Page 5 of The Unwanted Mate of the Lycan Kings
“Maybe I will only put them through one test instead of the three this year.”The king chuckles.
“Your sons won’t like that,” Malachi tells the king as I follow, listening intently.
“They don’t have to.They want my decision, and this is how I will come to it.I am still king, and they will obey.”The king states, and Malachi nods his head once.“Now, prepare her, and tell my staff I will watch from the CCTV in my room, Malachi.I am much too tired tonight to stay out late.I guess I will see the results of The Maze Games by morning or sooner—” The king turns to glance at me.“I feel this one may surprise us,” he adds before turning and walking back toward the castle’s grand stairs.
Chapter 3
Instead of following the king into the granite castle, I amled around the back.We follow a paved path lined with hedges before it opens into an expanse of cobblestone.In the distance, the guards stand at attention outside the royal stables.
Broken sobs and high-pitched wails grow louder as I’m led closer to the guards.My stomach flutters, and I wonder what they are doing to the women held hostage here.A guard shoves me through the open door, and I find the crying women standing naked before a line of empty stables.
An older woman wearing a black tunic and white apron is scrubbing their flesh and turning it pink.I am shoved forward again toward another woman with a less severe face.She is younger, and her hands are surprisingly gentle as she grabs my arms to steady me.
Her dark auburn hair is tied back, revealing soft moss-green eyes and delicate features.She appears to be a little older than me.
“How do you expect to put on a show for the kings smelling like you rolled with pigs!”The older woman scolds a prisoner as she scrubs her with a pumice stone.I glance at the poor girl with teary eyes and wonder if I should offer to swap places with her.The other girls are lined up behind her, theirnaked skin still red from the vicious scrubbing.
They are shaking in fear as they use their hands to cover their nudity from the leering gazes of the men standing to one side, sending disgusting glances their way.They aren’t even trying to be subtle about it.
One man is openly looking at the girl from my community who is only a few years older than me.His blood-red eyes watch her as a predator would watch its prey.His tongue flicks over sharp fangs protruding from his pale lips, and I realize these men are vampires.
Shaking my head, I turn to face the young maid tugging at my clothes in frustration.“What’s this made of?”she mumbles to herself as she struggles to undress me.
The older woman in a black tunic snaps her head in our direction, narrowing her snake-like eyes on us, and it’s obvious she’s a shifter of some kind.The young maid tries to work faster under the scrutiny of the shifter’s venomous stare, and as I watch her, one thing becomes abundantly clear; the young woman pulling on my clothes is also human.
From what I can see, she has normal eyes and teeth, and she can’t be a lycan because female lycans don’t exist anymore.Granny used to tell me about the times when some were still in existence, but that was before a brokenhearted witch cursed the lycans when her sister was killed.
The story goes that the witch’s sister was half lycan and half witch until her mate turned her into a full lycan.She was mated to a king, or so Granny said, and consumed with anger, the king accidentally killed her.Her coven helped her place a curse on lycans so that they could no longer bear daughters, and when the last female lycan died, it would force them into extinction.
Lycan men are brutal, possessive beasts, and as their female numbers dropped, they were forced to share.
It served them right, my granny had said, for they didn’t deserve the blessing of the Moon Goddess, only the death of the Grim Reaper.
Stupidly, the men didn’t believe the witch.Ego wantedto prove that they could father a girl, prove that her curse was a sham and an empty threat.It wasn’t until they realized they could only bear sons that they truly understood the gravity and implications of going against the High Priestess witch.
In revenge, the lycans killed her entire coven, but the curse remained, and ever since, their greed for lycan women made them murderous savages.Wars were fought over those remaining, and they were hunted to extinction.
Lycans spent many years mating with humans and werewolves, but since the curse, no partial lycan baby born has ever been a girl.Granny used to talk about the day when the four lycan kingdoms would fall and no more lycans would exist, and I couldn’t wait for that day.Only now, I may not live to see their downfall.
The human woman yanks on my sleeves when a loud feminine shriek rings out.My head turns to see the vile vampire trying to pull a girl away from the other women.
“Neil!Leave the girl!”the stern woman snaps at him.
“Just want a taste, Lina,” he growls and whines in the same breath, like a toddler throwing a tantrum.“Mm, she smells...”He buries his face in her neck while she stands frozen with her eyes wide like saucers.“Virginal,” he purrs.
“Pathetic,” I mutter, not realizing I spoke out loud.
His head lifts.“What did you say?”he snarls, shoving her away.The human woman trying to untie my top grips my arms tightly, and when I turn, her frightened eyes lock onto mine in warning.
Death is not something I have ever feared, and this vampire will not be the one to instill it in me.
“I said you’re pathetic.It’s amazing how predators feel so strong hurting the weak.”I spit at him, shocked at the venom in my voice and how steady and clear my words sound.
He laughs, “And what are you, little girl, predator or prey?”
“Both!”I answer.
The young woman tugs at my leather top, twisting thelaces to untie them.I pull away, and she gives me a questioning look as I undo my clothes myself.I don’t want them ruined.I only just made these with a deer hide I found.
