He's My Beast (ON HOLD)

Thirteen

The jostling of the carriage underneath my head woke me up, my skull bumping more times then I could count against the wooden floor of the vehicle, alerting me to the fact we had already left my messed up home behind.

Ok, maybe it wasn't my home. In fact, it wasn't very hospitable at all to anyone except our masters. It was for show, to show off wealth. It was so posh and perfected that it didn't even look like anyone lived there at all. No homey touch. No personal effects laying around.

I sniffled, letting it sink in that I wasn't ever going to see that spotless mansion again. My measly possessions were still left in my pathetic room, I knew for a fact that these men wouldn't be considerate enough to grab my things. I was a slave, not a guest.

Now that I was awake, I was able to pay more attention to everything going on around me. Including the foreign way this carriage moved. Sure, it still jolted and jostled me around from my floor position, but it wasn't like wheels were moving it. It had a fluid type of movement to it, a swaying sensation also accompanying it. Did the prince really have people carrying him for transportation? I rolled my eyes. Rich people and their obsessions with making a statement.

I pushed myself into a sitting position, huddling in a corner of the small space and pulling my knees up to my chest. It was freezing, I was going to catch hypothermia by the time we arrived at our destination. My dress had actually hardened at certain places where water or wine had soaked the fabric, the ends of my hair doing the same. So, after letting my hair out and braiding it down my back, I curled into as tiny of a ball as possible to keep warm and squeezed my eyes shut. Yet, I couldn't get comfortable, something hard was digging into my chest.

I had totally forgotten about Thomas pressing something into my hand before leaving me behind, fishing it out of my bra with one frozen, shivering hand. I couldn't help but smile at the minuscule object, tracing my finger across it, wondering where on earth he could've have acquired the tiny crystal heart.

An ear splitting noise of metal creaking made me jump and sit up, the noise quickly echoing again from behind me. We must have arrived. You would expect a prince, with him being royal and rich, to be able to hire someone to oil his gates hinges.

I slammed forward when the carriage abruptly stopped, causing me to grit my teeth but hold back my comments. I couldn't deny the unavoidable terror coursing through me, waiting as some lock was pulled off and the door was flung open. Lord Calder stood facing me, his cloaks hood pulled up to cover his face, wind and rain threatening to tear it off of him, yet he stood firm. Stoic. Waiting.

"Quickly," He barked, spurring me into movement as I slid off the ledge of the door way and down the few feet to meet cobblestones. I didn't so much as flinch as he slammed the door behind me, not catching his words as he muttered something to who I assumed was the cab driver. Glancing back over my shoulder as he gripped my forearm to lead me inside, I squashed down a scream.