Chapter 5: Cruel Reckonings

Kate's POV

The next time the cell door creaked open with a rusty groan, I didn't even flinch.

I simply remained curled up in the corner, cheek pressed against the freezing stone as I stared unseeingly at the opposite wall.

What was the point of reacting anymore? Of cowering or pleading?

Dimitri always got what he wanted in the end - to torment and debase me until I was a hollow, broken husk.

So I didn't move when his thunderous footfalls approached.

Didn't make a sound as his hulking silhouette loomed over my withered form.

"Well now..." A deep rumble, edged with dark amusement. "I was concerned my latest game had you beaten too soon. But it seems the scared little omega bitch has simply given up resisting entirely."

The barest ghost of a flinch rippled through me at his mocking taunt.

And that seemed to delight the vicious Alpha even more, if his low chuckle was any indication.

"Good, that's it...the first glimmers of surrender. You're learning at last."

His heavy tread circled around my unmoving form in a predatory loop.

I could almost feel the scorching weight of his roving stare like a physical caress, making my insides churn with loathing.

"Although if you think adopting this pathetic listlessness exempts you from further torments, you're sorely mistaken."

One of his boots lashed out in a blindingly fast kick, blasting into my exposed ribs with brutal force.

I jackknifed upright with a gasping cry, clutching my flank as searing agony lanced through me.

"Complacency breeds weakness, bitch," Dimitri growled, not even attempting to mask his wicked delight at my anguish. "And I'll not have a weak, surrendered mate to sully my pack's bloodline..."

My head still swimming, I barely registered his words at first.

It was only when his shadow loomed over me again that the implication dawned like a leaden blow to my gut.

Mate...he called me his mate!

"N-No!" I recoiled on trembling limbs, shaking my head in panicked denial. "I won't...submit to being your mate!"

His fangs flashed in a sadistic grin, lips curled back over those deadly fangs. "You don't get a choice, little omega. I'm the Alpha here - what I decree is law, no matter how thoroughly I need to disabuse you of that defiant spirit first."

My breath sawed in ragged bursts, eyes darting wildly around the cell as my mind raced.

A hairline fracture seemed to open up in his arrogant indifference - a momentary hint of displeasure knitting his heavy brow when I openly rejected his declaration.

Could I...Could I use that against him somehow, to gain some kind of leverage?

A way to turn his own twisted demands back on him?

I had to try.

Even if it was a suicide gambit and he ended up flaying me alive for my insolence, anything was better than surrendering to this nightmare of an existence!

Drawing what little tattered resolve I had left, I lifted my chin in a subtly defiant tilt.

Dimtri's eyes narrowed dangerously, but I forced the words out in a quavering rasp before my courage could desert me.

"If you want...me to be your mate...then you'll have to earn that right. As any true Alpha worthy of their l-luna should."

The cell fell into a charged, sparking silence broken only by the erratic pounding of my own heartbeat thundering in my ears.

Dimitri remained utterly motionless, a statue carved from immovable granite - except for the twitching throb of the vein in his corded neck.

Just when my bravado was on the verge of crumbling, he exhaled a low rumbling breath laced with such simmering menace it made my hairs prickle on the back of my neck.

"Care to run that little declaration by me again, bitch?" The demand was a hair's breadth from outright snarl. "Because I must have misheard you attempting to dictate terms to your undisputed Alpha mate and master..."

Oh moon goddess, what have I done?!

My mind screamed in numb panic, even as my lips began moving of their own accord. Digging my grave even deeper.

"Y-You heard me." I rasped, a tremor betraying my outward appearance of defiance. "All I've seen of you so far is mindless barbarism and sadism. An Alpha worth being l-luna to would actually make the effort to respectfully e-earn my devotion and trust first...not drown me in torment!"

My voice rose to a hysterical pitch by the end, hunching in on myself on instinct as if bracing for a skull-crushing strike.

Which never came.

Instead, Dimitri descended into a heavy, brooding stance, levelling me with a look of such immolating intensity it took every ounce of fortitude for me to hold his stare.

Those twin silver furnaces seemed to blaze into my very soul, dissecting my every fleeting thought and emotion with surgical precision.

Then, with one final disgusted scoff, he turned his back and stalked out of the cell - but not before growling out one last scorching promise.

"Very well, you defiant little omega bitch...if that's the game you wish to play, so be it. We'll see if you still value your delusions of 'respect' so highly once I'm through remaking you from the wretched core outward!"

The cell door slammed shut behind him with an ominous boom of finality.

I collapsed against the wall, shaking uncontrollably as the delayed panic crashed over me in waves.

I couldn't believe my own brazenness, my suicidal defiance toward this Alpha's utterly authority.

My very life hung by a thread now, the sole plaything for Dimitri to torment as he saw fit.

And somehow...for reasons I couldn't even fathom myself... I had spit directly into the face of that authority.

Laid down an ultimatum that he must earn me as his mate through dignified courtship, rather than the base tortures he had inflicted thus far.

Dear goddess, what have I done?

Hot tears spilled freely down my hollow cheeks as I curled into a tight ball, bracing myself for whatever cruel retribution would surely come next.

This fiend was going to make me wish for the oblivion of death ten times over now, all for my reckless moment of stubborn pride!

Yet still...one traitorous thread of defiance refused to be fully extinguished inside my battered soul.

If I'm fated to suffer either way...at least let it be on my own terms.

Let him earn my surrender and submission as a true Alpha should!

Such futile hopes and convictions were all I had left to cling to now.

That, and the steadily dimming prayer that I might somehow, by some miracle, emerge from this latest gambit unbroken.

For in the end, what more could Dimitri take from my that he hadn't already?

Only my life itself remained. And even that burden was rapidly losing its luster with each fresh torment...