Chapter 2.

Amber's POV

My sore feet got scraped on the stone wall as I was pulled down the staircase. I had not been screaming for too long but my voice had already been cracked, my mouth dry and my lips parched.

My leg hit a nail, its tail sticking out of the handrail and all I let out was a loud scream as it tore my flesh. I knew for sure that my wound would still heal and so did the guards. Still, its healing didn't mean I was immune to the pain it carried.

"Ungh," I groaned in pain as I bit down on my lower lip, an act that I did whenever I tried suppressing pain. "Let me fucking go."

"Save your strength for when you meet with your mate, Amber," Vermont said without giving me a glance. "You will need that voice for other screams."

I struggled and squirmed as I tried my very best to release myself from the strong grips of the guards dragging me out of their small castle but it only caused me more pain and hurt. Their claws dug into my flesh the more I tried to squeeze out of their grasp and after a few seconds of my futile attempt to escape, I stopped. If I continued, I was only going to hurt myself more.

The guards pulled me out of the mansion and down the allure. I was now getting too weak to take note of what was really happening but there was one thing I knew for sure. I definitely was never coming back to the castle.

"Throw her in," I heard my step-father say and that was when I decided to open my eyes. I looked up and gasped lightly after seeing a large cage in front of me. They were going to throw me in there? That was what I had become? A fucking animal.

"Is that what I'm now reduced to?" I screamed with tears pouring down my face as I struggled to face Vermont who stood by the side of the cage with a stoic expression on his face. "An animal that you can just throw into a cage?"

"That is what you are and what you have always been, Amber," Vermont said as he tapped the metal cage with his cane. "A fucking rat. Maybe when you meet your mate, you will change."

The guards without hesitation threw me into the cage before I could retort my father's statement. I landed in the cage with a loud grunt and in the process, hit my head on the bar. The last thing I remembered hearing before finally blacking out was the sound of the cage gate closing shut.

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The sound of horses neighing filled my ears and the constant jerking of my surprisingly hard bed caused me to wake. Slowly, I opened my eyes only to close them back after they met the sun. How in the hell could I see the sun from my bed?

I turned to the side with a small groan to avoid the stinging light of the sun and then tried to open my eyes. My sight was a bit blurry but I could see things zooming past me. That was when I realized that I wasn't in my room anymore.

I sat up quickly and began looking around as my vision cleared up. It was then that I realized that what I had seen passing by me were trees. I was out of my home.

"W-where am I?" I mumbled quietly as I made to move. My hand gave way under me and I fell down weakly. I had no strength and the constant shaking didn't help at all. "Where in the hell am I?" I whispered again as I tried lifting myself up.

I stopped short after hearing men conversing quietly behind me. I turned and saw four guards seated on benches that seemed to have been nailed to the ground with deadly-looking weapons in their hands and a face that said 'do-not-fuck-with-me'.

I was about to talk to them when I realized that they all had chains wrapped around their legs. My eyes followed the trail of the chains and I gasped lightly after seeing that each of the chains had been wrapped around each of my limbs.

That was when it all came to me.

I sat up quickly as my breathing began to heighten. The rumbling and shaking, the horses neighing, the trees passing by; I was on a cart on my way to my mate's home.

"Oh, you're awake," one of the guards said with a slight grin as he turned his head towards me. "Had a good siesta, I see." I turned my head sharply to him as I began hyperventilating.

"W-what?" I mumbled weakly with a small frown. I scooted away from the guards, shaking my head as the memories came flooding in. "W-where is my father?"

The guards all looked at each other and laughed out loud, slapping their knees and holding their ribs like what I had just said was the joke of the century. I was about to ask why they were all laughing when they all suddenly stopped laughing.

"You look cute when you're scared," the one whose chains trail led to her left hand said. He smiled, showing his dirty crooked fangs and whispered, "You should try doing that a lot."

"Where is my father?" I asked, this time loudly. The grin on the guard's face disappeared and he was about to answer me when a familiar voice boomed from behind them. They all sat up straight and maintained a stoic expression as the cart came to a sudden stop.

"Do I need to come back there?" I heard her father say.

"No, sir," the guards answered in unison. Vermont sighed and gave a loud grunt before the cart continued on.

"W-what?" I mumbled. "Vermo--" my words could not be completed as I felt something strong hit me right across the face, causing me to black out again.

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