The next morning I went to the library. I had the whole day free but the guys had lessons that they needed to go to. I wanted to do some more background reading on the division of the races and the Galvinae War. I couldn’t help but wonder if there was anything that we could learn from it that we could apply to our current situation. If they had managed to lock them in the realm maybe there was a way that we could use that to strengthen the veils that were now starting to fail. I was busy rummaging through the dusty stacks at the back of the library but had so far only managed to find two books which looked to hold any kind of detailed information. The library was huge. It was possibly one of the most beautiful things that I had ever seen. It was cavernous. It had to be two storeys high and the walls were lined with bookshelves that went all the way up the ceilings. The stacks in between didn’t reach as high but they were much taller than I could reach. Luckily each one was fitted with a sliding ladder to reach the top shelves. Which was lucky for me as both of the books I was currently cradling had both been right at the top. I was currently standing at the top of the ladder flicking through another book which I had found when I heard voices.
“Stay the fuck away from me.” A female voice hissed.
There was a bang followed by a male voice sneering “When will you get it through your head Britt, you belong to my pack. We own you and you will do as you are told.”
“No one owns me and I would rather die than jump into bed with you.” A voice which I assumed was Britt sneered.
When I heard him slap her, I was down that ladder like a shot and rounding the corner when I heard him say. “Know your place bitch. You will do as you are told or you will be made to comply. Personally, I don’t mind either way.”
Just the sight of him standing over her as she cowered on the ground, one side of her face red and swollen, was enough to make me snap. Pulling one of my daggers into my hand I rammed it into the back of his right thigh before kicking out his left knee and taking him down to the ground. His roar of pain and rage must have been heard all the way across the academy but I soon silenced it with an arm across his throat as I pressed my knee into his spine. My other hand kept hold of the dagger in his thigh which I made sure to twist a few millimetres. I didn’t want to permanently damage him just yet. The girl in front of me slowly got to her feet but continued to cower against the bookcase behind her. “Listen to what I’m about to say to you extremely carefully, because I’m only going to say it once and if you’re too stupid to get it the first time I’m going to start slicing pieces of you off. Do you understand?” He gave a grunt of agreement which I took to be a yes, given that my arm was banded across his throat. “You no longer have the right to look at this girl in front of you, you will not approach her, you will not talk to her and you’re so called pack will have no contact with her whatsoever. If you or any of your pack cannot follow these simple rules, I will hunt you down and I will castrate you and leave you to bleed out in front of the entire academy.” I let go of the dagger in his leg and slowly started to get off him. “You’re going to want to stay down until we have left. You don’t want to see what I do to you if I get really angry.” I said. I reached out and Britt took my hand. I pulled her gently towards me and we walked away from the seething shifter laying by the bookcase.
“You shouldn’t have done that.” She whispered to me.
“Yes, I should have.” I said leading her over to a table by the far wall. I tipped her head to one side to get a look at her face. It was swollen now but hopefully it wouldn’t bruise too much. “He had no right to do that to you.”
“You don’t understand. His pack claimed me. They told the Prime Alpha that I was their fated mate. I’m not but the Alpha won’t listen to me. They told him that I was nervous about finding them so young. He approved our bond and now I’m stuck with them.” She said miserably.
“I don’t care if he is the Prime Alpha he can’t make you be with that dick. If he thinks that he has a right to basically allow them to rape you then he has no right to call himself an Alpha. He should care about all of his people, not just the men.”
“Shhh,” Britt said, looking around panicked. “You can’t say things like that. They will take it as you challenging him. He will kill you.”
“He can try.” I said feeling that familiar burning rage flow through my veins. “Wait, this Alpha, is that Kyle’s Dad.” I suddenly felt deflated.
“Yes.” She said nodding and then wincing at the movement.
“Come on,” I helped her up out the chair. “You should get some ice on that it will help with the swelling.”
Just as she went to stand up Della came storming into the library. “What have you done?” She seethed at me grabbing Britt and pulling her away from me.
“What have I done? I just saved her from her would be rapist.” I said making Britt wince.
“It isn’t what you think. Isaac and his pack are a good match from Britt. She is lucky that she caught their interest. She’s just nervous.” Della glared at me.
