[KIYOMI]
"Stay!" one of the queen's high guards growled at Dr. Kiyomi who defiantly growled back at him. Kiyomi wasn't in the mood to play catch with a high guard whose only duty was to make sure she was in her place and in the right mind.
"I am not a dog for you to talk to me like that. Whatever you want, I don't have. I don't have a house, or a home. I don't have wealth to my name and I don't have a family that you can threaten me with.
"And if you're hoping to harvest my organs, I will have you know that I made sure they are poisonous so you won't benefit from anything. If you brought me here to burn me, then you might as well get on it!!" Kiyomi was forced out even though her fear was evident.
She was horrified by the woman before her. She was worried that the queen could use her head as some trophy and while it was something she couldn't get past the mad queen, Kiyomi was curious to know why she was here with the mad woman.
All the good doctor had wanted was a safe passage to her next destination, a destination that now seemed like an illusion to her. She felt the blood drain off her face for the hundredth time as she stared at the queen.
Queen Sakura Watanabe was the devil reincarnate to some, but to everyone, she was worse than the devil. Today, she wasn't wearing her usual crown of thorns that always poked into her skin, no. She was different, almost regular. If anything, she looked like a normal crazy woman.
She looked like what the humans would call a powerful woman, only that the Lycan queen oozed too much power and an aura that was so suffocating to the point that many who interacted with her always taught themselves to hold their breaths.
"Bring the humans," the queen ordered and Kiyomi stared at her like she had gone bonkers. Well, it wasn't too bad an assumption, seeing as everyone was scared shitless of the crazy queen.
Kiyomi wasn't sure what the order of the humans was, but she had a feeling she wouldn't like it one bit. Now that her plan to feign ignorance had failed miserably. She needed to get out of this place as soon as possible.
"So, you won't talk to me, great. Can I get some food then? I'm hungry and haven't eaten shit since morning," Kiyomi requested and the queen chuckled in amusement as she nodded at one of the high guards who stepped out, only to come back with food.
It was so unexpected, and if Kiyomi was being honest, she had expected the queen to give her a sarcastic remark or remind her of how stupid, clueless, and dumb, she looked tonight, but then there was none of that.
"Feeding me before she kills me. What a queen, smh," Kiyomi whispered to herself as she stared at the food before her. Anyone in her position would be worried about their safety, but then she was hungry.
She had spent the entire day playing hide and seek with the authorities, not to mention the damned mob that wanted her head for a surgery that had gone wrong. It hadn't been her fault, but she had been the scapegoat for the bastards.
Now here she was, a rogue Lycan, sitting in front of her queen who despised rogues and always used them for her unhinged hunting games. A part of Kiyomi knew what was coming for her, but it was too much for her to comprehend, so she chose to focus on her hunger first.
If she focused on the circumstances, she would lose her mind and that wouldn't do her any good, seeing as she was trapped and the queen wasn't about to let her go. Nothing she said would make the woman change her mind, so Kiyomi wouldn't try.
"Careful, petal. We don't want you dying before you sign the contract now, do we?" Queen Sakura mused as she watched Kiyomi eat like the woman knew this was her last meal in both realms.
Perhaps Kiyomi was overthinking and there were chances that she would make it out alive, but then the history books about the cruel Lycan queen had never really talked of any survivors of the queen.
Other than her high guards, no one who went to the queen was ever seen again. It was a sad reality, one that no one could control or say anything about, because they were scared of the consequences. Everyone loved their lives.
"Yeah, yeah, whatever. I'm eating, so please, no more disturb— contract? What contract?" Kiyomi asked, the blood on her face draining for the hundredth time, as the cruel memories of the infamous Sakura contracts came back to her.
She had heard the rumors while she was a rogue, and she knew that those were the contracts of doom. They were the contracts that no one ever lived out of. The contracts that always ended up with the signee dead, dead, and dead.
Those contracts always made the Lycans steer clear of the Lycan palace and the queen's road because no one wanted to be married to this particular woman. No one wanted to go into that place and be forced to do whatever the hell the queen forced people to do there.
"Her pretty brain finally picks up, I see," Queen Sakura chuckled darkly as the appetite left Kiyomi and her taste buds suddenly went bland. There was just no way this was what she was thinking it was, right?
Looking at Queen Sakura who had a smug look on her face, Kiyomi wanted to disappear into the night and never be seen again. The woman was giving her the kind of eyes that told Sakura that her freedom was never coming back.
It was a horrifying truth, one that many people had been forced into, but Kiyomi hadn't imagined that she would be experiencing this even before she hit thirty years old. She blamed herself for spending so many years studying to end up in scandals.
"Wh… What contract?" Kiyomi asked and in response, the queen just let out a maniacal laugh as the food in front of Kiyomi was suddenly taken away and in its place, was a piece of paper, with the words 'contract' written in bold.
But it wasn't just the word contract there that scared the hell out of Kiyomi. Maybe she was overreacting, but then if anyone knew the contents of that contract, they would have the same shocked expression on Kiyomi's face.
It was the word before it.
Marriage.
This was a marriage contract.
A Sakura Watanabe marriage contract.
"No… Please, no," Kiyomi whispered defeatedly, as she struggled to breathe. She hasn't wished for this, ever. Hell, death was way better than this contract right here and the fact that she couldn't fight it, was all Kiyomi needed to know she was screwed.
So, she stared at the queen, even as her breath slowly left her, as darkness called her name and she gave in to the beautiful allure of the dark. She couldn't stay sane for this anymore because she wasn't sure she had the strength to do that.
And with one last look at the Lycan queen, the good doctor fell face first on the table, unconscious.