AKIRA'S POV
I sighed as I looked out the window, my fingers lightly scratching the fur on Skittle's little body. I looked back down at my feet and the cold bread crumbs stared back at me.
Skittles and I have been sharing my little portion of food ever since the fight with Serena, after which Ares locked me in the cell. She was a tiny white little thing. And after I had caught her chewing on the edge of my skirt, I decided to keep her.
It was difficult keeping an animal, especially a mouse, in a fucking mansion. But I had exceptionally taken a liking to her. And she learned to never leave my little sack until I was done cleaning and I came for her.
I smiled when I found out that she was already asleep. While I sat thinking about my miserable life. Shame crawled up my throat as I remembered what happened two nights ago. How Ares had made me feel like everything before making me feel like nothing. He was a real mastermind. A mastermind I was insanely attracted to.
I looked beside me to find the tally mark on the wall. Tally marks that I had started carving immediately after I was brought here.
It was a month and a half now. A month away from my Nana and Ama. I felt sick knowing that while Nana and Ama were out there worried sick and searching for me, I was here lusting after a fucking Alpha. I felt completely sick to the bones.
A lengthy sigh escaped my lips when I saw Orion making his way to our usual spot in the garden. The bench. His brows furrowed when he realised I'm not there.
How I went from being a normal adult to being fucking kidnapped by shapeshifters and then to falling for two people was a fucking mystery to me.
Orion and I were beginning to build a bond. My stomach doesn't flutter, nor does my cheeks flush or my pussy clenches at his presence but I felt a connection with him.
He wasn't dangerous, Orion was cute, smart and funny. I figured it was best to be on the safer side. I had cried on his shoulders numerous times at night. He made me feel safe, I didn't know if it was because he was human and I thought he could feel the same emotions I was feeling. But he did and If I was going to stay here for a long time then I would rather have a friend like Orion.
Another sigh escaped when I realised I just called him a friend.
That was all Orion was ever going to be to me. I knew he knew it, but we were willing to make things more. It was almost funny how impossible this was going to be. Two human prisoners trying to fall in love in a land where love was completely unhealthy.
But I couldn't make it tonight. Something was stopping me. It was a gut feeling, my mind was letting me know that something was wrong. What I was having with Orion was wrong.
I cringed as I remembered how I turned him down when he tried to kiss me yesterday. I was scared he was going to snap at me but of course, Orion being Orion, he was completely cool with it. He even assured me that it was completely normal to not feel the same way.
Craning my neck to look further into the garden from the small window, I watched as he looked around for me before walking away dejectedly. I was dumb, so fucking dumb. Turning down someone as good as Orion for a monster like Ares was completely stupid.
Lenny whimpered from her bunk above and I frowned. Lately, she has been having nightmares. Her cries were the reason I was awake. They never let me sleep.
My frown deepened as I remembered how she had completely denied having nightmares when I wanted to comfort her. Ever since then she blatantly decided to ignore me. She had stepped into the room quietly, climbed into her bed and drifted off. Without saying goodnight.
I slowly placed Skittles onto the small pile of rags in form of a makeshift bed under my bunk, before I retreated to my bed.
I spent minutes trying to get comfortable with the strong mattress before I drifted off.
And even as I drifted off, there was a nagging feeling at the back of my mind that the more time I spend in this hellhole, the more things would begin to get messier.
And at the end of the day, I knew I needed to make a decision.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
ARES' POV
Stephan and his Beta would soon be a memory. The old fool was the reason rogues kept trying to trespass my territory. He fucking asked for a death wish when he opened his big fucking mouth to spread rumours about the Moon goddess giving me a human as a mate.
But that wasn't what had me fuming.
Stephan had asked for protection for his pack territory and his pack members from continuous rogue attacks. And as the king of all Alphas, I had no choice but to send my men out to him. But he never placed them on the borders of the pack like I asked, no, he took them everywhere he went.
The bastard was a fucking paedophile. The rogues who wanted to kill him were the parents of the kids he kept in his basement. Where he tortured, raped and did other unspeakable things to them.
He wanted my warriors to spill the blood of innocent people trying to seek vengeance, he wanted the blood of angry parents on my hands.
So yes, I was fucking fuming. And I wanted the bastard's head on a fucking silver platter. And this time around I was going to do it myself.
I briefly wondered what would've been the fate of Akira she had landed in his clutches. The thought alone heightened my rage.
