In the basement, the twins lost track of time.

A few evenings a week, Kira would be brought up and a few hours later thrown back. Sometimes she would curl up and cry, unwilling to talk to Akela or allow her twin to comfort her. But on rare occasions she would walk in with her back straight and a small smile.

"See... that wasn't so bad," she would smile at Akela.

And every time, Akela hated herself for bringing her sister this level of humiliation, and every time she mentioned it, Kira would brush her off, telling her she was taking one for the team. 

Slowly, relative luxuries started appearing on Kira's side of the room. She got a bed, better blankets, real food, rather than dog food, and even the silver bars were replaced with iron. It never bothered Akela to see these comforts, but Kira hated it and insisted on sleeping on a blanket on the cold concrete floor in wolf shape. Even the food, she would throw half of it across to her twin, along with a blanket that the deltas removed the same day. And every day the two girls sought comfort in each other across the silver bars that separated them. At least they were together.

They slowly got used to living this half life where days, weeks, months seemed to drift into nothingness.

They knew spring - and with it their annual heat - was approaching when, one evening, Kira was not returned to the cage.

Akela pushed the twin link and found her sister's identity up a couple of floors.

"Where are you" Akela thought.

"I have no idea!" Kira replied in a groggy, unfamiliar way.

"He said I would be rewarded... but... " Kira murmured before Akela felt her fall asleep.

For a few hours nothing happened, Kira was clearly asleep and Akela was worried.

When their young guard came with the familiar bowl of food, Akela went up to the bars.

"Where's Kira?" she asked.

"Alpha has upgraded her lodgings in reward for her compliance," he replied with an emotionless detachment, as if reading from a script.

"Oh..." Akela said quietly.

"I've been told to keep you fed down here until you decide to... spend an evening... with the Alpha," the young Delta said with a distasteful frown.

"What? Because I won't let him have my body?" Akela asked, an unknown fury rising in her.

The Delta nodded.

Carefully he lifted his eyes to hers. she saw empathy hidden behind his cold facial expression, along with something else. Pride? Amusement?

She couldn't stop to think about it.

"I can't be alone down here! Kira shouldn't be alone up there!" she fumed.

The delta gave a dry smile.

"Kira said she'd rather be down here with you," he said with a lifted eyebrow.

Akela looked at him with a tight set to her mouth, trying her best to signal how much she hated him. Well... not him personally, but the situation she was in and he was a part of.

"My name is Felix," he smiled with a polite bow before he left the basement.

Every morning, he would come down with food. 

Every day he would give a small smile and a nod of sympathy before leaving, but he never spoke much.

Weeks passed. Akela missed her family and her freedom. There was nothing for her to do but sleep and listen to the Delta force exercising outside. Sometimes Felix would slip her a book or two, and remove them when she had read them, but it relied on if he could get to the library himself.

The twin-link with Kira was fading too.

"Kira?" Akela thought.

"You need to leave, Akela," Kira replied.

Akela's inner wolf whined miserably at the thought of leaving without her sister.

"My heat is coming on. Yours too I suspect. We've always been coordinated," Kira thought in a tired voice.

"What is he doing to you, Kira?" Akela thought, tears running at the miserable sound of her sister's mind.

A short wave of a laughter, amusement flushed the link.

"I'm just bored Aki... and worried about you..." Kira replied with a heavy note of worry so similar to the one Akela remembered from her Mother's concerned warnings it made tears spring to her eyes.

"I miss you Ki! I miss Mum! I miss Dad! Goddess, I wish we'd just stayed at that cabin!" Akela sobbed.

Through the mindlink, as if they were holding hands, Akela felt Kira's grief to match her own.

"It's my fault, Aki. I said we should leave, and Mum said we should stay. I made us leave, It's my fault!" Kira wept.

"No! Kira NO! It's not. It never was! Mum needed help. We all knew she would die!" Akela sniffed.

"But I shouted at her! I told them we had to go!" Kira wept.

Akela was overwhelmed by the grief and guilt from her sister. It took all of her strength to reach her sister's heart with her own love.

"I love you Kira!" She thought.

They were separated until one afternoon, two deltas arrived instead of Felix. They wordlessly opened the silver cage and grabbed Akela.

"What's going on?" She asked, trying to ignore the heavy panic.

"Alpha sensed your heat," one of them said and hauled Akela along despite her heels digging into the floor.

Ignoring her objections and the way she was powerless to free herself, they guided her to the same bathroom as last time. She was told to shower and dress in the weirdly formal white gown hung out for her. There were a pair of silver sandals to go with it.
Full of fear and desperate to find a way out of the inevitable, Akela tried to find a sense of calm in the warm water and the perfumed soap.

Reaching for Kira's presence she received back a sense of calm that hid what she knew was sorrow and sympathy.

"Now. Turn the water off. Eat the dinner and know that I am here," Kira thought.

Akela felt her sister grit her teeth, dreading the rest of the evening and powerless to stop it from her locked room.

"I'm scared, Ki. I really don't want to do this," Akela replied.

"You'll be fine. Just... When it gets to.. it... Relax. Try not to tense up. He's not that bad..." Kira said quietly.

Akela felt her sisters false nonchalance. Kira was trying to lend her a casual attitude to sex, but to Akela it was terrifying.

Outside the bathroom, to her surprise, was Alpha Preston himself in a suit and tie. He offered his arm and she took it, shaking with fear.

"There is no reason to fear me, young Akela. I will not hurt you," he said with surprising tenderness.

They sat again at the dining table. As last time wine was poured and Akela drained her glass without tasting it, welcoming the acid tang and the fog she expected to come with it.

"I decided to give you another chance to become my Luna," he smirked.

