SIERRA

"Let me introduce myself first then, Princess Sierra. I am Dominic Creighton, your mate's, Fenris Vlček's only long-lost vampire friend."

"What?"

"Don't be surprised, Princess. I am sure you have heard about different supernatural species' existence?" he asks.

"Yes, I have heard but what would be your feud with Xavier? Why is a vampire imprisoned here?" I ask unable to keep the confusion out of my voice.

"It is a long story, one I will tell you some other time. I came here a long time ago but have roamed these lands and under my rule, werewolves and vampires have always existed in harmony. But it looks like Xavier doesn't want to live in harmony, neither does he want to let other species live freely. He plans on conquering Recrania under his rule and then to move onto the other countries," he whispers but I hear him. It is only now that I realise that his accent is slightly different from that of mine or anyone in Recrania.

"And for that, he is capturing or killing every species' ruler or Alpha, right?" I ask.

"Yes, little one. He does plan to do that. He killed your mate's parents but Fenris has evaded his hunt for decades," he says.

"Oh, no! That's horrible," I recall my mate's pale and still face and clutch my throat feeling choked up at the overwhelming emotion.

"Yes, it is," he concedes. I calm down a little and open my mouth to ask him the next question but the door to my cell opens. I quickly scoot a little to the other side, trying very hard to keep my heart from racing but fail when I see Xanthos enter the cell.

No, Goddess! Please, not him.

"I've brought food, come on," he says and then from behind him, a man enters the cell with his eyes on the floor and places a plate piled up with what looks like meat in front of me. The food doesn't look fresh. It's dry and I don't want it anywhere near me, I decide from the stale smell wafting from it.

"Eat. Now!" he shouts and I startle. I am forced to eat that not at all good food with Xanthos keeping watch on me. After a few minutes, I have managed to finish only a quarter of the plate's food but can't manage more than this. I desperately try to keep the food down.

"I am done," I whisper pushing the plate away from me but Xanthos is on me in a second, pushing the plate in my hands again before taking a piece of meat and feeding it to me. I shake my head but he growls loudly making me jump and then holding my jaw open with one hand, he force-feeds me with the other. I feel tears burn behind my eyelids because of the pain that Xanthos's touch brings me and with the way I am forced to swallow the dry meat through my already sore throat. I desperately need water but am not allowed to speak. Every time I open my mouth to ask for water, he pushes a morsel of that awful meat in my mouth.

After some time, he pauses and then looks at the half-finished plate and grunts. NO! I'll puke if I take one more bite. Perhaps he sees my green face and doesn't push for more food. I let out a sigh of relief and then ask for water or rather plead.

"Oh no, my darling. The only liquid that you are going to drink is... well, nothing," he laughs, evilly looking at my grief-stricken face. Out of nowhere he then takes out a syringe and tests it a little in front of my eyes.

"What's that?" I ask, alert now and scared about his intentions. I hope it isn't a drug.

"It is just something that will make you forget about your not-so-brave mate. I think it'll be easier for you to accept me then, won't it? I know you want me as well," he croons and I wince as the meaning of his words settle in my mind.

So, it is a drug.

"Xavier said he wants me, now," I say bitterly, knowing how this will affect Xanthos's I-am-so-great attitude. I'll do whatever I can to make these father and son turn on each other. This way my chances of escaping increase even if they are only 0.1%.

"Oh! Is that so? I had that conversation with him and you know what?" he asks prolonging my curiosity and fear.

"He has agreed to share you. We concluded that the one who impregnates you first gets to keep you." He cackles loudly and I shudder in dread.

Oh no! What do they think I am? A breeding machine? I cry out when Xanthos suddenly pounces on me holding me down by my shoulders. I try to push at him but he doesn't budge.

"You know, you can have all the water and delicious food when you are carrying my pup. So, prepare yourself," he says and then leans impossibly closer to my face, bringing with him the horrible smelling breath.

