Page 10 of Mating Mia
What kind of monsters are these people?
I’m about to respond when heavy footsteps echo down the corridor, making my heart stutter with dread.
“Oh no,” I say out loud.
“Remember what I told you. Don’t react. Don’t give them anything.”
I stuff the last of the bread into my mouth, chewing frantically. I don’t know why, but some instinct tells me not to let them see me leaving food, not to give them any reason to withhold future meals.
To my dread, the footsteps stop directly in front of my cell.
I look up to see a tall figure flanked by two guards—the same men who held the whip yesterday.
The third man is older, perhaps in his sixties, but his posture reveals no signs of age or weakness. His shoulders are broad, his stance commanding. Power radiates from him, and his scent—dark and threatening, like thunderclouds fills the narrow space.
“So,” he says, his voice surprisingly soft for someone with such an intimidating presence. “This is Sarah’s little girl. All grown up.”
My skin prickles at the mention of my mother’s name, but I force my expression to remain neutral, just as Liam advised.
“Who are you?” I ask, my heart pounding.
He smiles, revealing teeth that seem too white, too sharp. “My name is Orion. I’m the leader of the Silvertooth Pack.”
“Why am I here?”
He steps closer to the bars, studying me with cold eyes that remind me of a predator assessing its prey.
“I’m the alpha your mother was promised to before she ran away with that…” he gestures dismissively toward Liam’s cell, “this weakling.”
“I don’t know what you’re talking about,” I say, pressing my back against the wall. “I was adopted. I never knew my birth parents.”
Orion turns to one of the guards and says, “Open the door.”
Panic flutters in my chest as the guard unlocks my cell. Orion steps inside, bringing his overwhelming scent with him. The space suddenly feels impossibly small with his large frame dominating it.
“Stand up,” he commands, and to my horror, my body responds before I can control it. I’m suddenly standing before him without my conscious decision.
He circles me slowly, taking in every detail of my appearance. I fight the urge to cover myself, to shrink away from his assessing gaze.
“You look exactly like her,” he says slowly. “Same eyes. She was promised to me since birth, and then she ran to three alphas who stole her from me. My pack and I had the pleasure of killing two. So now there’s just one remaining…”
“Please don’t hurt him. Let him go,” I say, practically begging him not to torture my father anymore. I can’t stand it, and I won’t stand for it.
“I don’t know about that,” says Orion with a dark look as he grips my chin. “If you tell me where your mother is, then I might just let him go free. And you as well.”
“I don’t know where she is. I was given up for adoption as a baby. I never met her.”
“I don’t believe you,” Orion says, his voice still eerily calm despite the anger I can smell rolling off him in waves. “A mother doesn’t abandon her child completely. There would have been contact. Letters. Phone calls. Something.”
“There was nothing,” I tell him, and this at least is the truth. “I know nothing about her except that she gave me up.”
Orion finally releases my chin, stepping back to study me from a different angle.
“We’ll see,” he says. “We have ways of getting to the truth.”
I gasp, suddenly doubling over in pain.What the hell? Is something wrong with the baby?
“What’s this?” Orion asks, his head tilting with curiosity.
