from lust to hatred
1030 Words
I didn’t move at first. I couldn’t.
The stone floor was cold beneath my skin, but it was nothing compared to the numbness spreading through my body. I was sore, every part of me aching from what we’d just done—what I thought had been… something real. For a moment, I believed I had seen something soft in Kael’s eyes. A connection. Warmth, even.
But then his expression twisted. His silver eyes darkened. And everything changed.
Without a word, he grabbed me—rough, violent—and threw me across the room like I was nothing.
I hit the wall hard. My ribs screamed in protest as I crumpled to the floor. Dazed. Naked. Confused.
I didn’t even get to ask why before the first slap came. My face snapped to the side. His breath was hot and ragged. Fury poured off him in waves. He was shaking—not from exhaustion, but from rage. And it was directed at me.
“Tainted blood,” he snarled. “You think I’d ever want you?”
The next few days blurred into one long nightmare.
He beat me. Mocked me. Called me things I’d only ever heard whispered about monsters and outcasts. In the darkness of his chambers, he unleashed every ounce of hatred he carried for me—and maybe for himself, too. During the day, he ignored me. At night, he became something else entirely.
The others noticed the bruises, of course. But no one said a word. I was just the slave girl who’d somehow angered the alpha. Nothing more.
I stopped looking at my reflection. I didn’t want to see what he’d made me into.
But the worst part wasn’t the pain. It was the confusion.
Why had he touched me so gently before? Why had the moon glowed red on our skin like that? Why did my heart still race when I heard his footsteps, even though I was terrified of what came next?
The answer came one evening when I thought I’d finally found a moment of peace, curled beneath the moonflower tree. My face still throbbed from the last beating. I hugged my knees tightly, trying to feel like I was still in my own body.
Then he showed up.
Kylie.
“You didn’t know, did you?” he said, squatting beside me like we were childhood friends.
I didn’t answer. I couldn’t trust my voice. Not around anyone in this cursed place.
He brushed a leaf from my shoulder. I flinched.
“The mark,” he said casually. “It means you're mates now. Fated by the Moon Goddess.”
I stared at him. How did he know? I wondered.
“That’s why he’s losing his mind,” he continued, a smirk playing on his lips. “Because his mate isn’t some noble alpha princess. It’s you. A half-breed. A slave.”
The words should’ve broken me, but they didn’t. I was too far gone for that.
“So he hates me because he can't escape it?”
Kylie nodded. “Exactly. And he’ll keep taking it out on you until it kills you.”
My hands trembled. “Why tell me this?”
“Because I don’t want you dead,” he said, standing. “Not yet. You might be useful.”
Then he walked away.
Useful.
The word echoed in my head all night.
The next evening, while cleaning the training hall, I felt another presence behind me. I braced myself, expecting Kael—or worse.
But it was the girl from the banquet. The one who spilled the wine.
Her eyes were wide, guilt heavy in them. “I didn’t mean for this to happen,” she whispered. “Please don’t scream.”
“What do you mean?” I asked, barely above a whisper.
“I put the aphrodisiac in the wine,” she admitted. “It was meant for me.”
My blood ran cold.
“Kylie told me to do it. Said it was a harmless joke. That Kael needed a push to claim a mate. He promised I’d get to be with him if I—”
She cut herself off, shaking her head. “But he sent you to serve the wine. And I didn’t realize until it was too late.”
I felt like vomiting. The whole thing—Kael’s sudden lust, the blood moon mark, the bond—planned.
“Kylie set me up,” I breathed.
She nodded. “I’m sorry.”
I looked her dead in the eyes. “Then help me escape.”
Her mouth parted in shock, but after a long pause, she whispered, “Tonight. Before moonrise.”
We waited until the halls grew quiet and the fires burned low. I slipped into a borrowed cloak, covering every bruise, every scar. The maid handed me a pouch—food, water, a bit of dried meat.
“You’ll have to go through the eastern gate,” she said. “The guards there are lazy. You’ll have a better chance.”
I nodded once. No goodbye. No promises. Just the dull ache of my heart and the memory of Kael’s hands—so gentle one night, so cruel the next.
I ran.
The cold bit at my skin, but I welcomed it. Every gust of wind, every thorny branch that scraped my arms reminded me—I was still alive.
To my surprise, the guards at the gate were fast asleep, as if drugged. Not once during our escape did we encounter resistance. Even the corridor, usually buzzing with gossiping maidservants, had fallen eerily silent.
I was suspicious. The little maid couldn't have orchestrated something this elaborate on her own. No—this had Kylie written all over it. Another one of his schemes, no doubt. And yet... I had to escape. Even knowing this was a trap, the bait was simply too tempting to ignore.
I crossed the gate. Slipped into the forest. And vanished into the dark.
Free.
But only for a moment.
A howl ripped through the night behind me.
Not just any howl.
His.
Kael had discovered I was gone.
And now… he was coming.
- Writer
