Page 43 of Soulless Rivalry

First Guy’s hand was fisting my hair before I could see it coming and he pulled me up to my feet, not caring about my friends screaming at him to let me go.

I stayed quiet, refusing to give him the satisfaction of knowing he was hurting me. That’s the same tactic I used with Mia’s father whenever he would tryteaching me a lesson. It drove him mad, just like it seemed to make First Guy angrier.

“You got something to say, cunt?” he spat, his saliva spraying onto my face and making me want to puke. “You say it to my face.”

Not wanting to make things worse for my friends, I pursed my lips, looking away from him.

“You know what? I think I’ll make an example of you.” The way he looked me up and down so suddenly made me want to shrink into myself in disgust. “Come on, I’ll show you how man I truly am.”

When he started walking towards the woods and away from my friends, that’s when fear truly gripped me. I screamed, struggling against him in hopes of breaking free, but he was stronger.

“Let her go!” Briar started screaming, breaking into a run to get to me but Stupid caught her and kept her from running tomy aid. The last guy came to join him and all two of them were restraining my friends and keeping them from helping me.

I never stopped fighting, I couldn’t. Ideas of what would happen if I did made me physically ill and I kept on struggling to push him away but he easily outweighed me.

“I think I’ll make you suck my cock first, just to shut you up a little. Your fancy school might teach girls like you to speak up, but we like our women silent in the village.”

He pushed me to the ground, bruising my knees and hurting my scalp where he was still gripping a handful of my hair.

I spat on the ground, keeping my gaze on him. “And then you wonder why your women disappear? Maybe they’re just running away from you fuckers!”

He slapped me again and I yelped in surprise.

“You show me some respect, you fucking?—”

But First Guy never got to finish his sentence.

All I did was blink and he went from standing above me, looking all strong and mighty, to lying on the ground and looking up in fear at the person who had thrown him there.

Konstantin straddled his waist, fists flying at the guy’s face, causing blood to explode from his nose.

I gaped at the scene in front of me.

I had never seen Konstantin looking so angry. He was usually so good at hiding whatever he was thinking, but that day he looked like an animal: powerful, brutal, and fucking unstoppable.

He punched him a couple more times before grabbing him by the collar and pulling him up until First Guy was looking at him. The fucker didn’t look so sure of himself all of a sudden.

Matter of fact, he seemed two seconds away from pissing his pants.

“Do you see me, asshole?” Konstantin hissed, having gone completely feral.

First Guy nodded soundlessly.

“Good. I want my face to be the last thing you’ll ever remember.”

Something shiny then caught my eye, gleaming in Konstantin’s hand. A knife.

And he used it to slice First Guy’s throat with ease and experience. The blood gushing out of him and the look of pure fright in his wide eyes wasn’t what had me in shock though.

It was the feeling of awe that I felt, watching Konstantin kill.

KONSTANTIN

Fuck, but it felt good to kill.

That was the first thought on my mind as soon as my blade made contact with that shitstain’s throat.

Even though murder was what my family was renowned for and I had been raised to kill, one might think I did not particularly enjoy it. They couldn’t be more wrong.

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