A cold shiver swept through my limbs as his
hands settled on my waist.
I felt his touch pierce through the layers of my clothes to touch my tension directly.
I raised my gaze to him, my wandering eyes reflecting a confusion I did not succeed in hiding; my looks were scattered between his solid features and the void, while my mind was screaming at me:
"You must hold yourself together, Sira."
I tried to draw air into my chest slowly, as if I were taming a raging beast living in my ribcage, for my heartbeats were drumming with a violence that could almost be heard.
"Calm down... calm down."
I repeated it in my secret thoughts as a spell for salvation, but soon the confusion turned into anger that ignited in my eyes when I realized the rudeness of his words.
I stared at him with a look as sharp as a blade, and with a sudden movement, I pulled his arm from my waist with force and retreated two steps back to put a safe distance between me and his provocative calmness.
I shouted at him, my voice trembling with a mixture of resentment and amazement:
"Excuse me... what do you mean by those words?!"
He did not grant me the luxury of an answer; instead, he settled for a heavy silence and began to examine me with his eyes from my head to my toes with a boldness that knows no shame.
I felt humiliation boiling in my blood; oh, what a misfortune, was this what I was missing? A perverted mate who places no value on the situation!
"Do not kill the fun, my mate,"
he said in a provocative velvety tone.
The indignation on my face increased and my features tightened clearly as I answered him sharply:
"And where is the fun in this?!"
At that moment, I glimpsed Zoe, whose features had frozen and her eyes had widened in shock, whispering:
"Oh my God!"
But he did not give me time to comprehend, as he completely ignored my objection and clamped his fist on my wrist with a force that made me feel the hardness of his fingers.
He dragged me behind him as if I were a possession belonging to him, while I was stumbling in my steps, trying to gather my words to rebuke this madman.
But he stopped suddenly, cutting off my muffled cry when we found ourselves in front of my brother.
Tension was clearly covering my brother's face, his eyes moving between the man's grip on my wrist and my congested features, whispering in an anxious tone:
"Is there a problem... Your Majesty?"
As soon as he uttered those words:
"No, I will take my mate and leave."
I felt my blood pressure rising until the heat reached the tips of my ears.
The matter was no longer just a misunderstanding, but rather it exceeded that to become an insult to my sovereignty over myself.
My eyes narrowed, and the features of my face tightened in an expression overflowing with resentment and rebellion; who does this arrogant man think he is to dictate my fate to me as if I were a piece of furniture he would move to his palace?
"Who said I want to go with you? And who are you to decide for me?!"
I threw the words in his face like volcanic lava, and simultaneously with my sharp tone, I shook his hand off my wrist with force and disdain.
My breath was racing, and my chest was rising and falling quickly as I turned my gaze away from him, muttering in my heart:
"In your pink dreams, you arrogant master."
"Sira..."
My brother uttered my name with a tone charged with a hidden plea, as if he were clinging to a glimmer of hope that what he heard was just an illusion.
I closed my eyes for a moment and released a long and arduous sigh, a sigh that carried the weight of confessing to a fate I did not choose, confirming his worst fears.
I saw my brother swallow his saliva, his features that were tense suddenly surrendered to a forced coldness as he said:
"Congratulations to you... if Sira agrees,
then I have no objection."
But the response came shocking, like the thunder that precedes the storm, when the stranger said in a tone dripping with possession and authority:
"She has no choice... by her will or by force."
My eyes widened in amazement and I felt my jaw almost drop from the sheer shock.
"What?!"
I was about to explode in his face with the indignation of the whole world, and I opened my mouth to pour the weight of my anger on him, but I froze in my place.
He turned to me suddenly, and at that moment, I saw something that terrified my soul; the colors of his cold eyes faded to be replaced by a pitch blackness, deep and dark like a night without stars.
His looks were magnetic, pulling the consciousness from my veins.
His lips moved with a faint mutter, which my ears barely caught as if it were coming from a deep well:
"Sleep..."
In one second, my strength dissolved.
I felt my eyelids become the weight of mountains, and my limbs became numb and lost their connection to the ground.
My brother's face vanished, the hall disappeared, and nothing remained except that blackness that began to crawl over my vision.
I surrendered forcedly to a dense darkness that pulled me into its depths, to sink into a forced coma away from a reality that had just begun to collapse.
♦♦♦♦♦♦♦♦♦♦♦♦♦♦♦
I jolted from my bed with a body trembling and panic gnawing at my chest. My eyes widened as I roamed my gaze around the place.
"Where am I?"
I whispered to myself with a faltering voice, for the luxury surrounding me, from the heavy velvet curtains to the royal furniture, had no connection to my simple room.
Suddenly, a sharp ringing raided my head, and with it flowed the images of the party like a blurred cinematic tape; my brother's anxious face, the blackness that invaded his eyes, and the word
"Sleep" that robbed me of my consciousness.
"That scoundrel!"
I growled as anger ignited inside me to burn the remnants of fear.
I jumped from the bed, and felt the coldness of the floor under my bare feet, but what directed me truly was not my sight, but that dominant masculine scent, a mixture of bitter coffee and dark chocolate pulling me behind it like a magnet.
I followed the trace until I stood before a towering wooden door, decorated with complex golden engravings suggesting power.
The scent here was dense, suffocating, and provocative. I did not hesitate; I pushed the door with all the strength I was given and hurried inside, let the door hit the wall announcing my rebellious intrusion.
He raised his gaze from papers that were in front of him, and looked at me with a dynamic coldness that paralyzed my movement for a moment, then said in a calm and provocative tone:
"Did no one teach you to knock before entering?"
