Chapter 5

HAZEL

The orders were clear, and Trixy couldn’t disobey them even if she tried.

Our faces contorted in fear when we heard the sounds. The sound of leather landing on her skin with a whipping sound that bounced off the walls made me clench my eyes shut.

She screamed one quick scream that faded into a choking sob. I wanted to move, to run in there and knock him to the ground—just long enough for Iliana to run away.

“He’ll kill us.”

“I know, but he’s hurting her,” I said, trying to reason, but I knew it wasn’t her fault that I couldn’t move. The King’s orders were different from an Alpha’s. Our Alpha’s orders were strong but could, in certain situations, still be disobeyed. Darian’s orders were different; it was physically impossible for us to defy them.

It was quiet for a while before Iliana’s choked screams filled the room and seeped out through the cracks in the broken boards, cutting into my ears like razor blades.

If a shattered soul had a face, with eyes and a mouth, and looked like us, it would be what I was looking at. Iliana walked out differently from when she walked in.

Her dress strap hung off her shoulder, and she sniffled and wiped her red nose as she walked back to the line. I gulped and tried not to stare, but it was hard. Her face was bright red, and her eyes were watery after the twenty minutes that had passed. I wanted to say, “I’m sorry,” but I doubted it’d make a difference or be close to enough for what she’d endured.

My stomach turned, and I had been on the verge of throwing up since the door closed with Iliana and the King alone in that room. The other girls were staring down at their feet. Nobody had even a glimpse of joy on their faces anymore.

“Hazel, is it not?” Darian asked as he walked out of the room. While he was walking over, my eyes immediately went to the black leather belt wrapped tightly around his large hand, covering his knuckles and folding as he closed his fingers. He rolled down the sleeves of his black dress shirt, and the leather belt wrapped around his hand reflected something under the light. I looked closer and noticed something on the golden clasp. Something was smeared on the metal, and I saw the same splatter on his chest, in the little space I could see between the two buttons he had left undone.

Holy shit.

I looked down when I spotted the crimson liquid, swallowed the bile that was on its way up, and forced out a “Yes, my King.”

He stood in front of me and buttoned his shirt. He slowly undid the belt from his hand, and as he did, I noticed the blood drying in the creases of his hand. I was careful, as careful as I could be, not to get caught staring, but Darian noticed my eyes taking in the splatter for less than a second, and I thought my heart would drop. I couldn’t see his face, but I saw Darian drag his finger over the dried splatter and bring it to his mouth, where his lips closed above the ring and he sucked the blood clean from his skin.

It wasn’t anger I saw on his face, nor was it lust or contempt. It was just… emptiness. A hollow black hole with nothingness at its core.

“Hazel.” He didn’t say it as a question or an opening. There was nothing that followed my name, but the way he said it—to hear my name spoken with a darkness so deep—had my blood freezing, sending cold shocks through my veins.

He moved to the girl who still stood with her chest bare and watched her.

She did as she was told and then stepped back.

It didn’t make sense to me why some were kneeling and others were not. Was this some sort of screening where the King chose who would continue to the Hunt?

My nerves needed answers, but it didn’t seem like I was going to get any from him. King Darian walked to the door located behind us. The screening seemed to be done, and I was standing alongside three other girls: Iliana, Liv, and Caitlyn.

King Darian left, and Liv quickly took out the gloss she had hidden between her breasts, puffing out a breath and thanking the gods that it wasn’t her dress he’d ripped.

A natural cherry pink sparkled on her lips as she dragged the brush across them in haste. She hurried to put it away, but I knew that if anyone noticed—whether it was an Alpha or Lady Hale—Liv would be in trouble.

Everything was planned to a T when it came to the control they held over the people.

Humans and werewolves were believed to be vastly different, with humans being inferior to us. But one thing we all agreed on was that the Council was not to be messed with. They and the Lycan King were the only two entities that could instill fear in the bravest soldier.

There was a tale we were told when we were young about the castle where the Lycan King and his ancestors before him resided. The tale spoke of the castle growing on top of the bones and ashes of the burnt villagers who had once occupied the land. The villagers—the humans.

The door opened with a shriek, and a gust of wind swept in and swirled around our barely covered bodies. Lady Hale stepped inside with Captain Tala—stiff like a soldier but swifter than a fly—by her side. They walked across the room, their eyes scanning us girls carefully before landing on Iliana, who was shivering as she stood staring at the floor. Her body was weak and trembling, and her skin had red patches that were loosely covered by the sheer fabric of her white dress.

The raggedy door screeched painfully as it opened, revealing yet another door behind it—thicker, sturdier, and made of metal. The key entered the three different locks, and each produced a new sound that made me flinch as Lady Hale turned it.

Rotting flesh and tear-inducing odors were left behind as the door slowly pushed open to reveal the rest of the house. The part where the men gathered.

Red-colored walls and golden linings adorned the candelabras while the fire roared in the pit. The ambrosial smell nearly had me falling over. It wasn’t at all like the smells we had been forced to suffer through for the past few hours.

Wasn’t this the perfect depiction of our societal norms, though? Our Alphas, our leaders, with a drink in hand, sitting by the fire or watching through the panoramic window while we were stuck in sweat and decay, waiting to be judged and hunted.

I gritted my teeth to dust and tried—I really did—to remain calm.