Huddling against the wall, she fought not to let the tears fall. There was nothing to sit on, no padding on the wall and the three remaining sides were made of silver bars. It was dark, damp and musty. She could feel the cold seeping into her body but she was too tired to get off the floor.

Her heart felt shattered. She wanted to scream but remembered it'd done nothing. The walls seemed to be closing in on her but no one was around to hear her pleas. Still, she kept on begging. Andre had to come back for her. He might be angry with her but she was his true mate after all.

Even knowing how futile it was, Claire tried to reach out to Xander. A mate bond was the strongest one there was, yet she couldn't seem to get past a wall that gave her a headache for even trying. Andre had to have blocked her mental abilities. As a royal he had authority over their abilities and could take them away if he wished.

She curled around herself trying to preserve the little heat she had left to her. Her mouth felt dry, hunger twisted her stomach and for the first time she was filthy. How had she miscalculated this much? If only Andre hadn't pretended to be a mere guard ten years ago.

'You're not worth my time.' He'd told her.

Could he really have meant that? As his true mate, he had to feel something for her, had to have a desire to protect her. Yet he'd left her here in a place many had forgotten existed. The silver encased dungeons.

She hadn't done anything to her sister. As a prince Andre should've been able to sense the truth of that. Which meant either he was an incompetent one or he was being vindictive. She suspected the latter. Which meant he would probably choose to still be with Cari on that principle alone.

Claire knew most people would think badly of her if they knew but she couldn't really fathom anyone preferring Cari over her. Even Xander's occasional attraction to Cari had to be because males loved having the attention of more women than the one they had. Not because he thought Cari was better.

In her misery, it took her a while to hear the sound of footsteps coming towards her. She raised her head, hope budding inside her that he was back to take her away from this dank place. Anticipation had her heart thudding hard and her mouth drying even more.

Only it wasn't him. Three male turned the corner that led to her out of the way cell. She really had been placed where people were put to be forgotten. There were only three cells this deep into the mountain dungeon where light never even reached. The other two were empty but she'd been put in the middle. A cell where she couldn't huddle in a corner but was on display.

A lump formed on her throat as reality started to burrow its way into her head. Could he really not care about her? Two of the males held a big screen between them and the third held a laptop.

"Wha..a..a..t..." her voice was rusty, as if she hadn't used it in ages. The males ignored her, as if she wasn't even there. Claire had never been ignored, she'd always been the center of attention.

She swallowed hard, humiliated.

Still huddling against the wall, she watched as they plugged the tv into a port she hadn't even realised was there. Her mind shied away from the reason why they'd need an electrical port so deep underground.

The tv was turned towards her cell then pushed closer. The third guy connected the laptop to the tv with a usb to usb cable. A chair was taken from out of her sight and the guy holding the laptop brought it closer to her and sat down. The other two retreated to the far wall from the cells and stood guard.

The seated male had distinct east asian features, but something about him showed another heritage. Claire couldn't tell what that something was. He was good-looking, even within a race that was known for being so. Yet again something about him seemed to caution against even thinking of being attracted to him.

His dark eyes on her were frank and detached, as if she were something to tick off his list of chores. Though he was of her generation, he exuded power, more than any alpha blood she'd ever met, even the Darkpaws and Nightwolf pack Alphas. She shivered, unable to hide her fear as she'd have before. The hours she's spent in the cell had sapped her of her will.

"Can you sense the status of my bloodline?" He asked in an even monotone.

Claire had never met alphas above the county tittle common to most. "No." She croaked out, her tongue going to moisten her dry lips.

"I'm a from a marquessate heritage." He watched her as she blinked at him, unable to place the rank. "It's just below a standard duke." He explained in the same conversational monotone. "You're a countess, by marriage, the lowest alpha rank. Which means I'm much more powerful than you are."

Claire shivered at a truth she didn't want to hear.

"Your brother was overheard telling your mate about your...gift. How you manipulate anyone unfortunate enough to love you with it."

She took in a sharp breath, her heart thundering inside her chest until she couldn't feel anything besides its beat. Sweat dotted her skin as she swallowed in an attempt to wet her drying throat. Did the queen know? Did Andre?

"I don't feel anything for you so you cannot manipulate me like that. If you try anything, I will be forced to give you an alpha command. Do you understand?"

