Rhea’s POV
“Please! Don’t kill me, please! I’m begging you!” The injured man pleaded with me heartily. He was so close to dying, his wolf gave up his form and made him turn into his human self.
“I’m sorry” I said to him internally without letting him hear it, before I forced my wolf to bite his throat out and end his life.
His animalistic, pain filled screams, tore my heart out, which subsequently caused me to wake up from my night terror.
I sat up from my thin, ragged rug that I’ve been sleeping on ever since I can remember. My heartbeat was going crazy from the nightmare but I willed it to slow down to a normal rate. My breathing was fine, my face was blank. Good job Rhea. Perfect as always, just another normal ish, everyday nightmare, no big deal. I complimented myself.
I looked around and saw everyone around me on the forest ground still sleeping soundly, and I felt better knowing no one was awake to hear my struggle and get suspicious that I was suddenly growing a conscience for being a heartless, cold blooded killer. Yes, that’s what I am, and I won’t deny it.
Don’t you judge me from your little, prefect, peaceful corner of the world!
It's not like I had any other choice in the matter!
I was raised into this merciless life and there was no other way to live it but to play the only part of the game that will let me survive it, that will keep me alive.
Perhaps I should start at the beginning.
My name is Rhea, just Rhea, no last name. Because I don’t know where I come from or who my parents are…were.
I don’t even know if that’s my real name.
I am eighteen years old… I think. I don’t know when my birthday is. My wolf’s name is Hazel. She woke up in my head when I was sixteen but I had no idea what day it was to figure out the date of my birth. She’s my only person. The only one I trust and share my deepest secrets with, because I know she would never betray me with them.
I was raised by the Victor pack since I was four years old. It’s named after its Alpha. We are currently at three hundreds and fifty werewolves, plus one mean and vicious warlock. It is considered one of the most powerful and ruthless rogue packs in the whole states.
Rogue packs are savages, blood thirsty and rabid killers. They don’t have a place they can call home. They don’t belong anywhere or settle down in a place for more than one week. Our home is the forest. Our food is the animals our wolves can hunt with their teeth. Our purpose in life is to travel around and target packs. We attack it, kill any member of it that fights back, and anyone who wants to join our pack is welcome to. As soon as they prove their loyalty by killing the rest of their pack members. We don’t leave anyone alive behind, that includes women, elderly, and kids. Everyone has to either die or join us, there is no third option. We don’t take anything of value from them other than some clothes and basic necessities. We destroy and torch their places and move on to our next pack.
That’s how it was and how it has always been here. But I was the only exception. And I still to this day, don’t know why I was that exception.
Alpha Victor spared my life fourteen years ago. He didn’t let anyone kill me like they killed the rest of the pack I was living in, like they killed my parents, possibly my aunts, uncles, grandparents, brothers, or sisters. I don’t know how many family members I actually had when the pack was attacked. All I know was, alpha Victor asked everyone to not hurt me and keep an eye on me until I was old enough to fully depend on myself.
All of my memories are about this pack. I don’t remember anything before I was brought here when I was still a toddler.
I didn’t have someone to take care of me, feed me, chase my fears away, love me, hug me, or kiss my pain away. That’s not what this pack is about.
I was tossed around from a heartless monster to another heartless monster to be looked after. The rogues are not the parenting, lovey dovey type. My childhood consisted of obeying orders and getting punished if I don’t. Until I was eleven and was considered old enough to take care of myself.
I learned the hard way that if I want the beatings and mistreatments to stop, I have to be like them. A heartless, insensitive monster. And that’s exactly what I became.
I never allowed anyone to question my place in this pack. To doubt my loyalty to the alpha who I secretly loath with my whole heart. I played my part well, very well. I hunted with them, killed with them, and celebrated the blood shed with them.
I realized the painful way, not to ask questions about why I was the only kid allowed to live with them and be raised by them when they never take kids at all.
I learned to bury my pain deep inside me where no one can know how much I hate and loath myself every time I have to kill innocent people and pretend to be thrilled about it and reveling in it.
