I will be back

Aleida’s POV

No matter how much I try to spit out the blood that continues to spread in my mouth, I don’t manage to remove the metallic taste from my tongue. King is roughing me up pretty badly. There aren’t many places on my body that don’t bleed or are painful in other ways. The last hour he’s busy breaking all my fingers, one by one. He feeds on my screams and pain. Because every time I scream, he smiles big as if he has won the lottery-a real sadist. All my training for not crying is now in vain; after all these hours of torture, my tear ducts are open, craning at full strength. I can’t stop crying. All the pain, anxiety, despair, remorse, and basically every feeling you can feel, pour out of me. He has temporarily left the room, but I know he’ll soon return. Once my injuries heal, he’ll have fun creating new ones. Several bones in my body are breaking, and they aren’t recovering into the correct positions. The silver chains carve themselves into my wrists and draw blood that still trails down over my body. The silver makes me weaker than usual, and thus it also takes longer for me to heal. The problem is that silver can actually kill a werewolf, especially if it’s exposing us to it for a long time. Right now, I’m bleeding out slowly, and if I don’t manage to get out of here soon, I won’t survive. What keeps me alive is the idea of my family. They need me, and I can’t give up. My people need their queen, my mates require their future wife, and my puppies demand their mother. To give up isn’t a possibility. Failure is not possible to program into my DNA. No pain, no gain, and so on. I have tried to mindlink enough times that I now have lost count, which is another side effect from the silver that now moves in my veins from the chains holding me above the ground. Suddenly the door slams open, and in walks no other than King. I don’t bother calling him mister anymore; he doesn’t deserve that privilege. He moves towards me as a predator moves towards his prey, slowly and ready to attack. In the end, he stands before me close enough to make me feel his breath against my throat. If I don’t turn my head, our lips will meet. He chuckles lowly at me.

“If I didn’t know better, I would almost think you wanted me to bite you, little wolf. I can’t describe the sound of your blood pulsating in your veins, and don’t get me started on the smell of it,” he says and licks his lips like he’s starving.

His whole demeanor makes me sick to my stomach—such a disgusting man. He traces my cheekbone with his finger, and the touch makes me squirm. I don’t want him to touch me in any way.

“Now, now. Don’t be that way. It’s going to happen sooner or later anyway. You can’t escape our destiny,” King purrs.

I snort at his statement and have to make an effort not to start laughing out loud. If I didn’t think he was delusional before, I know now that he is.

“What destiny? You biting me, drinking my blood, and fuck me until we have abomination for children? Thanks, but I think I’ll have to pass on that,” I growl.

He unloads my arms and drags me to a bucket full of water. I barely have time to react before he pushes my head down into it, and I have to fight to come up to breathe again. Just when I feel it’s time to die, he pulls me up again and looks at me angrily. Repeatedly, I piss him off by calling him and our imaginary children abominations. My my, isn’t that a touchy subject for this ‘big strong hybrid man’? He’s probably going to kill me anyway; my smart mouth doesn’t cooperate with him telling me to behave. So why not have a little fun before dying, huh?

“Oh, does it hurt to be called an abomination, Mr. Leech?”

He flinches at my new nickname but doesn’t do anything, which makes me chuckle in my mind. That’s correct; I can offend you too, asshole.

“Did your mommy not love you because of this preposterous thing you are?” I continue.

That makes him snap, however. His fist lands in my face, breaking my nose with a loud crunching sound. He takes a firm grip on my hair before pushing me down in the water again, just like the last time I struggle for air. He pulls me back up, and I just laugh like a lunatic. I won’t give him the satisfaction of seeing me break, not again. That’s why I continue my verbal assault.

“How does it feel to be an ultimate outcast?”

“Shut up!” he screams and gives me another punch, this time on my jaw which makes my lip split open.

But I won’t stop. I found a way that makes him tick like a bomb, and I want him to explode. People like him are straightforward to read; above all, when you’re exposing them to specific topics, that forces a feeling to appear. It can be happiness, sadness, anger, or something else. His feeling is rage, which makes my job so much simpler. This time when he pushes me down in the water, I don’t struggle—what’s the point, really?

“Light travels faster than sound, which is why you seemed bright until you spoke,” I say and smirk at him like I’ve burned him and everything he ever loved to the ground.

