TO KILL A KING

ELEVEN-BLOODBOUND

KING

The dagger made a sickening sound of metal on metal as it was slipped from its sheath and a vicious glint of silver shone in the low light.

"Get away from me." I hissed, scrambling backwards on my hands and knees until my spine collided with the rough wall, jagged edges biting into my tender skin.

I rolled, dodging the foot that slammed to the floor exactly where my body had been only moments before. A fire raged in her eyes. Vengeful and malicious and horrid.

"Unfortunately for you.." She drawled, "North's giving me free rein over you, so I can do whatever I want... The only thing I can't do it kill you." She pouted, tapping a finger to her lips as if in thoughts as she added. "-But that's okay, because for now I can think of a thousand ways to make you scream."

I didn't have time to drag myself to my feet, and even if I did I doubted my aching legs would support my weight. What I could do, was allow her to hurt me. To give her the smallest sense of satisfaction to get her to come closer and lower her defences, before I snatched the knife from her hands and used it to slit her throat.

She used my moment of weakness to knock me down  with a well aimed fist. My cheek stung with the white hot burn of the contact. I had gone past the threshold of pain, nothing hurt anymore. Not even the loss of Farrah. 

Everything only ached, in some sad far off kind of way.

Grey, or should I say Scarlett, climbed on top of me whilst I was down, her knees pressing painfully into my arms to hold them down. I tried to use my legs to kick her off, but I couldn't reach her. 

I tried to thrash, to struggle my way free but she was too heavy, her mass pressing down over my lungs and forcing the air from between my ribs.

"Get off of me!" I cried through gritted teeth like a wild animal locked in a cage, throwing itself against the bars in an attempt to break the iron.

"Hold still." She growled as she pressed the dagger to my forearm. A guttural scream echoed off the four walls as she carved the letters into my flesh. I squirmed, bucking my hips against her but still she didn't shift. I screamed for Elijah, I screamed for Cole. I called for someone, anyone, to help me.

But no one came.

No one even answered.

Only silence came to my side as the thick crimson crawled down my arm, pooling in the palm of my hand.

Only I could help myself.

Think, king. Think.

I lifted my head up, sinking my teeth deep inside her forearm, the only thing I could reach. I forced my teeth together until I tasted blood and felt them meet. Scarlett screamed, the dagger falling from her hand as she fell back against the stone, blood cascading like a waterfall of the colour for which she was named.

In an instant I was on top of her, straddling her in the same way she had me, the dagger clutched tightly in my palm.

In a fit of rage I threw the dagger across the room, as far away from the both of us as I could get it. I didn't need a blade. I could kill her with my own bare hands.

her hands stretched up weakly towards my throat, as if to choke me but instead her sharp nails embedded themselves deep within my fresh bite. My shoulder erupted with pain as I failed like a horse in a wire. My fists flew into her face, over and over and over and over again. With every strike I thought it would help to quell the inferno inside, instead the fire only seemed to climb higher, until their scorched fingers wrapped around my throat, causing right tears to well in my eyes. But still I couldn't stop myself from tearing her apart with every contact of our skin. Her nose twisted and contorted, blood screaming down her beautiful face. Her wide eyes blackened and her once pretty lips split and weeped to match her broken nose.

Yet still I couldn't stop. I couldn't help but watched the blood as it seeped from the corner of her bloodshot eye, bright and red and beautiful, in some sort of sick and twisted way.

I didn't notice when she stopped fighting, I didn't notice when her eyes turned white as they rolled back inside her skull. I barely noticed when the strong hands wrapped around me, dragging me up and away from her and into a warm chest. 

My entire body erupted in flames, a thousand lightning sparks engulfing me as I screamed, desperately trying to claw my way back to her, the pain of my aggrivated bite now dulled slightly.

I didn't know if she was dead or alive, and until I was certain that no life remained inside of her I wouldn't stop. She had branded me, by carving that sinful word permanently into my skin.

How f*****g dare she. She would die for this.

"Stop." He growled, and instantly stopped, the wild thing inside me that had drove me to maim Scarlett suddenly stilled. I hated the way that my beast responded to him.

"Ahalm laha." He ordered, and another male appeared from behind him, easily lifting Scarlett's beaten body from the floor and bundling her up in his arms like a rag doll.

"Get off of me!" I screeched like a mad man, throwing my elbow into his rib cage, he didn't even flinch as I felt my feet leave the ground and for a brief moment I was weightless as he chucked me over his shoulder like a rag doll.

It was humiliating and degrading and all I wanted was to have my dagger back, so that I could stab him between his ribs, hoping for the heart and praying for death.

