Surrogate for My Brother-in-law - Chapter 54: Chapter 54

Once more I curled up cold and miserable on a dirty floor. The cell was a little bigger than the secret room Eva had chained me in. That was the only improvement in my situation.
There was no furniture in the cell. Just a kind of pallet filled with straw that stank of old blood and urine. I wasn't about to lay down on that.
The blanket the guard had given me was enough to cover my body, but it didn't provide much in the way of warmth.
I was tempted to try and shift to my wolf form, just so I wouldn't be so cold. But the wolf yearned for freedom, and she would barely be able to turn around in that tiny cell. I couldn't be so cruel to her after she'd saved my life.
The wolf didn't speak to me. I could tell she was hurt and confused by Leo's rejection. I hadn't realized she considered him our mate.
I didn't think I could possibly have a fated mate. I didn't want one, either. Leo was Eva's. He'd clearly chosen her over me.
The guards who came down to patrol the basement and make sure Zane and I hadn't escaped or died refused to speak to me. They just glared. I asked for some water, because I was parched. A guard spat at me.
“Friendly, aren't they?” Zane taunted after the guards had left.
I didn't say anything. He'd tried to kill Leo. The alpha might have thrown me down there, but I knew it was because Eva tricked him. I didn't want him dead.
“So do you still think you chose the right side, Tessa? Are you still loyal to your alphas?”
I didn't answer. I wasn't loyal to Arthur. Maybe I never had been. But Leo? Leo was a good alpha.
“I mean, look where your loyalty has gotten you,” Zane continued.
“Look where your disloyalty got you,” I responded.
“Yeah, you got me there,” Zane said. He chuckled. “You know, the Rogues wouldn't treat either one of us like this.”
“Really,” I said.
“Really. If you're loyal, they reward that. Handsomely.”
“And if you betray them?” I asked.
“Oh, then you're dead. None of this imprisonment and banishment circus.”
“That's not better,” I said.
“Isn't it?” Zane hummed to himself. “Talk to me after a few more days in that cell. Or when you're out on the street, with no pack to feed you or offer you shelter. When you have to decide what you're willing to do to survive.”
I shuddered. Banishment was probably in my very near future. And what would I do? Where could I go? No pack would take a banished wolf, so I wouldn't even be able to ask Ethan or Dr. Lee to help me. If they would. What if they believed Eva's lies, too?
Maybe... maybe I could go to the human territories? I was part human. My mother came from there. I might even have relatives. I didn't know.
Wolf laws didn't apply to humans, so maybe, just maybe, I could find a job there. Did humans have servants? I was a good housekeeper. A hard worker. Was it worth the risk?
Humans were notoriously frightened of us. I might get arrested just for trying to cross the border. Was my mother's human blood enough to grant me passage? I just didn't know.
I was saved from having to answer Zane by the scrape of the door opening. I looked up, hoping to see Leo. To my disappointment, it was Eva.
She paused at Zane's cell. They stared at each other for several minutes.
“Guess you gotta take care of yourself,” Zane finally said.
“Yeah.” Eva shrugged. “Sorry.”
“No, you're not,” he said, and I heard shuffling and scraping that told me he had turned away from the bars at the front of his cell.
Eva stared into his cell for another moment before shaking her head and turning towards my cell.
“Hello, Tessa,” she said.
“Where is my pup?” I demanded.
“Oh, sweetie, you know your pup died,” she said with a sickening mockery of sympathy in her voice, “You miscarried, and you tried to steal my pup.”
“Is that what you told Leo?” I asked.
She nodded silently. No wonder Leo had been so furious out in the forest. I wasn't just a potential traitor, I was a threat to his pup, to his newborn family.
“I also showed him the proof that you've been in league with the Rogues,” Eva added. “That you've been a traitor all along.”
“Why?” I asked. “Wasn't faking a kidnapping enough?”
“No,” Eva said, “Of course not. Leo's soft. His heart bled for you and Ethan when he heard you lost the pup. All he would do would be send you off to Ethan's pack.”
“So? I'd be out of your life. I could convince Ethan to let me stay away forever.”
Eva shook her head. “It's not enough. It'll never be enough until you're gone for good. Until I've won!”
Won what? We were never in competition. She was the perfect Alpha Daughter. She shifted younger than any female wolf in our pack's history. Everyone doted on her.
I was the alpha's human lover's half-blood whelp. At best I was the alpha's bastard and Eva's half-sister. Mostly I was just another servant, a disposable slave and tool for my so-called family to use and discard. Just like they were doing.
“Yeah, well you've won,” I said. “Leo will never believe me over you, and your parents will never speak up for a traitor. We both know it. So you've got everything you wanted. Are you happy?”
“Yeah. Yeah I am,” Eva said, chin tilted up defiantly.
Huh. Why did I doubt it? She came down there to gloat, but there was still so much desperation in her face and in her voice. I just didn't get it.
“Can you at least tell me if the pup is all right?” I asked. “Did I have a boy or a girl? Did you let Leo pick the name?”
Eva snorted. “Why would I tell you anything? You'll never see that pup. It's mine, not yours.”
“What can it hurt to tell me?” I asked, desperate. The pup had to be alive; she was talking like it was alive. But was it healthy? Did it miss me or did it realize Eva wasn't its mother? How was she feeding it?
“It hurts you for me not to tell you,” Eva said. “That's enough reason.”
She tossed her hair over her shoulder and stalked out of the basement. I slumped against the gate at the front of my cell, defeated.
“Huh,” Zane said. “Can't believe I slept with that bitch.”
I snorted. I wasn't going to laugh. It wasn't funny. Nothing could be funny.
“It's okay. Go ahead and laugh. Mock my terrible taste in women,” Zane said.
I shook my head. “I think if I start laughing, I'll scream instead. And never stop.”
“Eh. Yeah, maybe don't do that? At least until they banish me,” Zane said.
“Sure, I'd hate to make your stay down here any more unpleasant,” I replied.
It was stupid, but bickering with Zane actually helped. I would never, ever tell him that. He was still a traitor.