The Gladiator Wolf King - Book 3

Chapter 7 – His Games, Her Torture

TALA

“I will not marry him, Mother!”

“He has been chosen for you Tala, You are expected to mate within your rank and that’s what you will do!” I groaned loudly in frustration at my mother’s words, clenching my fists tightly and trying not to let out the scream that was bubbling at the surface of my mouth.

“Exactly! He has been chosen for me! I didn’t choose him and he certainly didn’t choose me! I am 21 years old and I’m still not allowed to make my own decisions!” I was beyond frustrated and rubbed my eyes harshly with my palms, gritting my teeth tightly.

I glared at my mother, shooting daggers at her, willing her to burst into flames. This wasn’t the first time we had argued about my arranged mating and it won’t be the last.

“Tala,” My mother’s grey-blue eyes softened towards me, “I am losing myself. I cannot help you. This pairing of you and Jasper is a good thing. He will become Alpha and you Luna, then, maybe you can live happily. Please, for me.” Her eyes and voice begged me, imploring me to see the reasoning behind her words.

Today was a good day for her, tonight may not be so good. It was pot luck with my mother. Some days she was the Luna I remembered her being, a powerful she-wolf who would take command and the kind Luna who would sympathize and held kindness towards all.

That person seemed so long ago, a memory of a distant mother I once loved. I still love her, but years of abuse and torment at the hands of my father had broken not only her spirit but her wolf’s spirit too. So much so that she couldn’t even shift anymore, and on a full moon she became feral her twisted and tormented mind winning over the sane and rational side of her.

It wasn’t her fault, this I knew. It was his fault; it was his entire fault that mother had lost the plot of life. She no longer lived, she survived. Just like me. We were both surviving this hell.

My cruel father had even turned my older sister, Shayna, against her. When King Orion had come to him many moons ago, my sister had foolishly fallen in love with the bear shifter king. He, King Orion, had taken an interest in her, even though he was quite a few years her senior. It wasn’t her he had an interest in, no it was her inventions. Her ability as a chemist and her very own twisted mind, that’s what he wanted from her. To use her and Shayna was more than willing to be used by him. She was blinded by lust.

She had left the Sandstorm Pack to go with King Orion, in pursuit of the throne of Riocht. A fable, or at least I once thought so, that whoever could claim the throne would become the King or Queen of shifters.

I thought it was a fairytale, something mums would tell their little girls as bedtime stories. Yet a couple of weeks ago, there was a shift in the realm. A shift in power and like a radio wave that honed in on every shifter, our counterparts recognized a new power, a new leader, one that was above every other shifter.

A King and Queen had Risen, they would rule over us all. My wolf, Mora, had felt the power shift and called to her king and queen. I had felt the power wash through me, every ounce of instinct in me telling me they were the supreme rulers.

It wasn’t just me who had felt it, every shifter had felt it. My maid, Eloise had felt it too.

“Tala,” My mother’s soft voice brought me back to the now, jarring my thoughts from that day. The same day she felt the break of her ties to Shayna. “Please… “ Her eyes filled with unshed tears as she regarded me.

“Let’s just see what happens, mother. We have time.” I said sympathetically, not wanting to argue with her anymore. It was futile anyway. She probably wouldn’t even remember these conversations come tomorrow and then we would have the same argument all over again. Maybe.

I turned to walk away from her and leave her room when she suddenly cried out in pain and fell to the floor clutching her stomach and heart.

“Motherfucker” I gasped. He was at it again! “Eloise!” I shouted. My maid and best friend came hurrying through the door. “Get her strapped down and get her medications.” I hastily commanded her, my voice a little panicked. I brought my mother over to her bed and began securing her with the leather straps that had been fashioned for her bed, while Eloise ran to the bathroom to grab the medication I would inject her with.

We got her strapped down; all the while her cries rang out and echoed through the room. Her hands grasped at her chest and stomach trying to claw at them, but her wolf had abandoned her years ago, so now she just felt the immense pain.

