5
752 Words
Chapter 5 — Mira
I got to my feet fast.
The figure moved wrong. Unsteady. Lurching between the trees with that loose, heavy walk that meant only one thing.
The moonlight caught his face as he got closer and I recognized him. One of the men who guarded the pack's prisoners. His eyes were glassy and his steps kept going sideways.
Drunk. Deeply, unusually drunk, even for a wolf.
He stopped a few meters away and pointed at me.
"You. You're that crazy daughter of Beta Kyle."
"You're drunk," I said, keeping my voice flat and firm. "Go back. Now."
"Not yet." A slow smile spread across his face. "Not yet, darling."
I crossed my arms. "I don't know what you want but I'm not interested. Leave."
"I've had my eye on you for a while." He took another step toward me, swaying. "I really like you."
"I don't care. Go."
The smile got wider. "I'm the only one around here who does like you. You should be happy about that."
Something hot moved through my chest. "Don't call me darling. And I said leave."
"You're cute when you're angry." He reached out toward my face.
I grabbed his hand and shoved it away hard. "Don't touch me."
He didn't stop smiling. "Can't help it. You're driving me crazy."
He stepped closer and I hit him in the chest with my open hand. He rocked back. Then he came forward again.
I swung again and he caught my wrist.
His grip was iron.
"Leave me alone!" I hit him three times with my free hand and he grabbed that one too, both my wrists locked in his hands, my arms pulled apart.
"You should be grateful," he said. The smile was gone now. His eyes had changed into something darker and fixed. "I'm the only one who wants anything to do with you."
"Let go of me right now."
I spat in his face.
He didn't flinch. He just wiped it away slowly and looked at me like I had confirmed something for him.
"You're really something," he said softly.
"I will give you nothing," I said. "Nothing. Let go."
"I don't take no for an answer." He shook his head, eyes moving over me in a way that made my skin crawl. "We can make each other happy. I'll protect you. All you have to do is give me what I want."
I pulled against his grip as hard as I could. My wrists screamed with the pressure. I had nothing left in my body. No strength, no powers, barely enough to stay on my feet after everything the day had already taken from me.
He let go suddenly.
I turned to run.
His arm caught me around the waist from behind and yanked me back into him. His hand clamped over my mouth before I could scream and the sound that came out of me was nothing, barely a breath.
"You're going nowhere," he said against my neck.
He spun me around and shoved me to the ground. I hit the grass hard. Before I could move he was over me, one hand pressing over my mouth again, his weight pinning me down. I kicked and kicked and felt how useless it was. My legs had no force behind them. He didn't even shift.
I screamed into his palm and it went nowhere.
He lifted his hand for just a second.
"Let me go!" I got the words out before he hit me across the face. Then again.
"Ingrate! I'm the only one who loves you!"
He pressed down harder and reached for his shirt buttons with his free hand.
"Help me!" I screamed it as loud as I could and it came out thin and ragged. Nothing. The trees swallowed it.
"My father will deal with you," I said, desperate, trying anything.
He laughed. Long and genuine. "Everyone in this pack knows your family hates you. Nobody will believe a word you say."
He was right and we both knew it and that was the worst part.
"Stop fighting it," he said. "We're both going to enjoy this."
He hit me again.
I kept struggling even though my body had almost nothing left. Even though every movement sent pain spiking through my cracked ribs and my torn palms and my bruised jaw. I kept moving because stopping felt like dying and I was not ready to let this be the thing that finally broke me.
Not today.
Not him.
- Writer
