Word Count: 2306

Defeated, I have to fight the urge not to collapse onto the ground in a heap. Instead, I wipe at the blood splattered across my face.

"Of course," I mutter, throwing my hands up. "Of damn course."

Marek sighs, leaning down to wipe the blade of his knife on the shirt of the now deceased man. I watch, stomach churning as he slips the knife back into its place behind him, unbothered by the dead bodies that litter the clearing, thick scarlet blood pooling in the grass. I fight the urge to throw up, knowing what I must look like.

Marek's hands are clean, appearance unmarred. How does he kill so immaculately, so cleanly? He holds his hand out of me, offering to pick me up off the ground. I scowl at him, heaving myself back up into standing position, even if I shake uneasily on  my feet.

"You could look happier to see me," he comments, raising a dark brow at me, the softest smile touching his lips, even if it doesn't reach his eyes. I gape at him, unable to fathom the audacity he is displaying.

"What are you doing here?"

He pauses before motioning around himself, nudging one of the bodies with his foot. "Saving your life, clearly."

"I was fine," I breathe.

Him and I both know they were going to kill me. Still, I'd rather not admit that as we stand amidst these bodies. I look down at one of them, dark hair falling over their face. I have no idea who these men are, which would lead me to assume they are rebels...Yet Marek killed them, so they can't be.

My head spins, dizziness striking me momentarily. Turning on my heel, I stalk through the trees, ready to put as much distance between myself and those bodies as possible before I curl over to be sick.

"Against one, or maybe two, I have no doubt you would have managed yourself," Marek says, following me as I weave through the trees. "But you were unfairly outnumbered. Where are your weapons?"

The vacancy at my side makes me shudder. I don't regret handing my knives over to that lady. He was watching me, so he must have seen...Perhaps he this is his way of telling me how bad of an idea that was.

I stop, satisfied with the distance we've put between the bodies. Marek pauses a few steps away from me. "What's the point of having them if you're just going to use them against me?"

I recall the first time seeing him since the betrayal, when he had turned my own knife against me. The memory seems to grace him also, eyes glittering. After our meeting in the closet, I wasn't sure I would see him again. I had hoped I wouldn't, although yet here he is, in his dark hunting clothing, black bandana pulled down from his mouth around his chin.

"That's a dangerous game, Akara," he warns, tone darkening to match his eyes. The afternoon shadows trace his every move, practically drenching him.

"And you just happened to be in the area?" I mutter.

He tilted his head. "Well no...I followed you."

"Subtle," I drawl. "And you didn't think to step in when I was thrown into the ground?"

Just saying that reminds me of the impact, causing me to wince. It will bruise to accompany the others already forming, complementing the scrapes and cuts that litter me. Whether Marek cares or not, he doesn't show it. He may have stepped in and helped me, but his lurking from a distance isn't appreciated. Even if without him, I would be very much dead...

"I thought you didn't need my help," he taunts. When I don't respond to his humour, his smile falters. "I wanted to see what you could do first."

Not much, it seems. Maybe he was right though, that I could have taken a few of them if it were that way. Marek has no issue, even though he was armed. Not once did he use his Summoner powers, which from the intensity of his marking, he hasn't used in a very long time.

"Who are they?" I ask, swallowing painfully.

Marek looks reluctant to answer for a long moment, his hesitation causing fear to crawl up within me. Thankfully, he relents. "Locals. Beast lovers."

"No way. I would know them if they were from my village," I dismiss. I may not remember every face from memory, but surely one of them would have been familiar.

"They aren't, but a close one," he admits, sliding his hands into that dark hunting coat. I frown, blatantly confused. "I'm surprised that other villages believed in that thing too."

And by believe, I know what he means. How could anyone have true faith that the beast was a creature capable of good? I haven't thought about the Beast in a long time, so just hearing Marek say that name again elicits chills throughout me.

"How do you know all this?" I ask. I'm not sure why I bother.

"I know a lot," he says. Oh how I wish I could read his mind. There is so much he is hiding that I'm desperate to unearth, although it seems I may never get that chance. "They were trying to kill you for killing the beast."

My blood runs cold. Marek takes a step closer, anticipating an explosive reaction. Instead, I just stand there, letting that sink in. I didn't kill the Beast, Tai did, yet no one is supposed to know that. Whoever those men were, they believed I killed the Beast, which means serious trouble for me. Some believe so devoutly that hearing that I killed the Beast would be enough to have hunting parties coming at me constantly.

And if I tell Tai...He will never let me leave the estate by myself again...

"How do they know about it?" I ask quietly, frightened for the answer.

Marek shakes his head, stepping toward me.  "Why don't we start with you no longer coming out here alone. Where the hell is Tai?"

He's avoiding the question, which means he knows what the answer is. I grit my teeth, my jaw protesting as I fight the urge not to strangle him. He knows very well that Tai wouldn't be out this far at risk of someone noticing. No one out here should know me.

"I don't need a protector," I mutter, even though my supposed protector, Elan, should have been waiting here for me. I wonder what Marek and Elan would look like standing next to each other, both as Summoner's. Marek is easily taller and better built, and with that marking on his forehead, much more powerful.

"Clearly," Marek mutters flatly, reaching around him to pull that knife back out. Instinctively I tense, bracing myself for the moment I may have to run. "It's not about protecting, it's about supporting. Although we both know Tai wouldn't have been much help fending these men off."

