The Hybrid King's Hidden Mate

Chapter 8: Leaving

-Amber-

I knew hybrid males were protective over the females. They didn’t have to be related or mates, but I didn’t care. I wanted out! I wanted my freedom. If I stayed, I knew exactly what would happen, and I couldn’t allow it. I wouldn’t allow it!

There was no way I would become the mother of the next hybrid child. Despite being just a little under 100 years old, I had barely experienced life. Though I appeared to be 25, I lacked the wisdom and experience of someone who had lived for only 25 years.

I had been hidden away. I had not even tasted what the world truly had to offer. So, I wasn’t ready to be someone’s mother, and more importantly, I certainly didn’t want to be the mother to the king’s child. We might be mates, but there would never be love between us.

I hated him, and even if what he said was true—that there was only one person he would ever love—I knew that if he learned whose daughter I was, he would rather kill me than f**k me.

“You want to repeat that?” he inquired, talking to me in a way that ensured I knew I was stepping on dangerous territory.

“Bite. Me.”

I would not show any sort of fear toward him or submission. He might be the king, but I did not care. I had been abducted because of him. He might not have played a part in it, but it was still because of him that I ended up in chains.

However, the king seemed to be losing his patience, yet I stood with my back straight and my chin in the air, showing him that I would not bow.

“I had a very effective way to make my little mate listen, but I can’t really use that on you,” he mumbled as he went to sit on a chair not far from me.

He appeared exhausted as he sat down and watched me. His head was tilted a little to the side, and it felt like he was studying me.

“I understand you don’t like me,” he began.

“Good, then I don’t have to spell it out for you.”

He narrowed his eyes, but he ignored my attitude. “And I know you didn’t want this either.”

“No, so let us just reject each other,” I suggested.

“Even if we do that, I cannot let you go. The world isn’t very safe for our kind. And while I know you have been able to stay hidden, rumors will be spreading, and soon everyone will know you exist,” he pointed out.

I swallowed hard, realizing what that meant. I could try to crawl into a dark hole, hoping no one would find me, but if they knew I existed, they would always try to bring me back to the king. They would lock us in a room together, and just wait.

Either the bond would get to us, or my heat would. Even as a hybrid, I still experienced them. Since I was more vampire, they happened every third year instead of every second year, and it was in these moments I could get pregnant.

It made me realize that I was left with no choice, because once I entered my heat, I wouldn’t be able to control my desires. I would throw myself at him without even thinking, knowing he was the only one that could make the pain go away.

The heats started when I had turned 18. It felt like I was going blind—blind with lust. I had no idea where I was or what I was even doing. Luckily, my mother knew of some herbs that could make them go away. She took them too, but I had run out of them not long ago, and I had no way of refilling them.

“So, I think it would be best if you stayed,” he said.

“No,” I replied.

“Little hybrid, you don’t really have a choice.”

“You don’t think I know that!” I growled at him, showing my fangs in the process, so he knew how agitated I was.

“I am not the enemy!” he reminded me.

“You are to me!”

“I am offering you a place to stay. Food. Security!”

“You are dooming me!” I yelled at him.

He growled annoyed and shook his head. “I am trying to keep you safe!”

“I didn’t ask you to!”

He sighed, rubbing his eyes, and clearly getting tired of my stubborn behavior. He drank what was left in the glass he had filled with alcohol, and then stood up.

“You want to go?” he asked.

I crossed my arms and nodded before he surprised me as he walked over to the door, holding it open. “Then go.”

I looked shocked at him, not expecting this. Was this a trick? I wondered. He merely gazed at me with serious eyes, but I didn’t trust him and took a careful step back.

“What? Now not so sure?” he taunted.

I didn’t answer him. He was confusing and scaring me a bit.

“This isn’t a trick,” he promised.

He could see that I didn’t believe him, and so he seemed to try to relax himself a bit, making himself seem less threatening.

“You are free to go. I am not here to hold you prisoner, but if you try to leave, you know as well as I that others will bring you back to me. I don’t even have to go search for you myself, which is what my wolf and instincts will beg me to. However, I will be able to calm them, knowing others are already taking care of that for me,” he said.

I knew he only spoke words that were true. He couldn’t help himself. Even if we weren’t mates, he would come search for me. He was wired to protect me. It wasn’t so strange that the hybrids had always been the rulers. They were indeed far stronger, but they also possessed an intense need to defend and preserve anything they cared about—a need stronger than that found in any other race.

“But if you stay, you will have a place to feel safe, a bed to sleep in, and food. I will make sure you are never hurt again, as my warriors will always be around. Really, running will do nothing for you. Others will see you and think you are a ticket straight to my good side. Staying would be the smart choice. So would eating the food I have prepared for you, and showering, and resting. You need all of that, and you can get it right here,” he told me.

He is... sadly... not wrong. My wolf was right, but why couldn’t he be wrong?

“I don’t want anything you are offering me!” I told him.

“Then go.”

I walked over to him. I knew I was making a stupid choice. He seemed to mean it when he said he didn’t want me and that the things he was offering to me were the only things he would offer.

However, I stopped as I reached him, leaning my head back so I could look at him. His entire body appeared to suddenly have grown. He seemed so tense, like he was ready to pounce on me or stop me from leaving. I swallowed hard because the sight of him growing before my eyes made me feel strangely excited.

I turned my eyes away from him, looking at the hallway. I couldn’t see anyone who was standing out there ready to stop me. I stepped a little forward, not quite into the hallway, but so I was just right there at the threshold. I poked my head outside and glanced both ways, making sure there wasn’t anybody out there.

“No one is there,” he told me.

I didn’t listen to him but looked around again, unsure if I could really take a step out without anyone stopping me. I acted like a wild animal that had been captured and was now being released into the wild again.

“I will tell my warriors not to stop you, but I cannot control what others might do,” he warned.

I looked up at him and just replied, “Okay.”

Then I turned my head away and took a step out into the hallway.

“Others might not want to hand you over, though,” he continued.

I froze as he said this.

“They might want you for themselves,” he explained.

I knew this, even though I had not put much thought into it. Most supported King Ronan, which meant I had always thought about people handing me over to him, but like my mother had been given to my father, there was a possibility others might keep me for themselves.

However, if I stayed here my fate would be sealed. We knew what would happen because when it came to continuing the hybrid line, the king’s opinion didn’t even matter. People could just be patient with us. They would wait until my heat lured him in, or even if the king could stop it in some way, the mate bond would get to us. Therefore, nothing but my freedom could help me.

I continued on, walking away and not even looking back before I quickly started to run, fearing the king might not keep his word and trap me again. But soon enough, I was outside, the moon shining in the sky and the cold wind hitting my skin.

I was free!