Chapter 44

Seris’s POV

His hands closed around my throat, crushing every breath until my scream fractured into silence. I fought, clawed at his grip, but there was no sound—no one could hear me, no one could come. “You thought you could escape me, you worthless bitch!” he snarled, and with a savage blow to my cheek, sent me sprawling onto the rough, gravel-strewn ground. Sharp stones bit into my flesh, cutting me where I landed. “Not even your precious Alpha King can save you now!”

Panic seized me as I tried to scramble away, each desperate gasp producing only a hushed rasp. Above me loomed the cruel figure of Malrik Corebane, his eyes alight with vicious triumph, the braided leather whip coiled in his hand. “Run again, will you?” he taunted, flicking the whip so that it lacerated my arm. I cried out, tears mingling with blood, heart hammering, as he drove the whip down again and again. My pleas for mercy drifted into the night, unheard and unheeded.

I forced myself up