"Why are you this wicked?" I asked Lucian, in the room we were all in when he ordered Freya to be taken to the prison.
Lucian smiled. "You don’t know a fingertip of me, Selene. Everyone and everything you see here exists for me and me only," he said.
Everyone had left, including his bitches. He’d only asked me to wait. I didn’t know why, but I had no choice but to obey.
"Please don’t kill Freya. She deserves to live," I pleaded with him.
"You challenged me in front of my people today," he said softly. The room, now empty, had gone graveyard-quiet. He could kill me right here and bury me, and nothing would happen.
He continued, "You’ve had a lot of guts ever since you came to Winterwood."
"Please..."
"No. I don’t want to hear it," he cut me off.
"You know I can do anything I want, to anyone, because I’m the king. Let that be clear. Normally I’d have killed you, but I’ve decided to show you mercy."
"Mercy?" I asked. "I didn’t ask for your mercy. You should have let them execute me." My breath came hard, desperate. His words hit me square in the chest, because I was starting to see it clearly now ... I was his puppet, his slave, and he could do whatever he wanted with me.
Slave at home. Slave in a foreign land.
"Yes, you didn’t ask for it. Yet I showed it to you. So you don’t get to set the terms of how you stay alive," he said, closing the distance between us.
I went quiet, tears welling up. I was so unfortunate. He saw the tears and touched my face.
"I gave you a better life. You were rejected at Bloodmoon. You’re accepted here. I gave you a warm welcome, for goddess’ sake."
I pulled his hand off my face and kept weeping.
"You really want to go that way, huh?" he asked, and I could feel his anger rising.
"Soldiers, bring in one of the whores!" he screamed.
A pretty she-wolf was brought in from the holding cells, scared, but clearly no stranger to this. He sent the soldiers out and turned to me.
She was looking scared and afraid but she’s been part of them since.
"I’m going to show you what I can do" he said as he starts his removing his belts.
"Leave us now" he commands his soldiers.
They leave and I’m left in the room with the king and this she wolf standing, wondering what will happen next.
He looses the belt with so much desperation like someone who’s high on some drug.
"Common pull off your clothes" he tells the she wolf and I’m just watching.
She undresses immediately and goes to the king fretting.
He grabs her and places her face down first on the table with her ass facing him and he begins to fuck her. He penetrates her fast and he pushes fast also. She is just moaning and crying while this is going on.
He raises her head backwards by holding her hair.
He’s grinning his face and teeth while increasing the pace with which he penetrates her. She increases the sound of her moan and he blocks it with his hands like he did to me. This doesn’t look like pleasure to me.
He turns her face first facing him and begins to dig her pussy.
I can’t even stand the sight of that again so I tilt my head the other way.
"Selene watch!" He yells and I’m brought back to the live television.
He forced me to behold as he thrust through the panicking lady and sucking her breasts.
By now he was sweating and he withdrew himself from her and threw her on the floor and spills his cum on her body while she was laying down.
"Get out" he told her and she ran out of the room immediately, naked and with cum dripping all over her body.
"Selene," he said, voice flat now. "That’s mercy. You all need it. I take care of you, and you give me a good fuck in return. Is that too much to ask?"
I didn’t answer. "Am I not talking to you, Selene?" he shouted.
"Yes ... yes," I said, fear cracking my voice.
"Now you see why I don’t look back when I execute anyone who disobeys me. Be warned."
I stared at the floor while he spoke.
"You can go," he finally said.
I turned to leave.
"Wait." His voice stopped me again. What now?
"Ten p.m., my chambers. Don’t be late."
I didn’t turn around. "Yes, my king," I said, and kept walking.
As I stepped through the door, I passed a young woman dressed far too well to be one of Lucian’s usual company.
"The king is ready to see you now, Madam Tessa," the guard at the door said.
Madam Tessa. Who was she?
Our eyes met briefly before she disappeared into the room.
I made my way back to the breeders’ quarters. Everyone sat there, tired and hollowed out ... some crying. I knew it was about Freya, about the execution waiting for her. It was a disheartening thing. No one should have to face that, under any circumstance.
The head of the breeders was crying too. I walked straight up to her.
"I’m asking out of care and concern ... is there anything we can do to help Freya?"
She looked up at me. "You should know the king by now. He does whatever he wants, however he wants it," she said through tears.
"There has to be something we can do," I pressed.
This time she looked at me with something steadier than grief. "We can help her escape. But it’s risky. Very risky."
"Anything to keep Freya alive," I said.
She held out her hand. "I’m Leah."
I took it. Everyone in the room was watching now, listening, waiting to be part of whatever came next.
"I’m Selene," I said. "Let the work begin."
We locked hands.