I narrow my eyes.

"I should kill you."

Marek draws in a breath, the challenge of my words dancing in his eyes, playing with his hunter instincts. He steps forward, twisting the knife so he is gently pinching the blade, the handle facing me. I stare at it, seeking to find whether this is a trick.

"Do it," he dares, icy blue eyes studying me.

With quivering fingers, I take the knife, clutching it tightly. This is Marek's personal one, the handle carved with Azure Province dialect and foreign patterns. It's well worn, used only moments earlier to kill those men. I weigh it in my palm, watching carefully as Marek tucks his hands behind his back, waiting for my move.

He expects me to cower, to turn back on my threat.

Instead, I charge at him, careful to watch his movements, to predict how he is going to react. However, I only manage to get close enough to drive the knife at his stomach, prepared to kill him, or at least wound him, before he reacts.

One moment his hands are tucked away, and the next he has the wrist of my knife wielding-hand in his grip, using it to push me backward. I stumble back, fighting his reaction, although my strength does not match his. The moment my back is pushed against a tree, his free hand pressed by the side of my head, the other pinning my wrist against the wood, I relent.

"Predictable, and messy," he scolds with a shrug, as if we are back on Tai's back porch, him teaching me how to wield the knife. "And I'm hurt. How many times do I have to save your life?"

I wrestle against him, the knife still clutched in my hand. "You ruined my life, remember?"

"And yet I'm still here protecting you. You're lucky Kailor has taken you in...Vaia has no interest in getting close to her father, so count yourselves lucky," Marek says calmly, as if I'm not writhing against him, trying to free myself.

His grip loosens enough for me to turn the blade back, close enough to push it into his side. I'm hardly thinking about what it would mean to kill him - if I did I'd surely let the knife fall from my fingertips. He deserves to at least feel the pain. It won't compare to the betrayal, but it will make me feel a lot better.

"Hey," he reprimands quietly. My jaw clenches, energy seeping away quickly. "You really do want me dead."

I swear I see a flash of hurt in his eyes.

"Ideally," I breathe. Deciding that fighting like this is futile, I steady myself, silently wincing against the feeling of the trunk pressed against my back. Not to mention the way Marek pins me to the tree, letting me feel every muscle in his powerful body that is held against me.

I shudder as the fingertips of his spare hand reach up to brush my hair back over my neck. Flinching at the touch, I watch him frown slightly at my response, as if he doesn't expect me to be disgusted by his touch. When he gently runs his thumb along the skin of my neck, I wince, noticing it hurts. Horrified, I realise what he's looking at.

There's a tumultuous storm that plays in Marek's eyes as he assesses the small marks Tai left on my neck from his kisses. If I weren't mistaken, I would have believed he's hurt, seeing them there.

"Tai has been keeping you occupied I see," he notes softly, his tone strained. His face is a mask of boredom suddenly, although I know how to read him. His eyes betray him. "Does he know your body still reacts to me?"

Growling lowly under my breath, I shake my head defiantly.

Whether he is right or wrong, I don't want to think about it. The way his body is pressed against mine is making it hard to concentrate, yes, yet the disgust that blooms within me is unmissable. It then dawns on me what he is doing, why he has me in this position, rendered useless. He isn't actually worried I'll kill him.

"Pig," I snap. "You're distracting me."

His gaze lingers on my mouth for a daunting moment, before he pushes away, sweeping a hand through his hair, the bronze strands glowing under the setting sunlight. Being back out here, in a Jade Province forest like this brings back unwarranted memories. I desire Tai, not Marek, despite the thoughts that linger brazenly in my mind.

"Go home. It's getting dark; and clearly it's not safe out here." Marek instructs, nodding back toward the path. He's done answering questions, done dealing with me.

I step forward, the crunch of branches beneath my feet echoing through the still forests "What do you know? How do they know I killed the beast?"

"Akara," he warns, raising a dark eyebrow at me, daring me to keep questioning him. "Home is the best place for you right now."

He turns his back to me, a Hunter bored or his prey, a Summoner no longer finding use with their target. Again, I don't want him to walk away. He knows so much it's painful to see that information taken with him. I want to ask him what hiding it does to benefit him?

I take a step forward, the sound making him hesitate.

"Why won't you just take me in then? Vaia clearly wants to kill me," I tell him, unsure of whether I'm being brave or suicidal. "Or you could do it yourself, right now."

Realising I'm still holding the knife, I toss it onto the ground at his feet, hearing the thud of the heavy weapon within the moss. He stoops down to pick it up, running his fingers along the surface of the blade, admiring the way it gleams with shades of violet and rose from the setting sun.

When he raises his gaze to look at me again, my entire body obeys his silent command to be still.

A smile tugs at the corner of his lips. "Because Akara, I'm not done with you yet."

💜••💜

If you guys want to read ahead, you can read more of KING'S SEDUCTION on Radish! It's chapters ahead of Wattpad (:

You'll will find it under KING'S POSSESSION on Radish, as season 2!

🌼••🌼

I'm officially rewriting Alpha Jasper's story now on Radish! It will be following the same storyline with the same characters, but with revised scenes and some new ones!

I love Jasper's story so much that I wanted to go back and rewrite it. I hope you guys will enjoy it, you can find it now on Radish (:

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~Midika 💜🐼