Under Her Skin [+18]
Chapter Eight

Arran was the enemy, Katara knew that much. Keep your friends close and your enemies closer. The Vampire Queen's words flashed in her mind as Katara forced herself up onto her feet.

"Eridaya needs me."

"If you had just asked, I would have sent Erix to help them. No other warrior is as strong as him even when his magic is bound by a witch's spell." He looked bored.

"A witch? A witch does not exist, Arran." He was delusional. "Please, I'll return to you, I'll marry you, I'll take over every kingdom with you, just let me go help them."

"No."

The word set a flame inside of her as anger poured out of her lips in the form of words. "You didn't tell me Nik had arrived this morning! You kept that from me, you bastard!" She tightened her hand on the dagger, charging at him. Arran blinked in surprise before side stepping her but she knew he would do that. Any sane person would side step a charge. She twisted the dagger in her hand, her palm tight on the hilt and she sliced downwards across his leg.

He let out a yelp of surprise but she didn't stop as she twisted her body, bringing the dagger high above her head to slam it into his back as he bent down holding his leg up.

Instantly a pair of arms wrapped around her body, lifting her up into the air as another pair of hands wrestled the dagger out of her hands. "Let go of me!"

"Throw her into the dungeons." Arran hissed the words at the guards who held her down.

They were bigger than her but she did not care. Katara flung her head back, slamming it into the male's face. He let out a groan, his arms loosening around her and she pulled out of his hold, twisting and letting her arm bend down a little before she punched him under his jaw, watching as he fell backwards into the other guard, completely unconscious.

Her body burned. The flames inside of her circled around her wrists, danced up her arms and down her body, covering every inch of her skin as she breathed. Immediately she felt a gust of cold rapid wind blowing on her, and her flames died out, disappearing with the wind that nearly turned her body into ice.

Someone slammed a pair of shackles onto her wrist.

Silence.

Katara was met with silence and the cold as the warmth from her body disappeared. She looked up, her eyes widening a little as she looked at Cassia. "I-" there was nothing Katara could say as something cracked in her heart.

She was so gods-damn stupid to believe Fae were like wolves. Even Vampires had more loyalty between them than the Fae. Cassia had earned her trust in the last few days. They had laughed every morning, talking about the other princesses. It wasn't much, probably not even a start of a real friendship but Katara had liked it. It distracted her like so many things and people did in Wisteria.

"Cassie is my beautiful listener." Arran said behind Katara. "She tells me everything you say." He was met with silence because she would not talk.

There was no point in screaming and shouting as she looked across the ocean. She needed to get there and this iron around her hands, it was suffocating her. "Take her to the dungeons." Arran demanded the guards who stood further away from.

She allowed them to pull her, dragging her by the long chain that hung in-between her arms. She needed to think. It was a strange feeling. The warmth from her body had disappeared and silence echoed in her mind, slamming against the black hole that had been bricked up by the iron. There was no magic, her senses were not heightened. She wondered if she was truly mortal.

Maybe it was shock or confusion, but Katara walked, her eyes glued on the chains hanging from her arms. She had never been chained up. Never been shackled. She was stupid to believe that people who looked like her would have a heart like her as well.

"Katara?"

She looked up, lifting her green eyes to see Delphine and Willa running towards her, down the stairs and into the hall of the castle where she stood. She hadn't realised they had walked back inside. Delphine came to a stop besides her, her eyes glancing back towards the Prince who had followed them. "Release her immediately."

"No. She tried to escape."

"I claim Katara Knox as a member of Amaris." Delphine stood with her head tall, a glare fixated in her eyes. "Release her immediately or Wisteria will have war upon their hands."

"Bring whoever the fuck you want." Arran grinned at Delphine before telling the guard to move. They dragged the silent Katara away.

"Arran! You can't keep her a prisoner in this castle! You won't have another princess locked here!"

Another princess locked here.

Had Delphine and Willa been locked?

It's been centuries since you've last slept with him.

Katara dug her feet into the ground, twisting the chain around her wrists and she pulled, forcing the men to pull back. She turned over her shoulder, looking straight at Delphine. "Erix. Bring Erix to me."

