The Rogue King’s Purchased Wife

CHAPTER 3: Slave

I was led inside a room that they said was going to be mine.

I was still shaking, trembling at the vestiges of the sensations of the marking and the new fear that ate me up.

This was worse. This was way worse than being beaten.

I rocked myself on the corner, hugging my knees close to my chest—the only position that ever made me feel like I could somehow protect myself.

I kicked off the shoes on my feet, they felt unfamiliar to my skin. And after what happened, I needed the comfort of the familiar things—things that I knew. Things that I knew how to cope with.

I felt violated. Used. In all my years in the slave shop, my body and mind had been beaten and hurt. I was degraded, but not like this. Not to the extent of taking away what’s left of me—my very soul. It was the only thing that has never been touched nor invaded by the cruelty of my world.

But now, someone has invaded it. Forcibly. I knew of Marking and what it meant once a werewolf has it. I may have lived my life inside a cage, but I knew about that stuff.

It meant I was no longer my own person. I belonged to someone else now.

The rogue king has bought my physical body as a slave, but he has also taken my soul by Marking me. He owned me now. Not just my body, but including my soul.

I rocked myself harder at the corner, anxiety crippling me.

My eyes went to the bed in the middle of the room. Soon, he will ask me to surrender my body to him, too.

The door to my side creaked open. I immediately trembled harder when Elijah’s tall form walked in. I looked down, biting my own lip, feeling the way my mark tingled at his presence.

“Get up,” he commanded.

I didn’t want to, but I was reminded of his red eyes and his words in the car. Horace’s words about submission also rang in my ears, forcing my body to obey whatever is told of me.

Still trembling, I stood up slowly, feeling my neck strain. I could feel him staring down at me. But I kept my eyes low.

Masters never liked their slaves to stare them in the eyes. That’s what Horace said.

“Answer me when I ask these questions,” I looked down, my hair covering the sides of my face.

“Is it true you were never out of your cage?”

I immediately nodded. He didn’t speak for a second, and I started worrying but he continued.

“Have you ever contacted anyone outside the shop?”

I shook my head.

“Tell me the truth, have you ever mated with anyone?”

I was about to shake my head again when he suddenly grasped my chin. I gasped when I was met with those terrifyingly red eyes again. My fingers immediately trembled.

“Look at me when I talk to you,” he seethed, his jaw clenching. I did my best not to whimper, but my lips trembled.

“Speak, slave. Don’t lie to me. At your age, you have already undergone a few heating seasons.”

”I-I haven’t. H-Horace gave… gave us a-a medicine t-to stop…” I gasped in between words.

I was becoming too terrified of him. Too scared and too disturbed by the memory of why I could barely tap into my wolf again.

Elijah seemed to have noticed this when his fingers softened a bit on my chin. His intense gazes also wavered a bit.

He let me go.

A pause came between us. I used that time to close my eyes and count inside my head. 1…2…3…

“Have you ever shifted?” His deep voice almost made me flinch.

I looked at him and saw how he was observing me.

I wanted to look away. But despite how terrifying he was for me, there was also some kind of magnetism in him. His presence could drown anyone who’d get too close.

I just swallowed, remembering his earlier command.

“N-No.” I shook my head.

Another pause.

I decided to look down on my fidgeting fingers. My feet were cold on the tiled floor, but I was used to it. What I wasn’t used to was the feel of his presence—the way my body reacted to another man like this.

My insides clenched, and I had to stop myself from squirming in fear.

“I’m going to say this once, so you listen,” I craned my neck up at his tall height again. My head barely touched his shoulder.

His face turned darker and colder as he spoke.

“I took you as my slave, but soon, you will bear my heir. So, don’t ever think of doing anything with another male, or you’ll see what that will lead you. And you do whatever I command.”

He inched closer to the crook between my neck and ear, where his mark had laid on my skin. I shivered.

“Do you understand?” I nodded, feeling how my mark shot sensations all over my body at our proximity.

He stood up on his full height in front of me, and met my eyes once again. I was only able to let go of the breath I was holding when he turned his back. He started walking towards the door.

I have proven to be stubborn even when I was still in the shop. It has caused me to be beaten up many times, but that seemed to never make me learn, because I was now opening my mouth to ask.

”W-why are you doing this? W-why me?”

He didn’t turn to look to face me and just spoke. “Because I want revenge.”

He turned the knob and opened the door. He slammed it shut.

I slipped down and rocked myself on the floor, trying to regulate every heightened sensation and emotion that my already vulnerable mind could barely handle.

>>>

“Faster, slave! Or I’ll beat your ass up!”

