04. The Dreadful Condition

Feeling her body shivering because of the cold, Amelia regained her consciousness. She slowly opened her eyes and found herself laying on the cold floor. Everything was almost dark around her.

Groaning in pain, she slowly stood up on her feet and finally realised where she was.

In the dungeon. That monster had put her in the dungeon. He would kill her and she didn't even know how to protect herself from him.

“A beautiful morning, wolf princess,” That familiar voice startled her. She immediately turned around and saw him standing right before her.

From where did he come and for how long he had been here?

His smirk crept back on his face, seeing that look of shock on her face. Lifting his steps, he slowly walked towards her which made Amelia immediately recoil her steps back.

“Stay there. Don't even think about coming closer to me,” she warned him but he could clearly feel that dread building up inside her body.

His grin enlarged. It was too easy for him to read this she-wolf’s emotions, even the deepest and most shielded ones.

“If I won't get closer to you then how am I going to get what I want from you?” He asked her while continuing to take his steps nearer to her. 

Amelia clenched her palms. Her feet also didn't halt trying to take her away from his closeness but very soon her path ended and she felt the wall behind her touching her back.

But his steps didn't stop. 

“I said…stay there,” she shouted at him and attempted to run away but within a blink of an eye, she found him standing right in front of her, blocking her way.

“Where will you run, princess?” His tone was laced with teasing but she knew there was nothing funny about that situation because he was deadly.

He took another step closer to her, entering into her personal space. 

“We both know how insanely I have been searching for you all these years, so….” he slanted his head in her direction.

Amelia's throat dried up.

“How can I let you run away from me again?” He softly whispered against her face, and Amelia finally realised his eyes had now shifted to light brown colour from that pale-crimson colour.

Her gaze roamed all over his face and for some unknown reason, now he was looking less scary to her, even though she knew he was on the edge of ending her life.

His grin turned more devilish by finding her staring at him like he was the most intriguing thing she had ever laid her eyes on. She looked more sinless than he had assumed her to be.

This wolf princess was really an innocent curious thing.

“You are not supposed to look at me like this, my princess,” he husked against her lips, snapping her back to reality.

Amelia blinked, getting back to her rational senses and she finally paid attention to how close he was standing to her and how wrong it was. 

She immediately tried to push him away from her to run away from him but this time he clutched her arm and pulled her back in his arms.

“You love testing my patience, don't you, woman?” He sounded irked now. Amelia could see it in his eyes that now her defiance was triggering him.

“Don't make me give you an unendurable death, wolf princess,” his grip slightly tightened around her arm. Tears stung her eyes again.

Amelia had already heard numerous stories about how cruel and sinister he was. He knew nothing about mercy, especially towards his prey and she was his biggest prey whom he was dying to hunt.

Once again, she tried to push him away but this time he slammed her against the wall behind her.

“Leave me. Leave m....” She stopped when he grabbed her wrists and pinned them above her head with his one palm.

“I guess, we both are impatient here, so let's end this f*cking game here for once and all,” grabbing her jaw, he aggressively fisted her hair. Terror washed over her when she saw his eyes started shifting to crimson again. His canines had come out.

Pushing his mouth closer to her neck, he was just about to dig his canines against her skin.

“Leave her, Callum….” That voice halted him.

Callum turned his head around and saw his father, Keagan Morelli, standing in front of him.

“Take her out from here right now,” Amelia saw that old man uttering to him in a commanding tone and she immediately understood it was his father. The Lycan King.

Now every hope of survival had left from her heart and body.

The Lycan King passed a glance at Amelia and then walked out of the dungeon.

Turning his head around in her direction, Callum clutched her arm more firmly.

“Seems like your death is very near, wolf princess. It was a pleasure meeting you,” he uttered with a wicked chuckle, bringing more tears in her eyes. How heartless he was?

Callum forcefully dragged her out of the dungeon and took her inside the hall where his father was waiting for them, but Amelia's glossy eyes widened by seeing her own father present there.

“Papa….” Amelia teared up more, seeing her father there. Her dying hope of survival flickered back inside her heart.

She tried to run towards her father to hide herself in his arms but Callum didn't let go of her wrist, who was also looking at her father a bit stunned because even he didn't know about her father's arrival here.

“Leave my hand,” she shouted at him, making Callum tighten his hold around her. They both glared at each other, and when he didn't leave her wrist, Amelia ended up biting his wrist harshly to free herself.

His glare hardened.

Both of their fathers silently observed that igniting hatred between them, which was flaming more and more with every passing second.

“Leave her, Callum,” Keagan uttered to his son. 

Callum looked at his father, stunned and a bit angrily. Why couldn't they just kill this she-wolf and end all of this as soon as possible?

“Let her go,” his father repeated, now in a commanding tone.

Gritting his teeth, Callum loosened his grip around her because he knew he couldn't defy his father's order at that moment.

Amelia instantly snatched her wrist from his hold and ran towards her father. She hugged her father tightly and broke down into tears in his arms.

“P….papa….” Her entire body was shivering in terror, just like her voice. She couldn't even explain the things she had endured just in one night. From her mate's betrayal to finding her peace in that monster's arms, she had seen the worst in just one night.

Exhaling a soft sigh, her father, Alpha Victor Ashwood, hugged her back which made Amelia cry harder.

“Calm down, Amelia,” her father tried to comfort her.

“You are fine now. No one will hurt you,” her father's words made Callum clench his jaw. He was about to charge towards that father and daughter to eliminate all their misunderstandings but his own father signalled him to stop there.

Curling his fists, Callum refrained himself from going closer to them and just glared at them.

He was just waiting to kill that she-wolf and end the curse.

After Amelia calmed down a bit, her father took her face out from his chest and cupped it. He wiped her tears away with his thumbs.

“Papa, let's go away from here. They are monsters,” she told her father in a whisper. Her words made her father exhale a heavy breath.

“Amelia, you have to live here from now on,” his father's words appalled Amelia, even Callum too, because they both could not comprehend what was actually happening there.

“What? What are you saying, papa? Why will I….”

“Your father is telling you the truth, so accept it for your own good,” this time Keagan spoke out in a rigid tone. 

Both Amelia and Callum looked at him, confused and befuddled.

“From now on, you will have to live with my son, Callum Morelli because you both are getting married tonight,” 

Both Amelia's and Callum's eyes widened in shock, hearing those words of the Lycan King.

“And after your marriage, you will also have to give birth to my son's child as soon as possible,” Keagan uttered to Amelia, freezing her soul.

Giving birth to his son's child?

Tilting her head, she looked at Callum with that dread in her eyes.

Not just only marrying him, she also needed to give birth to this cruel man's child? But how….when all they both wanted from each other was just their lives?