The Night He Threw Me to Rogues and I Never Came BackChapter 2

The taste of blood filled my mouth.

I bit down and refused to let myself make a sound.

After years of navigating these brutal border wolves, I knew better than anyone that crying and begging brought no mercy.

It only made things worse.

I wiped the blood from the corner of my mouth and let my smile grow more inviting.

"So Alpha Kael likes it rough. I promise I can give you exactly what you want."

Kael fixed his crimson eyes on me without blinking.

After a long pause, a cold smile surfaced at the edge of his mouth.

He pressed his boot down on my chest and held me flat against the ground.

"Leah. A few years gone, and you've sunk to this. I really did underestimate you."

Sunk.

But when I had tried to die alongside my parents, he was the one who arranged everything and made sure I ended up thrown into the border outpost instead.

I still remember kneeling in front of my parents' bodies and begging him to give me a clean death, while he wrapped his hand around my throat and let his smile go cold.

"Die? It won't be that easy."

"Your father destroyed my entire pack, but he left me alive, and then played the generous savior by taking me in and bringing me into Red Moon Pack, forcing me to swallow my rage every single day while the hatred ate me alive."

"He wouldn't give me the mercy of a quick end. So what gives you the right to die?"

"Leah. Children pay the debts of their parents. I will make sure you can neither live in peace nor die in peace."

Now I was exactly what he had intended me to be, and yet he still looked at me with that disgust.

Seeing that I kept my jaw locked and made no sound, the fury in Kael's eyes deepened.

He ground his boot harder against my chest, and the thin gauze I was wrapped in tore apart beneath it, leaving me exposed, the last scrap of dignity shredded along with the fabric.

I reached to cover myself by instinct, but he grabbed me by the hair and wrenched me upright.

Alpha Kael let his mouth curve in a cold, deliberate arc, his eyes full of cruelty.

"Cover what? There's no one in this room who hasn't seen you like this before."

"Get on your knees. Let me see exactly how far you've fallen."

I ran my tongue over the bleeding corner of my mouth, then knelt at Alpha Kael's feet with a look of perfect compliance, bending forward and pressing my face against his shoe like a broken stray.

"Whatever Alpha Kael wants to do, I can take it."

"If you want me to be your dog, that works too. Why not have someone bring a chain and collar, and walk me around on a leash?"

Kael gripped my jaw and forced my face up.

His eyes were full of something I could not read.

After a moment of silence, he raised his hand and struck me hard across the face.

The corner of my eye split open and my vision flooded red.

I smiled as though nothing had happened.

"Does that feel better, Alpha Kael?"

"If it's still not enough, you could always have someone bring a whip."

Kael kept his face blank as he took the handkerchief a wolf guard held out and scrubbed the blood from his fingertips, his expression flat but his tone soaked in contempt.

"Filthy. Leah, why don't you just die."

I pulled one corner of my mouth up in something that was almost a laugh.

"Alpha Kael seems to have forgotten. You're the one who said I would be allowed neither peace in life nor rest in death."

"You were so afraid I might find a way to die that you had Mia sent here alongside me."

"And it was you who told the people here that if I ever died, she would take my place."

"Her wolf is unstable and the silver dust from the night our pack was destroyed is still in her blood, eating through her healing from the inside. The only reason she's still alive is that the wolves here are reasonable enough to give me a few copper coins when I perform well, so I can buy her medicine."

"So how could I ever dare to disobey you? You have made sure I can neither live nor die on my own terms."

"If Alpha Kael feels any pity for me at all, why not let me serve you for a night. With your resources, whatever you give me will be more than what I earn from the others."

The moment the words left my mouth, a gold coin struck me across the face.