Willa blinked at her but the two females nodded, both of them running up the stairs that were filled with people watching her get dragged across the carpet.

Arran chuckled behind her. "Erix? Erix obeys me."

She didn't want to speak another word to him because Katara needed to leave. She needed to escape this castle before it was too late. A small part of her, the part that was filled with fear and dread, knew she was already late in escaping.

"Lock her in the iron rooms. I'll return shortly after I explain to my father and mother why my dearest bride tried to run away." Within a few seconds, Arran disappeared as the five guards pulled on her chains.

The other Fae watched the show with wary eyes as she allowed the guards to pull her through the halls she had never been. Her magic was silent. Her hands were tied. She was trapped yet she knew if raised her leg, wrapped it around the chain and twisted her body, the element of surprise would help her by setting her free from the guards.

But not the chains.

She had no idea how to get out of shackles.

Katara disappeared down the stairs. She was dragged down though her body willingly moved due to the pain in her wrists every time one of the guards tugged on the chains. The iron was burning her.

It was such a strange feeling to know something was hurting her. Not like Wolfsbane or Yellow Flower. This was different. As if death lurked closed by.

The guards spoke between themselves as they went further under the castle, before she walked through grey bricked walls, with what she assumed to be iron doors on either side. Instantly animals snarled, slamming their fists on the door but she could not see them. They growled and snarled like vicious beasts behind doors as the five guards pulled on her chains so fast, she went dumbing into a room.

Katara tried to breathe as they slammed the door shut. The air in the room was suffocating. She pressed a hand on her chest, trying to breath but she was met with sharp pins. "You have to get me out of here…" her words were barely a whisper of pain as she staggered forward.

Dark spots appeared in her sight as she slammed her hands on the iron door that burned her fists. "Please!" The scream left her lips. She couldn't breathe. She was dying. She was so goddamn stupid for not fighting back even if the part that was curious to see how her body would react in iron had overpowered her senses.

It was wrong.

This was not a prison for her. This was her last step to death.

The guards snickered on the otherwise as if they heard her knees pop as she fell down. "You have to get me out! I need to go back to Eridaya!" She was dying as coldness swept around her, circling her body before latching itself onto every inch of her bare skin. It was too cold. Her breath floated in front of her as she lifted her hand ever so slowly and banged it against the door as hard as she could. "Please."

Dark spots overpowered her sight, pulling her body and soul into oblivion. Katara could not fight against the darkness that wrapped itself around her body as the shocked words of another prisoner floated in her mind.

You're from Eridaya?

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"Mama." Katara called as she raised the tray of sweets above her head. "Hurry up before they attack me!"

"We won't attack you!"

"I want one!"

"I want two!"

"I want three!"

Katara laughed as the children tried to pull on the nightgown she wore, as they glued their bodies to hers, trying to stand on their toes so they could take the food her mother had baked.

"Katara Ophelia Knox. I told you not to do this!"

Katara laughed as her mother walked out of the cottage, covered in ashes from the fire she had tried to light. "Is this the new carpet?" Her mother sniffed the ashes before letting out a gasp. "It is!"

"Ow!" Katara winced as one of the wolves bit her leg. She looked down at Andrea, the three year old beauty. "Andrea, what have I told you about biting me?" She shook her head as the little wolf pouted.

"I want two!" She raised both of her hands.

"Stop teasing them, Tara." Her mother sighed, a smile on her face, and the ashes of the new carpet forgotten.

"I want you all to sit." Instantly the Lost children sat down, crossing their legs and waiting for their treats. "Good." She grinned at them, lowering the tray in her hands, full of biscuits her mother had made. "And if any of you jump on me, I will hunt you down."

Th3y didn't move as she gave each child-15 children- four biscuits each. They scuffed them down, running to her mother and hugging her tightly before running away to play with the others. Katara smiled, holding the tray to her body. "I will buy you a new carpet, I promise." She said to her mother.

"What happened while I was sleeping?"

Katara winced a little at her mother's voice. "I was just sleeping, Mama, and when I woke up, my arms were burning. I didn't realise the carpet was burning as well until it was too late."