Sparks ignited in my eyes, and I tightened my fists until my knuckles turned white, and I shouted at him with a voice trembling from excessive rebellion:
"Who allowed you to bring me here, you?!"
He did not get agitated; instead, he stood up from his seat with a slow fluid movement that increased my tension.
He began to approach me with confident and calm steps, as if he were a predator cornering its prey.
I raised my head to face him, so my gazes collided with his grey eyes that looked like pieces of cold steel, devoid of any human feelings.
And on his lips, that mocking side-smile was drawn, which was like fuel poured on the fires of my agitation.
He was trying to provoke me, and he succeeded in that completely.
He approached more, until his breath enveloped me, and suddenly that smile faded to turn his features into a lethal coldness, and a sharp look that almost pierced my soul, then he said in a low and steady voice:
The blood froze in my veins and his words fell on me like lightning bolts of fire:
"I do not care about the nonsense called 'mate'... or the bond. All I will provide you with is pain."
My eyes widened in amazement that paralyzed my movement, and I felt a deep stab in the middle of my chest, not out of love for him, but out of surprise at the amount of cruelty that his being exudes.
He uttered it with a terrifying coldness, as if he were announcing the weather and not the fate of two souls bound by fate. I swallowed a bitter lump and shouted in a broken tone that tried to regain its strength:
"Then why did you bring me? Let us reject each other and let the matter end!"
My heart contracted with every violent knock of the door, as if they were nails being driven into the coffin of my freedom.
When the door opened, the strong "Beta" aura permeated the surroundings, a blond young man with sharp and formal features, but his presence completely vanished before the words spoken by Night.
My limbs stiffened, and I felt a coldness running through my body as if my blood had turned into ice.
"Tell them that Sira is no longer theirs... she belongs to the King of the Kingdom of Darkness... whoever tries to search for her will be killed."
The words echoed in my ears like a clap of thunder that tore the silence of my world.
My eyes widened in terrifying amazement, and my lips trembled while I was trying to comprehend what was being said.
Did he just utter the decision to execute my previous life? Did he erase my existence with one word? I felt a lump choking my throat, and I looked at him with features covered in loss and shock.
"You are joking, right?"
I whispered in broken words, my voice trembling with a tone of desperate denial.
I search in his rigid features for any trace of mockery, for any evidence proving that this is just a heavy nightmare, but his face was like a piece of cold granite, neither softening nor showing mercy.
He was talking about me as if I were a war trophy, or a piece of land he added to his vast possessions. I felt a scream trembling in my throat:
"You cannot prevent me from my family!"
Suddenly, that shock turned into pure terror when his hand extended to grip my jaw with cruelty, forcing me to raise my head to let my eyes meet his eyes that radiate total darkness.
I felt his fingers digging into my skin, breaking my pride before my body.
"You are a walking weakness... just by your thinking of rejection, I will annihilate your pack to the last one."
He said it in a deep voice carrying a threat in which all my hopes were annihilated.
At that moment, a spark of bitter anger ignited in my chest, a burning that overcame my fear.
My eyes narrowed, and my looks filled with deep-seated hatred, and the veins of my neck stood out as I struggled with his unshakeable grip.
I no longer saw in him a king or an "Alpha," but rather I saw a monster feeding on the wreckage of my soul.
"I hate you... I hate you Night Winter."
The words came out from between my clenched teeth, wrapped in the poison of hatred that I did not know I possessed.
My features reflect an explosive mixture of contempt and pain, and my eyes shine with tears that I refused to shed in front of him so that he would not see my brokenness.
As for him, he did not move a muscle.
A mocking, cold smile, devoid of any human feelings, was drawn on his lips, and he replied in a provocative tone that increased the ignition of fires in my heart:
"The feeling is mutual, dear."
His looks pierce me with coldness, as if my hatred is nothing but entertainment for him, leaving me drowning in a sea of helplessness and resentment, trapped between his jaws and a dark fate I did not choose.
He released my jaw suddenly, so my head staggered a little from the effect of his violent grip. He moved with a lethal coldness toward his desk, and sat leaning on his chair with all authority and calmness, as if he had not just thrown a bomb that destroyed my life.
I remained frozen in my place, my body trembling and my hands swaying by my side, while my features reflected a blank amazement; for the mind stopped comprehending, and the heart began to tear. The silence was not stillness, but rather a terrifying noise inside my head.
I felt my wolf's sobbing tearing my insides, a sad wailing echoing in my depths as she realizes the bitter truth:
"Our mate does not want us."
The feeling of rejection was gnawing at my soul like a poisoned dagger, making me feel a weakness I had not known before, even my breath became heavy as if the air had turned into lead.
I withdrew from the room with stumbling steps, I did not utter a single word, for what is the use of talking with a wall of ice? I feel a bitterness running in my throat while I curse that moment in which I decided to go to the party.
"If only I hadn't met him..."
I whispered it to myself while the images of my family were passing before my eyes like a faint tape; their faces, their laughter, even their farewell of which I was deprived.
As soon as I entered the room, I closed the door behind me as if I were closing the curtain on my previous life.
I collapsed completely, and my tears fell with a burning I was not accustomed to, tears that washed my wounded pride. My sobs were muffled, and my chest was rising and falling violently while I wondered:
"Why me?"
My hope for a mate who protects me and loves me was turning before my eyes into ashes scattered by the wind.
Oh the irony of fate, that my fate is my jailer.
I did not possess the strength even to reach the bed.
I collapsed on the cold floor, leaned my head against the hard wood that was not as hard as the heart of
"Night Winter"
And while my reddened eyes were closing slowly from the intensity of psychological exhaustion, I surrendered to a sleep that resembles death, leaving behind me a bitter reality and a deranged mate who robbed me of everything in one night.