Claiming her

 Chapter 4 

 Ivy’s POV

One minute, I was banished, my parents killed. The next… I was nothing more than property.

They sold me to him.

The cursed Lycan King.

Everyone feared him. Now, I did too , not the kind of terror that makes you scream, but the deep, visceral ache in your bones. The fear that silences your wolf.

I was his maid now. In his obsidian castle. Scrubbing floors, serving meals, sleeping in freezing quarters designed for broken girls with no names. Me, once the pride of my pack. I still wondered: why did the Moon Goddess drag me back into this cruelty?

Then the echo came: slow, heavy footsteps among the torches.

“The Lycan King wants to see you. Now.”

My hands froze on the wet rag. My chest tightened. Fear fluttered through me, but I nodded. I couldn’t freeze forever.

I followed the guard through twisting corridors, each step yawning my stomach wider. Finally, I stood before a great ebony door. It opened with a slow groan.

The throne room's darkness swallowed me. At its heart, the King sat on a throne sculpted of obsidian and bone, half-shrouded by shadows. His chest was bare. Masked.  

He rose, silence stretching as he approached. Each tread echoed like doom.

A shiver ran down my spine.

“Are you going to keep lying to me?” His words cut cleanly. “Do you truly not see the chains… or are you pretending?”

My throat constricted. “I swear I don’t…. I don’t see anything. Please… let me go. I’m not your bride.”

He tilted his head, eyes glinting.

“Let’s test that.”

He pulled a blade from his belt. My breath hitched. He pressed steel to his palm. It cut through muscle. Veins. A rivulet of black-red blood welled and dripped.

He poured it into a crystal goblet: rich, alive.

“Drink.”

My heart pounded. “No. I…this isn’t some fairytale. I’m not…“

His eyes darkened. “You will. Now.”

He shoved the glass to my lips. The metallic scent burned my nostrils. He didn’t wait, I choked and spat as crimson liquid slid past my teeth, down my throat.

Then, something inside me snapped open.

I saw.

Chains, glowing, a tortured midnight-blue. They twisted across his sternum, dug into his wrists and shoulders. Thin threads of blood seeped where they bound him, as if his flesh constantly bled under their grip.

I staggered back, tears pooling. They weren’t illusions, they were real. Living. Painful.He studied me.

“Do you see them now?” he whispered.

I shook my head, voice a whisper: “No.” I lied. I couldn’t say yes, if I admitted it, I’d be trapped with him forever and I can't let that happen. I have my own fate. And that is to get my revenge on Derek.

At once, his hand was around my throat. He hoisted me up the air. My feet dangled. The world spun.

“I’ll snap your neck if you lie again,” he growled. 

Could he really? Of Course he could. He's the monstrous Lycan.

Everything pulsed, my heartbeat, the pulse in my throat, his scent overwhelming.

Then, a knock.

He dropped me like I weighed nothing. I crashed to the stone floor, groaned in pain. I was getting weak. 

I gasped, eyes watering.

He snarled. “Who is it?”

“Lord… there’s someone here. He says his name is Derek.”

My heart halted. Derek….my ex mate. My betrayer.

He smiled, slow and savage. “Oh? So your mate has come. Or should I say… ex-mate.”

My brain froze. How did he know?

He raised a brow. “I know everything…your name, your banishment, the day your pack called you a fake, the day they killed your parents, the day you died.”

I tipped my head. My mind quivered. He really knows it all.

He grabbed my arm, lead me out.

No, Vivian snarled in my mind, don’t go near him. Don't go near to Derek. He lied, he took everything. He killed us.

But I followed, betrayingly without power, fragile, broken.

We emerged into the grand antechamber. Six massive columns. Flaming torches. At the far end stood Derek, silhouetted.

He staggered forward when he saw me…shock. “Ivy… by the Moon Goddess… you’re alive. I thought… I’ve been searching..”

Lies.

My jaw clenched. This was the man who called me false. Who paraded another girl as savior. Who orchestrated my parents’ murders. Who had my execution arranged. 

“I want to tear him apart!”

Vivian’s growl pulsed in my blood, savage and hot. My fists clenched.

The Lycan King’s hand pressed onto my shoulder, cold, heavy, final. I flinched beneath its weight.

“Well?” he asked, his voice like ice cracking. “Will you return to your lying ex-mate… or shall I help you truly destroy him?”

My chest rose and fell in ragged gasps. My heart slammed against my ribs like it was trying to escape.

Going back to Derek meant betrayal. Pain. More lies.

