5

CHAPTER FIVE

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Rene is escorted to the royal kitchen by several guards, his blood rises with trepidation when Hugo hands him the tray containing food meant for the prisoner. 

"You better hold it well," Hugo, the servant head, sneers when the tray nearly slips from Rene's shaky hands. 

The rumours have spread amongst the slaves of how Rene had planned to escape with his mother. 

Hugo thinks that the punishment is too light; flogging the scums to death or drowning them in boiling water had been the punishment for slaves who tried to escape the clan in the past.

"I wish that I could be there to watch you get ravished by that monster." Hugo smirks at Rene who shoots him with a glare, forgetting their status for a moment. 

"I want to see the princess just once!" Rene pleads with the guards, but they don't pay him any mind.

Kyra may be his only hope if he can beg her more to help persuade the Chief__

"Leave us, I want to speak to him alone," Kyra enters the kitchen, and the guards, cooks, and other kitchen workers quietly excuse themselves. 

"Princess!"

"I found out how your mother got caught; it's my fiance Javier behind it; I'm so sorry, Rene!" Kyra whispers, her eyes ignited with pity that makes the workers who are leaving shake their heads.  

They think that their princess is too kind for her own good, she even cares about the fate of slaves. 

Rene's mind is reeling from Kyra's revelation, There is no way Javier would do such a cruel thing to him; didn't he speak of requesting the Chief for his and his mother's freedom?

"There's nothing I can do to save you now, you just have to serve the prisoner, I'm sure another opportunity will come to escape__ Don't blame me, this was the only way I knew how to save you, and your mother's life"

Rene feels as though he is being swallowed by darks cloud, forcefully engulfing him, piece by piece. He lifts his bleak gaze to meet Kyra's

"It's not your fault; you tried your best to leave us a way out," 

Kyra scoffs inwardly in satisfaction when she evokes the reaction she wanted from Rene. Sad. Broken. Miserable, all the things she wants to see.

Rene opens the lids of the potion, inhaling deeply to find courage as he empties the liquids into the broth. 

Did Javier subject him to this cruel fate simply because he had refused his strange desires and advances? 

So cruel...

Tears burns in Rene's eyes as several guards escort him out of the kitchen; the path to the dungeon is dark and smelly, the moans of tormented prisoners they passed by tortured his ears.

He feels as though he is walking to his death, and even more heart wrenching is the knowledge that his mother and friend is locked up in one of the cells.

And he will do anything necessary to save them... Even if it means serving the barbarian. Rene inhales raggedly and another tear fell from his eyes when the guards suddenly halts and one of them kicks loudly on the metal door. Rene cannot help but notice how the barbarian's door is more heavily guarded and protected from the other cells. 

"I don't know why our Chief doesn't just kill you; he is even catering to your every need," The guard's voice is thick with spite as he eyes the prisoner in the darkroom before leering at Rene lustfully.

"So unfair, I won't mind being homosexual if it's with you!"

The guard licks his lips thirstily, making Rene's heart falter to his feet.

"After the prisoner is done with you; I also wants a mating round with your beautiful royal ass, don't worry, I will be more gentle than him" He flashes Rene a crooked grin, revealing his yellowish brown teeth.

Dread completely swallows Rene just as he is nudged inside the dark room, Rene nearly jumps out of his skin when the door loudly slams shut behind him.

The unmistakable smell of a dominant Alpha teases Rene's nostrils like thick, unwanted smoke. The rain forest smell he had perceived the other day, only this time, it's more intense. 

The tiny windows in the cell room provide a minimal source of light, but it is enough for Rene to make out the large silhouette figure and the intense pair of grey eyes piercing straight into his soul.

The brute is tortured and bruised, his body marked with several unhealed scars that only gives him a more savage look.

'Oh goddess, please protect me!' Rene prays, and then a loud shriek escapes his mouth when the deathly silence is shattered.

The prisoner's nostrils flare as he inhales deeply, 

"Jaron sends an omega to serve me?" The smooth deepness of his voice seem to make the walls of the dungeons vibrate, the urge to flee tenses all of Rene's muscles. 

' Does he despise omegas or males? ' Rene thinks hopefully.

If the prisoner rejects him first, then his body and dignity can be preserved, and it will not be his fault... The Chief will not blame him.

Rene's rising hope is trampled in the next second when the Prisoner's eyes rake through his body. The rags Rene is wearing are not flattering, but because it is torn in several spots, that leaves some parts of his skin bare.

Rene cannot help but flinch when the prisoner's slashing gaze continues to follow his slightest movement.

"I'm here to serve you... Food," Rene whispers emphatically, his body burning with awareness of the predatory eyes that watch him. 

"Come closer to me!" 

The sharp order makes Rene's legs falter, but he obeys, moving closer but still putting a safe distance between them. 

"I hear Jaron is always generous with his slaves, it turns out to be false after all,"

Rene flushes hotly with embarrassment ... And anger at the drip of disappointment in the prisoner's voice. 

All his life, he has been a slave but never did feel like an object as he does right now 

'So crude, as expected of a barbarian!'

"Are you cursing me out?"

Rene is startled yet again, he didn't think he'd uttered those words out loud.

"For a slave, you ought to know how to hide your emotions well, or else you will suffer for it,"

"Your f__food," 

Rene sets the tray down, still not moving closer to the barbarian, whose large size seems to consume the whole dungeon space. 

"And am I to eat from such a distance?" Rene sees the prisoner's lips twitch, or maybe he imagined it. 

Rene slowly moves closer with the tray of food.

"Is it poisoned?" Rene looks up, and with a bolt of panic, he realizes that the Alpha has moved; he is no longer on the edge of the wall.

The thick chains on the Alpha's ankles permit him to move even this distance, and he is now directly in front of Rene!

"N_no!" Rene yelps, frightened, his legs failing him as he crumbles to the rough dungeon floor. 

The prisoner is too close, those grey eyes darker than ever, and boiling with suspicion.

"Do not lie to me!"

The smell of hormones emanating from him is so thick. 

The musky rainy scent keeps getting stronger, it becomes a storm. More suffocating. Like a poisonous gas, corroding Rene's lungs

"I'm n_not!" Rene manages breathlessly.

A painful whimper lodges in his throat; he feels as though all his organs are being stretched. His skin is going to burst into blood and pieces of flesh; if this Alpha continue to release this dangerous dose of pheromones, it will only be a matter of seconds before he dies from this amount of toxicity. 

'Please' Rene opens his mouth, but no words come out; something warm trickles down his nostrils, and he realizes from the sharp metallic smell that it is blood!

His ears are roaring strangely, and trails of wetness continue to escape from his eyes, 

' So, this is what death feels like,' he thinks to himself,

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