Except I keep getting haunted by the people I’ve murdered in cold blood all this time. Every night, I have to watch myself killing one of them as they beg me not to. But I learned to control them because otherwise they would make me vulnerable to the pack and my loyalty will be questioned.
Even if it kills me and destroys me to kill people, I still force myself and my wolf to do it.
It fucked me up in major ways, I thought it would drive me crazy, but I learned to live with it along the way. I learned to hide my pain and not let it out until I was alone. I mourned every single innocent life I have taken in my own way. I punished myself for killing them with my own hands. It was the only way I was able to keep going.
I wanted out, but I had no way to do it. Not alive.
Alpha Victor keeps us on a tight leash.
He has a hundred years old, powerful warlock that would track us down if we ever thought about leaving the pack.
Leaving means dying, and despite how horrible my life has been, I still had hope for a better life without them. Which is quite crazy considering I’m too fucked up to even cling to hope.
I lift up the sleeve of my worn out jumper and burrow my wolf’s claws.
I dig the claw of my forefinger deeply into the inside flesh of my elbow, drawing blood instantly. I breathe out through the pain and close my eyes, welcoming it like an addict welcomes his next fix. I let the pain consume me, I focus on it with every fiber of my being. The physical pain relieves the greater pain of my messed up heart that I carry around inside my chest. It takes away all my suffering and all my undying, ever lasting regret for the sins I’ve committed.
That’s the solution I have come up with to keep my head from going crazy, to keep me from unraveling. And it works every time.
“Attack!”
A shriek booms from the depth of the thick forest, interrupting my momentary bliss.
An attack… on us! Well, here’s a first.
Adrian’s POV“Dammit Alec you stupid son of a bitch!”I bang my fist hard on the surface of my desk, causing a huge crack to form there.“Adrian, calm down! You won’t do your brother any good if you keep punching stuff. We need to figure out a way to locate him” said Derek, my beta, grimly.I gave him a hard look and said sternly “There is no fucking way we haven’t tried Derek! They must have cast a spell on him to prevent us from locating him. Goddess only knows if he’s even alive right now!”“I’m sure he is. Why would they kill his whole army and kidnap him if he’s already dead? If they wanted him dead, they would have left his body with the rest of them for us to find” said Derek firmly.“Well, why would they kidnap him in the first place? That’s what I don’t get. The only thing I can think of is…” I couldn’t even say it out loud, but I’ve been thinking about it. And I can tell Derek was thinking the same thing.They’re torturing him. Maybe for information about the location of our
Rhea’s POVI shuddered in my place when the whip brutally hit the man’s back, slashing through his skin and causing another cut to form on his back among the many cuts he already had. His back was full of them now. After two hours of non stop torture, the man was still surprisingly conscious till now, which is unfortunate for him.I was watching it all with a cold, satisfied smile on my face. To my fellow rogues, I appeared just as excited for his torture as the rest of them.Many of them lingered around the first day to witness his pain with their own eyes.It was day two now, and I was the only one watching him get whipped relentlessly. But still I had to keep my facial expression the same in case someone joins us.His agonized screaming has been hacking away at my heart, tearing it into pieces. Even though he was supposed to be the enemy, I felt extremely bad for him. I felt his pain as if it was mine, I felt the whip cut me just like it was doing to him, and I had to resist to kee
Rhea’s POVI whipped him once more and threw the whip into the ground, my stomach was churning inside me and I knew I can’t whip him anymore unless I want to throw up.“Fine, pretend to be passed out if you hear anyone approaching” I said tightly.He looked at me in suspicion, not sure why I didn’t just knock him out myself or carried on with the torture when I didn’t get what I wanted from him.I was about to go rest my back against the nearby tree and pretend to be on watch when I remembered something.My humanity stood its ground and urged me to have more sympathy for his condition. They haven’t given him a drop of water or any food since they strung him up here. He must be thirsty as hell.I pulled out an old, used up, plastic water bottle from the pocket of my black hoodie, opened it, and brought it to his lips.To my surprise, he backed away and shook his head “I’ll pass” he whispered stubbornly even though I could see him almost salivating for a gulp.I furrowed my eyebrows “It