My Beta, Czar, who was walking beside me kept talking about keeping things with Akira on a low to protect her against the danger we knew was coming for her.
But it wasn't about me keeping things low. Akira was an addiction, I wanted her beside me all the fucking time. I couldn't fucking keep things low.
I swallowed thickly. I knew there was no way I was going to accept her as my mate. Not after the oath, I made on my parent's grave. They were massacred by humans, fucking weak humans. And there was no way I was going to forgive the whole human race just because of a mate.
But the thought of rejecting Akira made my jaw tick. And I could listen to my Lycan growling in the back of my head.
I guess he didn't like that idea too.
I ran my hands through my hair. The last few days have been fucking hell for me. After waiting thousands of years for a mate, I couldn't fucking touch her in front of everyone. She was always right there in front of me, but I made that decision and I was going to follow through with it.
I scoffed as I imagined the Moon goddess smirking down at me. The Moon goddess and the entire fucking Patheon were probably thinking this was funny.
I knew she did this to make me back up on my words. But there was no way I was going to go back on my words. And I was as damn sure the Moon goddess knew that. I wasn't a fucking beast who needed to be tamed.
Czar scoffed beside. "Are you even fucking listening to me?"
"No."
We both stepped out of the iron elevator and turned to the right. We were going to Stephan's pack. But first I needed to stop in my dungeon where I kept all of my weapons.
I wanted to kill Stephan but his death wasn't going to be swift and clean. No, I was going to torture him in the same fucking dungeon he tortured those innocent children.
His death was going to be slow and fucking gruesome. And right on the verge of life and death, the old fool was going to wish he was never fucking born because mercy wasn't a word in my book. And his death wasn't going to be merciful.
"I don't know how these slaves still find the strength to have a relationship in here." Czar suddenly growled as he looked at something hidden in the shadows.
I frowned as I followed his line of sight.
But the sight that met me was a sucker punch to my heart. I felt my breath cut short as I took in the scene.
There she was, my Akira, in the hands of another man. I couldn't see her face yet, but I could smell her.
My Lycan was struggling to come out. He wanted the male dead. He wanted to fucking cut him open, limb by limb. He wanted his head bashed into the fucking wall.
My nostrils flared as I watched him whisper words into her ear. Words that made her giggle, words that stained her cheeks with a beautiful red hue. Words that didn't come out of my mouth.
"Fuck." Czar whispered when she finally turned to the side. She still couldn't fucking see us. But we could see her now.
I vaguely heard my bones crack as he leaned into her and planted a kiss on her cheek. My beast was yearning to come out. But I knew the havoc it would reek once he was out.
"Let's leave here, Ares." Czar's voice was hushed and frantic.
But I stood my ground and breathed in. I didn't approach them, not when she let him grip her waist, not when she let his lips touch hers and not fucking when she fucking kissed him back.
I stood, and I watched as they kissed like this was their last time. And it fucking was. Because he was a dead man walking. He would pay for doing this to my mate.
I stood and watched as someone else ravaged the lips of my doll. My mate. My Akira.
And she let him. She knew she was mine but she let someone else kiss her. She fucking betrayed my trust.
My chest tightened as they separated and I all I could feel, for the first time in thousands of years, was hurt.
The mixture of the anger and hurt I was feeling was intense. And I wanted to fucking drown in it. My Lycan howled and whined. It badly wanted to be let out, but I could only smile. It was feral and downright evil.
Czar looked at me with worry and whispered something about thinking about things reasonably. But it wasn't his mate in the hands of another man. It wasn't his mate kissing another fucking man.
I closed my eyes as I will my control not to shatter. But it does anyway, it shattered, slipping through my fingers like sand in an hourglass. And when the last grain fell, I opened my eyes and I breathed out.
I had planned to convince her to warm my bed after killing that son of a bitch, Stephan. But that had all gone to shit now. I didn't want her anywhere close to me.
I didn't move from my spot in the shadows, partly because I was afraid of what I was going to do when I got closer to them and also because my legs are stuck. Rooted in a tar pit, burdened by the scene I just walked into.
I knew I didn't have much room to talk considering I fucked Serena's throat only last night.
But the scene in front of me had everything to do with the way my heart spasmed– trying to burst out of its confines. Everything to do with how tight my lungs constricted. How breathing felt like I was inhaling fire.
I was going to make them both pay.