#Chapter 3 Escaping Royalty

Elena’s POV

Unable to sleep more than 40 minutes I awake to my pounding heart.

King Harvey will take my virginity in three days. I have never even had a boyfriend!

According to every rumor I have heard, King Harvey is ruthless and cold. How could I feel comfortable to just let him… give him my virginity?

Exhaling heavily, I try to calm my thundering heart and empty stomach. Lying down, I force myself to breathe through my mouth and try to remember breathing exercises.

Nothing comes to mind.

I can just picture my sister crying over the phone to my dad, wondering where I am.

Between the threat of my virginity being taken from me and worrying over my sister, I know I must escape. When I try to get up out of bed, it feels as if my skin peels off my back.

“Damn it.” I whisper to myself and grimace at the disgusting feeling.

Literally sewn back together like a doll.

I place my hand on my back carefully and feel a patch of bandages. Warm, harsh, yet dry. That is a slight relief.

One final breath brutally flows through my body, and I steel my nerves.

I must be brave now.

The window in front of me has bars on it and is flanked by a red velvet curtain. In the same gap between these curtains is a soft moonlight.

In one harsh moment from my sitting position, I thrust myself out of bed and almost collide with the wall. Using it to keep me steady, I press a hand to the wall and inch closer and closer to the front door.

A soft beeping follows my every step.

Glancing down at the sound, I can see a little red dot blinking at my ankle.

They have me under house arrest? I am being monitored, like a prisoner.

I can’t even run, but under the night sky maybe I will have some time and a way out. The knife in my dress is still there. I can feel the weight of it.

The sound of utensils clattering makes me jump back and scramble to hide behind the velvet curtain that drapes the window.

Angling myself so that I can peer out from the side of the velvet curtain, I see the silhouette of the young maid in the crack of the door open ajar.

The inky black silhouette stomps her foot. “That stupid mortal woman! It will take me two seconds to kill her, then King Harvey will be mine!”

Another voice enters the fray, smoky and low. I can see the silhouette of curled, voluminous hair and a fit body.

“Where is that human?! I will never understand how she will be King Harvey’s mate! I will rip her to shreds!”

“I can’t believe she is worthy of being King Harvey’s mate! A weak, stupid human? No, no way! What he needs is a real woman, a she-wolf.”

The smoky low voice laughs loudly. “How can a mere human woman even have withstood sex with him? She won’t. We should kill her to save him time.”

I jump back at her vicious snarling and crunching fangs.

The maid takes in an audible trembling breath. “No,” she starts as gently as possible. “T-that human is the mate that King Harvey retrieved himself. He needs her to relieve him of his agony from his heat of the full moon. Only she will do it. Until that time, she is to remain unharmed. King Harvey has demanded that of us.”

Mummering of other women enter the conversation and stun me. How many women, are they women? She-wolves are there? Some more snarling causes me to pause and try to count the voices. One, two, three just snarled so bad she sounds like a motorcycle… and the one that sounds like the leader. Four of them.

“How is that possible? Humans can’t bear the pain of having sex with a werewolf!” She-wolf three just yelled.

“Humans are so pathetic and weak,” the leader she-wolf spits. “They will be killed within the first two minutes. Their bodies are too soft, they have no pain threshold!”

Placing my hands over my face, I stop myself from screaming into my hands. Sweat breaks out on my forehead as I slump down the wall and land on the floor like a broken doll.

How will I survive? I won’t. Between King Harvey being cold and ruthless, and not even human, how will I get through the night? He is not human…anywhere on his body.

Just his fighting prowess alone rivals five bodybuilders. He is infinitely stronger than I, and how will I manage to live through his sex drive?

Let alone his heat, isn’t that when they go like sex crazy?

There is no doubt in my mind I will die at the hands of King Harvey.

How am I going to escape? The window is protected, and this front door has a collection of were wolves.

Three days to get out, three days.

I need to look around where I am. I am in a beautiful room but is this a castle? He is a king, right? It could be a fort?

Breathe, breathe.

I take a deep breath and try to think.

How can I escape as a human surrounded by werewolves? Is there anything that will change my scent? But does that matter with all their heightened senses?

Is there another way out?

As quickly as my wounded back allows me, I walk around the bed and look under to see if there is a trap door.

There is nothing.

Taking a step back, I see the canopy moves slightly… the wind comes from behind the headboard of the bed and drifts forward through the front door.

There must be another window somewhere.

I walk past the bed and see an open window, just big enough for me to get through. Standing on my tiptoes, I grit my teeth. A fire explodes down my back. How can I reach this window? My heels?

Standing as straight as I can and swallowing down my whimpers of pain, I rush back to my heels and carry them in my hand. Thinking quickly, I take a pillow with me and throw it out the window. The soft thud it creates tells me I am on the third floor.

In front of the window again, I slip them on and climb through the window as my back twists in pain.

Ignoring the blood in my mouth, I land on the pillow ass first. Pain surges up my back three times then leaves me winded.

I need my back healed.

In one cold and piercing drawn breath, I force down my pain and the dizziness I feel. Standing up unstably, I will take the pillow with me under my arm. I could always use it on my lump bed.

"Where do you want to go?"

A masculine voice suddenly called out, and a surge of my blood rushes to my back all of a sudden as my hand and feet turn cold.

King Harvey!

“No, no, I…” I begin to inch backwards but stop when he offers a clawed hefty hand.

“I-I-…” I can’t think of what to say that will keep me alive in this situation.

My stomach turns to stone as bile crawls up my throat. I take in a sneaky breath through my mouth, but it doesn’t calm me.

“Please, let me go!” I plead with all my heart, but Lady Luck is not on my side.

He picks me up as if I am a kitten. “No.”

My heart sinks.