“Disgusting. Humans have always revolted me. I honestly believe I should have killed them all and gotten rid of them a long time ago so only shifters survived. Not all the packs agree, luckily for you.” The world continues to spin, and my mouth fills with blood. “Blackfire.”
The alpha’spet, Blackfire, grabs me off the floor, his gloved hands wrapping around my arms, and he pins my back to his chest. I struggle in his tight grip, but he doesn’t even react. He’s ridiculously tall while I’m tiny against him and can’t do anything to move from his iron-tight hold. For a second, all I smell is autumn bonfires, amber and something I can only think of as darkness as his scent surrounds me.
“Mere!” Tannith is shouting from the mud, trying to get to me. Alpha Vargoth violently kicks her into the wall. I scream, seeing red, and try everything that I can to escape Blackfire’s punishing hold. Blackfire grabs my hair, sharply pulling my head to the side.
“Such dramatics.” Alpha Vargoth laughs as he snaps off a metal bracelet wrapped around his thin wrist. It has a flat circular pendant in the middle. There’s a mark on it for the Crone Pack: crescent moon shape with a wolf running up the side. He slams it onto my neck, and fire explodes from his palm.I scream. Not from the pain, burns are nothing new to me, but from pure fear. Fire. I have to get away from it. I have to escape. It is burning me; it won’t stop. I can taste the fire magic in the air, feel it wrapping around in my blood, burning through me. The world spins again as he pulls the bracelet away, flips it back around his wrist, and I heave. Blackfire drops me right before I throw up all over his shiny boots.
Alpha Vargoth laughs at me as I continue to heave. My legs give out, and I fall into a breathless heap on the muddy floor. Everything hurts as I struggle to move towards Tannith. “Maybe she’ll clean up prettier and be a useful whore within the courts. If not, we can always kill her. Blackfire, make sure she is silent as you take her to her room.”
I lift my head, looking Alpha Vargoth right in the eye. It feels like a vow, like there is more than just my screamed words that echo between us three. “You bastard. I’m going to kill you one day for this!”
I swear a flicker of fear flashes in his eyes for a second. Or maybe I’m wishing it did. Within a moment, Blackfire picks me up and punches me hard enough that stars bounce across my vision, and I tip into darkness.
The strange thing is, I don’t feel any pain when his fist hits my skin; I only taste darkness, as it feels like it slams into my soul.
Chapter Five
I’m warm, comfy, and it’s weird. I snuggle deeply under the fluffy blankets and wonder if I’ve died. I’m definitely not back in my apartment on the thin mattress on the floor, with my blanket filled with holes. Something hot on my arm squeezes around my wrist. Wait, that’s even weirder.
I blink my eyes open, looking to see the drake wrapped around my lower arm, my head resting on my palm. Everything that has happened comes back like a smack. “Tannith,” I whisper, my eyes filling with tears. I haven’t cried once since I stabbed the wolf in the foot, and now I can’t stop the tears as they fall, and a sob echoes up my throat. I did this. My best friend is a drake, weak and defenceless, and her life is over unless I perform the way the alpha wants. The second I stabbed that wolf, I might as well have killed us both. My recklessness has ruined everything.
Her bright eyes lock onto mine as she wakes up. I should have known it was her from her eyes. They look exactly the same, even in this form. “I’m s-sorry,” I sob. “It’s my fault that you’re…” I can’t even finish the sentence.
“No,” Tannith growls at me. Actually growls. It should be scary, but the drake is really cute, and it kind of sounds like a purring noise instead. “It’s that dickhead alpha’s fault, and we do not give up, do we, Mere? We make a plan, we get revenge, and walk away. This is no different to Roger Shits-a-lot.” Somehow, even in this situation, she makes me smile. “Right now, we need to focus on surviving and getting through the Folkland. Even humans believe the goddesses do not make mistakes, and I always knew you are a force to be feared. We will show them why you were chosen.”
Warmth radiates through my chest. “I’ll do whatever they need, and then they’ll turn you back like that alpha said,” I whisper. “I won’t give up until you’re back to normal.”
Her eyes blink twice. “Well, I’m fucked then, because the alpha said he wanted to whore you out, and you’re a shy virgin who runs away from anyone who gets close.”
“Bitch.” I giggle, flicking her nose. She huffs, and smoke comes out of her mouth. “Stay close to me. I’m going to get out of this bed and see what is going on.”