Her mother's eyes softened. "Your arms were burning? Show me them." She walked towards Katara quickly as Katara outstretched her arms, her fingers still holding onto the tray.

"You know it doesn't hurt me, mama."

"Usually it's just your hands, not your arms. I'll speak to the Alpha."

"And say what?" Katara leaned down to kiss her mother on the cheek. "That my daughter woke up with her arms burning with bright red flames dancing up her body?" She pressed the tray into her mothers hands. "The Alpha will speak to me tomorrow anyway. I am to replace the killers of Leon." Katara walked around her mother who let out a deep sigh.

"I don't like you walking too close to the mortal lands."

"I will be fine, mama. Nik will be coming with me as well."

"How is his mate?"

"She's so lovely, Mama but she's always in a lot of pain. I would never have children, okay?" Katara glanced back at her mother who frowned. "Except one so maybe you can be a grandmother."

"And will that make me a great grandfather?"

Katara stood up straighter, looking at the Alpha who walked towards them. She smiled when he did. He looked nothing like a great grandfather would look like. Only a few silver strands of hair curled with the dark hair on his head but those green eyes warmed her heart as he stretched out an arm.

She hurried towards him, hugging him. He wrapped an arm around her shoulder, as they both turned to her mother who sighed deeply. "Alpha, the more you spoil her with love, the more stupid she will become."

"I take offence to that, Mama!"

The Alpha chuckled. "She is my heir. Of course I will spoil the future Alpha of the wolves."

Katara sighed, leaning her head back on his arm. He was much taller than her and bigger. A powerful Alpha. "You really want this, don't you?" She lifted her eyebrows as he looked down at her. "I think you might be forgetting since you are getting old-" He growled a little in warning which she dismissed. "But I can not shift into a wolf."

"You have the heart of a wolf." He said proudly.

"But turning into a four legged wolf is not the same as a heart of a wolf…"

"I'm telling you, Alpha. She's already losing her mind." Her mother voiced out.

The Alpha opened his mouth to say something but he froze, his hand around her tightening slightly. "Nesrin, get the children out of here." A command to her mother who instantly nodded and disappeared quickly. "Tara, run." A single command to her before the Alpha turned around, throwing orders to other wolves he saw.

She was rooted to her spot as the scent of mundane circled the air. They were daring little creatures who had nothing to do in their spare time than try and kill the wolves. The Wolf King and the Vampire Queen had left the Alpha in charge of protecting Eridaya's gates. The mortals were too afraid to cross the Forest Of Death because the wolves stood like a wall in front of them.

Lately that wall was crumbling.

Her body fought the command of the Alpha and instead she ran back inside her home. Her heart was calm even as she heard the screams of her people around her. Katara pushed open her door, got down on her knees and pulled the sword out from under her bed. She pulled it out of its black sheath before sprinting out of the house.

"Yellow flower!"

Her body froze as males and females ran with children into the Forest Of Death behind her. Yellow flower liquid killed them all instantly. Except her. It was a poison made with Wolfsbane to be more effective and quick on the wolves.

Katara ran forward, twisting and turning away from people who ran past her. "Mama!" She called out, hoping to see her mother running into the forest as well.

The wind swirled around her, whispering into her ear with a lover's voice to open her eyes, to look around her. Katara raised her eyes, looking left and right just as the arrow flew straight towards her. Instantly her sword was up, slicing through the air as the arrow fell to the ground in two places. She saw the tip of the arrow, made of silver and coated in yellow liquid.

"RUN FASTER!" Her shout echoed through the forest as thousands of arrows flew from the front, where hunters stood. Screams followed the sound of arrows plunging into the souls of the wolves. Katara flung her sword high above her, slicing the air left and right, trying to work her way through the bodies that had fallen to the floor.

She couldn't stop to think of those who were killed behind her.

The masked hunters wore black clothes, black cloaks covering their heads and she could only see their eyes. Where was the Alpha? Where were the wolves who never ran and protected with their lives.