My wrists are back in the chains, but I won’t stop. King keeps on beating, and I keep on with the insults. I’ve accomplished his meltdown; now, all I need to do is break him completely.

“Stop insulting me!” he roars.

“I’m not insulting you; I’m simply describing you.”

His eye begins to twitch. Bingo! With a roar louder than an airplane, he takes hold of me and throws me to the side. I look up at my chains with satisfaction. Don’t get me wrong, it hurts like hell, but he doesn’t notice that one of the handcuffs is breaking. Maybe I should stop the insults now…? Nah, what the hell? You only live once.

“You’re probably one of those people who cheat in scrabble and still spells the word wrong.”

With one last effort to hurt me, he bangs my head into the wall behind me before leaving the room with a slam in the door. My sight is a little blurry, but I also know that I have limited time. I work fast to break my right wrist out of the cuff before breaking the other. My hand travels up to the back of my head, and I hiss from the pain. I’m going to be sore tomorrow, that’s for sure! My head is pounding, my balance is a wreck, and my lungs are exploding from the lack of air during water torture. But I need to find a way out of here before it’s too late. Michael is waiting for me at the packhouse, probably wondering where I am and if something has happened. I can’t tell how long I’ve been here, so don’t judge me! And I know that if Michael is worried, he’ll call Kian and Miliano. That thought doesn’t sit well with me. Not that I don’t want them to know; hell, they have every right to. Simply because I want them to focus on Elias and Alexander, they’re supposed to be the priority, not me. Neither they like it or not; that’s what’s important, not me. Not when they’re in the mixture. We’re like a cupcake. A cupcake can function without any sprinkle, but not without the dough. Simple as that. I stay in the shadows even though I’m aware that no one else is in the room with me. If anyone comes in here, I don’t want them to see me the first thing happening. Oh, cruel fate, that would be embarrassing. I can hear four voices nearby with my werewolf hearing—all are dark and belongs to males. Judging from my nose, they’re vampires except for the hybrid. Yuck, those creatures have a terrible scent. They smell like old blood, mold, and dry last year’s leaves. No smell you want to inhale, trust me. It’s downright disgusting, just like that public toilet with paper all over the sticky floor and the smell of pee everywhere. I sneak towards the door and look it over. To my delight, I discover that when King left the room earlier in pure anger, he has forgotten to lock it. The door is heavy and makes much noise. I have to be careful and think tactically to be able to get out of here alive. My luck seems to turn and be on my side for once; since I can feel the breeze from an open window further down the hallway. The only question is how to get there without the vampires discovering me... An idea begins to form in my mind, and I immediately initiate the execution. With the help of a sharp glass shard, I cut an incision in my hand and strain it until the blood drips down on the floor outside the door. The blood drops form a trail that leads into the cell opposite mine. Given that vampires surround me in this damned house, they’re sure to smell it at any moment. Which means I must work fast! I sneak back to my cell and gently push the door almost all the way. Indeed, the footsteps come closer, and I hear how the scent leads them exactly where I want them. Quickly in the blink of an eye, I throw myself out of my cell and slam the heavy door behind them. The growls that come after make me laugh out loud. Without hesitation, I run towards the open window and look down. I’m pretty high up from the ground, and I risk breaking at least a couple of bones. But what’s the alternative? Stay here and wait to sign my death certificate? No can do. I take a few steps back before throwing myself out the window and land with a loud thump in the ground outside. One of my legs broke; I can feel and hear it. My head is spinning, and I can’t get up at once. The pain from my leg, the recovery of my lungs, and the pulsation of my head make me nauseous. Given my werewolf genes, I know it won’t take any more than a few hours for me to recover fully. The problem is, I don’t know how far from my territory I am. Michael, Nathan, or any of my mates has probably informed the other alphas that I’m missing. Which, in turn, makes me have people out looking for me. Hopefully, they’ll find me; if only I manage to get up and move forward. I accomplish to stand from the ground by some kind of jump system with my working leg and my hands as support on the basis. My whole body shakes with all the torture I’ve endured since I came here, how long ago that is. Since I’ve been without food and water, I’ve also slipped in and out of consciousness. It’s a wonder that I can at all stand right now and move. Nevertheless, I hasten into the shadows that the trees contribute and disappear into the moonlight on my way back home to where I belong.