Jo's Sacrifice
1191 Words
Kara POV
When we were woken in the morning by the ringing bell, my whole body still felt the lasting effects of my time within the forest.
Every muscle and joint seemed stiff and tense as I hobbled up to get dressed in a new set of black clothing which tied me to Prince Dominick and reminded me once again just what I was going to be winning. If you could even call it that. It felt like ownership and just the thought of that made Annysia growl her anger.
Nobody owns us.
I know that. It just feels that way right now, I said in my most soothing tone. I couldn’t afford for her to lose it.
I could already feel her pent-up anger and frustration at not being let out, not being able to run. It had been far too long, probably the longest time we had gone without shifting and running free. It was beginning to wear her down, making her short tempered, and a short-tempered wolf was never a good thing.
I slid into an empty seat beside Piper who was finishing off her plate of fruit, before she pushed a second plate, over-flowing with food in front of me.
“I got the things you like,” she said, her words slightly garbled due to her full mouth.
A pale-faced Jo was looked at me anxiously across the table, her eyes huge and almost over-flowing with unshed tears.
“Kara, I just wanted to say thank you,” she all but sobbed. “If you hadn’t come back for me, I know I wouldn’t be here still.”
A loud scoff drew my attention to Raven who sat behind us at another table, her dark curtain of hair pulled back into a high ponytail. She looked different, her skin clearer, her cheekbones less defined. I also noted that her hips had started to fill out slightly when she stood from her table and came to stand behind Piper, her lip curled up in annoyance.
“Maybe that should have happened, Jo,” she spat out, her eyes narrowing in disgust. “The King will see you are too weak to bear the Prince’s child anyway, even if you do make it through the next few rounds.”
My whole body stiffened at her words as I saw Jo’s lip drop, the tears rolling down her face. Beside me, Piper looked just as angry and before I could stand up to confront Raven, Piper had turned in her seat, stood quickly and shoved Raven to the floor.
She landed heavily on her arse causing her to shriek loudly, dragging the attention of one of the identical vampires.
“What’s going on here?” his deep, low voice reverberated through me, my skin feeling chilled just by his presence. The ever-present smell of blood perfumed the very air he breathes when he spoke.
“She shoved me for no reason,” Raven cried, a dark emotion glinting in her eyes as she pointed at me.
“What?” My teeth clashed together hard as I bit back the fury rolling through me. Stupid b***h was going to try and pin this s**t on me. I would have laughed if I didn’t find it so infuriating. It made sense, after all Piper wasn’t in direct competition with her.
The vampire’s eyes zeroed in on me, his gaze sending shivers up my spine. “You know the rules, human. No violence or there are severe consequences.”
“It wasn’t her, it was me!” Piper interjected, casting a glare towards Raven who was being helped up by two other girls.
A growl bubbled on my lips at the pathetic acting job she was doing, trying to make it seem like she was more hurt as she forced tears from her eyes and put on a pitiful hurt expression.
“Actually, it was me,” a quiet voice piped in.
I stared at Jo who was now meeting the gaze of the vampire, her chin jutted forward in determination. She was doing an excellent job of hiding the fear from her face, which I could sense rolling from her in waves.
“She was belittling me, so I pushed back,” she added, looking Raven square in the face before her lips curled up in a soft smile.
Pride washed through me at the look of utter shock on Raven’s face as her plan to have me removed, unravelled before her, until the vampire latched onto Jo’s arm and pulled her towards him roughly.
“Right, well since you are admitting to it, you will be the one punished.”
“Jo, no, don’t do this!” Piper cried out as the vampire began dragging her to the door.
She turned to face us with tears in her eyes and her lip quivering. “I am repaying the life debt I owe you,” she said, her words sounding stronger and braver than she appeared in that moment.
I was shocked! I wanted to stop the vampire, I wanted to fight for her… the urge to protect her was fighting against Annysia’s warning to keep ourselves safe.
As the stricken Jo was taken out of the room and the door closed shut, I turned to face a smug looking Raven.
“Another one down,” she whispered, her eyes narrowing in my direction.
“How dare you?” I roared launching myself in her direction.
Thankfully Piper was able to hold me back, her warning low in my ears. “Don’t do this, we have plenty of time to get revenge for Jo.”
I controlled myself, Annysia’s dark thoughts circling within me, the urge to rip her to pieces only heightening by the pleased, smug look plastered on Raven’s face.
She walked closer to me, her dark eyes boring into mine, before she stopped inches before me. Unfortunately for her, she was shorter than me so even though she intended to look intimidating, I saw the sparkle of fear in her eyes before she was able to smother it as she looked up at me.
“The Prince is mine,” her snide voice hissed in my ear. “And I will do anything and everything to make sure of that. So you better just get out of my way.”
I held back the growl that wanted to burst from my chest as Annysia’s anger burned red hot within me. If only she knew how totally wrong she was. He was destined to be mine long before we were captured by the human hunters.
Ignorant human Annysia growled to me.
Raven pushed past me, knocking her shoulder purposefully into me before stalking away with her cronies following on her tail, who looked almost shocked by what had happened.
“I look forward to tearing you apart,” I growled out, unable to stop Annysia from taking control to bite back in her anger.
I turned and walked away but not before I gained some smug satisfaction at the terrified look that was plastered on Raven’s face.
- Writer