A gasp escaped her seconds later as she found her answer. The hunters, mortal people who could not possess the physical strength they had now, as they dragged her Alpha through the line of arrows and bows pointed directly at her. Everyone was dead around her. Whoever had escaped would be in the Forest Of Death. She prayed that her mother was there.

The Alpha still breathed. She could hear his heart beating softly even with the arrow of silver and the poison shot in his right leg. Three arrows later and he was still breathing. Her lips parted in relief though the hunters, threw body after body of males and female warriors onto the pile of bodies they had just killed.

Katara listened. She let out a deep breath, the magic inside of her stirring but she willed it down. Not now. She needed to get closer.

A small hand wrapped around her ankle and she looked down. Horror struck her body as she saw Andrea stuck under a female wolf. Instant fire danced around her hands and not a single damn thing could have stopped her from lowering down. She pressed her two fingers to her lips before pressing them onto the female wolf who no longer breathed with the arrow in her back, before Katara pushed her off Andrea.

"She's a Fae." She listened to the whispers of the hunters, who talked about replaceing the Kingdom, of how Katara would lead them to her.

She had no control on her magic as the flames swirled down the sword she held with one hand. No arrow pierced through the sky as Katara lifted Andrea up onto her small legs.

They wanted Katara alive.

Katara wiped the blood on her nightgown from the female wolf before raising her non-burning hand and pushing Andrea's blonde hair out of her face. "Go replace the Wolf King." Only he could help with the Vampire Queen. Andrea blinked, leaning up and placing a soft kiss on her cheek before the little girl shifted. A tiny black pup stood on its four legs, licking her arm, before it ran.

Arrows flew into the sky but Katara didn't look at Andrea. She was trained by the Wolf King herself to run from danger. Katara faced the hunters who had destroyed her family, leaving only the Alpha alive.

She heard him stir and her eyes flickered towards him but three hunters stood around the body, with swords in their hands. The tip of the sword shined with yellow liquid in the sun. She was alone and she prayed her mother had run away.

"You brought war to mortal lands." She took a step towards them, the flames dancing around her left hand and the sword she held. "You killed my family." Her voice held no emotion as she walked towards them. Their bows were held tightly in their hands. No hunter said a word. "I will burn the mortal lands with the very flame you see."

She trusted her right hand out, balls of flames flying through the air and towards the hunters. She didn't wait to see how many had jumped away from her magic as she ran towards them.

Seconds turned to minutes as Katara fought. She sliced the burning sword through every hunter who dared to cross the line she had made in her mind. The hunters fought together, arrows flying through the air towards her. She whipped her head to the right, as hundreds of men and women appeared, dressed in the same clothes as the hunters.

She didn't let the shock settle into her mind. How many hunters were there? How long had they been planning this while the wolves sat around, enjoying their life and causing no soul any harm.

But the Alpha was wounded and most of her family was all dead. She needed to hold out, long enough for Andrea to bring help. Katara spun the sword, left and right, slicing up and down, flames darting out of the sword itself as she plunged the sword into the hunters.

She lost count after the twenty hunters she killed but her body didn't stop. The wind was the music in her ears, the flame her dancing partner, and the sword her body as she spun in the air, the sword slicing through the body of a hunter. Blood sprayed on her face and she welcomed it with open arms.

Time flew by, but she pushed and pushed the hunters back, again and again, replaceing more dead wolves along the way. She didn't stop killjng and the magic inside of her didn't stop feeling alive. The black hole in her mind expanded with every kill she made, feeding her magic more as her flames turned blue slightly. The flames circled around both of her arms. Not a single arrow was shot, knowing it would be wasted on her.

They fought like mortals. Like the useless humans they were. The hunters barely held the sword upright, their posture completely stiff and always leaving a side open for her to strike them down. Her body was air, swirling through the sky and cutting the air out of the souls who killed her family.

Katara never thought about the hundreds of bodies behind her. That was her weakness, or her strength, but she always pushed the negative feelings aside to reach the goal she had in mind. She needed to feel the blood of the hunters on her body, on her face. To wait and think,to look and cry at the bodies behind her would weaken her so she pushed the thought out of her mind.

