Chapter 2

Lira

Were they saying the truth? I froze, as my breathing felt lighter and my heartbeat raced faster. While my mind screamed at me not to believe it, my reality shouted back at me, louder than my disbelief.

He wanted them to rape me.

Caius? My own mate. The one I had given everything to. The only man I had loved for years and had promised me freedom. The very same man who held me severally and whispered to me that I was enough.

I felt sick instantly.

I tried to understand why? Why me, Why was this happening to me? Was I really that unimportant to him? Was every single promises he whispered just a lie to pass time? Did he for once even see me as a person?

I swallowed hard as I tried not to cry. I couldn't cry, not here and not here either. Definitely not in this situation. While still lost in my thoughts, out of nowhere, one of the guards was suddenly got back on his feet. And next I know, they were all moving.

" He said something about her being easy," the first one grunted out, while wiping blood from his lip and closing in one. “Said she begged for it.” The other sneered at me, jerking my arm. “No one's here to save you now.”

The moment I pulled away, he slapped me across the face. His palm connected with my face and an instant, I tasted my own blood as I wavered.

“God, please—no,” I gasped out the words as I panicked.

The second one pulled my waist as he forced me to lay down. I clawed at him, and screamed as he carried me off into the night. I felt my body go numb and sore as I felt weak having just merely survived from Cauis’s kicks.

“No—let me go!” I shouted, my voice cracking.

“Did you like it with him, then?” the guard hissed, pinning me at my wrist. “What’s two more?”

“Get off me!” Another one, snatched me by my ankle and pulled me along the ground. One by one, I yelled as my clothes were being ripped on the stones and thorns, making them fall off my shoulder. My knees scraped open and blood stained the dry earth.

I heard them both laugh. One of the them knelt beside me and whispered. “Maybe you’ll know your place after this, princess.”

And just like that, I was about to become an omega toy. I felt tears run down my cheeks. Though they weren't because I was weak, no. The tears were because at that instant, I realised that I had no one and truly, I was alone.

They hit me again this time, a hard fist collided with my stomach. I shrank away, but they continued. One of them grabbed a handful of my hair and pulled me by my head. “Once we get started, you are going to be begging us to stop,” he snarled. “And we won’t.”

I couldn't not see through my own tears and blood which had blurred my vision, but I could feel them. I could feel their hands grabbing my clothes and pulling them down as I screamed louder.

My body screamed with pain. My shoulder burned and my ribs throbbed as I found it hard to breathe. I tried to fight them off but my knees and weak legs gave up beneathe me. And that was when it happened. I felt something shift.

I had no idea where it came from, neither did I know what it was. But right there, and then I heard a little dark voice say, No. Not like this! Not for them either and not for him!

You are more than this.

This time around, I didn't scream in terror but in rage. In an instant, I twisted and slammed my knee just as hard into the guard's crotch and he let out a sharp scream as he fell back off me. The other one cursed under his breathe, while the second reached for my arm, but I dodged as I began to crawl away, clawing with my hand.

My hand found a sharp stone and I turned, swinging it blindly. It hit flesh as I heard a crunch follow and he fell back, dazed. Adrenaline suddenly burned through me and I didn’t feel weak anymore. I felt alive instead.

I barley stood still, but I was standing! And that was enough. The first one that stood moved towards me again and I held him even tighter this time, and hit him on his temple. I watched as his blood spattered and he fell with a grunt.

I watched as the other tried to crawl away, but I wouldn't let him. I reached out for a long, heavy stick and whacked him over the back. Once and then twice, till his gasping, subsided and I could no longer hear him breathe.

That marked the end of my fun with them. The other two were not dead yet, but the sight of them, battered on the ground gave me a huge sense of relief.

I took a deep and calm breath as my body kept trembling out of pain, and rage. My dress remained hunged in shreds, while I was covered in blood and dirt, my lip fat from his demanding mouth, and my face already showing signs from the punches I had gotten.

And then without a second thought, I ran.

I ran without waiting to take my breathe or to regain my balance. I kept running into the dark naked forest as every branch scratched and thorns pierced through me. But I didn’t stop. I kept running as the night consumed me, and I disappeared in it.

Did I get far enough? I didn't know. The trees were endless as I ran, their branches cold and twisted beneath a sky painted with dark veins. My feet bled with every step i took and my ribs twisted in pain from the kicks of earlier. My shoulder throbbed as blood kept coming out from my pores and covering up on dirt. But I didn’t stop.

I couldn’t stop.

I began panting hard at this moment. I had made it out of what seemed like a dead end and yet far from being secure. The sound of a branch breaking beneathe me resounded, and I flinched. All I could hear was the sounds repeating in my head. I heard the voices of the guards in my head, their laughter, cruelty and Caius’s voice as my vision blurred.

I let out heavy panting breaths as my feet stumbled on roots and rocks. Hunger gnawed at my insides as my stomach had nothing left and I had nothing left as well.

Then the sky opened up.

The first drops that fell were soft. The rain drops soothed every small cut on my trembling skin as I searched my surroundings praying for shelter, or anything to crawl under. But there was nothing asides dead covered in mud and never ending black. I tried to keep walking. To take one more step.

But my legs gave out.

I whimpered, feeling too weak to stand as the rain continuously hit my back, falling into my hair, and cleaned the blood from my skin but it offered no comfort still. Not until the reality of how lonely I really was set in. Memories found their way back to me in the dark. At first gently and then they came in slowly.

I could recall my mother humming a lullaby as she brushed my hair. I could hear my father's laughter as he picked me up and placed me on his shoulders “You’re our little star, Lira.”

I saw myself laughing with my cousins as they chased me through the stream near the border teasing me for always going barefeet.

I saw my aunt’s face too. That cruel sneer. And then I saw Caius. The way he used to give those Caring looks when everyone had their backs turned. The warmth in his smile. His whispers saying, “ I’ll fix everything.”

Liar.

A harsh, broken bark of laughter tore itseld out of me.

He had fixed everything alright? But it was all for himself and not me. I looked up at the rain filled sky once again, and then it hit me. I was just a broken girl in a cursed forest.

I felt my chest expand and contract. The sting was radiating through my limbs. I felt the weight of my own grief. And somehow, that was enough.

I shook my head from side to side, burying my cheek in the mud, and mumbled. “I swear, I live through this.”And with that, a single tear fell freely with the rain.

I prayed silently to the Goddess, hoping she had heard me. But I made the vow anyway because it was all I had left. I remained on the ground till my limbs began trembling more, and I felt severe pains in my bones. I could hear the thunder growl in the distance but I tried not to cry anymore. I needed to rest. Just a little.

And that's when I heard it. A Rustle. And my eyes snapped open. It wasn’t thunder, neither was it from the wind. I felt my chest tightened as I ignored the fire in my limbs, and I pushed myself up a little. My heart started to beat again, louder and harder this time.

They’d found me and they were returning to take care of unfinished business. I mean I had escaped too easily and shouldn't have expected them to let me go so easily and definitely not with my life.

I scrambled backwards, slipping on the mud severally, as I panicked more. My body refused to cooperate with me, and I couldn't stand as my muscles trembled, and my vision blurred the more.

Please… not again… and then I heard another rustle. It was closer this time. I froze as I felt my throat close. I searched around for a weapon, a rock, a stick, anything but my hands were empty.

And then I heard a voice. A happy, excited and shaky loud voice. “Elira?! Elira! You’re back!” I felt my breath caught and as I remained rooted to the soil.