The Hybrid King's Hidden Mate

Chapter 2: Chained Up

-Amber-

I was so cold. My whole body shivered, causing the chains to shake, producing small clinging sounds as they moved with me. I was hungry too, practically starving, not just for food, but also for blood. As a hybrid, I could survive on regular food, but my powers wouldn’t be at their best if I didn’t drink blood as well. Sadly, I had barely been fed regular food. They had to keep me weak. Otherwise, I might break the chains and run out of here.

I knew why they had taken me and what they intended to use me for, but there was no way I would do what they wanted. I was born to live my life and be free, though I had never really felt free. After my mother died only two years ago, I ventured out of the little safe place she had created for me. I wanted to see more of the world. I didn’t want to be hidden away like I had been my whole life.

Unfortunately, it didn’t take long before someone noticed I was different, that I was indeed a hybrid. I should have been more careful, but it’s easy to blame yourself after the mistake has been made. Now I had to live with it...

We will find our way out, my wolf assured me.

I wasn’t so sure about that, though. I understood why she stayed optimistic, but I didn’t feel the same. It felt like I was in some way living my mother’s life, and I feared I would end up just like her.

“I’m not so sure,” I whispered.

We need to stay strong. Once the king appears, we should kill him, she suggested.

“I have never killed anyone,” I said. And I didn’t want to, even if his death bought my freedom.

Let me do it, she offered.

“Why do you want to kill someone?”

Because you can’t do it.”

I sighed, shaking my head. “Killing him won’t be the answer.”

It’s the only answer, insisted my wolf.

I shook my head, vehemently disagreeing. I refused to become a killer. I wasn’t a bad person, and I didn’t want blood on my hands.

“How would you even do it?” I inquired.

Wait for him to get close enough.

“When would that be?”

Once he wants to mate with us, she explained.

I shivered at the thought. There would be no need for consent. I was merely the one who had to carry the child, but there was no way I would let that happen.

“I’m not sleeping with him!” I growled back.

No! Of course we aren’t!

“Then what do you mean then?”

We just need to wait for that moment, and before he gets the chance to... eh, actually do it, we kill him, she clarified.

“So, we are killers now?” I retorted.

We are nothing but a vessel to them. To him. But you know we are more! We both do. We deserve our freedom. I don’t care what it costs us.

“You do know if we kill him and they catch us, they won’t show mercy, right?”

So, we don’t get caught.

I shook my head again. It felt strange to even move my body when I had been sitting still for so long, but it helped get the blood inside me flowing, and that meant I got a little warmer.

“I can’t do it,” I said.

That is why you have me!

“We should just find a way to escape. None of us have to become killers.”

My wolf growled, displeased. To her, the solution was simple: kill the person standing in our way. But I knew she was forgetting that it wasn’t just one person who stood in our way. If the king didn’t make me his, then someone else would. I still carried powerful blood, which meant powerful heirs.

That’s why killing him is our only solution, my wolf insisted.

I shook my head. “We will figure out something else,” I said, ending the discussion there.

I leaned my head back against the wall behind me. I was so tired and so hungry. I smacked my dry lips together, but I didn’t taste any blood. I was imagining it. When would this hell end? I wondered.