Chapter 4: The King's Orders
1193 Words
Lyra's POV
Cold.
That was the first thing that pierced through the darkness. Not the soft, quiet chill that crept into drafty rooms during winter nights. This cold was vicious. It bit aggressively through my torn dress, seeped into my skin, and settled deep inside the marrow of my bones.
"...Still breathing."
A heavy leather boot callously nudged my ribs.
"Unfortunately."
Cruel laughter followed the remark. I tried to force my eyelids open, but they felt impossibly heavy, glued shut by exhaustion and frost.
"Your Majesty," a guard's voice echoed from above me. "She's completely unconscious."
"So?"
The single word was flat. Utterly devoid of emotion. I recognized that voice instantly.
The Lycan King.
"Should we carry her inside, sire?"
A long, suffocating silence answered him. Then—
"If she cannot stand on her own, she is useless to me."
My heart sank. Even through the heavy fog of my fading consciousness, those words cut deep into my chest.
The guard hesitated, his armor clinking. "But, Your Majesty... she will freeze to death out here."
"Then she will prove she wasn't worth the gold I paid for her."
Silence. No one dared to question him a second time.
Footsteps began moving away. I could hear the rhythmic crunch of heavy boots against the packed snow, the clanking of steel armor. They were leaving me. They were going to leave me here to die in the frost.
No... please... not again.
I wanted to scream. I wanted to beg, to throw myself at their feet and tell them I could walk, that I just needed one minute, one breath, one chance. But my lips refused to part. The biting cold had swallowed every ounce of strength I had left.
A few moments later, another voice spoke quietly, laced with hesitation. "Your Majesty... perhaps we should at least move her out of the storm."
Kael stopped walking. When he spoke again, his voice carried that same chilling, apex-predator indifference.
"I paid for her."
"Yes, Your Majesty," the guard replied quickly, bowing his head.
"If she dies because you allowed my property to freeze to death outside my gates..." His crimson eyes swept across the line of soldiers, heavy with a lethal promise. "...I will have every single one of you flogged."
The guards didn't hesitate. They rushed toward me in a frantic blur—not out of a shred of compassion, but because they feared his wrath more than death itself.
Rough, heavy hands seized my arms and violently dragged me across the snow. The jagged, icy ground scraped against my bare legs, instantly tearing open the fresh wounds on my knees.
The white-hot flare of agony shot through my spine, and a weak, pathetic cry escaped my dry throat.
"She's awake."
"Get up," a guard snapped, hauling me upward.
I tried. I really tried. But my arms shook violently, and my frozen body simply refused to obey. I collapsed straight back into the snow.
The guard cursed under his breath, his fingers wrapping tightly around my hair to force me upright. "I said stand!"
Tears blurred my vision. "I... I can't..."
His grip tightened, pulling at my scalp. "Stand!"
Suddenly, a massive shadow fell over us. The guard instantly released my hair, stumbling back a step as his face drained of color. "My King."
Kael stood before me. Towering. Silent. His crimson eyes swept over my shivering, broken form.
"You have embarrassed me before my men," he murmured.
I kept my eyes glued to the snow beneath his black boots. "I'm... sorry..."
"You should be."
He reached down toward me. For one impossible, delusional second, I thought he intended to help me up.
Instead, his gloved hand seized the thick leather collar around my neck.
With brutal, effortless ease, he lifted me entirely off the ground. My feet dangled uselessly above the snow. The leather band crushed against my throat, instantly cutting off my airway. Oxygen vanished. I clawed helplessly at his iron wrist, my vision spotting, but he didn't even blink.
"If you faint again..." His voice dropped to a dark, lethal whisper right against my ear. "...I will leave you exactly where you fall."
He released me. I crashed heavily back into the snow, gasping and coughing violently as the air rushed back into my lungs.
"Your life belongs to me now," Kael stated, looking down at me from his towering height.
I struggled to draw a breath, shivering.
"You do not eat unless I allow it."
Another ragged cough tore from my chest.
"You do not sleep unless I permit it."
My fingers curled into the freezing snow, anchoring myself.
"You do not speak unless you are spoken to." He leaned down slightly, his gaze colder than the winter mountain surrounding us. "And you never mistake kindness for mercy. Because here, there is none."
The words struck harder than any physical whip.
He straightened seamlessly, turning his back on me without another glance. "Bring her."
The guards shoved me forward, forcing me toward the towering fortress carved directly into the mountain. Its monolithic black stone walls stretched upward until they disappeared into the heavy storm clouds. There were no windows. No signs of warmth. Only an ominous, waiting silence.
The massive iron gates groaned open, revealing the cavernous interior. The moment I crossed the threshold, every servant in the grand hall stopped what they were doing.
Their eyes darted to the thick collar around my neck, then to the dark blood staining my dress, and finally... to the terrifying man walking just ahead of me.
Instantly, every single servant lowered their heads, staring rigidly at the floorboards. Not one of them dared to meet the Lycan King's gaze.
Except for one young maid near the corridor. She looked at me for a heartbeat too long.
Kael didn't even slow his relentless pace. "Remove her."
Two armored guards immediately seized the trembling girl by her arms.
"N-No... Your Majesty, please!" she shrieked, tears instantly bursting from her eyes as they dragged her backward. "I looked away immediately! Please, forgive me!"
Kael kept walking, his voice echoing coldly off the stone walls. "Twenty lashes."
The girl's desperate, piercing screams echoed through the long halls. "My King! Mercy! Please!"
No one moved. No one protested. No one even lifted their eyes from the floor.
I stood frozen in the middle of the corridor, my heart hammering wildly against my ribs. Twenty lashes... just for looking at me. A worthless, wolfless slave.
A hollow, suffocating dread settled deep inside my chest. This wasn't just a palace. It was a beautiful, terrifying prison ruled by a monster whose heart had long since turned to stone.
And somehow, by some cruel twist of fate, I belonged to him now.
- Writer
