Chapter 17

Chapter 17
Rika
She sprinted through the woods around Locust, scouting for the girl who was crying for help. The girl sounded terrified, and she was determined to get to her before she ran out of the protection spell. She bounded through the last three trees and ran straight into somebody’s arms.
“Ooof.”
After wrapping his arms around her and pushing her against a tree, Jay looked down at her. “We need to talk.”
“I’m looking for a girl. Can this wait?” she asked, trying to ignore the sparks flying over her skin.
“This girl?”
He tossed his head back, uttering small shrieks of fear and making her eyes widen.
“T-that was you?”
He nodded as he dragged his nose along her jaw. “I had to get you alone, now didn’t I?”
“Y-you did?”
He rubbed himself against her. “Rika, my beautiful Rika, you’re my mate. Can’t you feel it?”
She bit her lip as she nodded. “When did it start for you?”
“This morning at breakfast. You?”
She ran her fingers up his forearm before leaning against him. “Two days ago, when we went swimming in the lake.”
He tipped her chin up. “Is that why you ran away?”
She nodded shyly. “I was always drawn to you, but when you grabbed my leg under the water, I wanted to touch you.”
“Do you, now?” he asked as he took her hair down from its french braid, shaking it out before watching it settle around her shoulders.
She nodded again. “I’ve always wanted to touch you,” she confided.
He tipped her face up to kiss her softly. “Then touch me because I want to touch you, too.”
“Jay…”
He kissed her again. “Rika, listen to me. I know you think that because you’re human, a shifter won’t want you, but you’re wrong. I want you desperately. I have for years, and now I don’t have to hide it. I want to mark you, marry you, and mate with you. There is nothing in this world that could ever change that. You are a gift that the Goddess put here to bring goodness and light to the world.” He lifted her hands to his mouth to kiss. “You are my guiding light. You always have been.”
She sighed as a tear rolled down her face. “You deserve a strong queen, Jay. Not me. You should just reject me and choose a mate worthy of your status.”
“You want me to choose a mate?” he asked incredulously.
She sniffled as her heart broke inside of her chest. “Yes.”
He studied her face for a moment before backing away from her. He turned slowly in a circle before stopping to look at her with his eyes wide open and his hand out. She curiously took it, giggling a little when he vigorously shook it.
“Hi. My name is Jay, and I think you are the most beautiful woman that I have ever seen. Will you please let me take you out on a date?”
She looked down for a second before smiling up at him. “Hi, Jay. My name is Rika. What made you choose me?”
“Everything. Your intelligence, your grace, your passion, your beauty, and above all else, your humanity. Be mine, Rika. Let me love you.”
She leaned against his chest, nodding as she whispered, “okay.”
She was snapped out of her thoughts when someone growled outside her cell door. She quickly got up to go stand by the door. She tried to remain as still as she could in an attempt to listen to the men standing outside her door. She pressed herself against the wall beside the door, grimacing when she held onto the wall to keep her balance while she stood on her tiptoes to bring herself closer to the small opening high up on the door. Her fingertips were bare, almost to the bone, from her clawing at the steel door and stone walls for hours on end, trying desperately to escape.
“What are we supposed to do, Alpha Kane? This little bitch is stubborn. How do we trigger her shift? We have dropped her from rooftops and off cliffs. She still refuses to shift. We are going to war in less than three months, and without her we will lose.”
“I know. We might have to sacrifice the other girl.”
“WHAT?! THAT WOULD BE EVEN WORSE! SHE’S EVEN STRONGER!”
The Alpha chuckled. “Yes, she is, but you forget, we have more of the air, but we have no more of the harpy. We can create another air.”
“But Alpha Kane-”
The sound of bones breaking had her scrambling back toward the cot on the other side of the room.
“I SAID WE ARE GOING TO SACRIFICE THE GIRL! I AM ALPHA, AND YOU WILL OBEY ME!”
“Y-yes, Alpha Kane.”
“Good! Now, go to Hiatus and bring the girl back here.”
“Right away.”
Rika pressed herself against the wall behind her, waiting for the cruel Alpha to barge in to beat her again. She let out a sigh of relief when she heard him walk away from her door, too. She curled up into a ball on the cot as tears started running down her face. She missed her freedom. She missed being at home. She missed her family, but the thing she missed the most was her mate. Now, she wished she had let him mark her and had accepted Aunt Kalani’s offer to give her a dragon. She wiped her nose on her sleeve. She didn’t want to die without telling Jay how much she loved him.
All of this was her fault. She shouldn’t have convinced him to wait until his siblings found their mates. She should have just given in and clung to him like mates were supposed to do. She sniffled again as she closed her eyes. She needed to rest while she could. Whatever the Alpha and Beta were up to, she had to be alert and ready. Whoever this “Air” chick was, she couldn’t let her die, not to save herself. She protected innocents and did not put them at risk.
When her head started hurting, she heaved a sigh. She had been gone for over a week. She was starting to doubt if anybody knew she was missing yet. She had almost made it to Deegan when she was taken. She just had to keep herself alive until they came looking for her. She wrapped her arms tighter around her legs. She just prayed that “Air” would be easy to keep alive.