TO KILL A KING

TEN-FERAL

KING

After I buried the knife in his heart he was incapacitated, but only for a moment. Before he was back with twice as much strength as before.

That wound would've killed any other man... but then again, he wasn't just any other man.

He was an entirely different breed.

I didn't know what to to next as he rose to his feet, pulling the dagger from his chest with a grunt. I hadn't planned that far ahead and for that I cursed myself.

I couldn't run. I couldn't hide. I couldn't fight, he had my only weapon and I could never beat him in hand to hand combat.

The only think I could do was hold my head high and die a proud death, defeated yet unbroken. If he wanted my pack, my lands, all he had to do was end me. 

"Kill me." I taunted. "Do it."

I stared into his eyes as he grabbed the back of my neck with one hand like a mother would a disobedient pup, certain he would break my neck as he had Rose's as he growled lowly so that only I could hear. "Death would be far too kind for you."

No. Kill me. Please.

-Break my neck and leave me lifeless, though inside I knew it was far too kind a death for his brother's murderer. If I was him I would've tortured me until my blood ran dry and my voice ceased to exist from the screams.

He would want something far more painful, probably even torture me first. 

Break my body then my soul.

Instead he let out a roar so loud that every soul stood still in fear of their life, his men all slamming to a halt as they awaited his every command with baited breath, despite the bloodbath that surrounded them. 

-And to my surprise even my people stood too, wide eyed and afraid, not sure exactly what to do in the moment.

He shouted something at them in a foreign tongue that I didn't understand. A twinge of pain struck my heart, I may not have understood him, but Farrah would've.

"Hazamuu, ainsahab." He barked, and the men released their hostages, letting them fall to the floor, bloodied and beaten, clutching their broken bodies in agony.

It wasn't fair. My men might have stood a chance against these savages if we had been pre-warned but instead they set upon us before most had even risen from their beds, implementing the element of surprise. 

Life wasn't fair, if it was Farrah would still be alive.

She didn't deserve this, she didn't deserve any of this at all.

He held me forwards atop the stone steps before the pack, like some sick prize as he gripped the back of my neck tighter, his fingers pressing into his bite, making me squirm from pain. "Do you submit?"

He expected me too. I had no choice. It was either that or die before the people that once worshiped me. 

-But then again that would be the ultimate shame for him. His own mate, bloodied, beaten and defeated still refusing to give in to him before his pack. Some twisted glee at the thought of his public rejection inspired me, as I let the rage inside me spur me on.

I spat a mixture of blood and saliva in his face before I hissed at him, gathering all the resolve I could muster, my voice sounding as unstable as my emotions felt. "Never."

His fingers clenched my flesh so tightly they broke the skin, leaving dark bruises the colour of rotten fruit. Through the bond, now strengthened by his bite I could feel his rage reaching boiling point. He did not appreciate my public humiliation, not one bit. I doubted he had ever been rejected in his entire life.

Not a sound was heard from the living below, a deathly silence fuelled by shock blanketing the land.

There was nothing he could do. Other than kill me, his mate. How was he meant to respond to that? 

He couldn't, and for that I could die happy.

-But he was not one for words. Instead he returned my humiliation with one of his own as he shoved me forwards by the back of my neck, so that I slipped in the very blood I had spilt and toppled like a rag doll down the stone stairs.

My bones clattered and screamed in a horrid symphony of pain as they smashed against the solid surface, before I landed at the bottom in a crumpled heap, my body battered and broken. 

Everything hurt. Every muscle. Every fibre.

The sick part was that he could feel my pain through the bond, yet still he didn't care. He was so desperate to hurt me that he was willing to hurt himself in the process.

Maybe this was what death felt like.

Or maybe it felt like nothing at all, and I couldn't help but think to myself how kind death could be.

-I longed for it even, begging for the sanctity that only the gods could offer.

Was this how Farrah felt? As she slowly faded from this world. I wondered if she was in pain the entire time, or if it hurt so much that after a while it didn't hurt at all..

• • •

It was black, and only black. The endless oblivion swallowing me whole beneath the deepest depths of the ocean, stealing the breath from my lungs as I fought to surface against the tide of unconsciousness.

Waves of inky blankets washing over me, shoving me back down to the bottom of the sea.

It felt like hours. Months. Years even, before I surfaced. Washed ashore by the incessant need to survive.

Why couldn't I just let myself die? when I awoke the world around me was dimly lit and dank, water droplets falling from the damp ceiling to patter on the stone floor below. 

A cell. 

I was imprisoned in my own damn cells, how ironic.

