Heart of Fire

🔥Thirty-One🔥

Song: Hold Each Other- Great Big World 

My eyes fluttered open, still heavy from the vervain Blake injected into my system. When they fully opened, I realized I had been moved to a literal dungeon. I laid in the damp, dark cell in the bottom of who knows where. It had been five days since Blake had taken me, and that also meant five days since I ate or even had a sip of water.

To say I was weak and delusional was an understatement.

Blake didn't care about me anymore. Hell, he would probably throw a party if I died while I was in his presence. I knew I was just bait, but I didn't expect him to tie me up, and then throw me into a cell as if to say, "Here, your death awaits you.".

Perhaps what hurt the most was acknowledging the fact that Theo was at home with his pack, and what hurt even more was having to know Willow was with him, and he would always pick her over me. It killed me because every time I closed my eyes, I saw him. I saw his stupid smile, and his stupid eyes, and his stupid dimples.

And then I would see us.

I would see us kissing, hugging, cuddling, and I would hear the way he told me he loved me. I would see the way he looked at me or the way he held me in his arms.

I used to be the girl he loved. Now, I was just the mistake everyone wanted to be rid of.

The fact I was a mistake played in my mind, until suddenly, I remembered the last words Theo had said to me before we left to meet Blake. They weren't much, but to me, they felt like they meant something.

"I love you too, princess. No matter what happens tonight, I love you. Don't forget that."

As I pondered those words, it made me think maybe he knew what was going to happen. Maybe he knew Blake was going to offer up a deal, and I was going to be traded with Willow, and he needed to trade me in order to end whatever was going on between our two packs. But I could also be wrong, and maybe he really did want to get rid of me.

Hot, silent tears trickled down my face as I thought of that. Not only had my first boyfriend used me, but the second guy I fell for traded me for the girl he might have always wanted over me. I couldn't go back to my family, and the second family I had at Noctis probably forgot about me. Theo sure as hell wasn't coming back for me.

I was alone.

"I see you're wide awake." Blake evilly grinned, and I glared at him. It was dark, but I could make out his silhouette. Rolling my eyes, I turned my head toward the damp stone wall.

"Yes, because everyone can sleep in a dirty, rotting cage." I shot him a dry look. "Oh wait, I forgot that only you can because it's your natural habitat."

Through the dark, his red eyes glared at me, but I didn't care. He lost my love and gained my hate a long time ago.

"You know, you look like the Wicked Witch of the West. Your face is an ugly pale, and it's literally sagging, like a ninety-year-old. I don't know how Theo put up with all that." Blake fake shuttered, and I glared at him again before shooting him a sarcastic smile.

"Aw, how does it feel to have a twin? Do tell. I have always wanted a twin." I propped my face on my hands, innocently fluttering my eyelashes, and he literally growled.

"That's funny, Mel. Don't forget your little boyfriend chose another girl over you. How does it feel to always be the second option?"

I grew quiet, mostly because those words hit hard. I was nothing more than a second choice-- the backup plan. The thing people used when their priority wasn't around.