The Imprisoned Princess

I feel my father’s strong arms wrap around me. He’s carrying me away from this place. I snuggle into his chest knowing I’m safe and no one can hurt me anymore. He’ll keep me safe, he’s always kept me safe and he’ll rip the throats of those that hurt me. He’s done it before and he’ll do it again to protect his family and his pack.

A noise snaps my eyes open, the moon is creating the smallest glow into the room. I look up to the inch-thick crack in the wall. The chains around my wrists clink against the floor as my back scrapes against the ragged stone.

No one was coming to save me, no one knew where I was.

Four months ago I was a princess… no, I am a princess, that will never change. Although I don’t feel like one. Chained to the rough rock. The dirt and grime clinging to my skin. I think back to when my life was normal; my father eating breakfast like he does every morning before heading to do his duties.

I wish I had looked at him more that morning, he had given me one of his strong bone-crushing hugs… like he did every morning. I was meant to go with him, oh I wish I had gone with him. But instead, I offered to help my brother with his transformation speed, he wanted to be fast like me, strong like me.

But I wasn’t strong and fast now. I never truly knew what wolfsbane did, well I do now. I’m pumped full of it. I can hardly move my head. They hadn’t thought to use wolfsbane at first. Thought silver would keep me at bay, that may keep them at bay but not our family, not me.

My family are descended from the first werwulf, the first man to transform into a wolf; my ancestor Ashil Hunter. The story goes he was a hunter (as you could probably tell) that was bitten by a cursed wolf. This bite set in motion a new world, a world of secrecy and violence. A world of finery and romance. A world we keep secret from the humans.

I must have drifted off, the sun now shining through that tiny crack and I’ve been given another dose of wolfsbane, fuck sake, I’m so weak I didn’t even realise. I try to shift against the cement floor, but I can barely move my own weight anymore. I hate it, I hate being weak. I’m not weak! But I am now, my father would be ashamed to see his daughter like this.

I sob to the light, “But daddy, I fought so hard, I promise, I fought and fought. I snapped two of their necks. My wolf can’t fight the wolfsbane,” I cry into the empty room. “Please, daddy,” I weep into my knees.

“Aww little princess calling for her daddy,” a snide voice comes from the door, I turn my eyes to look at him. He disgusts me with his brown hair beginning to turn grey. His cold icy blue eyes, and his hands. He makes me want to vomit every time he touches me with those rough clammy fingers.

“Fuck off.” I avert my gaze, anything to avoid the face I used to associate with safety and peace. A face of a man I used to look up to, used to admire.

“That’s no way to talk to your future father-in-law.” He was closer now, I wince at his proximity.

“Please, please let me go, Uncle, please,” I beg without looking towards him.

He barks a laugh into my ear, “I’m not your uncle!” He grabs the chain that’s attached to the shackle around my neck and pulls, “On your feet!” The silver shackle cuts into my chin as he pulls me to make me stand.

He roughly grabs my chin to look towards my jailer, my father’s best friend; Samual.