walked in, followed by two young women in maids’ uniforms who were carrying a basin and other supplies. They passed by me and placed the things on the floor. They headed towards the other girls and untied them. No sooner had they set their feet on the floor than they ran to the adjoining room.

One of the girls came and undid the chains on my legs. I stepped down and followed the other woman. I found one of the women holding her stomach and moving around in the bathroom. “Hurry up.”

The toilet flushed and the other girl came out. The second girl practically ran into the toilet, and I waited for my turn. When I was lying down, I had not realized just how full my bladder. The girl grabbed a towel and entered the bathroom without saying anything to me.

I was finally able to have some peace when I went into the toilet. I could feel the excruciating pain in my back no matter how much I tried to ignore. There was no way I was going to let water touch it.

I was still enjoying my privacy when the screams started again. I finalized and left the toilet to see what was happening. The scene I found made me freeze at the door. The woman was giving birth. After seeing the head, I ran back to the restroom, already traumatized by the bloody sight I had just witnessed. It was nothing compared to the murder of my parents but scary in its own way.

I raised an eyebrow when the two girls came out of the bathroom together.

“What?” the tall one with dirty blonde hair said.

I shrugged and watched as they walked into the other room.

I could hear the cry of a baby. Tears welled into my eyes. That poor baby had no idea it had been brought into a terrible world. Considering that its mother was a captive, its future was not going to be very bright. Sad. I was enjoying being alone until one of the girls came in with a basin full of blood and other human excreta. I ran out.

The woman was crying on the bed while the two girls tried to comfort her. The midwife and baby were nowhere to be seen. My twin siblings being separated from me was a heartless thing, but nowhere as heartless as taking a baby away from its mother.

As I sat on my bed, I couldn't help but wonder what my fellow prisoners had been up to, and how they ended up there. Since I didn't know what to say, I just watched.

“Are you mute?” The blonde girl asked.

I shook my head. “I just don't know what to say.”

“What's your story?”

“My parents were killed in front of me, my siblings taken away and here I am. I have no idea where I am or who you all are.”

“It seems you don't care,” she continued.

“I do. My name is Cilla Markle, I will be 18 in a week's time and was looking forward to escaping to the human world with my best friend Jada but my father's betrayal of the pack was discovered before that. He's the reason I ended up here.”

“Well, since we may be stuck together for a while, I may as well introduce everyone to you. My name is Maryanne,” she pointed to her friend. “She is Angela and over here is Patricia. We have been holed up in here for over a year.”

“Where are we?”

“I don't know but the place is owned by a slave trader. The plan was to sell us after producing a child who would also be sold. It backfired. Only Patricia was able to get pregnant and they only let us remain to take care of her. Now that they've got a healthy baby, they will soon sell us all. I don't know if they will try to impregnate or sell you immediately. I have no idea which would be better, here or a slave owner's place.”

“This place is better because they try to keep us in good shape which means more money from buyers,” the other girl, Angela said. “If they left us to get extremely thin and ugly, we'd fetch less money for them.”

“How did you end up here?” I asked them.

“I killed a man who tried to force himself on me,” Angela said.

“I beat the beta's daughter,” Maryanne said. “The whipping I received nearly killed me. By the way, I saw yours yesterday.”

I raised an eyebrow.

“I was just checking.”

“Okay. What about her?”

Patricia had cried herself to sleep and was now snoring softly. She looked peaceful.

“Her husband used to beat her and when she threatened to report him, he harmed himself and accused her of doing it. He is a man. They believed him without a second thought. He even lied that she was planning to betray the pack and she got sold off. Poor woman. She's so innocent. It's sad she has to suffer like this.”

Indeed, it was.