Once secure and injected, her body began to relax some, but I could tell she could still feel the burning pain, as she had once described it.

I stomped towards the door. I was a woman on a mission.

“Where are you going Tala?” Eloise called out behind me as she sat on the side of the bed nursing my mother.

“To put a stop to this.” Was all I could spit out as I yanked the door open and scented where my father was in the Palace.

I ran down the halls towards his bedroom on the east wing and when I reached the large heavy wooden doors that were painted a hideous blue. I halted with my hands outstretched ready to open the door.

I took a deep breath, not just to calm myself, but also my wolf. She was reeling and I felt her boiling anger. I had to keep her in check before she tried to challenge my father. That would not end well for either of us.

I turned the handle and burst in to find my father knelt behind a slave girl, thrusting into her like a mad man. I cast my eyes down for a second out of pure disgust. Not because he was f*****g a slave but because the look on the poor girl's face was horrifying. Tears stained her red cheeks and I could see claw marks across her skin where my father was holding onto her hips so tightly.

I could smell the blood seeping from her and her whimpers and pleas carried to my ears making me cringe. She looked at me and held my gaze, her eyes red and puffy, and the tears still streaming down her face. ‘Help me’ was what she conveyed without saying anything.

“Father enough!” I yelled at him, not moving from my spot. “You are going to kill her!” I hissed at him through my teeth.

“She a f*****g rogue hybrid, she will either heal or die.” He said between pants, not caring that his own daughter was standing there while he f****d the sense out of some poor girl. He didn’t even attempt to slow down or pause.

“I’m not talking about her, I’m talking about your mate, my mother! You are going to kill her!” I had to clench my fists and bite my tongue. I so wanted to cross the room and rip him by his hair and punch him until his face was unrecognizable. My wolf purred with the thought.

He paused mid-thrust, his head snapping to me, his eyes dark with the presence of his wolf. “She made her choice when she chose you.” He snarled, his lip twisting up on one side “Now stand there and watch quietly, or GET THE f**k OUT!” He roared at me and my wolf whimpered.

I fought the command but backed out of the room closing the doors behind me in defeat. I leaned against the wall next to the ugly ass doors waiting for him to finish with his slave girl. I mind-linked a guard to bring me a sheet and stood there waiting.

After the guard had brought me the sheet I made him wait with me. We stood in silence outside my father’s room, listening to the screams and painful cries that came from the girl he was violating. I looked up at the guard, who must have felt my stare, as he lifted his eyes to meet mine.

“This not how you treat a woman,” I said pointedly.

“Yes, my lady.” He replied with a bow. He looked indifferent to what was happening behind the closed doors and I couldn’t tell if he felt for the girl, didn’t care, or relished in the idea that his Alpha was abusing a female for his own pleasure.

We stood there for a least another 30 minutes and another 10 minutes after the poor girl's screams had ceased. It was then the doors finally opened and the slave girl stumbled out naked and bleeding. She fell to her knees as she came through the entrance. The tears still fell and the blood was still trickling from my father’s claws and from between her legs.

She had been a virgin. She wasn’t anymore.

I felt my heart skip a beat at the thought of what she just went through, she couldn’t have been any older than me. I felt ashamed at this moment, ashamed that I carried his last name.

I quickly wrapped the sheet around the girl and helped her stand to her feet. She was a wreck, shaking and trembling uncontrollably.

“I’m so sorry,” I tried to soothe her “You will heal, you are strong.” My words fell short, I knew they did. Even I didn’t believe my words.

“I want to go home.” She sobbed.

I felt my eyes fill with tears for this girl. She would never go home. This was her new reality. I wish I could change it, but I was powerless against my father.

“Take her back to the slave chambers, have the head madam get her cleaned up, and give her some healing herbs,” I told the guard as I lightly shifted the girl from my arms to his. “And keep your damn hands to yourself,” I told him sternly.

