Chapter 7: Chapter 7

REYNA

He didn’t let me go, only tightened his hold, and waited. His glowing eyes stared at me with something I didn’t understand.

He didn’t try to grope me or squeeze my breast. He waited patiently.

It was as though he was waiting for something to occur.

I was terrified and shaking at first, but then, as I inhaled his scent, my eyes fluttered closed, even as my brows scrunched together in confusion. My heart was trying to go back to normal when suddenly a sharp pain exploded in my chest, making my knees buckle.

The beast swept me against his body and sat down right there on the floor in the hospital room, staring down at me. The intensity of his gaze would have shocked me if I wasn’t in such agony.

He looked at me as though we were the only ones in the world, as though I were the answer to all his prayers—prayers he hadn’t even known he’d made.

While I writhed, gasped, and convulsed, my eyes filled with tears that ran down my face. I couldn’t breathe; the pain was so intense I felt like I was dying, waiting for the infamous light at the end.

“Hush, beautiful Kitten, it will only last for a minute,” he muttered repeatedly in his deep, rumbly voice.

He looked sad, and he kept brushing strands of my hair back from my face with his large hand, gently.

~Crazy beast.~

What the hell was he talking about? The sadistic fucker—he did this to me and now he’s…sad? I didn’t understand him at all.

“What did you do to m…me?” I whispered weakly. The sharp pain had dissipated, leaving behind a dull ache. I could finally breathe more easily now.

My dagger was just an inch away behind him. If I could just reach it, then I could stab him and get away from this crazy monster.

I stretched my fingers until they touched the silver dagger, my fingers curling around the hilt.

“Nothing. It’s nothing, sweetheart. Just a gift, it’s supp—” He jerked slightly when I stabbed him with the dagger between his ribs.

I tried to wiggle out of his arms, still wrapped around me, but he wouldn’t let go.

“I probably deserve that,” he groaned, tightening his hold.

I thought now he would attack me, tear into my neck with his deadly fangs, but he didn’t. And he sounded proud that I had stabbed him.

The beast held the hilt of the dagger and yanked it from his body, thick, dark red blood trickling out of the wound. He flung it away, still holding me with his other hand.

Then he jerked again and hissed.

I twisted around in time to see my mother holding a gun again. She shot him again and again.

“Get away from my daughter, monster,” Cassandra said, keeping her grip on the trigger until she’d emptied the whole clip.

The beast slumped. He wasn’t unconscious—I could feel the heat of his breath. He was bleeding from multiple gunshots and definitely angry, but otherwise alive.

Cassandra pulled me out of his embrace, and he let her this time. She checked me over, searching for injuries. But he hadn’t harmed me.

Well, he had. I didn’t know exactly what it was he did to me, to cause me that excruciating pain.

But somehow, something told me it wasn’t to hurt me. After all, he’d had his chance after I’d stabbed him, but he hadn’t.

I glanced at him where he was growling and seeming to gain back his strength. He was digging out the bullets with his claws.

I winced. I couldn’t wrap my head around the fact that he’d been pumped full of silver bullets and yet he was still alive.

My eyes snapped up in my lying position, still in Cassandra’s arms, feeling weak, when more than a dozen guards rushed into the room with new chains and shackles.

They quickly chained, shackled, and secured him. When they were sure he couldn’t break this new chain, they placed him back in the bed.

And they added some more chains to tie him down to the bed.

“Reyna, are you okay? Can you stand?” Cassandra asked, her face now back to its normal iciness that I was used to.

That part of me that always hungered for her love wished I could bring back the woman who had seemed scared and worried about me.

It broke my heart every time I saw a glimpse of a warm mother I had hoped for, only for her to be replaced by the cold woman who considered loving someone to be a weakness.

“Yes, I’m okay, and I can stand.” I stood up on shaking legs. The all-consuming pain I had felt a moment ago was completely gone.

In its place were new, strange sensations bombarding me. My whole body was tingling and buzzing, vibrating with that unfamiliar feeling.

My breasts felt heavy and fuller, my nipples jutting against my dress, and that strange wetness low between my thighs was still there.

“Kitten, come to me.” His voice was deep and rumbly. He was trying to catch a glimpse of me as the injured guards were helped out of the room.

He sounded much better, even if he was still bleeding.

He raised his head and sniffed the air, then inhaled hungrily, as though he’d been underwater for a long time and this was his first breath of fresh air.

He shook his head, trying to gain some semblance of control.

“Fuck!” he growled, after he’d finally gotten control of whatever it was that had made him crazed. His growls did strange things to me and added to the tingles.

“You don’t only look delicious, kitten. You smell even better.” His green eyes were so dark and heavy-lidded, trapping and pinning mine.

My body was still acting weird. His gaze intensified every feeling; my nipples beaded so tight they ached, and I also felt an ache deep in my lower belly. It was strange.

I had never felt anything like it, but I hid it. I had to. I was already doing things out of character—Cassandra would kill me if she knew.

Though I didn’t know how this beast was able to make me feel this way, I already knew that all sorts of reactions were a weakness in my mother’s eyes.

The beast sniffed again and groaned. His green eyes blinked and changed to a glowing red, then kept shifting from red back to green.

For a moment, the face of an animal—a wolf, to be exact—wavered over his features. But it was gone in a flash.

