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. They knew I wouldn’t sit quietly and be offered away like some sacrificial lamb.

I knew why they had taken me and what they intended to use me for, but there was no way I would spread my legs and bear the next hybrid. I was not born to be a breeder. I was born to live my life and be free, though I had never really felt free.

My mother was the one who taught me never to let anyone control me. She wished she had had more power and had fought against those who forced her together with my dad. I never met him. I was born a little under 100 years ago and kept mostly a secret, just like my mother had been.

My father, however, was born from a powerful vampire line, which made me a little more vampire, but it didn’t change much about me. I still had the powers of a wolf. However, changing to my other form was a little more difficult for me, and if I stayed in it for too long, it could have some physical consequences. But I was still as strong as any female hybrid.

My mother ran away with me, but she made sure to keep me a secret. To my father, I was a powerful card. To my mother, I was her precious treasure. Sadly, she knew the world would see me as my father did.

My mother had been controlled by distant family members after her own parents were killed. She came from an old hidden hybrid line, one that was never written about, which helped her stay a secret.

But her family had other plans and bound her to my father. It was why it was so important for her to teach me to live my life and never bow to anyone else. She told me that even if I had the power to continue the line, it didn’t mean I should. I had as much of a choice as anyone else.

Or so I thought, at least. 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.

Even though my mother had given me a good life, I knew I was missing something. 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... Now I would become the mother to the last hybrid in the world.

It wasn’t surprising that people were fighting over me to hand me over to the king. They all wanted the praise and the reward for finding me. Bastards…

More like assholes! I chuckled, as my wolf offered me a little bit of comfort. She was the only one I had to talk to in this smelly old cell I had been locked in. They were bastards, and assholes, and I could come up with so many other words to describe them, but I was wasting energy even thinking about them.

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?” I asked.

Because you can’t do it, she pointed out.

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. Besides, there was a good chance that if I killed him, I would most likely be killed myself.

“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?” I asked.

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?” I warned.

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! my wolf proclaimed.

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

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. My mother had been gifted to a powerful vampire instead of being given to the king. Before she was bound to my father, the king still had his mate. However, he didn’t anymore. I learned from my mother that she was killed by the man who ended up having her.

Yes, my father cost the king his mate because my father wanted her. He thought, before knowing about my mother, she was the last hybrid female. She wasn’t, it turned out. My mother ran away after my father was killed.

The king had promised revenge on everyone who had anything to do with his mate’s death. It was shortly after my mother became pregnant. She found a way to escape and hide away with me, giving me many years of what resembled almost freedom, true freedom. Something she had never felt. Something I now would never truly feel.

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 really needed blood. I had been without proper food for too long, so now the bloodthirst was even stronger. Even thinking about blood made it feel like I could somehow taste it. I smacked my dry lips together, but I didn’t taste any blood. I was imagining it. When would this hell end? I wondered.