[YUZUKI]
"Not her!!" Alpha Yuzuki let out a pained cry as she crawled through the spikes to get to her mate, the last living member of her family. The others had already been slaughtered. Yuzuki tried not to think of the pain she was feeling at the moment.
The only one that mattered was the one alive, or so her parents had trained her. They had made her believe that fighting for life was better than fighting for the dead. Then again, they had all been dead and there wasn't a thing left for Yuzuki to think of at the moment.
However, even then, the woman being dragged by her hair towards her was not what Yuzuki had expected.
She had felt the mate bonds cut.
She had felt so many bonds break and Yuzuki was in too much pain to think straight, with the loss she had incurred today, she was certain she'd go crazy. If that had been an auction before, it was a reality that Yuzuki was now staring at.
"Oh… so you care about someone. The mighty cold Alpha, Yuzuki Fukada had a mate she hid from everyone interesting," King Kazuya taunted as his warriors dragged a rebellious woman to him.
"She has a fighting spirit, this one, sire. Maybe we should keep her as one of our whores in the palace," a warrior suggested, making the other warriors laugh at the idea. They seemed a little too excited about their new prey.
Perhaps it was because they could see that Yuzuki was dying and that she couldn't fight them anymore. She was at her weakest and the King was flaunting the one thing that could shatter her heart.
Oh, King Kazuya was a cruel bastard.
"Don't hurt her. You have the lands you wanted badly. You can clear out the bodies and do whatever you want. Just please, let her go," Yuzuki begged as her blood spilled from her guts with every breath she struggled to take.
She hated that this was a fate that her mate had to endure, and she despised everything that had gotten them to this point.
It hurt more than anything Yuzuki had ever felt. It hurt more than the pain she was feeling now that her soul was so close to giving up and letting go. It hurt to see her beautiful mate being paraded like some whore ready for the taking.
Yuzuki hated the king.
"Looks like someone finally remembers why we are here," King Kazuya laughed as he grabbed Yuzuki's mate by the hair and made her kneel in front of Yuzuki. The woman was too shocked even to say a word and her eyes were focused on Yuzuki's.
It was almost as if this was what she could afford, seeing as they had the worst fates out there. There had never been an instance where Yuzuki Fukada felt as helpless as she was right now and she despised the moon goddess for such a cruel fate.
This was not fair.
"You have me, your highness. Please let her go," Yuzuki said, making King Kazuya laugh even harder. This was a show for him and he was enjoying every bit of it. It was like he was addicted to the pain she was causing Yuzuki and it was sickening to the core.
"You even remembered your manners… you know, Yuzuki… your sentences are a little too structured for someone who is dying. Shouldn't you be on the ground begging with shortened breaths?" King Kazuya taunted.
Yuzuki's mate stared at her deadly. They had been bound to a fate that didn't have a way out. This was not what they had hoped for. Hell, no one ever sat down and prayed for betrayal to this extent.
Perhaps they should have expected this, but then the man was the king. He quite literally had power over them. If he wanted the land, he could have taken it with ease.
He could have forced the Fukada wolves into a different sect as the constitution of Yamashita demanded. Instead, here he was slaughtering entire packs just because he was a bored little shit.
"You'll be fine, kitten," Yuzuki said to her mate who was staring at her sadly. She knew that the ending was near and she was so close to breathing her last. But Yuzuki wanted to hold on to her mate. For her beautiful woman.
"Yuzu… I'm scared," Yuzuki's mate said as she looked at her.
"You'll be fine, my Matsui. You will really be fine," Yuzuki reassured her mate desperately.
"Look at the both of you, pathetic as always. Did you think getting mated to Yuzuki was a good idea, Matsui? You could have come to the top of the world at the palace and you would have been happier as my concubine than as this bastard woman's mate.
"Look where that got you," King Kazuya said, his tone devoid of any remorse for what he was doing to them. He had torn families apart. He had ripped away their hopes one by one and had made sure to let them know that it was him who had made that shit happen.
He had made certain that they could who had come for them. It was the most comforting thing and it was understandable that most of the Fukada pack wolves had ended up dead with broken hearts.
Yet even then, the King didn't seem to care one bit. He was selfish as usual and he wanted to get what he needed.
"Yuzu…" her mate breathed out shakily, the fear in her voice evident even as the warriors rushed toward her. It was a sight that broke Yuzuki's heart. She had prayed to the goddess for help.
He had begged for mercy and had sworn to be better when the attack first started.
She had pleaded for the goddess to intervene and yet no one had. Instead, the rains had gotten harsher on her as the blood of her family members trickled down to the streams of the Yamashita kingdom.
It was a horrifying sight that Yuzuki would have paid everything just to never witness and yet right now, she was being forced to watch the madness.
"Focus on me, kitten. Just me," Yuzuki said gently, her tone unwavering as she watched the woman she had loved with everything. Her Matsui was her world and Kazuya was a threat to that.
The fact that Yuzuki was not even going to survive, horrified her to the core. She knew there was a chance that Matsui would suffer at the hands of the King for centuries. Oh, but it was a thought that broke Yuzuki's heart even more.
She had only ever wanted to be happier with her mate, on a pack that had known peace. She had wanted to have a family of her own with Matsui, and King Kazuya was reminding her that it was never going to happen.
She was never going to see what Matsui looked like with their babies. She would never get the chance to grow older with Matsui and she would never be happier again. This was not fair, but Yuzuki had cried enough.
She had struggled enough and she was slowly fading in and out of consciousness.
"You want to know why I came to murder all of you?" King Kazuya asked and Yuzuki struggled to stay sane enough to hear the king. Her vision had gotten blurry and her body was already weak.
She was so close to her last breath. She was so close, but she had to fight and stay for Matsui and to hear the reason for all of this.
"Why?" Yuzuki croaked out and Matsui looked at her sadly. It was almost as if the woman knew something that Yuzuki didn't know and for a moment, Yuzuki wondered if there was ever a reason good enough for the King to come after an entire pack like that.
It was not rational and it would always raise questions about what the fuck had happened. Such acts would always get kingdoms alienated from the others and alliances would be considered risky with the kingdom of betrayal.
And yet even then, King Kazuya had come this far. He had tried to get Yuzuki on her knees and was defeated.
Surely it wasn't a plausible reason, right? But what if?
"Will you tell her, Matsui? Or should I?" King Kazuya asked.
Yuzuki felt like a bucket of ice water had been dumped on her suddenly.
"Kitten?" Yuzuki breathed defeatedly.