Mark, who had come with reinforcements, and the councilwomen, who had also returned when they finally saw that the beast was now under control, gasped and took several cautious steps back.

Even Cassandra flinched. It was a slight, almost unnoticeable reaction that made her seem human.

“This is pure torture, you’re making it worse,” he said. Sweat dotted his forehead and dripped down the side of his face.

His chest and stomach were smooth and tight, not an ounce of fat in sight. My confusion must have shown on my face, because he chuckled, though it was strained, the veins in his head bulging.

“You don’t know what I’m talking about, do you, sweetness?”

I didn’t answer. It seemed my confusion stole my ability to speak; I only stared at him.

“Of course you don’t,” he said.

“What do you know?” he asked, almost accusingly, glaring at Cassandra.

“Firstly, you don’t speak or look at me like that, beast,” Cassandra ordered coldly, ice dripping from every word, her eyes blazing with that intimidating glare, her lips still split and unattended.

It seemed to have bounced off of him. He didn’t look intimidated, but menacing.

“And secondly, what are you talking about? Nobody has done anything to you yet. Believe me, when you are being tortured you won’t have the strength to be this insolent. I will make sure you pay for attacking me and my people.”

“You will suffer,” she threatened.

“I can’t wait. When do we begin?” he asked boredly, his eyes fixated on me, where I stood close to Cassandra.

Cassandra lifted her chin. “I am Queen of Marlenia and you’ve just…” Her voice dripped with self-importance.

“I don’t give a fuck who you are, woman. If you are here to kill me, then get on with it. You’re such a fool, hiding here in the mountains, blinded by your hate.”

“You would doom your people because of your ignorance and stubbornness to see the truth. If you kill me, you lose a potential ally.”

He growled.

The silence that followed his statement was deafening. For long, painful minutes, no one did or said a word. Except for him.

“Come here, Kitten, don’t be scared, I won’t bite,” he added, as though he was done talking to Cassandra.

“…Unless you want me to.” He winked, like he wasn’t chained to the bed and Cassandra and the council weren’t here.

I felt my cheeks flush hot. I wondered why.

I didn’t even know what he meant, but I surprisingly liked the way he talked. It was different from the way people around here spoke.

For a few seconds, it was just me and him. I was in a trance; he was speaking to me, not angry that I’d stabbed him.

He was disrespecting my mother, and I didn’t care. My body didn’t care.

It was a miracle that I didn’t fold. I did as he commanded and went to him.

Because for whatever reason, I wanted to. I wanted to touch and stroke him, to find out if his body was as hard as it looked.

I was appalled by my line of thoughts. It was all new, strange, and frightening—these feelings and urges flooding my senses.

The pain he’d inflicted had made me wary of him. His growling, however, didn’t frighten me.

It startled me, yes, but didn’t scare me, and the strength he showed was unbelievable.

Everything about him called to me—the way he’d flung our guardians around like they were made of leaves.

It frightened and yet intrigued me. His strength, his primal beauty, his primitive growling and snarling.

The only thing that grounded me was the wrath of my mother and what might happen to me if I slipped and showed what I was feeling.

I could feel that Cassandra’s hate ran deep, and right now she was livid with rage. No one had ever insulted her this way.

~No. One.~

“The day I ally myself with abominable beasts like you would be the day Marlenia falls! Make no mistake, the only good beast in my eyes is a dead one. You have made a big mistake by coming to my queendom, disrupting our peace, and attacking my daughter. I will make you pay for every grievance.”

“Your daughter?” he asked, more to himself. It seemed he’d only just realized who I was.

His left brow arched in thought. He didn’t look scared that Cassandra was threatening him.

“Very well, the end to your queendom is near. Surely you realize, since I found you, the others will definitely find you too. You’d rather choose to doom your people due to ignorance? I’ll give you a second chance to think about it,” he said.

Cassandra seethed, so angry. But immediately she straightened up, back ramrod straight, face neutral.

She regally smoothed her hands over her straight pencil skirt, looked at her guards, and gave an almost imperceptible nod.

And before I could do anything—not that I would dare, or even knew what to do—

The guards descended on the beast and tasered him. He convulsed violently but didn’t utter a sound.

Strange, tears instantly dripped down my cheeks. I was mortified.

I didn’t cry, not anymore. But I was crying because a beast I had never seen or known before today was being tasered?

Nothing in my life made any sense anymore.

Cassandra might have thought I was crying because he’d frightened me. That meant I wasn’t going to be scolded or punished for showing weakness, at least not right then.

The torture lasted for a few minutes, but it felt like forever.

I was surprised that four guards tasing him at the same time didn’t kill him.

When they finally let him go and moved away from him, he looked weak and close to dropping. He’d probably have collapsed if he wasn’t chained and shackled to the bed.

He looked into my eyes and grinned like we shared a secret. Then he turned to Cassandra.

“Last chance, Queen, think before you make your decisions. Women in exchange for protection. You’ll need us or they will kill you all. Easy picking…all of you.”

I shivered violently, terrified from his ominous words.

And then he passed out.

The room was silent after that vague announcement—or was it a threat? It certainly felt like a warning of what was to come.

But I didn’t know anymore.

One thing was clear: I was definitely terrified.