Then without any warning, he kisses me and I scream at the pain and burn his lips bring me. My mate marks flares in pain for the first time as Xanthos forces himself on me and I cry out at the feel of my mate's mark screaming in pain. It means that he's alive and that his mark finds this person's touch abhorrent to me.

Oh, thank the Goddess for my mate's life.

I don't realise that Xanthos has now moved back a little and has taken my hands in his where he injects the liquid into the vein on the back of my hand and I only mutely tolerate the pain, distracted by the revelation that my mate is alive. No other way would have the mark flared to life like that.

"Sleep, Princess. When you wake up now, I'm sure that you'll be mine," he whispers in my ears before leaving me in the darkness of my cell. I touch the mark of the wolf at my nape but sigh when it doesn't tingle and now the claiming mark also doesn't tingle.

I blink back tears at the thought of my mate and how his kisses always left me tingling in need, unlike Xanthos who forced himself on me. Thankfully he didn't try anything else and I pray to the Goddess that my mate comes for me before Xanthos or Xavier rape me because one thing I know now is that neither of them will stop until force marking me. The thought makes me whimper in terror and the pain that would cause me, that's when I hear something.

"Rest, Princess. You can't do anything at the moment. I can only try this much." It's the voice from before. That vampire's voice whispers into the darkness of my cell and I turn towards it.

"What did you do?" I ask unable to keep the tremor from my voice, shaking in terror.

"When he forced a kiss on you, you felt pain, right?" he asks and I mutter a small yes in confirmation. My shoulders sag in defeat and I feel weariness creep up on me, making me feel tired and drained out.

"Let's say I can transfer your pain and create an illusion in his mind. That's what caused him to move back," he whispers and I am astonished at the description of his gift. This vampire can take my emotions and force them into someone else's mind. His gift is so different from Fenris's, I mutely make a note of sharing this with him that is if I ever meet him again.

Had it been any other time, I would have cheered him on for his gift but at the moment all I feel is temporary relief, knowing that Xanthos will come back. I only pray, hope that Dominic is still here to protect me from both father and son.

Slowly, I feel my eyes start watering and my jaw goes slack as if paralysed and I realise that whatever Xanthos injected into me is showing its effects now.

~~~~~~~~~

I don't know how many days pass by but Xavier, himself comes after a while to give me food. Once when he opened my cell door, I could see that night had fallen as no bright light entered my room and then the next time when he came, there was bright light flooding inside my room. So, I assume that Xavier comes in once during the day and once during the night.

Xanthos hasn't shown up after that day when he forced a kiss from me but I know that he will, he's only plotting now.

Luckily for me, Xavier hasn't forced himself on me and he also started giving me water but only one glass. That one glass of water was also drugged, I could smell it when I was forced to drink it.

"I don't want the food, please, my throat's sore," I whisper to him, one night when he comes to feed me. I cringe at the way he glares at me but I keep my back straight knowing that my fear pleases him. His furry body makes me cringe and flinch in fear when he all but bares his teeth to show off those lengthy sharp canines.

"Do you want to get fucked, tonight?" he asks and I flinch at his tone. I immediately shake my head causing him to grunt in satisfaction. I don't want to risk Xavier's wrath. I don't trust Dominic's powers and since the last time, he hasn't shown his presence that frequently. Once in four to five visits of Xavier, have I heard his voice that too for very brief periods. I don't even know if he's still in his cell or did he escape?

"Eat your meat and then sleep. You need to be the exact weight for me to fuck you and for you to conceive," he whispers.

After he leaves, I force myself to keep the food down and not puke it. If I do, I will only have to clean it and Xavier would growl and roar at me for spoiling the cell's floor. I breathe through nausea and draw my knees closer to my chest, lying in a foetal position. I let those tears slip free from my eyes, weeping silently at the pain from being away from Fenris. I don't know if he's coming to save me or not. Till now, Xavier has come almost 30 times meaning, half a month. I doubt myself sometimes thinking that my mate's not alive.

That I'll be forever alone.