I lift the quilt back, blinking at the sunlight streaming through a floor-to-ceiling, wide glass doors. My mouth pops open as I take in the luxurious room that surrounds me. Everything in the room is sparkling gold and red, like gemstones. Even the wooden beams of the bed that I’m lying on are pure red and shiny, stretching into the tall domed ceilings. Lush brown fur rugs lie on the floor, and a fireplace takes up one entire wall. Thankfully, it isn’t lit up.
There are a few oak doors in the room, and I crawl to the edge of the bed, resting my legs off the edge. Blood and mud still coatmy clothes and one boot. My eyes catch on a glass of water on the bedside unit, and a vial of something gold next to it. A note states I should drink it.
Well, I’m not doing that.
I climb out of bed, wincing at the fact that I’ve left mud, blood, and everything on the cream sheets. But I notice right away that my face doesn’t hurt much anymore, and my head doesn’t either. How long have I been sleeping?
A massive mirror is by the side of the bed, and I step in front of it, feeling my eyes widen as I look at myself. I look a mess. My hair is sticking in every direction. It’s smothered in mud. Blood is all over my face and down my chest, dripping over the new gold mark that lies right in the middle, right above my breasts. I look paler than usual and thin, and bones stick out everywhere, but that is pretty normal for me. My eyes look wide and big against my pale face, but at least they’re not black from my nose being broken. It actually doesn’t even look broken.
One of the doors opens, and I look around for anything to defend myself with and find, surprisingly, nothing other than the glass of water and the vial. A woman strolls in with an elegance and air to her that I’ve never seen before in anyone. She’s tall, with long grey hair bound up into a thick bun at the top of her head, a few loose strands falling over her shoulders to her waist. She has a thin face, and she’s wearing a suit of red, which is tight on her tall body. She looks at me from head to toe, and whatever she sees on my face, she’s not happy with it. Her red eyes glow lightly. She is a wolf, then.
“They give you to me and somehow expect me to make a presentable thing out of whatever you are. First of all, you were so injured that you’ve not woken up for three days, and now the selection is tonight. By a miracle of the fates, you need to look better, because every pack is going to be looking at you when they find out. A human in the Folkland? What were thegoddesses thinking?” She slams her hand over her mouth. “Not that I meant to question the goddesses,” she backtracks really quickly.
Okay, she’s crazy.
“I’m not crazy,” the woman snaps. Crap, I said that out loud. I have a really bad habit of doing that. I glance at the door behind her. “Don’t even think about running. There are guards outside the windows and doors who will hurt you. The alpha and heir don’t want you going anywhere but these rooms. Now drink the vial. It’s a healing and pain-relief tonic that you’ve been given every morning so far to aid your recovery. It’s very expensive.” I glance at the vial, knowing that tiny thing is worth a fortune. “At least you’re finally awake. I will go and start running the bath and get some servants in to scrub you from head to toe.” She groans. “It’s going to take hours.” She takes two steps and looks back. “You may call me Mistress. I am the royal dresser, and today, I will perform an act of the goddesses and make you look…nice.”
The way she saysnicemakes me think she isn’t sure she can even make me look that. She’s already opened a door, leaving it wide and walking into a big room where I can see a massive claw foot tub. I go back to the bed and pick up the vial, giving it a sniff. It smells like strawberries, and I drink it before downing the water next. I need whatever strength I can get.
Tannith curls up on the pillow, which is so soft it sinks under her weight. “Go clean up, bestie. You smell. We need to make sure you look innocent and pretty so they won’t see your secret ‘stabbing wolves in the foot with a dagger’ skill. That’s a pro point we need going forward.”
“Never knew you were so bloodthirsty,” I mutter, and I stick my tongue out at her before walking into the bathroom. She hisses at me.
There’s another door in the crazy big bathing room, and three humans come out. They’re the servants she spoke of, and I wish it were anyone else. I tense as they walk into the room, their eyes glazed in a way that only happens when they’re bonded to wolves as slaves. The mark of the slave bond is stark against the middle of their foreheads: red, constantly glowing, and in the shape of a wolf howling at the sky. The only way humans are allowed in the pack lands is like this. Bonded and enslaved. All they want is what their master wants. It’s how the shifters so easily took the world from the humans. All the enslaved humans want to do is please their masters in any way possible, and they have no thoughts or will of their own. Just this shell is left until they die. At least that’s what I’ve been told and what I’ve seen a few times.
These three don’t move. All of them have dark straight hair and wear thin red shimmering dresses that cling to their curvy bodies. They look like sisters.
