Chapter 7

When I woke up I found myself being carried to God-knows-where. The hands that carried me were sturdy and when I looked up, I was surprised to see Claw again.

“Claw?”

“Oh, you're finally awake. I thought you would sleep forever.”

I said nothing and just let him carry me. He seemed surprised by that.

“I thought you'd say a snide remark to that? What happened? Has a few days in a prison cell dulled your hot-headedness?”

“Where are you taking me?” I asked wearily.

“To your room.”

“My room?”

“Yes, you'll be staying in a room in this place until I can decide what will happen to you.”

“Please let me see Martin,” I said.

Claw suddenly stopped. I could feel his grip tightening around me and I noticed him clenching his jaw. Was he angry?

“You speak about another man while I'm carrying you?” he asked.

I was utterly confused. What was he saying?

“I just want to know if he's alright.”

“Fine. He was unconscious for a while but he's awake. I have had my doctor tend to him. Happy?”

“Thank you,” I said.

“You don't look so pleased. Don't believe me?”

“What do you want me to say? Fall at your feet and kiss it as appreciation for your deed?”

“Now that's more like you,” he said.

I sighed heavily and looked away.

“If you behave. I might just let you see him. I might.”

Claw brought me to some room. Two men stood at the door and opened it for us to come in. The room was big with golden curtains hanging around and an equally golden bed. I was confused. The room was well-furnished and quite luxurious. Were we in the wrong room?

“Did you miss your way?” I asked as Claw set me on the bed.

“No, why?”

“Is this the room I will be staying?”

“Yes.”

“But. Isn’t it..”

I stopped talking. Why was I complaining? The room had exquisite features and was fit for a royal. There was even a famous painting on the wall. How were they able such a rare painting and put it in a private room? Such painting was only existing in the human realm and to bring it here means that they would have gone through a very expensive process- making use of a human merchant who dealt with trade between the two realms. That cost a lot of money.

And they want to give a room that possessed it a mere criminal like me?

“What are you thinking about?” he asked.

“Nothing,” I said, and looked at his face.

In the glow of the light, I could see his perfectly chiseled face, so handsome and radiating masculinity that it almost made me blush. His sharp eyes felt like they were piercing into me.

He wore only a purple coat made of fine silk and his bare chest showed, two huge titties she wanted to sink her head into.

“Raven,” he said in that deep whisky voice that strangely made her body quiver like he was calling to her inner self her wolf.

“We are all alone now. It's only the two of us. Tell me everything. Starting from how you got here, first.”

I looked at the wall and sighed heavily, my mind drifting to a few days ago when I had made my escape from that dreadful house.

Seven days ago

That fateful day, I jumped down the three-story building, landing on trash bags lying against each other.

Poof!

Dust emitted from the bags when I landed on them.

I quickly got up, scrambled to my feet, and ran again.

A ceramic vase tore through the wind behind me, approaching me. Sensing the vase approaching me, I moved my body, dodging and narrowly avoiding the vase that landed beside me on the ground and shattered into pieces.

'That was close!' I thought as I continued to run.

“Hey! Get back here! Fucking bitch!” the angry voice of Mrs. Simone, my stepmother and the mistress of the mansion I lived at, echoed behind me.

She was also the one who had flung the vase from upstairs at me.

I looked back, and though I was a few meters away from the mansion, I could still see the angry face of Mrs. Simone from there.

'Damn! What's wrong with you? You wanna kill me?'

“Don’t you ever return to this house, you hear me?! If you ever return, you are dead!”

I finally reached the main road, panting heavily. My father's mansion was deep in the woods, and it would always take a few miles to reach the town.

And that was if they used a moving vehicle.

I had no choice but to use my legs, which took half an hour to get me to the road.

On reaching there, I waited frantically for a taxi and was about to board it when I noticed my missing necklace!

I clutched my neck, my heart sinking as I felt its emptiness that signified that it was not with me.

I remembered having it on my neck this morning. I never took it off.

It must have been when I was fleeing from Mrs. Simone that I must have lost it.

