Chapter 21 CHAPTER 21
I stood there staring at the tray for longer than I should have. The food smelled good, warm and fresh, and my stomach twisted so hard it actually hurt. It would have been so easy to just take a bite, just one, to make the hunger go away for a little while. No one would know. No one would see.
But I knew.
This wasn’t kindness. This was him trying to prove a point.
My jaw tightened as I took a step back, forcing myself to look away from the food. “No,” I muttered quietly. “I’m not doing this.” If he thought I was going to give in that easily, then he didn’t know me at all.
I left the tray where it was.
As night came, the room started getting colder. The fire had burned down to almost nothing, and without the servant coming back to add more wood, the warmth slowly disappeared. The big room didn’t help either. It was too large, and the cold filled it quickly, creeping into every corner.
I climbed into the bed and pulled the fur blankets over me, wrapping them tight around my body. They were thick and soft, but it didn’t matter. The cold still found its way through, slipping in bit by bit until I could feel it everywhere.
I turned onto my side, curling into myself, trying to stay warm, but it didn’t help much. My teeth started chattering, and I pressed my lips together, trying to stop it, but it just made it worse. The cold was too strong, and I could feel it in my hands, my feet, even my face.
I sat up after a while, pulling the blankets around my shoulders like a cloak. I brought my hands up to my mouth and blew warm air into them, trying to get some feeling back into my fingers. For a second, it helped, but the warmth disappeared almost as quickly as it came.
“This is stupid,” I whispered to myself, trying again, rubbing my hands together this time. It still didn’t work.
The room felt even colder now, like the warmth had completely drained out of it, and I pulled the blankets tighter around me, my body starting to shake more.
That was when it hit me.
This wasn’t just bad luck, this was him.
He didn’t need to be here to do this. He didn’t need to say anything or even look at me. He could take things away without ever stepping into the room, and there was nothing I could do about it.
I swallowed hard, staring down at my hands as they kept shaking.
I was hungry.
I was freezing.
And I was still too stubborn to touch the food.
The door burst open so suddenly that I jumped, my whole body tensing as the sound echoed through the cold room. I turned toward it, my breath catching as he stepped inside, filling the doorway like he had before, only this time there was no calm, no control in the way he carried himself.
His eyes went straight to me.
I was still sitting on the bed, wrapped in the blankets, my body shaking from the cold, my teeth chattering no matter how hard I tried to stop it. I hated that he saw me like this, weak and freezing, but I couldn’t hide it.
For a moment, something like a smile touched his face, but there was nothing warm about it. It didn’t reach his eyes. It only pulled back enough to reveal his sharp canines, making it look more like a warning than anything else.
Then his gaze shifted.
To the tray.
Untouched.
I saw the moment it changed him. His jaw tightened, his teeth clenching as something darker settled into his expression, something that made the air in the room feel even colder.
“I told you to eat,” he snarled, his voice low and rough.
I swallowed, my throat dry, but I forced myself to hold his gaze. “And I told you,” I said, my voice shaking slightly from the cold but still steady enough, “I’m not a doll you can play with.”
Something in him snapped.
I didn’t even see him move.
One moment he stood across the room, and the next he was on the bed, the force of it making the mattress dip beneath his weight as he towered over me. The sudden movement knocked the breath from my lungs, and before I could react, his large, fur-covered hand wrapped around my throat, forcing me back into the bed.
My eyes widened in shock, my hands flying up instinctively as I grabbed at his wrist, trying to push him away, but it was like trying to move stone. His grip tightened, not enough to crush, but enough to remind me how easily he could.
This was not the controlled creature from before.
This was the beast.
“You mock me, little hunter,” he growled, his voice deeper now, rougher, closer to something wild than anything else.
I struggled beneath him, my fingers digging into his hand, trying to force space between his grip and my throat as my breath came shorter. Fear hit me hard then, sharp and real, the kind that made my chest tighten and my thoughts scatter.
I had pushed too far.
My nails pressed harder into his skin as I tried to pull his hand away, my strength nothing against his, but I didn’t stop. I refused to stop. Even now, even like this, something inside me wouldn’t let me just lie there and accept it.
“I… said…” I tried to speak, but my voice came out strained, barely making it past his grip.
My heart pounded hard in my chest, my body trembling now not just from the cold, but from the realization settling in.
He could end me right here.
And no one would ever know.
My vision started to blur, small black spots creeping into the edges as the air was slowly forced out of me. My chest burned, my throat tightening under his grip, and no matter how hard I tried to pull in a breath, nothing came. Panic hit me hard, sharp and suffocating, my body reacting faster than my thoughts could keep up.
Then something clicked.
His eyes.
The thought came out of nowhere, but I didn’t question it. I didn’t have time to. With what little strength I had left, I forced my arms up, my hands shaking as I aimed for his face. My fingers found his eyes, and with my last choking breath, I drove both of my thumbs forward as hard as I could.
For a split second, nothing happened.
Then his grip broke.
His hand loosened around my throat just enough, and I gasped, dragging in a sharp, painful breath as air finally filled my lungs again. I coughed hard, my body shaking as I turned my head to the side, trying to breathe through the burning in my chest and the raw ache in my throat.