~~~~~

"Wake up!" someone nudges me and my skin blisters in pain. I open my eyes to stare into Xavier's red eyes and immediately back up from my sleeping position. He sneaked up on me when I was sleeping. No way would I allow Xavier to come in my personal space without throwing a fit.

"You can't run from me, darling," he chuckles snidely and then closes in on me again. I turn my face to the side but he just grabs hold of my chin and pulls at me so that I am once again staring in his red eyes. Those hate-filled eyes always manage to make me cower back a little.

He's that scary. I am not as scared of Xanthos as much as I am of Xavier.

"I'm just going to give you a taste tonight. I know you'll like it but don't you dare tell Xanthos, okay? Otherwise, he would just throw a tantrum. Sometimes, I wonder why I even put up with him," he mutters the last part to himself but I can hear him clearly and am only scared now. The pain of his touch fades a little as the horror of what he's planning for me settles over me like a dark cloud.

He suddenly pushes me back so that I land hard on my ass but he only looms over me. I push back to the nearest wall and pulls my knees to my chest to protect myself since I know from experience that he's physically ten times stronger than me. No use in trying to put up a fight.

Kneeling in front of me, he moves so fast that I don't even get a chance to run from under him. I whimper in pain as he pushes me on the ground, hovering over me and then successfully pulls my knees from my chest. In one slash, he tears open the shirt that I had been wearing from the time I came here.

After a second, I feel his claw-like fingers brush and then kneed at my breasts making me scream at the pain of his touch and at the rough manner in which he handles me. With a bruising hold on my breast, his other hand creeps up to my neck where he digs his claws in my mark, peeling off the skin with my mate's mark on it.

Tears bubble up in my eyes when he rips off the skin and I scream, futilely trying to push away his hands off my body but he doesn't even budge an inch. He continues to growl and peel all of the skin with my mate's mark and then he suddenly moves back. I heave, trying to get myself under control. Clutching at my bleeding skin, I flinch at the pool of blood in which my fingers dip when I touch the newly made wound.

When I open my eyes, I see him standing at the doorway, looking at me with confusion and mild satisfaction. I immediately lift my hands to cover myself but wince when the movement sends shards of pain slicing through my shoulders.

After a few agonising seconds, he leaves closing the door shut behind him. I let out a huge breath of relief and crumble on the floor, sobbing and screaming my lungs out at how violated I feel.

"Your mate's alive, Princess. He wouldn't be happy to see you like this. Sadly, the mate of such a fierce prince is lying here crying over her mate," he says when Xavier leaves after nearly raping me.

"You don't know how it feels," I cry, angry at how he's calling me a coward.

"Mo neach beag, I know exactly how you feel," he says softly and I recall his claim of being an empath and the ability to transfer emotions, then I recall how Xavier was looking at me in confusion before he strode out of my cell.

"You made him go," I go to ask but it comes out more like a statement.

"Yes, but my gift doesn't work that good on Xavier as it does on Xanthos," he accepts tiredly.

"Sleep now, little one," he whispers into the night and again tears spring in my eyes. I miss Fenris. I miss his loving hold and how safe I felt in them.

I lay down on the floor, nearly passing out from the pain of having my mark ripped off from my skin, after tying the ends of the shirt in the front, trying to cover myself as modestly as possible and wince when my fingers accidentally dig into my breast where Xavier no doubt has left bruises. Day by day, my anger turns to fear and then fear turns to anguish. I can only hope. Please let him come soon, I pray just before giving into the darkness.

~~~~~

Nouari!

Today my book is on rank 52 - mating. This is the first time when my book has got a two-digit rank, so I feel like celebrating. Hence, the update.

Thank you @falgunicharania and @reader852013 for voting. Keep voting and don't forget to comment your views about the chapter.