"Yes." She acknowledged.

"Good. Now I'm not sure of you have a clear understanding of why the queen didn't strip you and your mate of your position. Or why she didn't punish you in any way. The simple truth is that you were given enough rope to strangle yourself. And you did."

"I..I didn't do anything." She argued, though her hoarse cracking tone failed to project the firm denial she wanted.

He leaned back against the chair, straightened his legs as he got more comfortable. His face was still as calm, still as detached. "Then it's unfortunate that just after you interfered with your sister's mating she got kidnapped."

His dark gaze scrutinized her as if she were an interesting object. Claire wasn't used to people treating her like this, she was always the center of attention. Yet he made her feel insignificant. It left a bad taste in her. She wanted to lash out at him, remind him that she was the true mate of the prince of their nation. Only wasn't that what he was trying to dispute?

"Do you want to know what people are saying about you?" He asked.

She didn't answer him. With a single click of a button on his laptop, the tv showed a display of a popular social media site. One where humans and paranormals of all kinds interacted, commenting on different social situations.

The topic of discussion was 'Catty Claire strikes again'.

Even as her heart sank at the knowledge she'd been reduced to a byword Claire read the aticles. The male seated before her scrolled down as she read, solicitous in a way that she couldn't appreciate given the situation.

Claire had thought she'd been brought low but as she read her life and actions twisted into something vile, something sinister, she sank even lower. The little pranks she'd played on others with her friends made her out to be a vindictive and remorseless. The little complaints she'd voiced to her friends about Cari were distorted to show her as a jealous shrew.

Nothing that was said was a lie, but it painted her as something she couldn't recognize. They spoke of how she'd been unable to stand her sister's happiness that she'd interfered with her mating and how when she found out Andreas' tittle she'd had Cari kidnapped.

Even if she got a chance to deny to the world that she'd had anything to do with Cari's disappearance all the other things she'd done would stand against her. The article had had no problem naming names and Claire could see that all her close friends had had something to say.

Then she read the comments:

@Nateaya

I can't believe this woman! She found out that the true mate she betrayed was a prince and even though she's already mated and has a baby on the way she want to take him from her sister!

@WingMi

Talk about denial and a blind spot... she should've been happy to have people love her instead she just wanted to make Cari look bad!

@tovar2008

Thank all the powers she's not our princess! This girl just wants power and nothing will ever satisfy her.

@Jaspar

Can't someone just kill her and put her out of our misery?

And those were the kinder ones. Like a pedestrian watching the inevitable fall of a train into a chasm she read with that horrified fascination. She was called all kinds of vulgarities, her character assassinated in all ways. There were lewd pictures with her face clearly pasted on. Memes were made of her trying to kill her sister, of her killing her sister.

There were already cartoon clips of her cannibalizing her pack. In all that, Xander was the brainless idiot she dragged about on a leash. It was all so...so horrid! None of these people knew her, none of them had ever talked to her but because of her so called friends perverting her character she was now reduced to a pariah.

How was she ever going to show her face after this? How would ger pack treat her. She'd thought the queen benevolent, thought she'd understood her situation. She'd thought she could easily win her over and have her as an advocate for her and Andre. All that time the queen had been setting her up. Luring her into complacency so that the world would crucify her.

The comments went on and on. Claire wasn't aware of the tears that raced down her cheeks. Her world was falling apart, all her dreams crashing right before her eyes and she had no idea how to fix it. She couldn't even point out that the queen had set her up, no one would believe her. Not when the queen was so beloved.

The male alpha sat there and scrolled down the comments as they continued to pop up. It went on for what felt like hours and Claire couldn't help but read, her soul shrivelling as for the first time she experienced real hatred. As she realized she was drowning.

"You better get comfortable luna," the male said. "You're going to be here for a while."

"You can't so that to me." She protested in a small voice.

"Would you rather face the people out there?" He asked and Claire hesitated. "I didn't think so."

"You can't...I'm pregnant!"

"And you'll get three meals a day and some blankets." He stated as he stood up.

Claire was left no doubt that whatever she'd be getting was going to be unappealing. He turned and walked away, leaving the comments scrolling down their hateful messages. Leaving the sharp light from the tv to glare its illumination to the dismal condition of the cells.