CHAPTER 3— FROM ONE CAGE TO ANOTHER

Though she couldn’t see and examine much because the heat and the pain that tormented her, she could say that the outside was unfamiliar to her, the land and the trees, the houses and even the very breeze... Everything felt and looked different...

So different than how she remembered it ten years ago. The grassed had been higher than this, they use to curl pass her ankles when she ran through them to and from her parent’s house...

There weren’t so many buildings either and they weren’t so big and advanced...the houses were smaller since only families lived within them. Mother liked them that way, she always said ‘it’s good because I can supervise you better...’

She had always been playful and cheeky, her eyes use to hold so much love and humour...and yet the last time Kiara looked into them all she could see was horror...an emotion her mother had never showcased...

For her father, it was the same...he was stricter, rougher than her mother, he made sure she stayed out of the forest and away from danger, his words were always drawled and coarse... and yet when he uttered his last words...Kiara could’ve barely heard them...

Tears blurred Kiara’s eyes again... Her feet coming to a stop, her head held down...why did she want to live? Who was she living for?

It seems her living her life now was worthless since she had nobody to live it with...her family was gone and her mate...her mat—

“What is it? Do you not wish to be free anymore? If you wish, you can crawl your way back into your cell and I’d be glad to ask my men to fix the bars for you...are so weak that you think hiding behind them will protect you?”

“N-No I—”

“Then why did you stop?”

“I...I...” Kiara whimpered when the fire in her body rose, her knees buckling but she at least managed to keep her balance. “I...don’t think I want to be free a-anymore...k-kill me...just like you did them...I’d b-be better off...dead.”

Zique turned to face her, the steps he took towards her so frightening that she almost fell backwards. “Listen here, you don’t get to make that choice. If I wanted you dead, I’d have killed you, stop making this harder...pick where you want to suffer; behind a cage or outside of it?”

Kiara pursed her lips. “Out of it...”

“Good choice...now come on, continue.”

When Kiara was done walking, her knees were bleeding and her skin itchy...the flames that had been lashing her did not stop, instead, they reigned higher, licking her skin with immense pain.

He did something to her, because the part of her neck that he bit was burning the most... Her inner thigh was moist too and the little bud between her folds was reacting in a way it never did before. It kept convulsing and her body kept on begging for something she couldn’t give it...

Kiara was so confused, battered, weak and overly sad, but she held onto the walls of the house he brought her to. “I’d rather not take you here, but it’s necessary...if I had a choice, my pack would not know that I’m mated to an abomination like you. Don’t get too cocky though because whether or not you’re my only hope at surviving, I’ll kill you with my own two hands if you try something with me. If you want us to live in peace stay away from me as best as you can. Don’t let the matebond sway you, it means absolutely nothing to me.”

He pushed the front door open, and walked inside. “You’ll stay here and if one day you decide you want to leave, you’ll be dead before you cross the borders.”

Was this what he labelled as outside the cage? He lied, because she was stepping right into another...the only difference was that this one’s bigger.

Did it really make sense she had escaped her old cage, just to be locked away in a new one...? She had wished for a wolf, wished for a mate, but now that she had it...she honestly didn’t want it.

Her parents lied to her too, she felt no belongingness around this man, no euphoria...all she felt was hate, so much of it that it made her tongue bitter. He was the one who made her life so miserable, he killed her parents and took so much of her time away from her and yet the goddess made him her mate?

How cruel...how disgusting...

Walking in behind him, Kiara clenched her fists, she wished she could treat him as he did her, wished she could take from him all he took from her...

But he was strong and she was weak...And as he said, the strong were the only ones to win and ascend...

So with a dense heart, she followed him up the stairs, only stopping when he did. “I filled myself a bath before I went out, but you need it more than I do. Go and get rid of that disgusting scent that keeps trailing you and I hope the cold water is enough to cool the heat within you because I won’t do it. The bathroom is this door right here.”

Kiara nodded, her hand reaching for the knob. She’d get stronger, before dying...she’d take her revenge...he’d be going to hell before her...