Into The Darkness

Angelique's POV

I couldn’t breathe, and I didn’t know why.

Maybe it was because of grief. Father died while saving me.

Or maybe it was hate. Mother’s hate for me had intensified after Father’s death.

Or maybe… just maybe, I couldn’t breathe because of them.

The living room was occupied by four people. Usually, it’d be me, my sister Beatrix, Father, and Mother.

But now, I only recognized one face. Mother’s. Unsurprisingly, it was twisted with disdain.

The other three faces were unfamiliar, but painted with pleasure.

“Damn, Nica. She’s pretty,” the shortest among them chuckled.

He was as short as the couch but acted taller than a mountain. A scar added to his ugliness, and his big eyes leered at me.

What was going on?

“M-Mother.” I turned to the side and beheld her.

For a woman who had lost her lifelong mate, her lips were chapped, and her eyes rimmed red. 

Still, she glared at me and I swallowed.

“I refuse to live with a murderer.”

For the first time in days, Mother spoke to me.

And goddess, it killed her. Her fists clenched tightly on her thighs.

“You’re already eighteen, with a weak wolf. Make yourself useful by disappearing.”

I hadn’t digested her words before hands grabbed me.

“H-Hey!” I snapped, glancing at the two men. 

They held my arms, their fingers digging deeper into my skin.

“Mother…” I whimpered, pained by their tight hold and by reality.

“My, you will moan beautifully,” the short man responded instead of Mother.

I snapped my attention to him, and he drew closer, lips tugged into a snicker.

My chest tightened. Moan?

As in, he intended to use me as a sex slave?

Mother had sold me to them!?

My shoulders dropped for a second, and my vision blurred with tears.

Still, I saw Mother seated there, unbothered. Unconcerned.

She hated me this much.

She never tried to hide it, but selling me? Wasn’t this too much?

Father would never approve. He always believed a life should be lived to the fullest.

My bones hardened beneath my flesh, and I gritted my teeth.

“I’d be damned to live as a slave,” I mumbled, then glared at the short man.

“I’d never!”

With that, I yanked my arms so roughly from the men’s grip that their fingers tore my flesh.

I knew blood spilled out, yet I dashed out of there.

“After her!”

I didn’t try to look back. I sprinted out of there.

Out of the house that ceased to be a home.

Out of that hell.

★

“This hotel would be my safe haven” I whispered then inhaled.

Well, I hoped it'd be as I came to my sister, Beatrix’s workplace.

Mother hated her a little less, and she loved me a bit more.

Perhaps Beatrix would help me.

With each turn I took in the hall, I ran into people dressed in crisp white uniforms. They were servers of this hotel, and heavens, there were many.

“Did you hear? Alpha King Malakai is here.”

“Wait, he’s actually real?”

A pair of servers walked past me, and I paused, glancing at them until they turned another corner.

Alpha King Malakai?

Like, Malakai Phantom was here!?

“No wonder,” I mumbled, then drew closer to a window.

With a peek, dozens of posh cars could be seen outside.

But I wasn’t here for that.

I retracted and resumed marching through the hallway.

I needed to find the kitchen, and Beatrix.

She might be there, and fortunately, the next turn brought my feet to it.

The wide space was empty, so the aged woman dressed in white spotted me easily.

“Y-you.” I froze as she marched toward me, her steps thundering.

“I need someone to deliver the Alpha King his wine.” Then she grasped my wrist and pulled.

“Wait, what?”

My tongue went heavy, and I was speechless as she dragged me to shelves stacked with wine.

“M-Ma’am, I’m not a server. I came here to find my sister,” I declared, but she heard nothing.

She let go of my wrist and resorted to pouring wine into a flute. Though confused, I noticed how her hands trembled. 

She was frantic. Frightened.

“Beatrix Manchester. She’s my sister. Do you know her?”

Suddenly, her hands froze, hovering over the flute. Slowly, she gazed at me, and her lids flickered.

“Y-you’ll find her in the…” She paused, a bead of sweat rolling down her forehead.

“You’ll find her there. In his suite. Now.”

Her hands trembled as she lifted the tray and placed it in my arms.

“Go.”

I could only nod, awkwardness fueling it.

For hell’s sake, I was being pursued by dangerous men Mother had sold me to, and here I was, on my way to serve the Alpha King his drink.

“No, Angelique.” I shook my head while scurrying down the hallway.

“Beatrix will help me. She’s here. She’ll help,” I muttered, trying to give myself fake assurance.

I forced a smile to my lips, lifted my gaze, only to lock eyes with them.

“There she is! Boss’s slave!”

The two men charged at me, and I dashed.

“Shit!”