“Sorry, you can go ahead,” I said to the taxi driver who had stopped his car for me, “I forgot something important. I have to go pick it up.”

The taxi driver glared at me, obviously angry at me for wasting his time.

“Why did you stop me in the first place? These young idiots,” he said, driving away.

I watched the yellow, black-striped motor as it disappeared into the road. I was so sorry to let it go. This area was not one where a lot of taxi drivers passed by. I had stood for a good twenty minutes before I had even seen this one.

The sun was setting. It was getting dark. Returning to this place after searching for the necklace could cause me to stand here all night without seeing a single car to carry me. The later it was in the day, the more sparse vehicles passed by on the lonely road.

Maybe it was because this area was dangerous, close to the big, scary woods so many horrifying stories had been told about.

One of the rumors was that many people who had gone into it had never returned. They all got missing, or better put it, all died.

I began to make my way back to the mansion. It took another one and a half hours to get there. It was already desk, and my heart beat in fear as the scary image of the forest loomed not far from where I walked.

On reaching the mansion, I tiptoed towards it, hoping to see the silver necklace. It was dangerous, returning to the mansion which housed psychopaths, yet I had to. The necklace was very important to me.

It was the only thing left to me by my parents when they left me at my orphanage twenty-two years ago.

I couldn’t lose it because it was the only clue I had to finding my parents.

I spotted the necklace near the bags of trash I had fallen on earlier. I immediately took it and wore it around my neck.

I looked up from where I had jumped and realized how high it was. How come I had not sustained any injuries when I jumped from there?

Earlier, because I had had to escape, I had not thought much of it.

I had no choice but to jump, being cornered by Mrs. Simone and the crazy Reid, the heir to my father's estate even though he was not even his real son the first son, and his equally crazy brother- Desmond.

My father did not care for me and had turned a blind eye to my maltreatment for years. It was as if u didn’t exist to him.

I had lived at this mansion for ten years and had witnessed how crazy these men were. I was not sure what they were going to do to me now I had offended them.

Scared that I would probably be thrown into a big pot of boiling oil and burnt till all my skin peeled off and I would be drowned in this oil like the last maid that worked for them, I had jumped out of the window in a bid to escape.

I had even done worse than that maid, so my punishment was probably worse.

I turned to leave when I got face to face with Desmond and Reid, his brother. My heart jumped to my chest as I stumbled back.

“My, my. I thought you fled. It seems you are dumb,” Reid said.

“Or did you think nothing would happen to you because you’re father's real daughter?”

“No, I didn’t,” I said, keeping my distance from them.

“Come on, don't be that way,” said Reid, reaching his large hand for me and pulling me roughly towards him, “Scared?”

I shook my head in the negative.

“Then why don't we play together a little?” Reid said, pushing me onto the floor.

I fell on the floor with a huff. The brothers stood over me, their huge frame blocking the view from the moon.

I could not see their expressions, but I knew they were smiling.

Desmond laughed wickedly, bent towards me, grabbed my wrists, and pinned me to the ground.

“What are you trying to do?!”

“Relax,” said Reid, crouching as well and grabbing my legs, putting them between his legs, trapping me.

He raised my skirts, sliding his hands up my thighs.

“Let me go!” I screamed.

“Don’t worry. We will end your misery when we are done,” said Desmond.

“Get off me! Bastards!”

Desmond slapped me across the face. I grunted in pain.

Then he grabbed my neck, raised it, and slammed my head against the ground.

My head pounded in pain.

“Who are you calling bastards?!”

Reid grabbed my underwear, ripping it off and exposing my privates. He placed his thumb on it, sliding it a little in.

“Oh, this one’s fresh,” he said to his brother, “Can't wait to devour this one.”

Desmond laughed in response.

I struggled against the brothers.

“Help me! Help-“

Desmond slapped me again and then covered my mouth with his hand, preventing me from shouting.

Reid pulled my skirt off, flinging it away. He quickly unbuckled his belt, still trapping my legs between his.