~Layla~
The entire next day went by in a daze. Wherever I went, I could feel eyes leaving burn marks on the back of my head. People were nice; they said hi and invited me to lunch and for coffee, but I declined every offer. The only person I was looking for and wanted to talk to was Justin, and as it turned out, he was the only one I couldn’t find. I saw Nathaniel walking through the makeshift town; everything looked weirder than it had before. The cuteness I saw when I first arrived has been replaced with a morbid feeling of a blind alley. Thankfully, there wasn’t any practice today. Nathaniel told me to rest up, and that we’d continue tomorrow. More specifically, he said that tomorrow was a special day and that I’d get to know a secret. I wasn’t looking forward to that.
“Excuse me, have you seen Justin?” I asked a guy that I had seen hanging out with Justin before. He looked at his friends, and they all shook their heads.
“Sorry, no,” I smiled and walked away. An eerie feeling had me turning my head and looking over my shoulder. The guys were watching me; their lips moved in hushed whispers, and they followed my steps until I was out of sight.
This is weird, something is happening.
’Something has been happening since we arrived.’
I know, but this is more than that. Why is Justin suddenly ignoring us? And why is hiding?
’I don’t know, but it feels like people are gearing up for something.’
For what?
’I don’t know.’
it’d be a lot easier if you knew…
’I’m sorry, I forgot that I’m supposed to have all of the answers to your questions.’
Isn’t that what you’re here for?
’No, I’m here so that you can shift and become a beautiful beast with immaculate hearing and sight, not to mention the ability to heal. If you wanted additional powers such as psychic abilities, you should’ve included that when you ordered me.’
Everyone looked at me strangely when I started giggling from Clara’s comment. They turned their heads and raised their brows in question.
I feel like a circus freak here.
’I know, I feel like a caged animal. I want to run.’
Clara hadn’t been set free or been able to run in forever. I understood that she was getting anxious. The idea of shifting and leaping over the border was appealing, but something told me that Nathaniel would be on our tail within seconds.
Stepping over the border was forbidden. Meeting Kade had calmed her and held her at bay for a few days at a time. We both got to be with our mates, but we hadn’t seen them in so long now. Even then, Clara never got to meet Kade’s wolf; they never got to do their own bonding.
Clara, how do you feel about what we’re doing?
’What part of it?’
Huh?
’Well, I was just wondering if you meant the part where we play nice with the host from hell and his cult of minions who seem to want burn us over an open fire, or if you mean the part where we’re helping him. Or maybe the part where we’ve left behind our family and friends and a life of freedom for the imprisonment of this few-acre big, dark, lifeless land.’
You sure paint a vivid picture, don’t you…
’I’m just putting words on our reality; you know that sugarcoating isn’t my thing’
Right, well, I mean the part where we’re helping Nathaniel with what he wants.
’I mean, Justin said that we should, and regardless of how we feel about
Nathaniel, we do trust Jason, don’t we?’
We do.
’Where is he anyways?’
That was a good question. I went around the whole little town looking for him, and whenever I asked the others where he was, they just shook their heads and then gave me the stink eye as I walked away.
The only other person I could think of to ask about Justin’s whereabouts, the only one I was sure knew where he was held up, was also the last person I
wanted to see.
I walked up and knocked on the door, which was close. Nathaniel seemed to pride himself on the fact that his pack didn’t have rankings. He said that he didn’t see himself as being above anyone else, but still, he had ways of doing things that nobody else did. Just now, as I looked around, I could see all of the open doors, people coming and going in and out of the houses as they pleased; Nathaniel’s was the only door that was closed.
It opened with a shriek, and a girl dressed in lace that covered only her privates stood ready by the entrance.
“May I help you?” She asked in a sugar-sweet voice.
“I was looking for Nathaniel,” I said and pressed my brows together.
She smiled and bowed her head as she stepped aside and let me in. Before I had taken my third step into the house, I heard the door closing behind me.
“The King is this way,” she said and walked with her back straight and her hips swaying.
Her hazel-brown hair fell in angelic locks down her back.
On her lower back, I saw a mark, and I tried to get a better look at it every time her hair brushed past.
“It’s a tattoo,” she said without seeing me look.
“Of what?” The girl gently removed her hair so that I got a better look.
“Of a crow. The crow was believed to be a servant of its master; whoever could tame it could also control it.”
“Does every girl here have one of those?” I asked with fear lurking in my voice.
“Yes, we get them when we turn ten to mark our destinies. They are an honor,” she said and narrowed her eyes at me. She didn’t want any pity; for her, it really was an honor to be marked and to work for him. For me, nothing could justify marking a child and forcing them into a life because of the honor it brought.
“I never got your name,” I said when she stopped outside of another door. It was the door to the room I had been in earlier, and it was closed.
“We don’t have names; our sole mission on this earth is to serve the King. We don’t need an identity to do that. He gives us what we need.” The next breath was hard to take; it got stuck in my throat, and my lips dried up.
She opened the door, and I walked in on something that I don’t think I was supposed to see. Nathaniel was sitting on his throne, and on the floor, a woman was on her knees in front of him, her lips wrapped around his dick, and her head bobbing up and down as she took him down her throat. “Oh, uhm,” I turned around and was about to walk out, but the girl bowed her head with a gleaming smile and closed the doors.
