His Ruthless Mate

Chapter Four

Julian did not waste a single second asserting his control. The moment the dining hall doors closed behind the guards, he stepped toward me, his dark eyes fixed on my broken, filthy state with pure malice.

“Do you know what a toy is, Fox?” Julian asked, his voice smooth as silk but sharp as glass. He paced around me like a predator inspecting damaged meat. “A toy has no voice. A toy does not eat at the master’s table, nor does it sit when it is tired. A toy exists solely to be used, degraded, and broken whenever its owner seeks amusement.”

My blood ran cold, but the bitter rage inside me flared up again. I held my ground, clutching my bad wrist to my chest. “I am not anyone's toy. I am a prince from the Averon kingdom.”

Julian stopped dead in his tracks. A cold, dark chuckle escaped his lips before his hand shot out like a strike of lightning.

The force of his strike sent me sprawling onto the stone floor, my bad hand slamming against the ground with a sickening thud. White-hot pain blinded my vision as I choked back a sob, my cheek burning where his claws had grazed my skin.

“You are nothing,” Julian spat, stepping over me and bringing his heavy leather boot down onto my bad hand, grinding his heel into my swollen fingers just as my father had done. “You speak when you are spoken to, stray. If you ever mention your worthless bloodline in my presence again, I will cut your tongue out myself.”

“Enough,” Evander’s deep, booming voice echoed through the hall.

Julian lifted his boot, instantly smoothing down his silk robes with an innocent, affectionate smile as he turned back to Evander. “I am only teaching your new possession some basic manners, darling. He needs to learn his place before he embarrasses you.”

I scrambled backward on my hands and knees, gasping for breath as tears spilled over my eyelashes. I looked up, expecting Evander to intervene, but the Black Panther simply watched with cold, unfeeling golden eyes.

“Get up,” Evander commanded me, his voice scraping against my raw nerves like gravel.

I forced my trembling body off the floor, refusing to bow my head. I glared straight at Julian, my chest heaving with utter hatred. “You think you are powerful because you hide behind him? You are just a cruel coward.”

Julian’s eyes flashed with lethal rage, his ears pinning back instantly. But before he could step forward again, Evander moved.

In a fraction of a second, he closed the distance between us. His thick, heavy hand clamped tightly around the back of my neck, his claws digging warningly into my skin as he hauled me forward. The brutal intensity of his predator aura washed over me, completely paralyzing my muscles and forcing my Fox ears to pin flat against my head in terror.

“You do not learn, do you?” Evander growled near my ear, his voice low and dangerous. “I told you that you belong to me. Your arrogance ends tonight.”

Without another word, Evander yanked the iron chain attached to my neck collar, dragging me out of the dining hall. My weak legs stumbled against the stone floor as he pulled me down dark, narrow hallways, moving away from the main estate and deep into the secluded, subterranean quarters of the fortress.

He shoved open a heavy oak door at the very end of the corridor and threw me inside. I crashed onto the cold floor, my breath hitching as the heavy door slammed shut behind us.

Evander towered over me, unbuckling his heavy leather belt and tossing it onto the table. His golden eyes glowed in the dim candlelight, devoid of any warmth or mercy.

“You want to challenge my mate? You want to act like a proud prince?” He purred darkly, stepping toward me until his immense shadow completely swallowed my trembling frame. He grabbed my good wrist with a single hand, pinning my arm against the stone floor while his other hand clamped firmly over my jaw, digging his fingers painfully into my skin. 

“I will remind you what you are every single day until that pride is completely erased.”

He leaned down close, his scarred face inches from mine, his sharp fangs grazing warningly against my throat in a brutal, possessive mark of absolute ownership. I thrashed against his grip, kicking my legs and twisting my body, but his weight was an inescapable iron wall holding me completely powerless beneath him.

“You belong to me,” he growled softly, forcing me to stare straight into his glowing eyes. “Your life, your pain, and your submission belong entirely to me.”

A sudden, sharp knock rattled the heavy oak door.

Evander did not freeze. He did not hesitate, nor did he pull away. His grip on my jaw only tightened, his heavy weight pressing down on me with absolute indifference as if my struggling body was nothing more than a cushion beneath him. He slowly turned his head toward the door, his glowing golden eyes narrowing in mild irritation at the disturbance.

The heavy iron door swung open, but it was not Julian standing in the doorway.

A tall, heavily armored panther guard stood framed in the dim torchlight of the hallway, his head bowed low, keeping his eyes firmly fixed on the stone floor to avoid looking at the master's private business.

“Speak,” Evander commanded, his thick voice echoing coldly through the small room, keeping me pinned firmly against the floor beneath his massive frame.

“My lord, forgive the intrusion,” the guard said, his voice trembling slightly under the pressure of Evander’s heavy predator aura. 

“The scout has returned from the eastern border. He brings urgent news regarding the mission you assigned