I needed to hide. Fast.

And the wind seemed to be in support, because it swayed a door open.

I beheld darkness, but who cared?

I dove straight into it, and a thud resounded.

Was it from my heart? No, it was from the door.

Tonight was a full moon, but one would swear the sun, stars, and even the moon had died.

This room was dark. Pitch dark.

“Who’s there?” I yelled out, tightening my grip on the tray.

My chest rose and fell as my bones relaxed. I was somehow saved from those men, but this…

This wasn’t good.

I had a bad feeling about this.

I tried to push that feeling away by exhaling loudly, but that sound was drowned out by something else.

Growls.

Every hair on my body stood as I remained frozen, frightened to the core.

Again and again, the growling continued, bouncing off the walls. Then, creaks joined in.

“S-stay ba–Arh!”

My warning turned into a scream as my wrists were yanked.

The tray crashed, and the flute clattered, echoing. But my ears didn’t hear anything. Not when ragged, restrained growls filled them.

My eyes stopped working too, not when they were trapped by two twinkling orbs of fire.

I stared so hard I felt the glow of those eyes burning into me, melting every bit of strength I had until I crumbled into a body.

It was cold as ice, yet comforting. Rigid and broad as stone, but safe.

In the darkness, a pair of suns peered into me, and a growl made my spine tingle.

“Run.”

This time, a word came instead of a growl.

“I’ll… I’ll get captured if I leave,” I stuttered, then flinched at the contact.

He pressed closer. 

His scent was wild, sharp like the forest after rain, and heavy with power. 

He dove his nose into the crook of my neck, breathing me in as though he had been starving for centuries.

His breath came uneven, hot against my skin. 

“That’d be safe.”

His nose traced upward, grazing my jaw, until his lips brushed my ear. 

The touch was light and yet it sent a tremor through every part of me.

My hands trembled where they rested against his chest. 

His heartbeat was slow, powerful, steady. The kind that could command many lives. 

He lingered there, his lips barely moving, his breath ghosting over my skin. 

My heart no longer knew whether to fear or surrender.

I’d choose this over enslavement.

The air thickened between us, and my body betrayed me, tilting toward him. 

I felt his gaze lift to mine and those golden eyes gleamed like embers through the dark. 

They looked into me, not at me, and everything inside me stilled.

His firm hand found the back of my neck and the distance between us vanished. 

His lips met mine slowly and I felt I tasted a forbidden fruit.

My senses left completely as the kiss deepened. 

But wasn’t rushed. It wasn’t gentle either. 

It was hunger and heat and something else I couldn’t name. 

My fingers caressed his bare chest as he breathed into me, and the growl that followed?

It wasn’t threatening anymore. It was possessive.

And I let it consume me.

---

★★

I smelled Beatrix.

My nostrils flared, then my eyelids flickered.

“Bea…” I drawled as I rose like a corpse.

I didn’t feel numb like one should; I felt pain. My body ached, but my middle throbbed like a heart.

What happened?

Seated on the bed, my heavy eyes roamed around the room. Sunlight slipped through the parted curtains and poured everywhere.

This room was luxury itself. It smelled divine, and I found myself sniffing.

I know, I probably seemed like a dog, but I was helpless.

My sister Beatrix had this faint scent of lavender, and I strangely woke up. It filled my lungs and–

Creak~

That sound came from the door, ending my thoughts and turning my head.

My eyes widened, and his were familiar. Unforgettable even.

“Alpha King, Ma–”

“Shut up.”

Like a knife, his grunt sliced my words. Maybe even my tongue. I went mute.

Only then did I acknowledge the duvet layered over my naked self. 

I bunched it closer to my frame, my legs moving backward.

I would have shrunk into the bed itself out of fear.

This male was intimidating. He was dressed in a suit that complimented those eyes.

The same eyes that once gazed at me with warmth and need. Now, it was different.

They were cold as jagged ice.

Then he rolled them before his hand moved. Something flew.

In the next second, paper rained on me.

“What’s this?” I whispered as money fell on the bed, and on me. 

I blinked, curving an eyebrow.

He didn’t look at me again.

The Alpha King now faced the door, and his back seemed like a mountain;one nobody could climb.

“What happened last night was the work of an aphrodisiac. I was drugged.”

He began, and I held the duvet tighter.

“I am not your mate. I cannot have one.”

He said it with such weight that it crushed me.

I was stupid to feel that way. But still…

“I do not want anything to do with you in the future.”

Then he glanced at me sharply.

I reclined again with tensed shoulders.

“Your bills have been settled, sweetheart”

With that, he faced forward and marched out. 

His steps stomped on the floor and on my soul.