CHAPTER 5: Trouble

“You b*tch!”

I groaned before landing on the floor. 

I held my cheek, the sting and pain from the punch echoing around my skull.

“I almost died!” 

The Warrior bastard screamed at my face, his brown eyes so bright with anger. 

I could almost even see his wolf surfacing.

“N-not my fault… you’re stupid…” I said, satisfaction in my voice despite the electrifying pain in my bones from his punches.

Still on the floor, he kicked me on the stomach. I groaned and clenched my fists on the ground. 

I couldn’t fight physically against him. Not when I knew I was going to lose. 

So I just stayed curled up there, trying to protect vital parts of my body, and fighting him with words.

They had training with firearms this afternoon, and since I was the one who assembled his weapon, his gun ricocheted towards him, almost hitting him on the side of his stomach. 

To be fair, it was a silver bullet, and one wound from that could be critical. 

But still, it was his fault for letting me assemble his weapon when he was supposed to do that for himself. He didn’t even re-check it.

“You b*tch knew how that worked! Only a person who knew how to assemble that could make that bullet ricochet! You knew the gun’s mechanisms!”

I groaned harder as he kicked me continuously after saying those words. 

He dragged me behind the building as soon as they finished with their session. And I immediately knew what it was going to be about. 

He deserved it. It was my revenge against him for even trying to lay his hands on me.

Five years I’ve fought to keep myself away from dirty, old bastards from the House. And he thinks he can have his way with me? I would never let him.

I just wish now that I also knew how to escape this crap without being beaten to a pulp.

“B-Bastard!” I tried taking his leg and twisting it. 

He fell off balance for a while and I took that as an opportunity to stand up and run.

But before I could make a step, his hand was already on my right ankle, and I was dragged down.

I screamed when I received another punch in my face. 

“You dare to leave and escape? I’m not letting that happen after you almost killed me!”

He screamed and after that was a series of punches and kicks I couldn’t evade. 

I’ve fought with many other werewolves, and I was mostly good at it, but with him being a lycan revokes every other thing I thought I’d have against him. And he’s part of their warrior unit. 

To say this isn’t fair is an understatement.

So I just took it all, waiting to pass out and not feel anything. But just when I decided to let everything be, someone finally came.

“Hey! Hey, stop!”

“Get off me! I’m going to finish this b*tch!”

“STOP!”

I opened my eyes slowly, wanting to see who was my savior this time. 

But when I saw the familiar face of the man that chose me the night of the Offering, goosebumps rose on my skin in horror and anxiety.

I’m so done.

“What the hell man?! She’s the reason why my gun did that earlier!” 

The warrior bastard—that I still don’t know the name of, and will never have the interest of knowing—said at the man who was holding him back from me.

I frowned at the scene.

Our eyes met and for a second, I saw horror and anxiety in them, so far from the lustful and malicious eyes he had on me during that night. 

If anything, he looked terrified now.

“No, man. We have to go—“

“I am not going unless I beat the sh*t out of this woman!” 

I glared back at the bastard when he said that, not backing down despite my already hurt body.

I’m used to this pain. He thinks he can scare me now?

But before he could kick my face again, the man from the Offering got a hold of his arm and pulled him back, as if he was scared.

“NO! Listen,” he grabbed him closer and started whispering in his ear.

I watched as slowly, the warrior’s eyes started widening. Those eyes looked at me, and gone was the anger I was seeing in his eyes.

What’s happening?

“Let’s go, before anyone sees us!” The man from the Offering said and immediately ran away, not even sparing me a glance. 

The warrior guy also started running, but glanced over at me for a second before scramming his way from the place as if running away from an apocalypse.

I followed their running figures with my eyes until they were gone. 

What was that all about?

I coughed, tasting blood in my mouth. 

I rolled on my back, thankful for the leaves that covered the rocks on the ground and groaned in both relief and pain.

“The bastard…just scrambled off…” I mumbled to myself as I half groaned, and half laughed. 

I didn’t even know who I was laughing at. That stupid man, or me, who despite being so beaten, still had the strength to see the amusement in this, or just the general crap that’s been happening in my life non-stop.

Can’t I even have a break?

I inhaled deeply and let the quiet ease me down.

