Page 9 of Lycan King's Claim
"What have you done?" he accuses. I don't have time to answer. I hit the door once more, and it gives way, crumbling under the force of my impact. Stumbling into the room, I'm met with a horrifying sight. Sienna frantically attempts to cut her hand off using her claws; the bed is drenched in blood as she yanks at her hand. The sight that greets me is like a nightmare turned reality. Sienna. Her beautiful face, streaked with tears, is clawing desperately at the handcuff encircling her wrist. Her hands are smeared in blood, and the sheets are stained a grotesque red. The metallic scent of it permeates the room, stinging my nostrils and searing my lungs as she twists and pulls, trying to free her hand like a frenzied animal.
My stomach churns, acid twisting as a mixture of guilt and horror courses through my veins. I should have noticed sooner. I should have sensed her distress. Her pain echoes through our bond, reverberating like an eerie orchestra in my mind.
As I sprint toward her, Sienna lashes out, caught in the midst of her suffering. “Monster!” she screams, her voice hoarse and strained. Her eyes, usually bright and vibrant, are dull with pain and raging with fury. She lands a kick to my stomach, the blow knocking the wind out of me as I stumble back. She is rabid, absolutely feral with her pain.
“Sienna,” I gasp, attempting to pacify her. “I need to help you. Let me help.”
She’s not listening. Her suffering has morphed into uncontrollable rage. I feel a strong grip on my shoulder as Javier rushes to my side to help. “Where’s the key, Xandros?” he yells. I have no answer for him. I can’t remember. The key is lost along with my memory.
Sienna’s hand, pale and cold, lacks the usual life-giving warmth. It’s a horrifying sight, reminiscent of a corpse’s hand. A whimper claws its way up my throat. I’ve done this to her. In my rage, my paranoia, I’d caged her like a wild animal, and now she’s responding in kind.
Javier holds her legs down as I straddle her; she thrashes and kicks, trying to throw me off while I try to break the iron restraint. Her fury doesn’t subside even when the cuff snaps open, her freed hand immediately lashing out to strike me. She wails into me, bucking beneath me, her claws slashing my clothes and ribs as I try to block her. In response, my command rolls over her like a wave. “Stop!” I roar, and to my relief, she does, her body stiffening underneath me, my command stunning her and forcing her immobile. The fight leaves her, replaced by violent sobs as I gently massage her wrist, urging life back into the tortured limb.
Javier hovers at the edge of the bed, his eyes torn between us. “Want me to get a doctor?” he asks, I shake my head, “No, just leave. Try and find my keys.” I tell him. As he departs, Sienna’s chest rises and falls erratically, her frantic gaze locked onto Javier until he disappears, the busted door clicking shut behind him.
“Get out,” Sienna snaps at me, her eyes still burning with resentment and fear.
“I need to heal your hand, Sienna,” I respond, reaching for her. She recoils from my touch like a wounded animal.
“Don’t touch me!” she hisses, glaring at me with eyes filled with loathing. I try to suppress the stab of pain her words inflict.
“I’m trying to help you, Sienna.”
She erupts into giggles, her eyebrows lifting. “Help me?” She echoes her voice a shrill note of hysteria. “If you wanted to help, you should have killed me! I’d rather die than be stuck with you!”
Ignoring her venomous words, I attempt to grab her wrist again, and she fights back. Her fist collides with my face, a painful reminder of the divide between us.
“Stop fighting me, Sienna. You’re only hurting yourself,” I growl, forcing her to remain still as I bite into my wrist, the blood welling up immediately. She resists, clamping her lips shut. With a firm pinch to her cheeks, I force her mouth open, pressing my bleeding wrist against her lips.
The moment I pull away, her lips curl into a sneer, and she spits my blood back in my face.
“I hate you!” she screams, the rawness of her pain evident in her voice.
“Hate me all you want; it won’t change the fact you’re mine,” I retort, my own anger simmering just beneath the surface.
“First chance I get, I’m gone, Xandros! You don’t care for me, you don’t love me, you?—”
“And he did? He loved you?” I scoff, her words cutting deep. She’s wrong. She has no idea what she’s talking about.
Her words, raw and cutting, seethe from between her clenched teeth. “At least he didn’t fucking hurt me!” Her voice rings through the room, echoing off the cold stone walls. She’s not finished, her anger cascading over her like a crashing wave.
“And you? What’s your definition of love, Xandros?” she spits, her voice ripe with contempt. “Binding me? Hurting me? Is this your pathetic idea of affection? Are these the vows of love to you?”
I can feel my blood boiling beneath my skin, her words piercing through me like poisoned darts. She doesn’t relent, her voice growing stronger and more emboldened with each scathing indictment.
“Toby showed me kindness, respect, Xandros,” she continues, her voice quivering with a potent mixture of rage and hurt. “He valued me. Not as some object to claim and control, as an equal. Something you can never comprehend. Is your ego so inflated you believe this… this torture is love?”
She’s mocking me, her words a harsh rebuke to my skewed ideals of love and possession. She’s dismantling me, piece by piece, her scornful words like whiplash stinging more than I care to admit.
“You’re nothing but a beast, Xandros! The fucking Mad King!” Her voice rings out, echoing against the stone walls. “A cold, heartless monster! You don’t love; you only claim. You only possess. You have no concept of what it means to truly love someone. You don’t deserve to love; you don’t deserve to be loved!”
Her words, cruel and relentless, tear through the air like a cruel hurricane, each syllable an arrow aimed straight at my pride, my ego. A venomous rejection of everything I am, everything I represent. Her onslaught of cruel declarations leave me bare, my soul flayed by her brutal honesty.
Her declaration hangs heavy in the room. My chest constricts, my rage building. “He can’t love you because he’s fucking dead! Your precious boyfriend is dead, Sienna! His love got him killed!” I seethe, my grip on her throat tightening.
“You speak his name again, and I will cut your fucking tongue out.”
My threat hangs in the air, a poisonous fog, as a tremble vibrates through my body. The realization that I’m choking her causes my hand to release its grip. She gasps, sucking in a lungful of air as I stumble back, mortification washing over me. I barely hear Javier’s voice, barely registering his trembling hand on my shoulder.
