Mate for the Prince of Beasts

Chapter 3

Blaze's POV

Everyone was curious about my mate, my men and I were running in our animal forms as it was the fastest way to travel, and she was traveling in one of the supply carts, along with Katra and Lira.  My men were moving closer to her, trying to see her, but despite her companion's assurances that no one would hurt her, I could smell her fear and anger.  I wasn't sure why she was feeling like that, Katra had repeated her many times that she was safe, and I had no idea what she could be angry about.  I started growling a warning every time one of my men approached her, but it didn't help. 

Being able to smell her fear and anger was affecting my beast, so I called to my men so we would start running ahead of the caravan, that way I wouldn't be there to be affected, and no one else would be tempted to get close to her.  I felt so free while running in my animal form, it was something that the witches would never be able to feel, something I wouldn't be able to share with my mate... unless I could find a way to turn her.  The legends did say that our people used to be like her, until we joined ourselves with our spirit animals and gained the power to turn into them.  We lost every other kind of magic, and that made the rest of the witches turn on us and drive us away, taking everything from us.  

The stories said that they were unable to accept anything different, that they had turned on our people and drove them away, just for doing something they didn't understand.  For generations my people had suffered for their actions, they had paid with their lives for their lack of empathy, but now it was our turn.  No longer would we accept their rules and stay away from what was rightfully ours.  It was time to claim our old lands.  When I had taken the decision to start the war, I hadn't been sure if it was the right choice, but by finding my mate, even if it was among the witches, it had to be a sign that I was on the right path, that I was doing the right thing.  I had been blessed, and it had to be a reward for a job well done.  

Alana's POV

The beasts kept coming at me, smelling me, I felt like they wanted to eat me or something, no matter how many times the women assured me they were harmless.  How dare they say something like that!  As if I hadn't witnessed as they tore apart women and children, as they killed mercilessly people I knew and loved.  I wanted to scream, to rage, but it was pointless, there were too many of them, there was no way I could get away.  

The idea of trying to escape went through my mind, but only for a second, my chances were practically null.  My eyes went to the biggest beast, the one that I remembered as the man they called Blaze, the Prince.  I couldn't understand how I could feel so compelled to look at him while the view of the rest of them made me ill.  There was something about him that I just couldn't explain, and it scared me even more.  I should be repulsed by him, not curious.  

I had traveled with my parents a lot of times, but I was used to riding a horse or walking if it was close by, but being in the cart, like I was just another thing they had taken, was hard.  The movement was doing nothing to ease my upset stomach, and my body hurt from being so tense while trying to stay upright.  The older woman insisted that I should take a nap, they had some blankets for me so I could lay down in the cart, but I felt like if I tried that, the boxes would fall on me, besides I could not relax enough to sleep while being surrounded by them.  By the time we arrived at out destination I was beaten, all I wanted was a real bed, or at least the chance to be by myself for a while, but I had no such luck.  

It was late by the time we arrived, so I couldn't see clearly where we were, but I could tell it was huge.  The women guided me through a series of hallways to a beautiful room on one of the towers of the castle.  It was almost as big as my whole house, not that it had been small, as the daughter of the local chief my house had been the biggest in the town.  There were a few women already working there, a couple of them looked different, they were wearing very simple, thin garments, while the others wore more elaborated clothing, similar to the ones my companions had.  

"Good, you are here.  We need to start right away, the ceremony is going to take place in a couple of hours and we need to prepare you for that."

"What ceremony?"  horrible scenarios started to go through my mind, but nothing I imagined was as bad as reality. 

"Your mating ceremony, of course.  You will be marrying Prince Blaze in a couple of hours.  You will be making a lot of girls sad, you have no idea how many tried to get with him, but he wanted to wait for his fated mate."

"No, you have to be mistaken, I can't marry him," I was sure it had to be a nightmare, that just couldn't happen to me.  

"Everything is ready, it's okay to be nervous, but you are fated mates, everything will be alright."

"What the hell is a fated mate?  I can't marry a beast!  I have to wait for my soulmate."

"Soulmate?" the woman who said I was going to get marry asked, as if she didn't know what that meant.

"I think that's witch talk for fated mates," the younger of my companions said. 

"Witch!?"  everyone stopped moving around and stared at me, and that was so much worse.  I could feel them, judging me and getting angry, the festive atmosphere of before was gone. 

"She is the Prince's mate, it doesn't matter what she is," the older woman said. 

"Katra, you can't be serious," the other woman replied. 

"It's not up to us, the Prince already made his decision, and if fate wants her to be with him, there's nothing we can do about it."

"This is insane, I never agreed to anything!  I can't marry a beast, I won't do this," I felt trapped, and out of place, I felt like I was going to be sick. 

"You have no choice," the younger woman said, "it has already been decided."

It was all crazy, there was no way I would willingly agree to be with their Prince, but like they said, I wasn't going to be given a choice, they had taken everything from me, and they were going to take even more.  I turned around and tried to run, all my pains and tiredness forgotten, but they were beasts, one of them turned into her animal, a big cat that stood between me and the door and blocked my escape.  I looked around for another way, but I was surrounded by them.  The older woman was looking at me with pity in her eyes.

"This doesn't have to be difficult, this is going to be good for you.  You will be a Princess, one day a Queen, you will have everything you could wish for!"

"I want my parents, my home, my friends, but your people killed my parents, destroyed my home and massacred my friends.  You are monsters!  There's no way I will marry one of you."  I was getting hysterical, and I knew it.  I was getting desperate, I knew they weren't going to let me go easily. 

"We have to stop her!" the young one said.

"We can't hurt her, the Prince is going to have our heads if we do," the older one replied. 

"Don't worry about that," another one said, taking by the neck one of the girls wearing the threadbare clothing.  "Now, make her relax now, before I rip your head off," I could already see blood dripping from the puncture wounds on her neck, from where she was being held.  She started to hum, a soft melody that reminded me of my childhood.  

I started to feel sleepy, my body felt heavy and I had no idea why I had been so angry before.  It took me a second to realize the girl was a witch and was using her powers to subdue me, I thought about fighting her power, I could, I was a strong witch and part of my powers allowed me to fight off others, but that would mean she was going to be hurt, and I couldn't do that to her.

I had no idea what they were going to do, but I couldn't resist when they grabbed me and started undressing me, they took me to the bathroom and started bathing me.  It was like I was watching it all happen to somebody else.  They scrubbed and cleaned, then took me out and helped me dress, then they fixed my hair and put some things on my face.  Once they were done, the humming stopped and I felt the calmness leave and I was me again.  All the things I hadn't felt before came rushing to me, and I felt so violated by all those women, not only watching me naked, but touching me, treating me as if I was a doll to do what they wanted.  I felt broken as they made me stand in front of a mirror and I couldn't recognize the woman I was seeing there.  It was just so unreal. 

"Now that we are done, we need to go, the Prince is waiting and he is not a patient man," the older woman said.  She grabbed me by the arm, her hold very strong.  She was the one who had said that they shouldn't hurt me, but she was hurting me, I was sure I was going to have a bruise, she was holding me that tight.

As soon as we got out the door a couple of soldiers flanked us, eliminating my hopes of escape.  I could hear a great commotion and voices and I knew that we were getting close to our destination, one I didn't want to reach, but sooner that I wanted, we did.