I sat alone for what seemed like an eternity, isolated with only my own darkest thoughts for company and to keep the madness at bay. In my time I thought about what it was to that drove me to self destruct, and it took me a while but eventually it came to me like a whimper of wind through the barren halls.

I refused to give in, to submit. 

-And I knew from the look in his eyes that day, he would not stop, he would torture me until I broke...Shattering beyond repair. 

He lusted for the satisfaction of knowing that he, the newly founded 'King' of two packs now joined as one, would be the one to break the single thing that nobody else could. I could feel It through the bond, his aching soul begging for my surrender.

Originally, I had thought that the greatest act of defiance would be to die proud. -But not by anyone else hand except my own. To forcefully tear from him the only person in the entire world that could love him. 

-A mate.

I had become so obsessed with becoming a martyr for my people that I hadn't paused to think that there may just be one thing. One thing greater than to kill a King...

Only one thing that may be able to break him, completely and utterly beyond repair.

If I were to live a long and fruitful life but without him and with that thought in mind I vowed that I would not ever submit to him. Ever. 

I would never give him the sick satisfaction of breaking me, and that I would love another. 

Even if it killed me.

• • •

I had lost count of the days that had passed before someone finally came for me.

I was so starved for the slightest hint of something new that as soon as I heard the cell door open I jumped to my feet, my hands already eagerly clutching the cold iron bars

My heart leaped into my throat at the sight of the silver haired female.

"Grey." I breathed. She had survived the bloodbath, despite the unfortunate fate of her friend, Rose.

"We've got to be quiet." She whispered motioning me forwards, still the faintest trace of a limp in her walk from her previous wound. "They could come down here at any moment so hurry.

With a click of the lock I was free. My world expanding infinitely from the ten foot cell I had spent what felt like forever in.

"Follow me." She hushed, and I trailed without question.

She navigated the twisting halls effortlessly despite the low light. Almost as if.. she had been here before. Except the way she was headed didn't lead to any sort of exit. She was only leading be deeper into the catacombs.

"Where are you taking me?" I slowed down, suddenly in less of a hurry for my supposed freedom.

"No questions." She said, not slowing down as she turned one final corner, disappearing into one of the dank rooms, the same room we had tortured Orian in as her voice echoed. "Just come."

I had eased off to a walk, every step careful and calculated. Something was wrong. Very, very wrong.

She shouldn't have known her way that well around the dungeons. Even the men that build the damned thing still got lost within the underground maze.

As I rounded the corner I tried my best to peak around the doorway, but I couldn't see Grey anywhere. She had seemingly vanished as if taken in by the stone walls themselves.

I entered the room completely more from curiosity than the need to stay close to Grey, flinching as the thick metal door slammed shut behind me. I span around right as a fist slammed into my skull, sending me sprawling to the floor.

"What the f**k?" Hissing, I pulled myself up so that my weighed leaned on my shoulders. My bruised and battered body already aches with every shuddering breath on broken ribs, I wasn't sure how much more I could take.

Grey loomed over me, her once dull blue eyes now stormed like thunder, filled with a vicious rage.

She wanted me dead. That was the only thought that resonated in my mind as she stalked towards me with a face contorted like a madman.

"This is for shoving me in a cage." She said, knocking me back down with a hefty kick to the face. I spat out the blood that pooled on my tongue.

"-And this," Another blow to the gut sent the air from my lungs, leaving me gasping for breath. "Is for Orian."

My fingers clawed the marred, uneven stone as I tried desperately to crawl away from her. Why would she give a s**t about the Beta I killed? Weren't his pack the ones responsible for wiping out her family?... Or at least that's what she told me.

Nothing made sense anymore. It must all have been lies, they never made sense.

"Grey.." I spluttered, wiping my split lip with the back of my hand. "What are you talking about?"

She burst into a fit of maniacal laughter, though there was no humour behind her broken eyes. "You really had no idea did you? You really are f*****g clueless."

I clenched my jaw, biting back a comment that would only land me in more trouble. She had the advantage after all.. For now. "Grey-"

"-Don't call me that." Every syllable she spoke dripped with unconditional malice.

Using the deep groves of the natural rock walls for grip I was able to drag myself to my feet. Every muscle and  bone within me screaming in protest. Every ache suddenly amplified tenfold.

"Then who are you?"

She c****d her head slightly and her eyes glinted with a hint of a sickening smirk as she said the name that meant nothing to me then but soon would as she crept towards me, sliding a dagger from its sheath. "Scarlett."

***

QOTD- Have you guys watched Tiger King on netflix? I'm obsessed!

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-TFOA