He nodded and helped the girl walk, taking her down and out to where the slave whores were kept. I took a big breath and sighed, leaning over to grasp my knees. My nerves were shot and I needed to calm my wolf again. She hated to see a sight like this and wanted to tear my father's head off. We both knew we couldn’t though.

And it was that defeated feeling that got us every time.

I went back to my mother’s room, where she now slept or rather passed out. I tipped my head at Eloise to leave her and come with me. I sent a link to my mother’s maid and asked her to come and watch over her. I didn’t need to explain what was wrong or what had happened. We were all well aware of the cause that had her doubling over and had sent her insane.

Her mind was getting worse day by day, last week she had a breakdown and we had found her in the middle of the arena stark naked slashing at her wrists with a knife. The week before that she had used some arousing herbs and ointment and raped a guard.

She literally tied him down, applied the ointment, and was found riding him with everything she had. She had said the goddess wanted her to get her own back on my father. I had tried to explain that her actions made her no better than her abusive mate. But she didn’t understand. Instead, she just gave me a blank look like I was the one who had mental problems.

I had been dealing with this for years, but on days like today, when she having a good day, that’s when the situation got the best of me. It just made me so mad that he would purposely ruin her good day.

My father was a selfish, bloodthirsty, egotistical, narcissistic, man. He cared for only a handful of things; Money, blood, my sister, his whores, and his games, and probably in that exact order. Although, the slave girls and the fighters did line his pockets very nicely, as he had put it himself on so many occasions.

As soon as Eloise and I stepped into my room and the door was closed, I lost it. The pent-up anger let loose and my hands began to tremble as my wolf’s claws extended and tore through the room. Tearing the sheets from the bed and swiping at the walls, clearing the shelves of all the trinkets, and upturning my mattress.

I let out a scream of frustration in an attempt to get it all out. “WHY?” I shouted at no one in particular “Why must I endure this hell hole?” I turned to Eloise who stood there pale and frightened at my outburst, her usually small eyes wide with fear.

Looking at her made my wolf and I calm down instantly. “I’m so sorry El,” I said suddenly aware and ashamed of my outburst. “I just can’t live like this anymore, this… this place is hell!”

I slumped down in the small wooden chair that sat in front of my vanity that somehow miraculously survived my rampage. Eloise came up behind me and placed her hands on my shoulders. She was the closest thing I had to family, at least family that cared and loved me. My mother loved me, in her own deranged way, and when she remembered I was her daughter.

“I’m so sorry Eloise, I just can’t stay here anymore. I can’t live like this, I can’t watch my father destroy the lives of people anymore.” I sighed.

“Hush your mouth Tala! You can’t leave!” Eloise hissed in a whisper. “What would I do if you left? What would happen to Jasper?” Her voice trembled as she mentioned Jaspers's name.

I slumped my shoulders and stared back at my reflection in the mirror on my vanity. “Maybe be happy?” I hoped and shrugged my shoulders.

“After the annual games, my father expects me and Jasper to mate and wed.” I looked at her through the mirror and instantly saw the tears and the deflated look on her face.

Eloise was my best friend and more of a sister than Shayna had ever been, which was why I was so against this pairing in the first place. When Eloise turned eighteen two years ago, she was almost a year younger than me, she found her mate. It was during the annual mating ball my father held once a year.

Another excuse for him to find a feast off young unmated she-wolves.

It was at that event he had announced that Jasper and I would become chosen mates when I turned 21. It was also at that event Eloise and Jasper found out they were mates. However Eloise was an Omega, a weak wolf as Jasper's father and my father had declared on many occasions. It was also that night Jasper and Eloise told me they were mates and we knew we had to keep it a secret.

If mine and Jasper’s father who was the Beta, found out he was mated to a lowly Omega, they would kill her.

“I will find a way out of it by hook or crook, El. I promise.” And I meant it.

Even if Jasper and I were against our pairing, our fathers had a way to ensure we mated and marked each other.