Akela looked at his knowing smile.

"Your twin let it slip that your heat comes on at the same time," he grinned.

"And I thought you might have had enough of the lonely basement. Your choice to give me an heir will also reunite you with your sister," Alpha nodded as if offering a fantastic opportunity.

There had been no choice for her. She had been brought up by force. But saying so would presumably turn his falsely friendly smile into anger. Akela felt his dominance vibrating like an audible hum in he air. This was an Alpha used to having his every whim obeyed and Akela's refusal was at this moment something that confused him. Nobody had refused him before.

She shook her head to protest.

"I told you. Either you or your sister," He smirked.

Akela shook her head, fighting tears.

"I just don't want you to force Kira to do stuff she doesn't want to!" she said.

"Fine. I am a gentleman, and as such I will promise the following: As long as you both comply and give yourselves willingly, I will not use force to claim what is rightfully mine," he said.

"Thank you," Akela nodded dutifully. She was shaking in fear.

"But the rules still stand. The first to give me an heir, will be my Luna, the other will be given her freedom," he smiled falsely again.
His judgemental eyes looked at Akela's untouched meal.

Akela simply nodded before cutting a piece of the meat in front of her, cooked through and quite delicious.

"I noticed you didn't enjoy the rare steak last time, so I took the liberty of ordering your lamb well done," Alpha Preston smiled.

"Thank you," She said.

"See. I'm not some monster," he smirked.
Akela had never disagreed more with anything in her life, but she knew without asking that to say so would come with consequences.

It took several glasses of wine for Akela's nerves to dull.

"It wouldn't hurt if you tried to smile. You might actually enjoy it," he eventually grumbled at her nervous frown and unwillingness to make idle conversation.

"Why should I?" Akela asked, her voice thick and emotional.
Her whole being felt numb. The wine had brought her wolf's courage forward.

"Why should you not?" He frowned.

"You've taken everything from me. My parents, my freedom. You're about to take my body. Once you have your heir you'll take my sister. I am not giving you my friendship or my love!" Akela growled and sat up straighter.

He smirked victoriously.

"You're one of those romantic ones who believe in true mates!" he stated with a grin.

"I saw what my parents had..." Akela shrugged bravely.

"Your parents? Your cheating thief of a father and whore of a mother? They chose to mate without any respect for existing hierarchy!" He growled in sudden anger.

Akela stared at him, about to protest wen he silenced her with a hand, heavily slamming down on the table, making silverware and crockery jangle.

"Your precious father left his pack and his claimed mate to be a rogue with a female who was above his rank!" Preston grumbled and stood up to open the door.

"Now leave!" He growled and Akela was grabbed by a delta and hauled downstairs.

She mindlinked Kira only to find they both had been told Preston's version of their parents betrayal.

"Dad never said he had a mate when he met mum!" Kira muttered.

"And mum was a regular pack wolf..." Akela thought.

"No. I believe mum was a noble born. She was confident like an Alpha," Kira smiled.
She had always held the romantic idea that they were of Alpha blood, destined to rule, whereas Akela was more realistic. Their parents were Deltas at best, common pack members.

"So if dad was a Delta... one of Preston's fighter-bachelors...." Akela wondered.

"It explained why some might not approve," Kira nodded.

"I wish he'd let us go," Akela sighed.

Kira chuckled darkly.

"I'll make sure he lets you out... soon," Kira smiled sadly.

"How?" Akela asked.

"I can pretend he's my one. He's not terrible and if I play along, he might claim me and release you," Kira said.

"You don't have to do that..." Akela shook her head.

Akela felt her sister muster her strength .

"I feel your disgust at the thought of him touching you. It's worse for you than me. I don't actually mind that much," Kira huffed.

Akela shook her head in despair.

"Besides... Luna Queen Kira James... it does have a nice ring to it," Kira smiled with a weirdly formal pride.

Over the next few weeks, Kira would play some kind of masterful game. And Alpha Preston compared them.
He would bring Akela up for meals, ignoring her objections and her lack of polite conversation.
The agile, participating Kira was an obvious better choice than the nervous, detached and passive Akela.

As soon as they both hit their heat that year, Akela felt Kira's peak, her body flush with hormones at the same time as her own.
And Kira willingly gave herself to Alpha Preston to relieve the restless stress that came with it.
And that's when Akela knew.
Kira had chosen her fate.

Alpha Preston would claim Kira.

Kira had the outgoing confidence and willingness to see it all as an opportunity.
Soon it was obvious that Kira was pregnant. The Deltas even spoke about it outside of Akela's narrow window, and Felix only nodded when she asked.

Akela didn't envy her. The pup meant a life with the Alpha.
A life as a captive.
And Kira cried in despair over her fate when she thought Akela didn't notice.

"I'll get you out of here!" Akela promised one evening.

"How?" Kira asked.

"Somehow! I'm not leaving you to live with him!" Akela said.

"If this is a girl... you're up next," Kira warned.

"I kinda hope it is. I don't want to leave here without you," Akela replied softly.

"If it's a boy... try to find the Shadow mountain. Live safe," Kira said.

"Remember when we were pups? How we imagined living next to each other with twin brother mates?" Akela smiled.

"Yeah," Kira smiled back.

"With our pups the same age... growing up as best friends," Akela dreamt.

"It's good to dream, Aki. But I want you to find your mate. Your true mate. And be happy. Like mum and dad," Kira sobbed as she kept her mind on the round shape holding her pup. Akela could feel Kira's love for the pup despite it's loveless creation.

"I can't be happy without you!" Akela whispered.

"Yes you can!" Kira smiled sadly.

"You'll be free before midwinter," she assured.