•Slave•

“No one will touch her,” the man in the shadows stepped into the light with quiet, terrifying grace.

For the first time, I saw him clearly. He was tall, lean, muscular, and though he’d told me he repelled both humans and werewolves, I didn’t feel it. I should’ve been afraid.

Instead, I was drawn to him.

“Are you defying your king?” the woman in red asked, her tone sharp enough to slice the air. The Alpha King paused, his brows furrowed in disbelief.

“I am claiming what is rightfully mine,” he said.

“And no one will go against me for it.”

A golden light ran along the runes on his neck, down to his arm until his sword materialized in his grip.

“She has disobeyed our laws and broken our sacred rule, yet you protect her, Cursed One?” the king demanded, his voice brimming with anger.

“She is mine,” the man said coldly.

“And anyone who tries to harm her will answer to me.”

“You defy your King for a human slave?” the woman in red hissed, and tension rippled through the room.

“I will kill every single one of you who stands in my path,” he said without blinking. “She is mine, and I will protect her.”

A shiver raced through me. Do I need his protection… or protection from him?

My head began to spin. The pressure in the air was too much, I could barely breathe. The world tilted, the light blurred, and before I could make sense of it, everything went black.

***

I was running.

The ground beneath me was cold, my legs heavy, my chest burning. I’d been running for hours, but my destination was nowhere in sight.

Where am I even going?

I stopped, glancing around. The forest was thick, endless, Restic Forest. I’d wandered far from Eldrun.

How did I get here? Why am I here?

My breathing steadied, but then I saw it, a dark figure, a blur in the distance, moving fast. Too fast. It was coming straight for me.

Without thinking, I ran again. Every time I looked back, it was closer, gliding through the trees like smoke.

Fear clawed at my throat. I wanted to scream, but instead, a sound tore from me, a howl, a raw trembling howl that echoed through the forest.

Humans don’t howl, how was I howling?

Panic gripped me harder, maybe I was dreaming and if I slammed into a tree hard enough, I’d wake up from this nightmare.

“Wake up…”

The voice came from nowhere, and everywhere, it was familiar and deep, I knew who it was. The man from the shadows.

“Help me!” I shouted, gasping as the figure neared.

“It’s coming for me!”

“You need to wake up. Wake up,” his voice echoed again.

The dark creature reached for me, its hands like smoke, and I screamed one last time.

“Wake up!”

My eyes snapped open.

Air rushed out of me, but I couldn’t breathe back in. My chest locked, panic seizing every part of me.

“Breathe,” his voice said again, closer now. “Breathe… slowly.”

I tried, in, out, in again. My lungs obeyed after what felt like forever.

When I finally looked up, his eyes were on me, cold, unreadable, but searching.

“What are you?” he asked quietly.

“I.. I’m human,” I stammered. “My name is Ayla.”

He stared at me for a long time. His mismatched eyes, one crimson, the other pale like frozen glass, made it hard to look away.

His scar cut down from his brow to his cheek, but it didn’t make him less beautiful. It made him dangerous.

“You howled in your sleep,” he said. “Like a wolf.”

“I’m not a wolf,” I said quickly, glancing around the room to change the topic.

The bed was enormous, draped in deep red silk. Gold shimmered on the walls. This was no slave’s room. “Where am I?”

“My chambers,” he said simply.

My breath caught. “I… I shouldn’t..”

“You’re mine now,” he interrupted, his tone turning colder. “Leave my sight, and you’ll be dead before nightfall.”

I swallowed hard, his words were a threat, but they sounded like a vow.

We held each other’s gaze, too long, too intensely.

His face was carved like a god’s—strong jaw, arched brows, lips too soft for someone so lethal. His loose white shirt hung open at the chest, showing skin and muscle beneath, even the light seemed afraid to touch him.

Then, A knock.

“Come in,” he said without looking away.

“Cursed One, the Alpha King summons you,” a guard announced from the doorway, then left.

He rose silently and headed for the door.

“What about me?” I asked, panic flickering again. “What if someone comes in and..”

“No one would dare,” he said, turning the handle.

“Wait, your name. I can’t keep calling you what others do,” I said quickly, almost pleading.

He paused for a moment before replying.

“Rhydian,” he said finally.

The name rolled off his tongue like a curse and a confession at once.

By the time the door closed behind him, I wasn’t sure if I was safe, or if I had just met the reason I’d never be free again.