Chapter 7
1002words
"You're just a servant," he says coldly. "How dare you touch my property?"
I straighten as much as I can with Melissa still leaning against me. "She's hurt. She needs help."
"She needs whatever I decide she needs." He steps closer. "Let her go. Now."
"Lucas, please," Melissa whimpers. "I was just—"
"Silence." The word cracks like a whip, and Melissa flinches violently.
I shift slightly, placing myself between them. "I'm taking her to get cleaned up."
Lucas's eyes narrow. "You seem to have forgotten your place here, human." He reaches for me, grabbing a fistful of my hair and yanking hard enough to bring tears to my eyes. "Let go of what's mine."
"I'm not your property either," I grit out, refusing to release Melissa despite the pain. "You have no right to touch me."
He laughs, the sound echoing in the empty hallway. "Just because Kayden claimed you, you think you're something special?" He twists his hand, forcing my head back. "You're nothing. Less than nothing."
To my shock, Melissa suddenly pulls away from me. For a moment, I think she's trying to escape Lucas's wrath—but instead, she reaches into her torn dress pocket and pulls out a thin cord.
"I'm sorry, Freya," she whispers, her good eye not meeting mine. "He'll only make it worse if I don't."
Understanding dawns too late. This was a trap—Melissa's injuries real but her collapse in this isolated hallway deliberate. As I struggle against Lucas's grip, Melissa moves behind me, binding my wrists with practiced efficiency.
"You set me up," I breathe, the betrayal stinging worse than the pain in my scalp.
"I had to," she says, her voice hollow. "It was you or me."
Lucas releases my hair, shoving me against the wall. "Good girl, Melissa. Perhaps you can be taught after all." He strokes her bruised cheek almost tenderly. "Now go clean yourself up. I'll deal with this one."
Melissa hesitates, conflict clear on her battered face.
"Go," Lucas commands, and she scurries away without looking back.
Once we're alone, Lucas circles me slowly, like a predator assessing its prey. "I've been waiting for this opportunity. Kayden keeps you so closely guarded."
"What do you want from me?" I demand, testing the bindings on my wrists.
He stops in front of me. "What makes you so special that my cousin claims you personally? Why does he keep you so close?" His hand shoots out, gripping my chin. "What hold do you have over him?"
"I don’t have any hold," I insist. "I’m just a servant."
"No." He leans closer, studying me with narrowed eyes. "Kayden doesn’t claim humans. Ever. Yet he not only claimed you, he marked you with his personal insignia." His grip tightens. "There must be something unusual about you."
"There’s nothing," I say, trying to pull away. "I was just in the right place at the wrong time."
"You’re hiding something," he says, his eyes searching my face. "And I intend to find out what it is."
His hand cracks across my face, the force of it snapping my head to the side.
"I’m not hiding anything!" I taste blood where my teeth cut into my cheek. "I don’t know what you want me to say!"
Lucas studies me for a moment, then smiles slowly. "Perhaps you truly don't know. How interesting." He grabs my arm, dragging me down the hallway. "Let's continue this conversation somewhere more private."
I dig in my heels, fighting against his supernatural strength. "Let me go!"
"You know," he says conversationally, as if I'm not struggling, "Kayden and I are cousins. What's his is essentially mine as well. Family shares, after all."
"I belong to no one," I spit, twisting in his grip.
He laughs. "We'll see about that."
Lucas drags me into an empty chamber and throws me onto the cold floor. I scramble to my knees, hands still bound behind me.
"Now," he says, removing his jacket with deliberate slowness, "let's see what makes Kayden's little pet so special."
"Help!" I shout, knowing it's likely futile in this isolated wing. "Someone help me!"
"Scream all you want," Lucas taunts. "No one comes to this part of the house after dark."
He approaches me, crouching to my level. His fingers trace the chain of Kayden's pendant, still around my neck. "This won't protect you now."
With a sharp tug, he breaks the chain. The silver wolf pendant clatters to the floor, the sound echoing in the sparse room.
"There," he says with satisfaction. "Now you're just another unclaimed human. Fair game."
"I'll never be your game," I say, meeting his gaze defiantly.
His smile turns predatory. "We'll see."
Lucas humiliates me psychologically, circling and commenting on my body like livestock. He cuts my uniform with a claw, making me feel vulnerable, and forces me back to my knees when I try to move.
"This is where humans belong," he says, pressing a hand on my shoulder to keep me down. "Kneeling before their betters."
"Is this how you prove your strength?" I ask through gritted teeth. "By terrorizing those who can't fight back?"
His hand tangles in my hair again, yanking my head back. "You talk too much for a servant."
"And you're a coward hiding behind your status," I retort, unable to stop myself.
Rage flashes in his eyes. "I'll show you exactly what I am."
His face shifts, features elongating into something between human and beast—the partial transformation werewolves use to intimidate, with elongated teeth and claws.
I can't help the fear that courses through me at the sight. This is what killed my mother. This is what haunts my nightmares.
"Now you understand," he growls, voice deeper and distorted. "Now you fear me."
With a roar of rage, he raises his clawed hand. I close my eyes, bracing for pain—
"STOP!"
