Chapter 2: Unexpected Kiss

"MOVE!" 

A man pushed me when I halted walking after I gasped in pain. My knees were trembling, and I knew that I didn’t have the strength to walk anymore. He groaned when I quickly slumped on the floor and kicked my waist in irritation. A loud scream of wince came out of my lips when he kicked me repeatedly. He seemed upset that I was the reason their return to their pack was delayed.

"Disgusting bitch! Do you want me to cut your legs?" He snarled at me. His eyes were gleaming red. His canines were showing, like he wanted to bite me with fury. I curled my body to prevent him from kicking my stomach. I always experienced this kind of sh*t when I was with my father in our pack.

I was his anger's displacement. Sometimes he would hurt me whenever he was upset about small things. He hasn’t loved me since my mother died.

My lips were trembling, preventing me from crying whenever I felt how painful it was. He screamed at the top of his lungs, and with the last kick, my body threw itself at the tree. I moaned in pain, but I prevented myself from sobbing.

"What are you doing?" A deep, brutal voice came. I heard heavy footsteps that stopped the man from hurting me. The man gasped in terror and chuckled nervously. I crawled back and saw the man, who had red eyes. It was his natural eye color, and he was glaring at the man who hurt me as if he was ready to hurt him.

"Marcus, it’s nothing! This bitch stopped walking while the other slaves didn’t have the chance to rest!" He answered, giving me a murderous glare, for he was pointing his finger and saying that I was the one who was about to be blamed.

"What makes you think that you have the right to hurt her? Are you fucking stupid?" Marcus growled and took out his sword, which made the man widen his eyes in fear. He stepped back whenever he was stepping forward. It was real quick when he cut the man’s neck that made me scream in terror.

The man’s head ended up rolling in my direction, and my body quivered in anxiety when I saw that his eyes were wide open. Marcus came to me and kicked the man’s head. I didn’t notice the slight hint of remorse in his face. He even laughed mockingly before he turned his back on me.

"Why did you do that?" I asked, panting as I slowly tried to calm myself. They were slaughterers, and it seemed that they were used to killing someone without having a trace of regret in their eyes.

"Because I can do it when I want to do it." There was a trace of smugness in his face. He seemed to be giving me tension in my body. I breathed hard when he smirked at me, making me think that it was a big achievement for him when he killed someone.

"It’s not right if you killed someone without—"

"You’re nagging at me instead of being thankful that I killed that foolish man. Do you still want to live? If you want to die, then I can cut your neck!" He angrily screamed at me, making me stop talking. I stepped backward in fear that he might attack me. Damn it!

"Marcus, what’s happening here? We need to stop walking; it’s getting dark." The Lycan King’s icy tone made me bow my head in nervousness. His tone made me want to hide from the trees, for I was too afraid that he might hurt me, too.

"Your Majesty, I will tell them about your plans." Marcus didn’t wait for the Lycan King to respond when he left me with him. 

My heart was thumping so fast that I couldn’t breathe properly. I didn’t know what I was going to say to him, particularly that he was giving me an intense gaze to intimidate me. He might be staring at me, but nevertheless, my body was under pressure. The tension inside of me made me want to pee in trepidation.

When I heard him walk away from me, I finally sighed in relief. I thought that he might hurt me too, such as what his guard did to me. They were barbaric, and I knew that killing might be the easiest way to end my life. They were known for their torture of other pack members.

Some of the guards announced that we needed to remain in the middle of the forest. Another man pulled me to the tent that they created and put shackles on my hands and feet to prevent us from escaping.

"If we see someone escaping from us, don’t blame us if we kill you!"

Practically, they want us to rest for three hours. They gave me a medium-sized piece of bread that made the other slaves scream in excitement. They were making a commotion because they were starving, like me. 

The Lycan King was watching their slaves panickingly get the bread while I was standing at the corner watching them plead with the guards. His eyes landed on mine, which made me lower my head. 

The breads that they had in the basket were numerous, and I knew that I might have a piece of bread in the end. When they were finished distributing the bread, a man came to me and gave me two pieces of bread. I was surprised that I couldn’t talk. I didn’t know why he gave me more than those slaves.

"T-Thank you!" I stammered when I finally had the courage to speak. I sat in the corner and munched on the one piece of bread. I didn’t eat the other bread because I knew that we might walk miles away again. They didn’t give us food whenever we were walking, and I didn’t want to endure how voracious I am in the middle of the sun's heat.

The guards opined that we must sleep and threatened us again that if they caught us trying to run away, they wouldn’t think twice about using the poisonous tip of the arrow to kill us quickly. There were two guards checking us, and they were kicking those slaves who weren’t asleep. 

The weariness made it difficult for me to sleep, but I didn’t have the choice but to pretend when I heard the guards kicking the man beside me. I didn’t know that I fell asleep, but I woke up to disturbing sounds. It was a shout from outside that made us panic.

"Kill them!" A barbaric voice yelled, and multiple of the rogues came inside. They started killing some innocent slaves while the Lycan King’s troops were fighting with them. One of their guards fell in front of me lifeless; my hands were trembling when I searched for the keys that they used to our shack. I was breathless, and I knew that my life might be finished, despite the fact that I wanted to get revenge and justice with my bare hands.

"Gotcha!" I whispered and tried every key to remove the shackles. When I successfully removed it, some of the slaves shouted at me that they needed some help. I rushed towards them and helped them remove their shackles. They started helping each other, and we were running to escape.

"Kill those slaves who are escaping right now!" I heard the Lycan King shout, which made me desperately run so fast. I slipped on the muddy ground when the arrows struck, which made the other slaves groan in pain.

I crawled when the arrows kept flying at the slaves, and seeing them die made me cry silently. I continued running when the arrows stopped, but stopped when I saw the cliff at the end. 

I heard the violent splash of the water, which made me shriek in fear. The Lycan King was looking at me murderously while Marcus was running after him. My knees trembled when I stepped backward, which made him smirk at me devilishly.

"Once I get you again, I will torture you into disobeying my commands," he uttered.

My chest was moving violently, and without my awareness, I accidentally slipped from the cliff. I heard a splash of water and the sound of the man jumping with me. My body was falling deeper into the dark water, and the more I tried to save myself, the more my body came down.

As my vision became blurry and I felt the suffocation in my chest, I saw a man swim towards me. He grabbed my nape and kissed me.