Hazel's POV
My mouth was agape.
I was unsure wether to shout or scream in horror at his words.
"What have you done?" I managed to push out in a trembling voice.
"What should have been done."
I couldn't stop shaking.
"You are lying," I accused him.
He leaned forward just enough for me to see the cruel curve of his mouth.
"Believe whatever you want, Hazel," he added my name after a second.
"You are lying!" I screamed in a louder voice. "Take me back right now."
"There is nothing left to go back to."
He tilted his head and there was that same cold calmness in his face.
"The pack is gone."
My stomach dropped.
"It can't be! You wouldn't just destroy the pack because of me!" I yelled.
I was heaving with fear.
The man sitting across from me was silent and still, just watching me.
His eyes never left me.
Yet he didn't answer.
"Please, take me back. You took me," I began to plead. "You had no right."
He finally spoke.
"I had every right to Hazel," he began. "And you know it very well."
My throat closed.
I couldn't speak.
I couldn't even breathe.
I wanted to scream.
I wanted to cry and then throw myself at the carriage door to run.
But I didn't.
I just gripped the edge of my cloak.
My breathe came in gasps as I stared at the man who had turned my world to ashes.
I sat huddled in the corner.
My cloak barely covered me with the torn edges just brushing my thighs.
The carriage wheels rumbled right under us in a cold and steady way.
Several minutes passed in silence.
Or maybe it was hours.
I couldn't even tell.
My skin prickled under his intense gaze.
"Why?" I finally asked him. "Why did you take me away from there?"
He said nothing.
"What didn't you kill me?" I demanded as the tears filled my eyes.
His answer came too fast.
"Because you are my mate Hazel. And I must protect what is mine."
My nostrils flared in anger.
"I don't need your protection!"
His lips twitched.
"No. But I think I will enjoy breaking through the fire that you hide."
His lips curved into a smirk.
He was getting amused by this.
I gritted my teeth in anguish.
"You are a monster."
He laughed softly.
"Maybe."
"And you also enjoy hurting people," I added after an after thought.
He quirked a brow at me.
Then, he shrugged.
"Only the ones who truly deserve it," he pointed out to me.
"You think that ks me?" I demanded with my brows raised in question.
"Does it matter what I think?" he asked.
His eyes narrowed.
His gaze hardened significantly.
"You owe me a debt woman."
My heart rate spiked.
I swallowed a lump in my throat.
"What do you mean?" I threw the question at him in an attempt to play dumb.
He snickered at me.
"Don't dare try to play dumb woman," he snapped at me. "I saved your ass."
I blinked severally.
"I never asked you to save me."
But, my voice sounded weak.
"I don't believe in charity," he said.
There was silence for a while.
I tried to collect myself in that moment, especially to calm my racing heart.
I took deep breaths to steady my breathing and somehow still failed.
"Then what do you want?" I whispered.
My voice still shook even though I tried so hard to keep it steady.
He smiled.
But it was a cold and awful smile.
"Your body? Your soul? Or maybe… what runs in your bloodline."
I recoiled, pressing my back to the cold wooden wall of the carriage.
His words reached me and caused my stomach to as if it were poison.
He leaned in slightly, just enough for me to feel the heat emanating from him.
His breath brushed against mine.
The air between us changed.
It was thicker, heavier even with passion, desire, hatred and tension.
The mixture of emotions in stark contrasts took its toll on my mind.
My body decided to react even before my mind could make it stop.
It was that damned pull.
It was the mate bond.
It was treacherously humming nonstop underneath my skin.
That traitorous yet hot bond.
"Tell me the truth," I breathed. "Why did you really take me Thrain?"
He smirked at my use of his name.
Amusement stole his face.
He leaned back in a slow and casual motion as if none of this mattered.
"I actually came to your pack to make an offer to buy you from Jake."
I flinched in surprise.
"You were going to what?"
"Buy you," he repeated.
My jaw went slack.
"Do you really mean that?" I asked him even though he looked rather serious.
I stared at him.
"Hazel, your bloodline may hold the key to curing the beast inside me."
"And what if my husband had told you no?" I asked him in a flat voice.
"He never would have," Thrain said.
His eyes were glowing.
"He made it easy though with his betrayal and disrespecting you in front of me."
I swallowed softly.
"To be honest, he disrespected me too by calling you names and hitting you like you were trash in my presence."
"That is not enough reason you know, apart from his betrayal," I said.
"Jake didn't deserve to breath oxygen," he said to me with a straight face.
He leaned back in his seat.
Realization suddenly washed over me at his obvious nonchalance.
"You knew about his betrayal," I accused him with wide eyes.
"Maybe I did. Maybe I did not."
He shrugged.
"I didn't want war because I came with gold. But Jake only made it easier for me."
My hands curled into fists.
"So no," he continued. "No one will blame me for taking you because Jake gave me every fucking reason to do so."
"You planned this," I whispered. "You came with a plan to steal me."
He shrugged.
"One way or another… you were always going to come with me Hazel."
I couldn't believe what I was hearing.
Everything I had known was gone.
It had been cruelly burned down and then left in ruins all because this man thought that I belonged to him.
His hand reached out.
I flinched.
But he didn't touch me.
Instead, he leaned in close.
His voice was low and rough when he spoke.
"Choose, little mate," he growled. "You can either be my slave or be my salvation."
I stared at him.
My heart was thudding so loud in my chest that it was all I could hear.
I had gone to the hall to meet him.
I had gone there with a request because I was tired of staying with Jake.
I had needed him to save me.
I had hoped that he will be my salvation.
I never knew being a slave was an option.
If I had known that it would come to this, I might have stayed still.
But would things have changed.
There was no way for me to find out now.
"So, what is you answer?" he asked.
I looked up at him.
"Choose Hazel."