His Sinful Pleasure

Prologue  Annethea’s POV  Blood. Blood everywhere.  The stench of it clung to the cold air, mixing with smoke. The battlefield was chaotic— screams of witches, Lycans and werewolves spilt the sky, blades clashing, fire roaring. Shadows ran where bodies fell, and yet, in the middle of all the madness, I felt something was wrong with me.  I picked up my dagger.  My hands shook violently around the hilt. No matter how I tried to fight it, my body wasn't mine anymore. Something burned through my veins like liquid fire. It whispered commands into my bones, twisting my love into a weapon.  "Kill him. He deserves to die."  Her cold voice echoed inside my head. It pulled me forward as if using an unbreakable chain. I didn't want this. I didn't want him dead. Tears streamed down my face.  "Please don't do this," I pleaded, knowing it was useless to beg. Once she had made up her mind, she must make it work not caring who she was hurting. Her sole purpose for the past thirty years was to avenge her lover's death.  My feet betrayed me, carrying me closer, step by step, through the torn earth and shattered shields.  When I saw him, my body shook, trying its best to stop me from doing something I will regret for the rest of my life.  His back was to me, his chest rising and falling unevenly, his sword hanging limp at his side. He was on his knees, drenched in blood. His breath ragged. He had never looked so...fragile. He has always been the warrior who had trained me secretly. He taught me everything I needed to know about wars. He was the man who held me under starlit nights whispering promises we'd never break and here I am, holding tightly to the dagger that will send him plummeting to his death. All of this was against my will. All because she couldn't let go of her plots to avenge her lover's death.  My heart screamed. Run away from him! Save him from yourself!  But the spell hissed louder. End him!!  I wanted to shout, to warn him, to make him understand that this wasn't me. When I opened my mouth, only a broken sob came out.  He turned at the sound, and his weary beautiful eyes met mine.  Relief. That was the first thing I saw there. Even bruised and bloody, his lips parted softly, shaping my name.  "An..Annethea.."  My throat clenched from the tears I tried to keep locked in. It blurred my vision as I stood trembling, my dagger clenched in both hands.  His smile wavered when he saw the blade. "Thank the goddess that you're alright. So how was your first experience of being in a battlefield? I trust you showed them that you aren't someone to mess with."  I couldn't reply to his compliment. I would've laughed, smiled and said. "Yes, of course, I did show them who I am."  No words came out of my mouth. I wanted to drop the dagger. I wanted to fall on my knees and wrap my arms around him and scream against his chest until the war disappeared, until she disappeared.  "Stop being weak, Annethea," her voice was loud and I felt a sharp pain in my head. My nose bled.  Lysander looked worried. "Are you alright? Who hurt you, Anne? Don't worry we've already won the witches and my men can do the rest here."  "Kill him now and stop acting like a p***y. I trained you for this role and now it's finally time you want to blow it all away? We will make him pay for everything he's caused us. Everything he…" "He didn't cause us anything, nothing at all. You are just blinded by the love you have for that man that you don't care if you wipe the whole coven just so you can achieve your goal. Your lover deserved to die. He was very evil and as for Lysander killing him, he deserved it. " I tremble at my courage to voice out what I've always held. "You deceived us into thinking Lysander was the villain in your c****d up bull story but no, you are the one who's the villain. You are the one that's making the coven go astray. We no longer do things as one all because of you, all because you turned a blind eye to everything just so you could have your revenge." My gaze swept across the battlefield. Our people were dying. Witches that had stood beside her from day one. Most of them against their will. "We are down by so many of our powerful, most prominent witches because you..you couldn't let go of your fantasies for a man who deserves to die. I love Lysander very much and I wont stop at nothing to make sure you never win. I will... " "Shut up!!! " More blood fell from my nose making Lysander's eyes widened like saucers.  "Do what I tell you to do. Or else I will kill you, Annethea."  "I won't kill the man I love. I will not succumb to your evil schemes."  She laughed. "We will see about that."  I screamed at the power she held to make me move. I tried to fight the spell she put in me but I was already weak and my powers are nothing compared to hers.  She made me step closer to him. I shook my head as tears fell off my eyes.  "Hey, Anne. Love, what's wrong? Why are you acting this way? Do you need to rest? Tell me what's going on. Why are you bleeding?"  I hated to see him like this, worrying over me while my evil mind plotted to kill him.  Lysander started to pull me away from the battlefield, towards Cleopatra, my horse. I stopped him from dragging me. I could feel my eyes turning fierce against my will. She made me glare at him with hatred and scorn.  His eyes stared back at me, disbelief and confusion reflecting in them. "Love, you don't want to go back?" He breathed, his voice soft but laced with confusion. The intensity of my glare made him feel uncomfortable. "Anne...hey, it's me. It's Sander. What did she do to you?"  "Now let the fun begin," she laughed coldly. Her voice filled with malice and I was left wondering what she was about to do while using me.  "She didn't do anything to me, Lysander. She made me who I am today. Fierce, cold and manipulative." She coldly laughed while circling him using my voice. "You didn't think I loved you, did you?"  The look on his face broke my heart and my inner voice wanted to scream for him not to listen to what she was saying. That I wasn't the one saying all these. I fought against the spell that bound me tight.  "My birth had one purpose and that was to kill the very man who tore our coven into pieces. Yes, you. When you murdered the very man that made us powerful. You thought you could go ahead and live freely, peacefully but no, today you will die at my hands." Without warning, my body lunged forward. I was so swift and using every tactic Lysander had taught me, I plunged the dagger into his chest.  The dagger was not an ordinary one. It had gone through months of dark magic, spells and incantations. To kill the king of lycans and werewolves, you will need more than an ordinary dagger or werewolf bane. For one suspended, agonizing second, everything stopped. No screams, no clashing swords, no fire— just us in our own world.  I fought to get my body back, she was still adamant to give it back to me. His breath caught in his throat, his eyes widened in shock and pain. His hands instinctively clutched the dagger. He lowered his head, looking at it for seconds before he gazed up back at me. Blood spluttered from his mouth.  She laughed at him and inside I cried out, begging her to please allow me to save him.  He landed on his knees with a loud thud. His eyes never left mine. Could he see the hurt in my eyes? Did he think I was the one who did this? He had taught me how to pray to the moon goddess even though he said he never believed in gods. So, I prayed. Pouring out all my feelings, anxiety, my tears..I prayed he knew I wasn't the one. That I couldn't do this to him. That I loved him to the moon and back.  As if she heard my thoughts, my body bent down. My right hand on his cheek. She signed, "I never loved you, Lysander."  ‘No, don't say that to him!!" I cried inside, begging her. But she continued, “Everything I did was to get close to you, make you lower your guard against me so I could find a chance to kill you and avenge his death for her."  "No!! No!! I screamed at her to stop saying such words”. I saw the hurt in his eyes. The look of betrayal there and it felt like I was stabbed with a dagger straight to my heart just as I had done to him.  His body had started to change in colour from the effect of the poison. I could feel his pains, everything he was suffering. I am his mate. We've already completed the mating ceremony. The pains I felt from him made me tear up and a drop of tears slid down to my cheeks, no matter how she tried not to show it.  "Anne..." His voice was hoarse, shredded, barely a whisper. "W... Why?"  His breath came in ragged gasps, each one weaker than the last. Even at that, even as his life slipped away, she refused to give me back my body so I could say save him.  His knees gave up and he collapsed on the bloody war field. "It...hurts," his voice trembled with both pain and love. His lashes are wet. "It..hurts, Annethea. But..not because of the blade...Anne...because of...you."  That shattered me. My chest felt like it was caving in, my screams muffled behind clenched teeth as I shook my head violently, trying to fight the magic clawing through me. His chest rose and fell unevenly now, each breath shallower than the last. Blood bubbled at his lips, his strength fading with every passing second. "How long will it take you to die, lycan?"  I was so angry that I pushed against the spell with all my might. I can't let her win. He can't die and make her feel victorious. Finally, I regained my body. "Weak." she scoffed before fully departing.  Lysander's eyes were on me. Blood dripped out of his mouth."I ...love you," he breathed, so faint I could barely hear him. "I've always loved you even though...even though you've.. you’ve never felt the same way."   My body convulsed with sobs, my heart tearing in half inside my chest. I shook my head. " Don't say that," I begged, placing his head on my lap and my forehead against his. My shoulders were shaking. "Don't you dare say that. I'm here now. I've always been here, Sander. Please."  I felt his body grow cold. His eyes open,still reflecting that hurt that shattered me. "No!!!!! No please don't leave me, Sander. Please. Please."   He didn't move an inch. He didn't assure me like he usually did. His storm-gray eyes that once held galaxies went empty.  I froze. My body trembling violently as silence crashed around me. The spell broke instantly, ripping free from me , leaving me hollow, feeling cold and numb.  I screamed, cradling his lifeless body in my arms. Pressing my lips to his forehead down to his cheek, to the curve of his jaw, and to his lips. My tears mingled with the blood on his skin. The sounds leaving my throat were no longer words but broken, animalistic wails—the sound of a heart tearing apart.  Around me, the lycans and werewolves felt the death of their King in their heart. The fighting stilled, everywhere became quiet. Then came the sounds of wolves howling. Mourning the death of their King. My Sander.   My entire world lay lifeless in my arms. The arms that killed him.