I heaved a deep breath and carried the two large buckets on both of my hands. The Head Maid, Lanie, had given me orders to take care of the stables that their pack had.

For a few moments, I was amazed and I wondered how seemingly organized their place was. This was not what I imagined what a rogue land was.

From what I heard from the radio, rogues were usually unkempt. Their wolves matted, dirty and they no longer recognized authority. Their heads were already twisted and shuffled to the point that what’s left of them were all just animalistic urges: to hunt and to kill.

Whenever I heard about the infamous rogue king and his lands, I imagined a wasteland full of red-eyed wolves. I imagined them barking and attacking each other for food.

Not like this. Where they have a full stable of horses, pigs, chickens and basically a farm land where they could all pick their food.

I felt a presence behind me, and I immediately flinched, preparing for a lash as I started putting water on the horse’s bag. “I-I’m sorry. I—“

”Ella,”

I quickly looked back and saw the blonde attractive man—Cain. I never saw him after the wedding.

His smile was gentle and warm—another non-rogue characteristic I was seeing in this place.

“How have you been? I heard you were helping our stables and farm. Do you like the place?”

Before I answered, I saw the head maid give me a glance before she bowed at Cain who also saw her. She backed away, looking submissive at the higher ranking wolf in front of her.

I have never encountered another wolf except for Horace, Jose and the slaves I was with in the shop. Also, the customers from time to time. But I could say that I’ve never met someone like Elijah and Cain.

They had these different auras in them. They filled spaces, shifted the air. Their presence could quite literally occupy an entire room, and yet they were controlled. I couldn’t quite put my finger on it. But I just knew they were dangerous…

Especially Elijah.

“Do you always do this? Space out?”

I was taken out of my train of thoughts with his smile. I saw his perfect teeth. Another non-rogue thing in a rogue like him.

“Ella?”

”I-I was just… sorry.” I looked down, ashamed of my actions.

“It’s alright. It’s good to see that you are doing alright.”

I looked up at him when he tapped a horse’s head. Rogues were supposed to be violent, so to see the horse leaning on his hand amazed me once again.

“Yes… I think… I like horses,” I said without a thought.

I followed what he did and stretched my hand towards a horse’s head. The horse looked at my hand and sniffed it for a while.

I was afraid it wouldn’t come to me, but it did.

My lips lifted up a little, feeling warm.

Yes, I think I really like horses.

“Cute,” I heard him say. But my attention was taken when a group of wolves suddenly came in from the forest.

They were huge, and all held a certain menace in the way their paws landed on the ground. For the first time, I was seeing the rogueness in them. They all had this wildness in each of their eyes, faces.

Elijah was one of them.

Unlike the rest of the wolves he was with, he looked bigger. Bigger than any other wolves I’ve ever seen, nor I imagined. I thought Jose’s gray wolf was large, but it was nothing like Elijah’s.

He had pitch black fur that I could imagine that would camouflage in the night. It looked soft, healthy—no traces of matting as what rogues were said to have. The only thing that he resembled with the other gray, brown and spotted wolves around him were his red eyes. The other characteristic of a rogue that was proven true in my experience right now.

Cain also looked at them and mumbled, “I’ll talk to you later, Ella.” He immediately ran towards the wolves who shifted back to their human forms without shame of their nakedness.

My cheeks immediately burned when Elijah stood in the middle of them. Tall, broad, muscled but lean. His muscled stomach and strong thighs are in full display.

I looked away when my mark suddenly tingled. I gripped on the bucket beside me.

I suddenly heard giggles on the other side and saw girls also glancing at the group.

“I’ll soon get Elijah to have me on his bed.”

”Look at him… ah! I’ll let him have me first.”

My cheeks flushed even more at their words. I stared at the horse in front of me. It was also looking at me, so I touched its head.

If he wanted someone to bear him an heir, there were many who were willing to do it with him. He should have just picked one from his place.

“Don’t think you could idle there, slave.” I flinched at the voice of the head maid.

She glared at me. “Get to work, and stop gawking at our warriors!”

”D-Do I get to eat after this?” I asked, feeling hungry. I haven’t eaten since I woke up and it’s already noon.

But the head maid just raised a brow at me. “You are helping us prepare the Moon Festival first. I’d think about whether you could eat after then.”

She laughed along with some others who heard us. I looked down at the bucket of water as I heard a couple of sniggers my way.

I guess this was better. At least I wasn’t in a cage anymore.

I caressed the horse’s head and smiled when it huffed, as if annoyed at the people behind me.

I think I already have a friend.