Chapter 140

CLAUDIA.

I want to turn away. I really do. I want to leave the dream and just forget I ever had it. I want to convince myself that this is just a simple nightmare, something that my mind just conjured because of the long hours of discussion and stress. What else could it be, right? Surely this is just my mind regurgitating some information that I just can't figure out...

But I'm beginning to think that this is not just a simple dream.

Something about it feels too real. I can almost taste the air. I can almost feel the flames. It feels like I really am here, walking around in the clearing and witnessing everything firsthand.

I take a deep breath and try to get out of it, pushing myself to wake up, and yet nothing happens.

Panic is starting to creep up my throat. I want to scream. But the simple realism in my background tells me that that would be the stupidest thing I could ever do. And perhaps even the most dangerous.

It looks like the only thing I can do right now is watch.

"Well?" Tristan prompts as Sahari watches him with her eyes wide open. "I know you heard me. I know you know what I'm saying. What's with the delay?"

She stares up at him, tears sparkling in her eyes. "Why do you want me to take my clothes off? What do you want?"

"Sahari...." Tristan crinkles his nose. "Please. Don't flatter yourself. Now take off your clothes and shut your mouth."

Sahari gulps. She slowly gets to her feet, looking around like she's scared of anyone seeing her. There's only a sprinkle of guards walking around but they're all focused on her. I can sense the hesitation emanating off her like an aura, but she just grabs the flaps of her robe and carefully pushes them down her shoulders. The piece of clothing falls on the ground with a mild thump, but she has a long way to go.

Swallowing hard, she moves on to her shirt. She unbuttons it one by one, her fingers fumbling over the buttons. After a while, she manages to undo them all, shrugging off her shirt until it falls by her feet too. Now her torso is bare for everyone to see, the curves of her breasts catching the light from above.

I don’t know what disgusts me more—the fact that something in the air changed the moment her breasts get exposed, or that her body is more emaciated than I thought. Her ribs are sticking out and I can almost count them at this point. The knobs in her spine are also sticking out. Her skin is almost gray, and I can see so many dark bruises all over her body. She’s also nursing a huge gash around her belly.

I don’t understand how the guards around us can still think of strange sexual things about her when this is the state she comes in.

She tries to cover herself up. I can hear her sobbing. A part of me wishes that Achilles took pity on her and brought her to the palace instead of this, but I also know that there is no price for the betrayal she has done and perhaps in a way, she deserves this. But my heart hurts watching all of this unfold.

“You’re not even remotely done, Sahari,” Tristan whispers. He alone seems unaffected by all of this. I thought that in a way, he might have been interested in her. Or at least, interested in some kind of release, but it doesn’t seem like it. He’s just regarding her with a look of contempt and disgust, and it’s enough to make her flinch and shake in her spot. “I don’t know if you’re just slow or stupid, but the pants need to come off too, I’m afraid.”

The tension in the air increases. I want to scream at the guards and beat them all to death. But Tristan also seems to have noticed this, because he turns to his men and says, “Can you really not control yourselves? Please, this is hardly a sight to behold. You shall wait when my Luna comes around.”

Sahari freezes. “Your Luna?”

“Yes,” he answers quietly. “Claudia.”

My skin crawls with disgust. Bile actually creeps up my throat and threatens to spill. The mere thought of being here and being their spectacle is making me want to faint and die. But the worst thing about that is the confidence with which he said it, like he’s one hundred percent certain that he would be able to take me. I know Achilles would rather die a thousand times before he lets that happen. And I myself would fight to the death just to stay with him.

“You will see soon,” he continues. “Now please, just get this over with. The sight of you makes me sick.”

Sahari lets out a dry sob and goes on to lower her pants. Now she’s bare for everyone to see, and though the guards have been told off, they don’t stop looking at her with lust. She hugs herself, and I can tell she’s feeling smaller and smaller from all this negative attention.

“Now bow,” Tristan instructs her, and she does what he says, sinking to her knees and touching her forehead against the ground. “I can see you shaking. I know you are afraid. But you have seen what this has done to others before, this initiation. You have seen that they have gotten stronger because of this. Faster and better. The perfect warriors. Don’t you want to have that kind of power?”

I can tell she wants to say no but she just looks up and nods.

“There it is,” he whispers, taking a cup from the small makeshift table beside his throne. It’s full of bloodred liquid, and he hands it to her. “Now drink. Drink and finally be one of us. Free from all the things you have believed in before. If you are indeed loyal to me, then you have nothing to fear. And you are loyal to me, right?”

“I am,” Sahari says, and slowly, she takes the cup from him and drinks up all its contents.

Tristan watches as she drains the cup. It falls from her grip the moment it’s emptied, and that’s when the horror begins.

Suddenly, Sahari starts to twitch, her body jerking from side to side as though a small animal is trapped inside her and is now moving around trying to use her limbs. A muffled whimper escapes her lips as blood starts to flow seemingly from her pores. That’s when I realize that thin black fur is starting to sprout from her skin, but instead of growing naturally during an ordinary shift, it’s poking through her pores and tearing through her skin.

She lets out a scream. A scream so strong and so reflective of her pain that I feel the need to cover my ears. But it doesn’t stop there.

Her bones crack as her body expands. Her spine elongates and I can hear the bones shifting inside. Her skin stretches over her new frame, tearing even more but just replaced by the black fur that now looks like spores of molds growing from under her body. Her head completely changes shape, elongating and growing the sharpest biggest teeth. Her screams turn into a howl, and just like that, a gigantic creature is standing in front of me. With spiky black fur that looks like needles, dripping in blood. Razor-sharp nails and teeth. Blood red eyes….

A Rogue.

Sahari turned into a Rogue.