Filed to story: My Kidnapper Is the Wolf King
I should run.
But I don’t want to stay in this castle.
There are two paths ahead of me and I am lost. I do not know which one to take.
The alpha picks up a sword from the floor. He thrusts it through the chin of another guard, causing blood to spill from his mouth.
The horror of it forces me to face what the alpha is. A killer.
I flee down the corridor to my right, my bare feet slapping against the cold ground. My hair flies loose behind me, and my long nightdress bunches at my ankles. I’m breathing fast, and my heart is pounding.
I run wildly, frantically. This place is new to me and, though it is supposed to be my home, it is cold and unfamiliar. I am lost in a labyrinth of stone and there is a beast in here and I do not know the way out.
“Princess, wait.”
I turn.
The alpha stands in the corridor behind me. His shirt is slick with sweat, and his biceps strain against his sleeves. He walks slowly, carefully, toward me. He’s like a predator, trying not to scare his prey.
“Princess, do you really-“
He tenses when he reaches me, as if he hears something I cannot, then hooks an arm around my waist. My breathing sharpens as he draws me into a shadowy alcove. He pulls my back flush against his chest.
I am aware of every ridge of his torso, and the quick pounding of his heartbeat. His breaths are hot and uneven by my ear. His scent floods my nostrils-heat and sweat and the mountains. It overwhelms me. I still, even as my blood pounds through my body and my heartbeat hammers in my ears.
A scream builds in my chest, and he clamps his hand over my mouth.
“Find her!” Lord Sebastian snaps. “Find her now! She is my betrothed and I will not have her taken from me. If they touch her, if they defile her, she is of no value to me! Do you understand?”
I feel the slight growl building in the alpha’s chest.
For a moment, we are both breathing fast as Sebastian rants, just a few feet away, about the importance of my purity. Slowly, the alpha drops his hand from my mouth. It’s as if he’s daring me to scream.
“I need her with her virtue intact. Do you understand?” says Sebastian. “Find her. Find her!”
“Yes, my lord.”
The voices fade away.
I breathe out slowly. For a moment, neither of us move.
The alpha drops his arm and I step away. His face is as dark as thunder as he stares down the corridor.
“Do you really want to stay?” he asks.
“What difference does it make? I am a prisoner either way.”
“Aye.” He runs a hand over the back of his neck. “And I can’t promise you it won’t be dangerous up in the Northlands. My people don’t much care for humans. But I promise you that I’ll protect you.” He swallows. “And I’ll give you the choice. Run now, and I won’t follow. Come with me, and no one will touch you. I swear it on the Moon Goddess.”
He holds out his hand for me to take. I am trembling as the decision builds in my chest. My soul is rattling against its prison, wild and screaming.
The alpha’s gaze is unwavering. It’s as though there is no doubt in his mind what I will do.
“What do you want with me?” I ask.
He drags his teeth over his bottom lip, as if deciding whether to tell me. “Sebastian has something of ours. We want it back.”
I let out a bitter laugh. “You want to hold me ransom. You think he will make a trade.”
“Aye,” he says.
And there it is. My “choice”. The two paths that lie before me.
A choice between two men. Two killers. Two monsters.
Only it is not much of a choice at all, is it? Again, I am nothing more than a prize-an object-to be passed between men. A burst of hysteria builds up inside me and spills out of my mouth in a manic giggle.
“There it is,” I say. “That’s what this is all about! Well, you heard what the lord said. If I am defiled then I am of no value to anyone.”
“That’s not why I’ll keep you safe.”
I stare at his open palm, then I look down the corridor in the direction that Lord Sebastian went in.
“I heard what he said to you,” says the alpha, his voice quiet. “At the dog fight.” When I meet his eyes, there is a surprising amount of anger contained within them. “I will keep you safe. Then I will set you free. I swear it.”
I do not know if it is that word-free-that makes my heart beat faster, or whether it is the look on his face. Even though I am a statue, and statues don’t move, my fingers twitch at my sides.
“I swear it, Princess,” he says.
And somewhere beyond the adrenaline that’s pumping through me, a thought begins to form.
If I can gather intelligence on the Wolves, perhaps I can finally prove to my father that I am more than just a prize to be won.
And, if I help my father win his war, he will have no use for Sebastian.
Perhaps I can escape my fate on my own terms.
“What does Sebastian have that belongs to you?” I ask.
There’s a click behind me and the alpha looks over my shoulder.
“Step back, my lady.” A guard grabs my arm and pushes me behind him, his musket trained on the alpha. “They’re silver bullets, so don’t do anything stupid. Hands behind your head.”
Slowly, the alpha raises his hands and clasps them behind his neck.
“On your knees, dog.”
“Wait-” I start.
“It’s okay, my lady. He’ll be punished. I can take it from here-“
The decision, the choice, that has been rattling around in my chest since I laid eyes on the alpha, erupts out of me.
I grab a torch from the wall, and smack the guard in the head with it.
I expect him to fall down to the ground, unconscious, like the guards did in stories my mother would tell me as a child.
Instead he grunts, then turns to me. The mild confusion on his face quickly turns to anger.
I stagger back, dropping the torch.
“What’s going on?” he says, his face reddening. “Have you. . . lain with him? She who lies with a beast-“
The alpha darts forward and breaks the man’s neck, then shoves him aside.
He holds out his hand.