But this… choosing the Lycan King… meant binding myself to darkness. To chains. To something eternal.

My lips trembled.

And then I whispered the words I couldn’t take back. “I… I see the chains.”

Silence dropped like a blade.

He stared at me, still as death.

Then…

He laughed.

Not soft. Not gentle. It was low, cruel, and wickedly triumphant.

“You do?” His voice dripped with something close to pleasure. “You really do?”

A slow, chilling grin crept across his face. “Then she’s mine,” he said to Derek. “You cannot take what belongs to me.”

Then his eyes, sharp and gleaming, locked on mine. “What shall I do with him?”

Everyone went silent. Even Vivian.

I met Derek’s gaze….those same eyes that once swore forever.

“Make him suffer,” I said, my voice cold, hollow. “Make him feel what he did to me…slowly.”

Derek’s face twisted. “Ivy… no… this isn’t you…”

The Lycan King’s smile widened. “I can’t kill an alpha,” he said softly. “But I’ll do what you want… if you do something for me.”

I froze. “What do you want?”

He stepped closer.

One step. Then another.

Until my back hit the stone wall and he towered over me, his presence suffocating.

He leaned in, lips inches from mine. I could smell the wild scent of him….like storms and ashes.

“Touch the chains,” he murmured, voice dark and low. “If you truly see them, then touch them.”

I had almost forgotten, his real bride had to see and be able to touch the chains.

My breath caught in my throat.

He grabbed my wrist gently…no, firmly…and raised my trembling hand toward the glowing marks on his chest.

I wanted to pull away. But I couldn’t. Not with Derek watching. Not with revenge on the line.

I shut my eyes…and touched the chain.

The second my fingers grazed it, fire exploded through my body.

Pain. Light. Heat.

A force slammed into me, hurling me backward like a ragdoll. I crashed into the cold stone wall with a crack that echoed through the dungeon, pain exploding through my spine. My vision blurred, stars danced behind my eyes, and then, nothing.

And then everything went blank.

When my eyes fluttered open, they burned under the dim torchlight. My head pounded like war drums, and my ribs screamed with every breath.

Then, footsteps, soft, cautious. A figure appeared in the doorway, cloaked and hooded, her face hidden in shadows. She approached me swiftly and pressed a folded piece of paper into my trembling hand.

"Take this... and run," she whispered, her voice urgent but kind. “It’s your only chance.”

I stared at her, confused, lips parted to speak,but she was already gone. I didn’t know who she was, but I could feel it in my bones, she wasn’t an enemy. She was hope.

With shaking hands, I unfolded the paper. A map. An escape route. A way out of this cursed place.

I couldn’t wait.

The walls felt like they were closing in. The Lycan King would never spare me, not after discovering I wasn’t his true mate. His pride wouldn’t allow it. I didn't want to test his patient. I can't be used as an experiment.

So I ran.

Barefoot, bruised, heart thudding louder than my footsteps. The guards didn’t see me, luck, fate, or maybe the goddess herself guiding me. I slipped through the outer gates and into the dense woods, where moonlight barely filtered through the thick canopy.

My breath came in short, ragged gasps. The forest was suffocating, each shadow stretching long like claws. I kept moving. But then…

He appeared.

Derek.

My ex-mate. The one who shattered it with his betrayal.

“Long time no see, darling,” he sneered, stepping out from behind a tree, silver fang glinting in his hand. His eyes were wild. Unhinged.

My wolf, Vivian, growled deep inside me. She clawed at my insides, warning me, he’s dangerous.

“What… what are you doing here?” I stammered, backing away, but he followed. Closer.

“You’re coming with me,” Derek hissed, raising the silver fang. “Or you die right here again”

Panic spiked in my chest like ice. My knees buckled, breath frozen. I couldn’t outrun him. I was still weak from the injection in the past. Even thou I was reborn. Everything was still the same. Nothing changed.

Please, Lycan King... please, save me, I prayed in silence, heart screaming in terror.

And then

A shadow emerged.

Powerful. Calm. Terrifying.

The Lycan King.

His mask glinted under the moonlight, hiding his face, but not the rage burning in his glowing silver eyes.

Derek froze. “You…”

“You called for me,” the King said coldly, eyes not leaving Derek. He had heard my thoughts. Of course…he could read minds. One of his cursed gifts.

And then, in a voice that shook the air, he roared, “HOW DARE YOU TRY TO KIDNAP MY BRIDE!”

Thunder cracked above us. The sky darkened instantly, winds howling.

His claws extended. His mask tilted.

“Now, you’ll bleed for it.”