The Vampire Kings Protection

Chapter 31

I jerked awake, scrambling to sit up as my eyes flickered over the room in panic.

I was back in the kings room. Back on his bed but now I had one hand cuffed to the bars. There was a chain that allowed me to move around but it definitely wouldn't let me get more than a foot away from the bed.

My eyes shot to a large figure coming inside the room. The king closed the door behind him, his gaze zeroed in on me.

I started to panic again. He'd kill me here. That's why I was chained, why he had moved out of the public areas.

"Please." I tried to reason, "please don't hurt me."

I could feel the tears coming again but I knew emotion might not work with him.

I flinched back when he started to walk towards me, a motion he caught. As he came closer I started to push myself back, trying to get away from him.

"Wait wait," I blurted, moving to the other side of the bed as if he couldn't reach me there, "I can explain—I haven't even practiced—if you'd just listen for a second."

I couldn't pick the right thing to say. I wanted to prove I had cause, that I didn't deserve to die because of something I was born with. I wasn't a bad person. I wasn't sure he'd want to hear any of it.

He watched every move with hardly any emotion.

"I'm not a threat I promise." I swore, my voice barely stable.

I was practically shaking now with him so close, fear filling me. Despite beating so fast my heart told me not to be afraid, remembering the moments he cared for me but my brain was not as foolish.

He leaned against one of the bars that holds up the canopy, "So explain." He granted.

I was surprised but I didn't let that make me waste time, "I am a witch but I don't practice anything except herbal spells. I haven't done a true casting since I've been here. And I won't, the thought hasn't even crossed my mind."

I hoped I could convince him that if I wasn't practicing true magic I'd be okay.

"The alphas mate?" He pushed.

I dropped my gaze from him, my shoulders caving some, "I casted a plague onto her."

"You want to repeat the not a threat thing again?"

My eyes shot to his, "He killed my mother." I said much more aggressively than I intended, "He had to be punished somehow."

He didn't break his gaze from mine but his eyes gave nothing away.

"Why's that?"

"Why did he kill her?" I asked rhetorically, "the same reason I'm chained to a bed right now. Why he's still hunting me. I was born with abilities that are deemed a threat to their rule. To your rule."

Wasn't it obvious enough? I hadn't done anything. Neither had she. And yet society still labeled us as guilty.

His eyes dropped to the chain when I moved it, showcasing my point.

"The day you came into my territory," he hinted for an explanation.

"I really was running from the wolves. They had said something things, that wasn't a lie, but I knew they recognized me."

"You faked being compelled."

I nodded, "I'd seen it done on others."

There was no point in lying. He knew witches couldn't be compelled.

"How long have you been running from him?"

"Two years. Plus the time I've been here, most of that was hiding though."