Rhea’s POVHe was about to say something but changed course and said after a few seconds in a sober tone “The top row, third one from the right”I clicked on each number he guided me through until I finished the last number.“Now you need to write something, so he’ll know it’s from me and not a trap to lure him out” he said firmly then guided me through another set of buttons representing letters.I started sweating as this was taking too damn long and I was starting to get more nervous of being discovered before I was done.“Click that button on the top right side, yes….ok now it’s done. You can lock the phone by pressing the button on the side” he said in relief.I breathed out and went back to sit on the ground again.I was about to tie the phone back to my calf when Hazel alerted me that someone was approaching us.From the corner of my eye, I saw the alpha tense up, as he too heard them coming our way.I didn’t have time to untie the rope and then tie it back around the phone, so
Rhea’s POV“No wonder the alpha here didn’t tell you shit! You hit like a little girl, Stefan” I said lightly.Another biting lash opened up a new gash against my back while I bit back my scream as my tears kept flowing freely down my face.My back was catching on fire, and I could feel my blood trickling down my back and drenching my already dirty jeans.The hoodie I had on was still on me, except the back was completely shredded now. It barely took ten of Stefan’s extremely vicious lashes on it to tear it apart. It was already ragged to begin with. After that, my bare back took all the still ongoing punishment.I had no idea how long it has been or how many lashes I received, but I could assume it’s been more than half an hour at least.I was making fun of Stefan the whole time, trying my best not to let him hear me scream in pain and give him the satisfaction.It only made him hurt me more.“Will you shut up and stop taunting him! he hits like a fucking beast! It hurts Rhea” Hazel
Rhea’s POV “The mate bond will make me able to control your emotions, your way of thinking, and your human urges. I will be able to make you forget all about them the second we are connected. I can feed you all my emotions and overwhelm you with them. Of course because I’m an alpha, you won’t be able to push yours on me at all. My feelings will become your feelings, my urges will be yours. Your humanity will not stand a chance against me, Rhea, trust me. It will work” he said lustfully. It's the very first time I detect the hint of his lust for me. It made bile rise up my throat. Usually he ignores me and never bothers to look my way, unless I’ve done something wrong. But the look in his eyes made me feel like he truly wanted me for more than just to help me erase my humanity. He wanted my body, as well. I could tell from the way his eyes roamed all over me hungrily. Why the fuck did he pick me to get obsessed over? And how long has this obsession been going without my notice? I c
Adrian’s POV As soon as we portaled to the location sent through my phone, I got hit with a scent so strong, it momentarily made my wolf sway on his four legs. Sweeter than honey, and yet spicy and sour all at the same time. I’ve never smelled something with this kind of weird, impossible combination before. Lennox; my wolf was taking huge whiffs of it, practically tripping up on that scent. I ordered him tightly “Focus Lennox, my brother’s life is only the line here! No time for a distraction” “But the smell Adrian! It’s calling me to it, it’s intoxicating me!” he growled in my head. “Alpha!” my beta Derek called to me through the mind link. My warlock portaled over three hundreds of my warriors to this forest, and they were all waiting for my command. “We need to follow the scent!” Lennox barked in my head while I fought to keep him in his place. Dammit! I was slowly losing my control over him, he was going crazy as the scent kept forcing itself into our system. I ordered
Adrian’s POV“Why would she do that?” I asked tightly.“Because She’s not like the rest of them” he said confidently.I shook my head at him “She’s not”He raised his eyebrows and said suspiciously “That’s fast”“She’s the worst of them. Because she was able to fool you into making a promise you shouldn’t have made in the first fucking place!” I yelled angrily at him.Alec’s eyes glowed in anger and he said tightly “Adrian, I’m not an idiot ok? When I say she is different from them, then you should take my word for it. She made a deal with me to save my life by contacting you in exchange for her freedom, and she held up her end perfectly because here you are. Without her, I would have been dead and you would have never been able to find me in time. She earned her freedom”“You can’t let her leave like that! She’s our mate Adrian! Claim her!” Lennox growled in my head.“For goddess’s sake!” I muttered under my breath.My brother wants me to let her go, my wolf wants me to claim her and