Chapter 2

"I remember you exactly like that Olivia, blonde, too talkative, too weak, and too arrogant, a trademark of your people"

Although he tried to make it look like he wasn't shaken he still had a closed expression, he still had his fists clenched and when he swallowed his saliva, he did it angrily. It was visible in his anger, his discomfort with my refusal to acknowledge him on the spot.

"Good Petros, what are the plans? Are you going to do the same thing you did with my mother?"

My heart was beating so hard it hurt. He was realizing he knew I was afraid; he knew I was weak, and he knew the longer I was away from my pack the worse it would be for my recovery.

I thought about my father all the time, the pain of losing a wife and then a daughter to his enemy. The pain of knowing that I might never come back.

Petros stooped abruptly and raised his hand, I raised my arm to defend myself and he lowered it just as brutally as he approached.

He took hold of my chin and forced me to look straight into his honey-colored eyes.

My breathing was labored, and the smell of him was killing my psychology. It was a smell that I hated to love, hated to love so much that I could explode. It was dark, but his eyes shone like a beacon in the middle of that hot cell. The temperature of his touch on me made my senses bubble.

"You don't have to know what my plans are when the time is right you will know!"

He said still holding my face, he seemed to be as lost as I was, he was sucking my soul from my body as he looked steadily into my eyes.

"You're not going to kill me?"

I asked looking away from him a little, I needed to breathe the right way, but he wouldn't allow it.

He pulled my face back to face him, I realized then that I had no choice.

"If you keep asking...I'm going to be forced to do this! Just once in your life, can you shut your mouth? And what's more, don't ever look away from me again while you or I am talking to Olivia."

Just as I was about to answer, the door opened to reveal a tall, slender woman, her night-colored eyes and kind smile caught my attention.

She allowed me to see her better because she entered with a torch of live fire a little stronger than the one hanging outside.

Petros turned to her offered an enigmatic smile and spoke

"Amalia take Olivia to the room that has been set apart for her, do as agreed"

She smiled back at him, but the smile was not like his, it was an embarrassed smile.

But soon she turned her eyes from him to look at me with terrible hatred.

She took my arm, and as I walked past Petros, he took a deep breath, and every hair on my body shivered.

I was trying very hard not to collapse; I didn't know if this was some kind of game to make me mentally confused. Why didn't he kill me? Didn't he think me worthy enough of a quick death?

I was drowning in so much sorrow for being in that castle that I was suffocating. All I could think about was an escape! How could I escape? That was the million-dollar question.

Amalia took me, still chained, to a room, the satisfaction in her eyes made me curious, I didn't understand how she could hate me so much without knowing me.

I soon regained consciousness, she hated me for the stories they told, it was the only theory that made sense.

We passed dozens of rooms, we were in a noble area of the castle, the amber lighting was better than the dungeon and gave a strange feeling of being protected.

There were paintings of the royal family scattered in every corner, and many clans represented by well-formed paintings gave prominence on that blood-red wall.

The thresholds and doors studded with gold leaped before my eyes. The only family represented was my own there wasn't a single Aaryn painting, even though they were the most important wolf family on the planet.

It shocked me, the contempt they showed for me and my lineage made me want to vomit.

We stopped at the end of the blood-red corridor, at a specific door different from the others.

The last door was marked by gold and emerald stones forming a symbol that I almost recognized, but desperation didn't let me get the full view.

"We have finally arrived at your cage, princess"

Said Amalia in a disturbing tone, she opened the door and pushed me inside without warning, as if she was getting rid of an inconvenience, someone of no value at all.

The room was different from the hallway, it had gold too, but the olive-green walls made me a little calmer, it didn't exactly look like a slaughterhouse which made my breathing a little cleaner.

The symbols of our common ancestors stood out on the doorstep, on the details of the bed, on the dressing table, and even on the cupboard in the corner.

It was like a reminder that even with the war in our veins ran the same lycanthropic blood, the wolf blood mixed with the moon that instead of uniting us separated us for centuries and centuries of territorial conquest.

For pride, honor, and memory.

Was that olive-true room with my favorite stone carved into the doors and decorative objects just a coup de grace? A kind of last meal or wish before they killed me? Were they charitable like that?

"Prisoner's room?"

I said in surprise trying to wring some emotion other than disdain out of that woman.

"Yes, Lycan hospitality"

Said this Amalia, still bitter, the smile she kept near Petros disappeared, maybe in the hallway as she led me to my luxury prison. She looked at me with such disdain that my legs trembled, if Petros didn't kill me, she would gladly do the job.

"Do you know what they intend with me?"

I can't explain why I was asking this of a possible enemy, to a person who wanted to rip my head off.

"I don't know and if I did I wouldn't talk either right?"

She said dismissively as she walked out of the room.

She left me alone with my thoughts and all my fears, the courage was slowly leaving my body, and my blood was getting less strong and no longer bubbling inside me.

I looked out the window and imagined myself once again in my father's arms, I let a tear fall as I watched the mist forming outside. I wondered how long it would take for my father to send all the men at his command to get me out of that strange nightmare. Or I hoped that I would wake up in my room and it would just be a bad dream.

I didn't even notice the bedroom door opening again.

"Olivia"

Said the voice and I recognized it at the same moment, it was him again, he was there to take my mind off it. Even the way he chose to speak my name gave me the creeps.

I turned scared, yet resigned, I looked directly at him, I felt as if my throat was closing, I bet he was going to kill me right then and there.

My reason was confused, and the beats that were already slurred before seemed to beat at a much worse pace than before.

"I came to explain why you are here.

He said, looking at me without reaction, tears wetting my face. He made me afraid and at the same time made me curious to see more, to hear more of his mysterious voice, to smell his perfume more. This feeling was killing me inside. The walls were no longer giving me tranquility.

Petros was like living fire, there wasn't even a possibility that he would burn my skin less as he approached me.

He seemed controlled, and cool, even though his posture burned me inside and out, I could feel my skin melting. As he seemed to have the whole situation in his hands.

He didn't look away from me for a second.

I stood silently waiting for him to speak. But he didn't say anything, he just stared at me with the same expression as before, an expression that could rip my heart out, but could also rip all the sighs in the world out of me.

He frowned and stared at me with irritating ease. It was as if nothing I did or said would shake that man.

It was hard, I wasn't holding myself upright, and every second I spent under the power of his eyes got worse. My heart was pounding, and at the same time, I felt anger so visceral that I couldn't explain it. Why did he confuse me so much? What effect did this wolf have on me?

Why did the son of my mother's killer irritate me and attract me with equal intensity?

It was so insane that I couldn't even comprehend the speed with which my brain was sabotaging me.

"Very kind of you to explain to me why you kidnapped me if my father was trying to keep the peace and leave your territory.

I said trying to sound firm, even though I felt every part of my soul disintegrating.