“Nervous! She doesn’t want to be with him and he doesn’t get to make that choice for her.”
“You don’t understand our ways. You shouldn’t get involved.” Della said as she started to pull Britt behind her heading for the door.
“Thank you for your help.” Britt said. I could see the tears in her eyes as she turned and followed Della out of the room.
I stood there for a few minutes completely shocked by what had just happened. How could this be allowed to happen? What kind of a person was Kyle’s father? What kind of a person was Kyle if he was brought up by that man? I grabbed the few books that I found and took them back to my room where I spent the next few hours pacing the floor waiting for the guys to come out of their lesson.
A couple of hours later I had given up on the pacing and was reading the textbook for my Theoretical Natural Magic class to try and get a bit of the basic information handled before my first lesson. There was a quiet hesitant knock at my door. It was half an hour after the end of classes for the day and I knew that it was probably the guys. Part of me didn’t want to answer the door. I was so confused about this world which I suddenly found myself in. I hadn’t been down for lunch choosing instead to break into my snack pile rather than face anyone. The knock came again and I realised that this wasn’t something that I could just hide from. I huffed out a sigh of resignation and opened the door. Kyle stood at the door alone with his sad puppy look on his face. I took a step back and opened the door wider so that he could come in. He stepped in and leant back against the desk watching me. I walked back over to the bed and dropped down on it. Awkward silence fell over us. I didn’t even know how to start or what to say.
“I’m sorry.” Kyle said looking down at his feet.
“Why are you apologising to me?” I asked. Is this it? Is he going to break up with me because I won’t stand for whatever shit patriarchal system they have here? Is that why the others aren’t here? My vision started to get misty around the edges and I knew that my eyes were filling with tears. I had just found something worth having and now I was going to lose it.
Kyle dropped to his knees in front of me and his head fell forwards into my lap. “Forgive me.”
“I understand.” I said trying to hold the tears back. “I must be pretty disappointing when you’ve had a whole life to dream of the mate that you want.” He lifted his head and I turned my face away from him not wanting him to see my tears.
“What do you mean, Aria? You are more than I could ever have dreamed of.” His hand cradled my cheek and I leaned into it feeling confused. I hadn’t realised that the tears had started to fall until I felt his thumb brush them away. “Don’t cry Aria, I can’t take it if you cry.”
“I’m sorry” I sniffled. “I didn’t realise it would hurt this much when you left me.”
“Aria, no. I would never leave you.” He said pulling me into his arms. “I heard what happened in the library with Isaac and I came to beg your forgiveness. I came to see if you could stand being around me anymore knowing how my father is.”
I pulled back so that I could look him in the face. “You’re not going to leave me?” I asked.
“No.” He smiled. “I could never leave you Aria. I was made for you.” He sat down on the bed next to me and put one arm around my shoulder pulling me closer to him. I snuggled into him and breathed in his pine and amber
scent. When had I become this person? I never would have thought I would be this weepy chick over guys.
“I don’t know what to think Kyle. Why would your Dad think that he has a right to make Britt be with that guy? What type of place is this?” I was so confused. “Do you agree with what he’s doing?” I asked dreading to hear the answer.
“No, of course not sweetheart. The pack is a complicated thing. After the wars our numbers dropped so low that the pack warped into something very different than what it was. The strongest were valued more than the weakest and the females were preserved over anything. They were the only hope for us to re-establish our numbers. Over time that need to protect them became twisted and ugly into a need to control them. Those that were the strongest considered them better than those that they saw as weaker than them. Our numbers grew but we still don’t have a large amount of females. They started to be traded like commodities. It’s a terrible system and there is no excuse for it. It’s something that needs to be changed but right now I don’t have the power to be able to do anything about it.”
“I can understand how you would want to protect your females, but what is happening now … you cannot possibly justify what is happening. Yes, it can explain how you got to this place but it doesn’t make it any better.”
“I’m not trying to make excuses.” Kyle sighed. “I hate it just as much as you do. I just can’t do anything about it at the moment.” I snuggled into Kyle and we both cuddled up to each other on the bed. “We will change it Aria. We will change it together.”
