Cruel captor

~Celeste~

I wake up to the rumble of wheels and found myself surrounded. My vision was clearing, and I sat up, my temple still throbbing.

Had I imagined his voice back then, and What the hell was happening? "Ugh..Derek?" I call for my brother.

I flinch when I hear a chuckle by my side. Tuning over to see a gazes on me as goosebumps grew on my skin.

"The fucking cunt is awake; you’re nothing now," a guard snarled while the other snickered, watching me in my prison. It was more like a cage on wheels that held me.

My hands and feet were bound in chains, barred with enchanted silver so I couldn’t run.

"Isn't this the mighty Ayvoc princess those Crossvale bastards wouldn't stop chatting about?!" The second guard snickered as I watched them through my covered hair.

I was the Ayvoc, the all-sacred and pure omega, the only female omega born to the Crossvale pack.

A princess and daughter to the chief, a figure who once revered my people and a life bound to no man.

Yet my father groomed me my whole life, a sick shove climbed up my spine, recalling my forced mating ritual moments ago.

Even now, there was no difference between my former life and this cage; I was trapped in both.

But now I was stripped of my status, and my once white dress and veil were now torn and dirtied, leaving me in a barely wearable underdress.

A small white gown sullied with dirt—well, at least I knew my former life was a kiss goodbye after the siege that took place.

Especially when I witnessed the chief of the Crossvale pack gutted like a pig in my presence, all by a masked stranger who attacked me.

And that said pig was my father, the chief of the pack; the monster deserved it nonetheless for all he’d done to me.

"Hey! I’m talking to you, little Ayvoc! Care to share your thoughts with us " The soldier trashed me once more with a kick to my cage.

Riding me off balance on the small carriage as I wanted to hiss and snarl, but I didn't want to give him the satisfaction of seeing my face.

But I was more than terrified to be in the mist if these males as my wolf whimpers, growing weaker by the second.

"The king is nowhere close; I say we mess with her. Let’s test that pure and untouched hole, shall we?" The male snickered, easing his brows to coerce his soldiers to join in.

"Unless you want your head on a platter, you'd best leave King Rahl's spoils of war alone," another man muttered, the name of thier king had flashed fear in their eyes.

Wait…Rahl? My heart skipped, and my insides panged hearing that name, but no, it couldn’t be possible, not after four long years that had passed.

"It just couldn’t be him; it can’t be him. He is dead." I muttered just as the jet-black twenty-foot gate opened, and I was led into the city.

The old city of Sorgale, home to the Rahl family, the greatest, most formidable, and strongest wolf bloodline of alphas.

The origin of all wolves before smaller colonies and packs had been graciously handed powers to the governed.

The same same city that was raided and massacred on my sixteenth birthday four years ago; that same day my father had brought in the Sorgale heir as his trophy from the war.

He was barely recognizable, covered in blood and bound with chains whil laughter and cheers increased around the hall that day.

He was hung upside down on an X-cross as their sick entertainment while I watched as I he whipped and tortured.

My eyes prickled from just the memory and my father's words that night, how they whipped him over a hundred strokes with blades and whips while we were forced to watch.

But he was my beginning and end, the first man who made me fall in love and want to run away with him,

yet I destroyed everything, destroyed his life, and betrayed him, and now he is dead. It couldn’t be him.

The carriage had stopped dead in its tracks in front of the palace doors as the guard gave me a look as he held the keys before he opened my prison. I lunged at him, thrashing around when I was held back.

I was then roughly dragged out of the carriage, immediately manhandled by my taunters, who held my hands so tight I felt my bones shift, fitting through the shackles as I was dragged through the hallway.

"Stop it, stop it! Where are you taking me!" I muttered just as I was pulled into a dark room; two bodies were immediately caged to a wall that was now my new prison.

And by the sound of the whimpers, I wasn’t alone, as the room was lit with fire torches, and I saw two men in the room with me, both bound with chains.

One was my uncle, and the other was my brother, who all watched as I was almost forced to get married. Derek and Gileion. "You…" I muttered bitterly, my voice gaining their recognition.

"Ayvoc?" My uncle exclaimed just as he looked up, and I felt a sense of dread take over me to see that he didn’t have eyes anymore; they were removed. But he was still searching for me just as I faced Derek.

His body splintered with claw marks his jaw a dark purple as it reset from being dislocated, "Derek!" I recall at my brother who is weakly chained to the side.

"Who did this to you? Did you see his face?" I ask Derek who shakes his head weakly.

"How about you, you weren't touched were you?" He says weakly and for a moment I see somthing dark in his gaze. I shake my head to bite back the tears.

"No..no I wasn't" right now we are both at odds as Derek finally sits up and his eyes lock on mine;

I see panic in his face just as he opens his mouth to speak, and I am horrified to see he has his could barely speak from his wound and using all his strength.

This new cruel king, our captor, whoever he was, was ruthless, and my body shivered like shards of ice shards were indented in my skin.

"You are alive, Ayvoc! What about the chief? What about my brother? Is he alive as well? Did he escape?" Uncle Gelions asks me.

But only worry etched my face from Derek's brutally beaten body.

"He’s dead," I muttered, recalling the blood that splattered when my father tried to attack Him, or atlaest that was the last thing I saw.

Silence grew from my answer; the elder said back in disbelief as his chains clanged from his hands as he began to scream and wail.

"Let us out, you bastards! Tell your leader whose face it is! I challenge him to a Rava, a fight to the death! Face us, you bastard," Gelion roars blindly as he struggled against the chains holding him down while I watched.

I didn't know I felt my face wet with tears; I was truly crying for my wicked father. What about the situation of the Crossvale people?

But Uncle Gelion didn’t stop, not till the doors were once open again and seven guards filed into the space, each heading for our chains as we were dragged out.

Derek could only follow; the blood loss had set his former temperament down like an abused dog from his attack,

because the Derek I know was a warrior; he was a protector who had never lied to me.

We were led through a few marbled hallways, with different statues of past kings, the last statue of the king Silas ,

his sculpted face the same as the one that was hung on a pike as my people danced and feasted that day.

We were then led to the adjacent hallway towards the golden doors that opened towards the throne room.

From what I recall from the stories, the Sorgale throne was melted and wrecked by my people, and this kingdom had been abandoned for six years.

But now the throne had been reformed once more and this time mightier, as it was devastating; its head reared with different iron skulls while the throne stood empty.

Yet I felt in my blood that something wasn’t right, just as the doors creaked open and the sound of footsteps echoed and the king drew near.

That was when I drew my head up as my heart lurched to my throat to see the stranger who stood in the shadows once more,

the same one who gutted my father like he meant nothing. The ‘reaper king,’ as rumors called him.

"You insolent bastard! Who are you? Who dares to defy the CrossVale and degrade our Ayvoc like this!" Gelion screamed, and just a chuckle echoed through the room from the mask.

I felt my stomach churn once more as I met the amber eyes of the male through the mask, and my stomach began doing flips.

"No…it can’t be." He’s dead, dead, dead! I screamed in my mind as I watched the male's scarred finger reach to uncover his mask.

And standing before me was the man I thought to have died years ago, the man whom I betrayed, rejected, and broke his heart. And in my presence stood my first and only love.

Syzarion Rhal Kharas.