AYLA
"Please..." I whispered. "Please let me go. I beg you."
But the Rogue King only pulled my hair tighter, making me groan in pain.
He leaned in and edged his nose closer to my neck, taking a long drag of air.
"Hmm," he savoured. "Smells amazing. But I don’t smell your wolf. You have a Gemini Wolf. Your scent should be distinct."
He used his thumb to rub over my lip. "So pretty."
What was he doing? Did he want to rape me?
He might be the Rogue King and obviously stronger than me, but I wasn’t going to sit back and allow him to freely use my body.
With all the power within me, I kneed him in the balls as hard as I could. His grip on my hair momentarily loosened, and I used that opportunity to try to run away. But I had barely slipped away before he grabbed my arm and pulled me back.
"Easy, girl," he murmured calmly. "Don’t think you can run away from me. I might have sent the wrong signal, but I am not going to kill you. You’ll be useful to me in negotiating with your husband."
He wanted to use me as leverage. Great. First, the Lycan King wanted to use me as a breeder, and now the Rogue King wanted to use me as leverage. My life was a fucking mess right now. Everyone just kept using me like a tool.
"Mora! The Lycan King doesn’t give two shits about me. He hates me. He wants me dead. He’d be more than glad if you killed me. So why don’t you do the opposite of what he wants and let me go? That’s a win for you." Only after speaking did I notice the exclamation I had used. Only Ayla ever spoke like that. What was happening to me? Her train of thought was jumbling with mine.
"Smart. I like that." I could tell he was grinning behind the mask.
"Let me go. Please. I beg you." I kicked him again, but this time, it wasn’t effective.
"You’d have to try harder than that, Gemini Wolf," he said calmly.
Without thinking twice, I leaned in and sank my teeth deep into his exposed arm, drawing blood from the spot.
He didn’t even move.
"Fierce. I love it," he muttered.
From what I had heard, the Rogue King was terrifying and killed people like they were ants. But the man standing before me seemed too calm to be the monster I had always read or heard about.
I continued struggling against him, but his hold remained firm.
"While I would’ve enjoyed watching you try all the smart-ass ways to escape, we need to leave now before Ezra finds you. He has almost finished defeating my men. I can feel it," he said, and with that, he started dragging me along with him.
I screamed, squirmed, and begged him to release me, but he wasn’t yielding. He might seem calm, but I knew the storm that came after the calm was far more dangerous. He looked like the kind of man who would keep smiling as he cut off someone’s nose and chewed it raw.
A loud roar, far darker than any I had ever heard before, sounded from a distance.
The Rogue King paused, and simultaneously, we turned around to see a huge Lycan beast emerging from the dead of night. It was black and moved like a shadow, charging towards us at the speed of light.
The Lycan King’s beast.
No one had ever survived the beast. Both the Rogue King and I were dead.
"Shit!" the Rogue King growled and released my hand immediately. "I can’t take you with me today, as you’ll only slow me down. But know this, I’ll come back for you, Principessa. That’s if you survive his beast."
With that, he disappeared into the dark night.
And as the Lycan beast closed in on me, a wave of dizziness brought on by intense fear slammed into me, and I found myself falling to the ground.
...
"Her temperature has gone down. Her vitals are stable. She should wake up soon," I heard a male voice say in the distance. My mind felt hazy, with voices and soft echoes floating around me.
"Let me know when she opens her eyes," another voice said, and what followed was the sound of distant footsteps.
Was this a dream?
Something danced through my hazy mind. I saw Rowan announcing Calista as his Luna, and I ran to the cliff to cry my eyes out. I plunged down the cliff but was luckily saved by a rock I managed to hold on to. An unfamiliar, powerful Alpha saved me and ran back into the woods when he heard the guards approaching. The guards found me, led by Calista, and took me to the pack council, where they mentioned that I would be replacing my sister, Calista, in marrying the Cursed Lycan King.
A spell was placed on me, and... and... the memories started rushing back in waves, becoming too confusing. I couldn’t... I couldn’t...
A loud gasp escaped me, and my eyes flew open as I shot upright.
My chest constricted, my breaths coming out in rapid pants.
Every single memory replayed in my head. Every single memory from when I thought I was my sister, Calista.
Dread slammed into me harder than a wrecking train.
Had the beast killed me?