Unrest

CHAPTER FOUR

ARAMIAH.

"Strip," He ordered in a harsh tone, his eyes glued to my dress. "Take off every bit of it."

My hand reflectively went around my shoulders, and I tried to step away from him, hitting the hard wall instead. I winced and slid to the floor, unsure what to do next. 

"W-what?" I asked, stunned, or at least pretending to be. Anything to buy me time. What did he mean by strip? Like, get naked? Me?

"Are you deaf, Princess?" Malakai crouched to my level, his elbows resting on his thighs as he leaned a little closer. His hands trailed my chin, down to my neck, and my breathing stifled. "You have nothing to be afraid of."

I couldn't understand it, or maybe English wasn't my language anymore, or there was another meaning behind the word he'd just said. I looked up at his hovering figure, and the grin on his face made my skin prickle with bumps.

Followed by an electrifying shiver that slid all the way down my back. I even felt it in my legs. 

Unease built up in the depth of my stomach, and my brain went quiet, adapting to this scent of him that I was overwhelmed by.

My chest felt like it rose on its own, invisible strings tugging at my heart and weakening my defense in the process. 

I looked at his lips and how they slowly parted again. "Strip," He said…. quietly this time as though he was waiting for word to sink in. "I need to examine what I bought."

"E-examine?" I breathed. "Examine?" My voice seemed to grow bolder upon repeating the word, and I stood to my feet in an instant.

Malakai did not seem to like that. He threw me a questioning look that faltered almost immediately, and his expression became as unreadable as they come.

"Is that what you call assault? You're trying…to 'examine' what you 'bought' like," I paused, starting to feel my body shake. "What part of my body structure depicts that I'm not a person, and you could just ask me to strip without my consent."

Malakai's eyes darkened, and I found that I was covered in sweat in an instant. The fear I tried not to show was eating its way out and fast. I curled and uncurled my fingers, sliding past him.

"Do you really want to do this?" I heard him ask as I charged towards the door. "Miah, do you really want to defy me?"

I said nothing, not because I had no response but because my lips were tight shut with fear. The door was just a few steps ahead, and I wanted to reach it at all costs.

His questions sounded more like a threat. I heard his footsteps twice and realized he'd caught up with me. I tensed up as his hand wrapped my wrist and pulled me close. I slammed into his chest, and my eyes automatically met his.

"Let go of me, you brute!" I yelled in his face, wanting to smack off the coy smile his lips playfully held. My stomach flipped when I pressed a little too hard against him and felt the pulsating bump in his pants. It pushed over my lower abdomen, and—

I stopped knowing how to breathe. 

My breathing grew erratic, but I didn't move away. I could not. These stupid feet were rooted to the ground, yet my stance faltered too fast.

I didn't know what I felt, or what it was supposed to feel like that a devil had an erection while holding on to me, but I hated how fast I was giving up control. 

"I didn't plan for that to happen," He dismissed, but damn, did I want to feel him a little more. "Do as I say, Miah."

Malakai's voice was so…compelling, that I felt it in my bones, a slicing chill alongside the shadows of electrifying ecstasy. 

I must have misunderstood why he was called the devil's vessel. It wasn't for his cruelty. It was for his charms. 

"It's Aramiah, you fucking pervert!" I pulled away from him and rushed towards the door again. 

I knew it was stupid to try, but Malakai caught up to me, his hands wrapping around my waist from behind. I reached for the metallic candlestand by the nearest table and hit him in the face with it with all the strength I could muster.

A low growl slipped out his lips, and he released his grip on me immediately. I took to my heels and raced out of the room, finding myself in the large corridor, not knowing where else to run to.

I ran down the corridor after hearing the door open behind me. 

"ARAMIAH!" His voice ripped through the entire corridor. "You can't run forever!"

I planned to. Oh, I will. I'd do whatever it took to get away from him. My heart had leaped to my mouth, and the path was beginning to blur. I was taken over by profound fear, and I didn't know what else to do.

Where to run to in this accursed castle. I saw a figure approaching me from the front, the figure concealed by poor lighting. I ran towards the person— whoever it was as I heard Malakai's footfalls grow ridiculously close.

I moved toward it, without knowing who it was. Soon, I found myself in the hands of the same man I'd seen with Malakai in the beginning, I had thrown myself into his arms, and nothing would make me let go.

He looked as perplexed as I expected, and I found that my hands were clutching to his blonde hair a little too tight while my other hand was arched, digging my nails into his back.

"What?" That was the first word he breathed to me, and even as disorganized as the entire situation seemed, his voice retained a certain level of calmness.

"Him…" I panted, looking in the direction of the dark hallway that Malakai's beastly walk had covered. For a moment there, I could swear Alpha Malakai belonged in the darkness.

He embodied it, smoothened it. His dark robes swept the floor in the most regal way, yet every step he took toward me brimmed with intention.

The kind of intention that I didn't want to find out.

"Please get me away from him. Please.. please, I don't want to be here! Get me away from him!"

He looked at me with so much pity, yet a blankness resided in that expression. I read and understood it too fast. This man could not help me.

What did I expect? I should have known that much. I set my feet back on the ground and took another glance at Malakai, but he was already behind me, smiling.

Smiling as usual, the kind of smile that flaunted his canines. His head bled from the hit, and the blood trailed all the way to his lips.

It was a monstrous sight to behold. "I'm sorry, I-"

The rest of the words died on my tongue when his hands wrapped around my hair and pulled it backward. I was forced to face the roof, and a sob ripped from the depth of my throat.

"Alpha Kai…" The other man called out. "There's a better way to—"

"Stay out of it, Kalvin!" Malakai responded, every word of his heavy with command. He then leaned closer to me and whispered in my ears—

—I froze.

"I know the best place for stubborn ones like you."