Chapter 125

Helen POV

I’ve never felt such pain in my life.

I wasn’t chained to the wall or tied up to the bedpost in this little dungeon cell, but my throat was wrapped in a collar type of strap with a chain linked to the floor nearby. I could only sit up a little bit, the chain not long enough for me to even stand!

The day has been a blur but I preferred it to be quiet than to be deadly. William’s scent hung on the dark, concrete walls and the nearby bars of this cell.

I shut my eyes, seeing if I could track his scent and figure out where he was, but I couldn’t determine any of that at all.

Pulling on the collar around my neck, I coughed, the tightness around my neck becoming more and more apparent. I coughed and fell forward, the strap releasing a little bit of tension and allowing me to gasp in inhale.

“Stupid rogue!” I screamed, my voice bouncing off my cell. “Stupid, dead rogue! You will die when my Lycan mate finds you!”

I heard a light laugh chuckling through the empty cells nearby and a light little hue of sparkle came from the distance. I recognized the rogue instantly, still in shock of how much he looked like Scott.

There was no question they were related, both in looks and in temperament.

“Awe, poor little thing. Your collar is so tight.”

I sneered away from him, backing up and feeling the strap around my throat grow smaller and cutting my lungs off from being able to breathe again. I struggled to stay back from William as he came to stand over me in his glittered exterior, but I couldn’t last without breathing for much longer.

“It’s okay, you can relax,” William taunted. “You can trust me for now. I won’t hurt you. I just want you to suffer a little bit before I kill you. Plus, it makes my little friends panic when they see you in my cell.”

My brow furrowed and I cocked my head, leaning forward so I can release the tension on my throat some more. I breathed fully and choked while doing so.

“You are going to be okay,” I panted, speaking to myself in effort to calm down Joy. She wanted to shift and attack this manic related to our first mate, but I wasn’t sure I would be able to after that dart was poked into my skin. It made me weak and unresponsive to my wolf. “It will be fine. I’m fine.”

“You’re not fine,” William teased, slapping his hands together and raining pixie dust down over the floors and all down my back. I could see it shimmer in my hair even and it was beautiful, but worrisome.

I could only think of what he said about killing the pixies that made me their honorary queen.

“Look at this,” he said, his voice pulling my attention. He held up a little pixie in his palm and tilted his hand so I could see the pixie dust rolling off the small creature and sprinkling all over us both. “They all want to bow down to you for some reason.”

I swallowed hard, the collar tightening a little bit on reaction but not permanently. “Please… don’t hurt that little creature. They did nothing to you.”

He shrugged, eyeing the pixie with wide eyes. “No, they haven’t, but they’re so annoying. They liked to swarm me when I was alone as a rogue, before I found some likeminded allies, and now they shrivel to me in fear and submission. Much like you have done with you mate, bed slave.”

I flinched, hating that name so much that it hurt my heart to have him spit it out at me again. “I am not a bed slave. I am the Lycan’s fated mate.”

“You were my brother’s,” he sneered. “Tell me, when my brother rejected you, how bad did it hurt to know he was fucking your sister all along?”

My heart seized but I swallowed the feeling. “Stop talking about Scott and Diana. They both got what they had coming to them. They’re dead and I’m stronger than both of them ever were—combined!”

“I agree with that, Luna,” he taunted, picking the pixie up out of his palm by her little wings. She was thrashing and crying in her high-pitched tone, begging to be let go. “Look how the beg for their lives when it’s too late.”

“Stop it,” I snapped.

“You need to stop telling me what to do, bed slave, or I will be cruel to you before your death.”

“You would have killed me already! You’re bluffing!”

He shrugged and looked over his shoulder, hearing the sounds of slow, hard footsteps coming into the dungeon. He turned his eyes back to the pixie and pulled on her wings while his other hand yanked her little body away from the wings.

I cringed and fought tears, hearing the small, innocent creature scream in a low volume, but the pain was clear and evident already. He flicked the fairy aside and her screams stopped when her body hit the wall and fell to the floor nearby.

“Monster,” I growled through my sobs. “You will die first. I’ll make sure my mate does it slowly.”

“You wouldn’t do such a thing to your brother-in-law.”

“A family affair,” a familiar voice said, the tone similar to the large mountain of a man who stole me from the estate at True Mates. “You sure you want to kill your brother’s widow?”

William snickered a hollow laugh. “I think she earned it after killing my brother. He and I never did get along, but I’ll be damned if his memory, my family bloodline, is tarnished for the rest of eternity.”

“Killing the Lycan’s bed slave is going to be easy and useful then,” the man mumbled. “We can keep her here for awhile and kill off the rest of the pixies. We don’t need them to lure her here anymore and I liked seeing her in pain when you killed that one.”

The two men stifled through pleasurable laughter.

I looked up, meeting the black eyes of the man beside William. “The huntsman, I presume?”

He gleamed in arrogance and inflated ego. “That is right. I have a bone to pick with you pack wolves. Plus, I have already sent four species of magical creatures into extinction. I will finish the pixies tonight and kill the others soon. Then I will wipe out the new Alpha King and his pathetic pack.”

I spit at him, the only option I had while being tied down to the floor by my neck. He grumbled but to my surprise, he didn’t kick me or hit me. He only waved away William with a flick of his hand.

“Go grab the rest of those pixies. I am going to pull up a chair and truly watch her suffer.”

William hesitated, arms crossed while he paced around me in a tight, taunting circle. “Why can’t we just make her bleed and then let her lay in her filth and her blood until she dies? It would be easier.”

The huntsman scowled coldly. “I watched her new father-in-law kill my family off. It has haunted me for decades and if I can’t make Alpha King Juden watch me as I destroy his family tree, then I will make the Lycan watch when I kill her.

“Until he arrives, which shouldn’t be long, I want her to watch her new family suffer and die.”

“They are innocent!” I barked. “Don’t hurt the pixies, dammit!”

“They won’t hurt for long,” William taunted.

The huntsman smiled wide. “We will kill them off quickly. You’re going to watch another species die tonight, one that put all their trust and hope and faith into you to be their stupid queen.”

I felt my body cave as I fell forward, in utter surrender.

“Kill me first, then.”