Since the day I was taken by the lycan who kidnapped me and killed my Dad, there was nothing calm around me anymore. 

It was all just quiet—silence. The kind of silence that's deafening; devouring my sanity. 

It was maddening. It felt more dangerous than the screams and any sound of weapons around me. 

I fought my way to be just a server in the House, and not to be one of the girls on tables. I helped Maddie be one, too. But that didn’t mean we were already safe from the danger of being harrassed in that place.

A couple of times I lost too much blood and almost died fighting so hard just to keep them away from me. And I couldn’t say whether I was just lucky to be able to succeed and escape from those dirty bastards, or I was really having my way. 

Nonetheless, I was still just not safe.

Because every time I close my eyes, I see them, the monsters, still prying over me. And in no time, I’d be out of luck and they’d all eventually take me and stain my being for all eternity.

But maybe, in some way, I have been able to run away from those monsters, only to face a bunch of new ones now.

A small chuckle made its way out of my mouth again. I guess I’m going crazy.

“I see, you’re a sadist.”

Taken away from my mind, I snapped my head to the side, hearing a familiar voice along with the crunching of dried leaves as someone walked towards my lying form.

It was the blue-eyed man that was beside the king this morning.

I didn’t move and just watched his huge form kneel beside me. 

“I’m Sebastian Pietro, the Beta of Vamos Pack, and the second in command of the king.” 

He smiled, and just as I expected, he had this weird lycan charm in him with his dimple. 

“You are?” He continued when I just looked at him, stretching his hand out for a shake. 

“Do you really introduce yourself to people while they’re beaten up to the ground?” The Beta chuckled and helped me sit up from the floor.

I groaned when my back cracked. That warrior bastard kicked me hard on the side.

“Who did this to you?” He suddenly asked, eyeing the blood on my face and the bruises that had started forming around my neck. 

His charming and friendly smile was suddenly nowhere to be found. He looked so concerned, it made me feel kind of weird. 

A lycan concerned about me, is a very foreign concept in my head.

“If you were this concerned, you should have arrived five minutes earlier. You could have known who that bastard was.” 

I groaned again when something in my chest hurt.

I must have also broken a rib.

And I couldn’t help being sarcastic. I’m too mad and hurt to care at this point. 

“Was he a guard?” Sebastian persisted. I just shook my head.

“He’s one of your warriors,” I said.

A loud bell rang around the pack territory, indicating everyone's dinner time. Apparently, they weren’t the disorganized savages we thought they were. 

The lycans were organized, and disciplined. Well, excluding those bastards who were here with me earlier.

“Hey, you shouldn’t move just yet—“

“It’s alright,” I said and started standing up on my own. 

Sebastian tried holding my arm to keep me balanced but I stood upright.

That bell was also time for us servants to get inside the kitchen, so I had to go if I didn’t want to have a second beating for being late. Not that they said they would.

But the Head Matron looked like she could beat the crap out of me. And I just didn’t want to add any more of the issues I have to deal with.

“You should go to the infirmary first,” the concerned second in command told me.

Sebastian’s blue eyes held a worry that I didn’t know what to do with. 

And despite the kindness he was showing, I will always have doubts with lycans.

“I can’t. The head matron will be looking for me,” I said, but he shook his head and started holding my arm again. 

Unlike those warriors earlier, his touches were gentle.

“I’ll deal with Miss Miranda later. You have to be treated. And I can hear the shortness of your breath. You’re struggling. You could barely even stand upright.”

I couldn’t help watching him as he guided me out of the small woods behind the building. 

Like I said, Lycans didn’t have the greatest reputation in the world. Instead, they had the worst. All my life, I thought of them as the cruelest creatures. 

So I couldn’t think why he was being so nice to me. They were supposed to be the new set of monsters I had to deal with on a daily basis.

“Why are you doing this?” I asked, cutting the short silence that filled between us.

“Why are you helping me?” I continued. 

Those blue eyes of his turned to me again. 

A small smile made its way on Sebastian’s lips, and something in his eyes sparkled. 

I would be lying if I say I don’t find this man handsome, because he is.

“Because you’re one of us now,” he just said, and continued guiding me as I limped away towards the infirmary.