One Bite

Chapter 3-2

A/N: Warning - violence presented in this chapter.

Sixteen hours into our trip east, our car came to a stop within the Central Territory. Looking out the windows, a caravan of familiar, black SUVs with tinted windows. Parked on the road next to an endless, open grassy field, guards positioned around it, dressed in black Kevlar.

My stomach dropped at the sight.

They're waiting for us.

We stopped about forty-five minutes from the Eastern border.

Lumi's eyes probably could see it if I shift

A cool breeze brushed over my cheeks as I stepped out of the car, my heart pounding in my ears and fingers trembling. The wide, open grassy areas, combined by the sight of my father, Beta Baron, and Gamma Erik flanked by a line of security, tempted my sense of flight.

Instead, Elena, Cole, Raina, Idris, the rogue prisoner, and about forty warriors in my father's security team witnessed my humiliation. Each step closer, my head ducked further down until my chin grounded in my chest.

The weight of my father's disappointment hung so thick in the air that I almost tasted it on my dry tongue.

"You insolent child!" He screamed, rearing his hand up over his head. My heart froze at the sight and my stomach dropped.

Pain struck into my cheek and my neck snapped sideways, my other cheek hitting my shoulder. Heated throbs followed in my cheek upon his palm's contact.

"How dare you reject Lucus Shaw." He struck me again, closer to my eye socket, releasing a whimper from my trembling lips. Heated tears rose in my eyes, blurring the grass beneath my feet.

"Hh-he had a mate already," I choked out as he struck my mouth. After the burst of pain, warmth coated my lips. "He asked me -"

"Do you think he would refuse the power of a white Luna? The opportunity and power to control all the territories?" His frame loomed over me, fists and mouth clenched tight.

Wrenched up with wrinkles, his gray skin flushed red and veins raised on the corded sides of his neck. From his shoulders to hands, he shook. Sharp, short breaths pitched his chest and flared his nostrils. My back rounded and I curled inward, trembles shaking my spine.

"No." My shoulders slumped and I cowered. "But our alliance would never have been strong as his natural mate."

"Idiotic bitch!" I bit the inside of my cheek at my father's choice of words then doubled over as he struck me again. The slammed impact filled my mouth with a metallic taste, coating my tongue, and my thighs quivered.

"It. Was. Not. Your. Choice!" With each staccato word, my father struck me, saving the hardest blow for the word 'choice.'

Faltering, my legs gave out and knees hit the soft grass with a thud. My cheeks throbbed and my eyelids swelled, blurring my vision of his tight fists.

"Over time your bond would have weakened theirs."

"Buh-but," I whispered, spitting the liquid pooling in my mouth to the ground. "He would be fighting his wolf, making him weak."

"By rejecting him, Zara, you risk initiating war by making an enemy stronger." Every strike he continued increased in intensity and level of inflicted pain.

Worse than any sparring with Cole or Raina, his knuckles smashed into my face, rattling my teeth and cheekbones. Tears rolled down my cheeks and congestion flowed down into my mouth but I made no attempts to remove them.