Max
The prince had been told everything, yet somehow he wasn’t aware that slavers had been welcomed into the castle.
Not that the King had ever bothered to make slavery illegal, but their presence had never been welcomed within the castle walls.
Their aura was nothing but negative, trash as they were called.
For the King to not only be socializing with two of them was a red flag in itself. Never mind the fact that he was entertaining selling his mate.
He could still feel her fear when he looked around and realized his barriers had somehow been broken. Shards of magic hung in the air, dissipating like fading embers, and the remnants of their protective glow flickered before vanishing entirely, leaving the room feeling hollow and exposed.
Digging his nails into his chest, he took in the scene: scratch marks on the floor, peeking out from beneath the bed where she likely hid.
His breaths came quicker, each one more labored as the realization crashed over him.
His mate had been taken from him, just as he promised her would never happen.
He could smell the scent of two others, his rage building until he roared in pain, his fear for her boiling over. Screams sounded from outside the room, followed by hurried footsteps.
His bedroom door was smashed off the hinges, and guards flooded inside, followed by his brothers. Gideon looked at him in horror, while Oliver smirked.
He was laughing when Max slammed him against the wall, making cracks web around him.
“WHERE IS SHE?!”
“The truth is, big brother, I don’t actually know.”
Max threw him across the room, but his brother scrambled to his feet, staggering as he tried to steady himself.
He wiped blood from his mouth, his eyes glinting with hatred.
He lunged at Max, fists swinging wildly, and the two collided again, grappling for control.
Max’s rage gave him an edge, but his brother fought with cunning, landing blows to Max’s ribs.
They crashed into a table, splintering wood and sending objects scattering.
Max roared, finally catching Oliver by the throat, and slammed him back into the wall.
Only then did his brother slump to the floor, unconscious.
But before Maximus could leave, a sharp pain struck the back of his head, and everything went dark.
When Maximus awoke, his eyes opened to see familiar stone at his feet, covered in stains that could only come from someone’s insides. His arms were suspended, each one chained to opposing walls.
The stench was atrocious. Even with nothing on the floors, the smell clung to the walls of the dungeon, an unmistakable odor that refused to leave without proper airflow. He was in the cells where his father and brother brought villagers to torture.
Sin’s fear had abated, and he wondered if she was also unconscious.
Sin, he called, hoping she could hear him wherever she was.
Nothing.
The dungeon cell opened, and in came his father and a handful of guards, all of them looking at him like he was their next meal.
Max curled his lip as he stared at his father. “You disgust me.”
The King huffed a laugh. “I assure you, my son. The feeling is mutual. If only you had listened to me, you wouldn’t be in this situation.”
“And what situation is that?”
The guard beside Maximus punched him before his father could answer, a sharp pain fracturing his cheekbone. Max wondered how far his father would go.
“You think you’re the first heir in line for the throne who had a mate? Heavens, even I had one, son.”
Max frowned, worried where this was going.
“I allowed you to keep her as a pet, but then you had to go reveal your plans. You spoiled, ungrateful piece of shit,” the King snarled as another guard walked in, carrying a roll-up bag. He spread it open across the table, revealing all the tools he’d likely use on Max.
Max refused to linger. “Where did you take her?”
His father snorted. “Nowhere.”
Max growled.
“I did, however, sell her for a hefty price. Who knows where she is now? Or if she’s even alive.”
Max growled until he was screaming like an animal, pulling on his chains with such force that his muscles bulged, veins straining beneath his skin.
The metal cuffs bit into his wrists, tearing at the flesh as his entire body trembled with the effort.
His vision blurred, red with fury, as his roar echoed through the dungeon.
“Which is exactly why you’re in here. It was the same thing I did when I was younger, to make sure I didn’t go on a rampage, killing everyone. Don’t you understand those feelings aren’t real?”
“Let… me… GO!”
The king ignored his demand. Max was so filled with manic rage, he barely noticed when his father stabbed him. He felt his insides shred as the blade twisted into his abdomen.
But Max was no longer Max. The shift in him was unmistakable, his eyes darkening as reason slipped away, replaced by something primal, feral.
His thoughts fractured, replaced with a singular need—to find Sin.
His muscles coiled, his breath ragged and animalistic, as if every ounce of humanity was being stripped from him, leaving only raw, predatory instinct.
He was now a male who wouldn’t let anything stop him from finding his mate. The King moved fast, but not fast enough—Maximus bit onto his father’s ear, ripping it off.
The King bellowed in pain as Max’s face dripped with his blood.
If they didn’t let him go, he’d pull on the chains until his hands were ripped off. With the help of a witch, they’d grow back. Something Sin could learn to do if he could hurry up and go to her.
“Why is he like this?” the King murmured, tilting his head, as if studying a curious specimen.