"STOP OR WE KILL HER!"

Her body did not stop moving, realising she had pushed them closer to the river, where the mortal lands separated them. She plunged her sword into the hunter, digging her palm into his shoulder as he bent down, his own hands holding the sword. "Please."

They had all begged for mercy at her sword.

Katara pulled the sword out of him, letting the man fall to the floor, the flames winking out of his body. They were mortals and they died a painful death and not a quick swift death with her flames. A breath escaped her lips as she turned around, to look at the Alpha. She had killed the hunters around him.

Her body froze, the sword falling to the ground with a loud thud that echoed her heartbeat. She was not breathing as she looked at her mother on her knees, with the tip of the sword ready to strike her in her heart from behind. Blood coated her body. Katara sniffed the air. It was not her mothers blood.

She shuddered slightly as fear swirled in her mind as she saw her Alpha. Katara wanted to scream as her Alpha crawled. "Please." The word escaped his lips. "Don't hurt her." He glanced at Katara one word mouthed to her.

Run.

She couldn't run. Not with a sword at her mother's back. "Mama, are you okay?"

Her mother let out a gasp just as something slammed in the back of her head. Katara fell down onto her knees, the nightgown that was once white now covered in red blood. Blood that didn't belong to her. A woman wrapped her arm around Katara's neck, a dagger placed against her skin. "Don't move." The woman hissed at her angrily.

The man who held the sword at her mothers back stared at her. Brown eyes stared at her in awe or fear, she didn't know. She knew that she had killed most of the hunters by herself but Andrea was not back with anyone.

Andrea was hurt somewhere in the Forest Of Death.

"Where is the Kingdom?" The man asked, his eyes narrowing on her.

"Cross the Forest Of Death at night and replace out." She spat the words at him. The dagger moved closer to her skin.

Her Alpha crawled again, towards her mother, knowing Katara could defend herself. Her mother was not a fighter. She was a lover. She was Mama Nes to every wolf. The mother that cooked and fed all the lost children and never once complained. Her mama who had taken her in when she was three years old. A wolf who cared for a Fae like her own daughter.

"Mama, it's going to be okay." She promised softly, wishing her mother would look up at her. "Mama, please look at me." She needed to see her eyes, so those happy brown eyes would promise her that nothing was wrong.

"Nesrin Knox." The Alpha commanded, a cough of blood following after his words. He was fighting poison, or postponing the death that lurked too close by. Every other wolf had dropped instantly. Her Alpha was one of the oldest wolves alive and he was fighting.

She would fight.

Her mother looked up, and Katara saw nothing but two black holes staring at her. She stumbled backwards, as the Alpha cursed but Katara could not stop looking. She hadn't smelled the blood of her mother. Why why why. "Mama?" She called her. They had taken her eyes.

"I am proud to call you my daughter, Tara. I love you."

The sword plunged into her heart from behind. Katara screamed so loud the world could have shattered as her hands shook. The Alpha cried out to her. To the only daughter he had.

The magic inside of her burned her body. The screams of the Female behind her was nonexistent in her mind as Katara moved. She stumbled up, trying to balance herself on her weak knees as the Alpha bowed his head in sorrow, in defeat.

Katara was crying, sobbing as she moved towards the Alpha, to stop the arrow that was shot into his heart. He gasped, before his body gave out on him. Katara fell down on her knees, the hunters screams silent in her mind as she cried.

The flames danced along her body, trying to warm the coldness in her heart and danced on the grass, spreading out to form a blanket over all the wolves.

Her mother was dead.

The Alpha was dead.

She was alone.

Katara cried in pain as she forced her legs to move, to crawl to her mother. "Mama." A whisper escaped her lips, her hands shaking as she stared at her mother's hunched back. Shivers ran up her body though she burned like a flame. Katara lifted her mother up a little, laying her back down in a comfortable position.

An agony filled scream echoed in the forests around her as she laid her head on her mother's stomach, stretching her hand out and tightening it around the Alpha who was inches away from saving his daughter. Or trying.

She was alone in a world that burned with her flames.

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