Bound By The Savage Lycan King

CHAPTER ONE

“You psychotic b*tch!”

Alpha Cassian wiped his blood from his lip where I had punched him earlier. His white shirt was torn and stained red from where my fist had connected with his nose, but he didn’t seem to care about the pain.

“I was going to be gentle with you tonight,” he snarled as he advanced toward me. “But you’ve shown me what kind of ungrateful little wh*r* you really are.”

I backed against the wall of his chamber until there was nowhere else to go. The iron chains around my wrists were cutting into my skin and making it impossible to fight back properly.

“Stay away from me,” I whispered but my voice came out weak and terrified.

He laughed and grabbed a handful of my hair. “After everything I’ve done for you? After giving you a home and food and clothes for two years? This is how you repay my kindness?”

His grip tightened and he yanked my head back so violently I thought my neck might snap. “Tonight you become mine completely whether you want to or not.”

“I’ll never be yours,” I spat through the blood from my split lip.

“Never?” His hand came down across my face so hard my ears started ringing. “You’ve belonged to me since the day I took you in, little wolf.”

He dragged me away from the wall and threw me onto his huge bed so hard I bounced twice. When I tried to roll away he grabbed my ankle and twisted it until something popped and I screamed.

“You’re finally mine,” he said as he climbed onto the bed and straddled me so I couldn’t move. His hands grabbed the neckline of my dress and ripped it straight down the middle until I was completely exposed under him.

I had always known this day would come from the moment the couple handed me over to Alpha Cassian when I was sixteen.

They found me when I was six years old, trembling in a burnt cottage with no memory of anything before that moment.

For ten years they raised me in their home, always teaching me to be quiet, obedient, graceful. I thought they loved me but their care had a darker purpose. 

They were preparing me for this transaction, training me to be the perfect offering for the Alpha who had been waiting patiently for me to come of age.

The moment they delivered me to his estate, Alpha Cassian made his intentions clear. I would belong to him completely and on my eighteenth birthday I would become his mate whether I wanted to or not.

For two years I lived as his personal slave, branded with his pack mark and hidden away in his territory like a shameful secret.

He made sure I understood exactly who owned me, using my body for his pleasure whenever the mood struck him, but always saving the ultimate violation for when I came of age. 

Every day brought me closer to this moment and every night I went to sleep knowing that my time was running out.

And now that moment had finally arrived.

"Look at me," Alpha Cassian commanded as he fumbled with his belt buckle. His pants were already pushed down and when he freed himself completely I turned my head away in disgust.

His rough hand grabbed my chin and forced me to face him again. "I said look at me. I want you to see exactly what's about to happen."

I could feel tears burning behind my eyes but I refused to let them fall. He positioned himself between my legs and I felt completely helpless, completely trapped until something caught my eye.

The dinner tray sat on the bedside table where I had left it earlier, and there was a sharp knife there. Alpha Cassian was too focused on what he was about to do to notice where my gaze had wandered.

"You know what?" I said quietly and he paused to look at me.

"What?" he asked in anticipation.

I grabbed the knife and met his eyes with all the hatred I could muster. "Go burn in hell."

I drove the blade up into his shoulder as hard as I could and watched his eyes go wide with shock. Blood poured out of the wound like a waterfall and splashed all over my face and chest until I was drowning in it.

"You stabbed me," he gasped out. "You actually stabbed me, you little b*tch."

"I should have aimed for your heart," I spat as I twisted the knife deeper.

He tried to speak again but only gurgling sounds came out before he collapsed on top of me. Struggling under his weight, I pushed him off and reached for what remained of my torn nightgown. 

The chains locked tight around my wrists made it difficult to pull the cloth around myself properly, but I managed to cover what I could.

Whether the stab had killed him or only left him bleeding out didn’t matter, I wasn’t staying to find out. I ran toward the door and burst out of his chamber, stepping outside of that prison for the first time in two years. 

The chains on my wrists made me stumble and crash into the hallway walls but I kept running.

"Stop her!" Alpha Cassian's voice roared from behind me and I realized with horror that he was still alive. "Don't let that murdering wh*r* escape!"

So much for hoping the knife had finished him off.

I ran toward the back entrance that led to the forest, my bare feet slapping against the floors. I had no plan, no destination, only the desperate need to get as far away from him as possible before he recovered enough to come after me himself.

The forest stretched out before me like an endless path, but it had to be safer than staying here. I ran into the woods without looking back, branches tearing at what was left of my nightgown, thorns scratching my arms and legs until they bled.

I ran until my lungs felt like they were on fire and my legs shook so bad I could barely stand, but I didn’t dare stop.

Behind me I could hear voices getting closer.

“Her scent trail goes this way!”

“Check behind those rocks!”

“She can’t have gotten far with those chains weighing her down!”

Just then, Alpha Cassian’s voice boomed through the forest again.

“Find her! Search every inch of these woods! Anyone who finds her and brings her back to me alive will get a hundred thousand dollars and a place in my inner circle!”

A hundred thousand dollars for bringing me back alive.

That was more money than most wolves would see in ten lifetimes. Every rogue, every desperate pack member, every bounty hunter in the territory would be hunting me now.

I pressed myself against a thick tree trunk and tried to catch my breath without making any noise. Blood from the Alpha’s wounds was still sticky on my hands and face, and I could smell it mixing with my own sweat.

“I don’t smell her here,” one guard called out.

“Keep looking! The Alpha wants her back alive, but he didn’t say anything about bringing her back unharmed.”

Another voice laughed. “Hundred thousand dollars is a lot of money. Plus a spot in his inner circle? Hell, I’d hunt my own mother for that kind of reward.”

“Just find the little b*tch before she gets too far into the deep woods.”

As soon as their voices faded into the distance, I pushed away from the tree trunk and ran deeper into the forest. 

I ran for what felt like hours when I finally stopped to rest by a fallen log. The forest was quiet except for night insects and the sound of wind in the trees.

I had actually done it.

I had escaped.

But just as I started to believe I might actually be safe, a hand grabbed my shoulder and spun me around.

“What do we have here?”

CHAPTER TWO 

It was one of Alpha Cassian’s guards. He stood between the trees and looked at me like I was a piece of meat he wanted to devour.

“Stay away from me,” I whispered, backing away from him until my spine hit a tree.

“Stay away from you?” He laughed. “Do you know how much money you’re worth? A hundred thousand dollars, little girl. That’s enough to set me up for life.”

He took a step closer and I could smell alcohol on his breath.

“But you know what?” he said, reaching out to touch my torn dress. “Alpha Cassian said bring you back alive. He didn’t say we couldn’t have a little fun with you first.”

Sh*t, no. Not again.

“I always wondered what was so special about you,” he continued, his eyes moving over my torn dress and exposed skin. “He kept you locked away like some precious treasure, never let any of us even look at you properly. But now I can see why.”

He reached out to touch my face and I jerked aw