“Let me go now, or I swear to every god, to every devil from every realm, that your demise will last centuries, and not a single deity will want your pathetic soul.”
“You shouldn’t be acting like this.” The King ignored the threat as he grabbed his son’s jaw, keeping his teeth away. Max stared back with mania in his eyes, ready to lose those hands.
Guards ran to his sides and held onto his arms.
“When I had my mate assassinated…” Max’s gut sank at his father’s admission. “I felt the pull, the need to go to him, but it was nothing like this.”
Maximus bellowed, and the dungeon walls rattled in response, like a monster acknowledging his pain.
The guards flinched, their eyes widening in unease, some exchanging nervous glances.
The sheer power of his voice seemed to shake them, their confidence faltering as the intensity of Max’s rage reverberated through the stone.
His father laughed. “Ah yes, that must be it. You fell in love with the peasant.” He laughed louder as he backed away, inching closer to the table.
“What a silly emotion for ignorant fools.” At that, he grabbed the pincers before approaching Max again.
“Hold his arm steady,” he ordered the guards as he grabbed Max’s hand.
“You will agree to marry the Princess of Landon and swear to it, or we’ll keep doing this until you do. ”
The King didn’t give Max a chance to answer before he pulled off his thumbnail.
Max growled through the pain—nothing compared to what he imagined was happening to his little blade.
He clung to the memory of her laughter, the way her eyes would light up when she smiled, or the warmth of her body as she pressed against him in the stillness of the night.
He remembered the softness of her hands as they traced his scars, and the vulnerable look in her eyes when he traced hers.
That was what he needed to get back to. That was what kept his rage burning, his desperation clawing at him to break free.
He would not fail her. Even if she hated to kill, not all blades were meant to.
And she was one. Even if she was a blade crafted with the finest steel and decorated with the most precious gems, only for everyone to admire its beauty, she was still a blade. His blade.
Another nail was ripped off so aggressively it also tore out a tendon.
A cry escaped him, but only because an intense wave of rage and guilt filled his chest, and it wasn’t his own.
Sin knew he was getting hurt, and there was nothing he could do to stop her from feeling it.
He was only grateful she confirmed she was alive.
Sin.
Rather than words, her love and sadness filled his chest.
Don’t worry about me, he said down the bond. I will be fine. We will be fine. Do you understand?
He longed to hear her voice in his head, purposefully directed at him. So he would know she accepted him. He could feel her opening up to him slowly, even when she tried to force herself not to.
He gritted his teeth, forcing down the scream from the pain. His father had already removed his fingernails, demanding compliance, but Max refused. Now, the King was peeling the skin from his fingers down his hands.
I’m okay, he whimpered, failing to sound normal.
He could feel her intense sadness in waves, and knew she was crying for him.
He cried with her.
* * *
Max didn’t know how much time had passed. He didn’t know how long his father had stayed torturing him, nor how long he had been unconscious from the physical shock. The King kept trying to keep Maximus awake with brands, but eventually, nothing could keep him conscious.
The dungeon cell opened, and Max didn’t have the strength to lift his head. He could no longer pull at his wrists, his entire arms reinforced with chains.
Gideon swore, alerting Max to his presence. He came alone.
“Why?” he breathed. His youngest brother was never in the know, and Max preferred it that way. He did everything in his power to protect him.
Max couldn’t answer.
“All of this, because you won’t marry the princess?”
Max’s silence was answer enough. He hated ignoring him, but eventually, Gideon needed to learn things on his own.
“You’re a fucking idiot,” he hissed.
Max coughed as he struggled to breathe, fighting to form words. “I marry her, cast Sin aside, war. I don’t marry her, war.”
“Or, you know, you could just marry her. Save us all this bullshit. But no, you love making things difficult, don’t you?”
Max fought through the pain to meet his brother’s gaze, making him flinch at the sight of him. “I refuse. You want peace so badly? You marry her. I would see the kingdom burn to ashes before I stood beside anyone else but Sin.”
“I’m not the heir,” Gideon said through clenched teeth.
“By the time this is over, you just might be, little brother.”
“Don’t fucking talk like that.”
Max spoke a little louder. “I’m going to die in this fucking cell. So, get her to safety.”
Gideon’s eyes slackened at his unspoken words.
“When this is all over, it’ll be you or our mother on that throne. I trust you’ll make sure my mate doesn’t meet a bad end.”
“I don’t know where she is,” he breathed.
Max nodded. “Find Audrira. She can track her with her clothes. Find her, and get her to safety. Take her to our mother.” He barely finished his demand before he started coughing, making the chains clink together.
“She’s still alive. I can feel it. She’s in pain, but she’s alive.
Go now, before it’s too late, and it’s all for nothing. ”
“And what about your father?” Gideon asked, but Max was already unconscious.