I clawed my nails along his back, leaving deep red gashes that bled a violent red, twisting and writhing against him, trying to so much as throw him off balance, but he was tall and sturdy as a river, set in its course.

No matter how hard I tried I couldn't break free from his grasp, one firm hand holding me firmly in place. As the darkness around us turned to light I shielded my blind eyes, instead using my legs to lash out at him. My heart leapt into my throat as his rough hand squeezed the top of my thigh."Quit struggling or I'll give you a reason to squirm."

I hated to give in to him, and the fact that he told me to stop only made me want to fight him a thousand times harder, but I felt as though it took more strength to remain still, when every fibre of my body screamed to fight back. I didn't want to give him an excuse to try anything. Instead I stared down at my own creation, the bloody red streaks blooming through his dark shirt, trying to drown out the way my entire body hummed with electricity beneath the waves of my burning rage.

The sounds of his heavy footfalls were soon drowned out by the hum of a distant crowd, my plan of remaining calm went out of the window, I jerked and fought with a new found vigour. My entire body lashing out against his. He had gathered the entirety of both packs, mine and his alike before the pack house. And that f*****g bastard was planning on parading me in front of them.. 

Like this? Not a chance.

"Put me down right now." I growled into his ear, but he ignored me completely, only stalling once I added, "If you put my down I'll do whatever you want, I'll submit before the pack!"

If I was thrown before the people that once worshiped and respected me like a common w***e, bloodied and beaten and broken there would be no return. There would be no hope of ever coming back to power having fallen so far, my people would see me as inferior, defeated by so little as a mate and a day in the cells. 

-But, if I stood tall. Held my ground as I grit my teeth and bore the pain before them, there would still be a seed of hope, that one day they may accept me as their leader again. 

-Because I would rise again. Be it now or in ten years time, I would rise. I wouldn't give up everything I had spent a lifetimes worth of blood, sweat and tears building, just to let it slip through my fingers because of some dumb brute and his thirst for power.

My feet met the earth as he placed me before him, his thick arms still on my shoulders, holding me in place as if scared I may run away.

"Don't even think about trying anything..." I felt every rumble of his rough voice as it tore through me with malice, wrecking everything in its path, including my resolve. In a way I was glad he was pinning me in place, if not I worried I may have fallen down, beneath the weight of my own bones. "After all, it will be your pack that faces the consequences, not you." 

I was entirely entranced by him as I realised that this was the first time that I had seen him...Properly seen him I mean, without a distance between us or mist or red rage obscuring my misguided view. 

He was something otherworldly, that strange kind of unnatural beauty, more otherworldly than grounded in earth. 

I couldn't tell wether his fine features were too sharp to be beautiful, or were simply so harsh in their hellish perfection that they hurt to look at. He looked like an angel fallen from heaven that had landed on his feet, with his sinfully dark raven hair, and piercing blue eyes. 

All divinely carved as if from rich olive marble, yet still ungodly in sentiment.

I held back the small smile of satisfaction at the thin white scar that carved a straight line from his brow to his jaw, where I had slashed him with the dagger.

Though as much as I would've loved for him to have a thick, raised, keloid of a scar to mar his infuriating perfection, I was still grateful that despite his Lycanthrope healing he was still left with a little reminder of me. Call it a souvenir.

Part of me couldn't help but wonder, just what those wicked blue eyes had seen.

-Just how much bloodshed. 

Just how much pain. 

How much of it had he caused himself? 

And how much had he suffered in return?

His face was so cold it may as well have been carved in stone, though if I had to pick out one desirable emotion it would've been something vicious and bloody. 

If his face didn't reveal his malice towards his brother's murderer, his sonorous voice did. I didn't trust myself to speak, and even if I had wanted too it was like he had stolen the wind from my lungs and instead all I could focus on was the urging his fingers pressing into my shoulder blades so instead I just nodded.

Seemingly satisfied, he shoved me forwards towards the pack horse. "Move."

We entered the hauntingly empty house through a side door, and though I tried to resist the persistent thought, I couldn't help but ask myself how many of my people still remained as we navigated the grand halls. We exited out the main front doors, two great oak things lined with silver.

He went first, and I was shoved out second by a second man who I shot a dirty look that screamed, Don't touch me. The third man carrying a still unconscious Scarlett peeled off to the right somewhere alone the way towards the healers wing.

The crowd fell silent at the sight of us.

For a second I thought that maybe my heart had decided to flee along with the air from my lungs, until it came slamming back. Thundering so loudly I feared every individual of the dense crowd before us could hear it.

***

QOTD- What's your favourite movie? Why?

Any thoughts? Theories?

Don't forget to vote and comment!

-TFOA