Chapter 7

Zayn’s grip on my arm was like an iron shackle. He didn't walk, he marched dragging me through the cold stone hallways of the palace. 

Every step I took felt like I was walking toward my own execution.

  He didn't speak a word of comfort. He didn't ask if my ribs were still hurting from my father's boot, or if I still felt the sting of his hands squeezing the breath out of me. 

To him, I was just a vessel, a gold or silver cup he was ready to fill.

  "Please," I whispered, my voice trembling as we reached the heavy oak doors of his bedroom. "I am tired. I am hurt. Can we just... wait?"

  Zayn stopped and looked down at me. His face was like a mask carved from ice. "Wait for what? The moon to change? The world to end? I have waited years for the curse to break, Snow White. I am a King without a prince and that ends tonight."

  He said kicking the doors open.

  The room was massive, but it felt like a cage. A fire crackled in the hearth, throwing long, dancing shadows against the walls and In the center stood a bed so large it looked like an altar.

  Zayn threw his coat into a chair and turned to me. "The Omegas are gone. No one is here to help you wash or hide. Strip. Now."

  "No," I said, clutching Ezekiel’s fur coat tighter. It was the only thing that made me feel safe.

  Zayn’s eyes flashed a dangerous red. In one swift movement, he was in front of me. He didn't use words this time. 

He grabbed the collar of the coat and ripped it away. The expensive fur tore like paper in his hands. He tossed it into the fire, and I watched my only comfort turn to ash.

"You are mine," he hissed, his voice a low, terrifying growl. "Not Ezekiel’s. Not your father’s. Mine."

  He picked me up as if I weighed nothing and threw me onto the bed. The impact knocked the wind out of me. Before I could scramble away, he was over me, pinning my wrists above my head with just one of his massive hands.

  He was so strong it was sickening. I felt like a bird trapped in the paws of a mountain lion.

  "You think you are brave because you stood up to your father?" Zayn mocked, his face inches from mine. He smelled of rain and cold steel. "That was a playground fight. This is the real world. You are a shiftless, weak Omega. Your only job is to stay quiet and take what I give you."

  He began to use his other hand to tear away the silk gown I was wearing. He didn't care that the fabric scratched my skin. He didn't care that I was crying.

  "Stop crying," he snapped, his voice harsh and cold. "Your tears don't move me. They only annoy me. You should be happy. Most women in this kingdom would die for the chance to be in this bed."

  "Then let them!" I screamed, struggling beneath him. "I don't want this! I don't want you!"

  Zayn’s expression didn't change. He didn't get angry, he stayed cold. That was the most cruel part. He didn't even see me as a human being with feelings. To him, my screams were just noise.

  "It doesn't matter what you want," he said. He leaned down and bit my neck, right over the mark he had left before. 

The pain was sharp, making my whole body jerk. "The Goddess gave you to me. She gave me a toy that won't break. And I am going to play with it until I get what I want."

  He forced my legs apart with his knee. He was heavy, so heavy I felt like my bones might crush. I looked up at the ceiling, my heart racing so fast I thought it would burst. I felt so small. So pathetic.

  I thought about my mother’s laugh. I thought about Caroline’s smirk. I thought about my father’s heavy boot. And now, I was being used by a man who hated the very sight of me.

  I am not a thing, I thought. I am not an object.

  Zayn ignored my pleas. He was focused only on his goal. He moved with a brutal, selfish hunger. 

He didn't look at my face. He didn't kiss me. He just unzipped his pants and dropped that monster cock on my pussy. I shivered in fright but refused to look at it knowing it would only make me more afraid.

He wanted to push it in, but I felt like I was ripped. I screamed out in pain but he placed his hands over my mouth muffling my scream.

  He continued to push it in and the pain was becoming too much. It wasn't just physical pain, it was the pain of being discarded by the whole world.

  "Please... Zayn... stop..." I sobbed, my hands clawing at the sheets.

  "Shut up and take it," he grunted, his grip on my wrists tightening until I thought my blood would stop flowing.

  Then deep inside me, something snapped.

  It wasn't a bone. It was a seal.

  In the darkest part of my soul, where I had hidden all my shame and all my fear, a bright, silver light began to glow. It wasn't the warm light of a wolf. It was the freezing, blinding light of a winter storm.

  Zayn felt it too. He paused, his eyes widening. "What is—"

  The air in the room suddenly turned into ice. The fire in the hearth didn't just go out, it froze into solid black glass.

  I felt a scream building in my throat, but it wasn't my voice. It was the roar of a thousand blizzards.

  "GET... OFF... ME!"

  BOOM!

  A massive wave of pure, white energy exploded out of my chest.  The force was so strong that Zayn, a powerful Alpha King, was sent flying across the room. He hit the stone wall with a thud that cracked the masonry.

  But the explosion didn't stop there.

  The shockwave ripped through the bedroom. The heavy oak doors were blown off their hinges, flying into the hallway like autumn leaves. The massive glass windows shattered into millions of tiny diamonds, raining down onto the mountain below.

  The entire mansion began to shake.

  In the hallways, guards fell to their knees as the floor buckled. Chandeliers crashed to the ground. In the Great Hall, the stones groaned as if the house itself was screaming in terror.

  Zayn groaned, picking himself up from the rubble of a smashed cabinet. Blood trickled down his forehead, and his clothes were torn. He looked at me, enraged that I had made him bleed.

  The mansion continued to tremble as my power leaked out of me, freezing the walls and cracking the floor. I looked at my hands, which were sparking with silver electricity.

  "I told you," I said, my voice sounding like the cracking of a glacier. "I told you that you would all regret this."

  Zayn stood up slowly, his claws sliding out, but he didn't move toward me. He couldn't. The air around me was so cold it was liquid.

  "You think you can scare me off with a little snow?" He barked, "I am Zayn! The Prince of darkness, and you....you are nothing, it doesn't matter what kind of power you unlock, Ariana! you will always remain my whore!"

 I heard his cold words that infuriated me, but just as the power came I felt it leave and my strength plummeted. I fell unconscious but before I did I heard him say.

  "Guards!" He called out, "Get this witch out of my sight and toss her into the dungeon. And bring me her sister."