I followed him into the hot dance floor and we found the perfect spot. Josh and I spent the next thirty minutes, laughing, dancing, and grinding on each other, our bodies were drenched with exertion as I took in our environment.

With his arms wrapped around my torso, Josh leaned in to whisper against my ear.

“Wanna go get some air?”

I nodded desperately, blindly taking his hand I let him lead me upstairs before we walked through a balcony door.

“You have no idea how much I needed this. Thanks.” I breathed out to him when I felt the cool breeze against my warm skin.

I turned to look at him, wondering why he suddenly became quiet, but I was, once again, shocked to find his gaze on me.

My confusion heightened when he unexpectedly laughed, leaning his hands against the metal railing as he looked at the forest ahead of us.

He abruptly turned to face me, and his fingers began to reach for my hair. I watched as he twirled a single strand of my hair before he tugged, hard.

I gasped, my eyes brimned with tears at the intense pain.

“W-What are you doing, Josh?”

He used his other hand to grip my arm tightly, making me stand still.

“Isn’t this what you want?” He sneered, jerking me closer to him.

I whimpered, all efforts to tug my arm out of his grip turned futile. I looked at the doors, desperately hoping and praying for someone else to step in.

“I d-don’t understand you, Josh. Please don’t do this.” I begged, my tears were already pouring freely.

“Shut it!” He seethed, his other hand snaked up to harshly tug my hair.

“You know, I’ve had this huge crush on you ever since I set my eyes on you. But you were always the naive Akira, I had to keep my feelings hidden.” He violently yanked the strap of my gown down.

“But I just realized that our naive Akira isn’t as naive as we thought. I just had you grinding all over my cock some minutes ago. What does that make you?” He taunted and his hand moved to squeeze my breast roughly.

“I’m sorry! I’m so sorry, Josh!” I sobbed, trying to calm him. “Let me go and we can talk about this maturely.”

“That makes you a slut, Akira. A fucking slut!” He mocked tugging my hair harder as he dismissed my cries of pleas.

His words struck me like lightning, I suddenly realized that if I didn’t get myself out of this situation, Josh was going to do something terrible.

Using all of my strength, I shoved him off me and slapped him on his cheek, hard. So hard, my palm began to throb.

“I fucking hate you!” I cried out, quickly running out of the balcony.

I ran downstairs, my mind a mess as I tried to find Eve. The looks I received from other people weren’t unexpected, my hair was strewed, I had black streaks of mascara running down my cheeks, the strap of my gown was not in place and my boob was almost hanging out of my gown.

“Akira!” I heard Eve shout behind me, I turned back to see her looking at me with wild eyes, beside her was Nancy, who – perpetually– looked bored.

Eve quickly ran to me.

“Are you okay? What happened?!” She asked frantically, her eyes searching my body for any form of injury.

“I’m fine. Josh tried to –“ I sobbed, unable to complete the sentence. Instead, I appreciated the comfort of Eve’s warm hug.

“I’m so sorry, Akira. This is all my fault.” She whispered as her hands rubbed my back in soothing motions.

“It’s fine. I have to get out of here, can you give me a ride home?” I asked.

Before she could reply, Nancy raised her hand. “But we just got here.”

“She was almost raped, Nancy!” Eve shrieked, looking at her with hatred. “If you wanna stay here, stay. But I am not a bitch like you.”

“Let’s get out of here, Akira.” Eve tugged on my hand and we started walking out of the house, with Nancy storming behind us.

We reached Eve’s car and as she brought the key out, Nancy snatched it away from her hand and threw it into the bushes.

“Let’s see how you get home now.” She smirked before she strutted off, leaving Eve and I standing with our mouths opened.

“That fucking bitch!” Eve gasped. “I can’t believe she just did that.”

Eve walked to the path where the keys may have landed with her phone torch.

“It’s not here. And I can’t risk it, this place might be full with things I can’t begin to imagine.” She said, walking back to me, typing furiously on her phone. “I’ll call Henry to come get us.”

After a few tries, Henry finally picked up the call. Eve rambled off the address and I gave her a look when she mentioned a gas station before ending the call.

“It’s a gas station I saw while driving us here.” She stated, answering my unasked question as she started walking.

“Where are you going?!” I shrieked as she continued to walk into the dark street, her heeled boots clicking loudly on the concrete floor.

She turned to give me a dry look. “To the gas station, Akira.”

I gave her a ridiculous one. “We’re two beautiful young girls walking in the middle of a dark and deserted street. What do you think is going to happen?”

Eve giggled. “Stop getting scared, Akira. It’s just a three minutes walk.”

With a defeated sigh I walked after her, rubbing my arms as the wind became harsher.

“I left my purse in your car, earlier.” I suddenly said, walking faster to meet up with her quick pace.

“I know. Nancy is a grade-A bitch, I can’t –“

Quick movement behind the thick bushes beside caught my attention and I interrupted her.

“Did you see that?” I whispered, stopping to look into the forest.

“See what?” Eve asked. “Akira, I understand your fear but we have to keep moving.”

“We have to call the cops, Eve. There’s someone here.” I declared, turning to face her.

When I looked behind her, there was someone there, a huge male figure, looming behind her and something glinted in the moonlight when he raised his hand.

“Eve, duck!” I screamed, but before she could make any attempt to duck, he harshly grabbed her and pierced something against her neck, a dangerous smile on his face as she became limp.

“Help! Someone please, help!” I screamed into the darkness just as a rough palm clamped over my mouth and I felt something prick the skin of my neck.

As I slipped into unconsciousness, I realized two things; it wasn’t just one man and they weren’t humans.

I woke up with a throbbing head. My body was aching and I was bruised, long purple bruises on the side of my thigh like I was dragged against gravel. My stomach was grumbling for food and my right heel was missing.

I quickly sat up from my spot on the cold floor and looked around, I realized I was in a cell, a cell in what looked like a dungeon. There was not a single window in sight, only a huge iron door.

It suddenly clicked to me that we were kidnapped. I was scared thinking about the shock my sister and Nana would be going through by now.

A broken whimper had me turning my neck. Someone was here with me. And I only hoped it was one person.

I crawled to the side of my cell and whispered. “Eve? Is that you?”

I heard sniffling before a croaky female voice responded. “I’m Lenny, I think your friend was taken to the other dungeon.”

I held onto the cell railings that separated us. “My name is Akira. Do you have any idea where we are and who took us?”

She moved a little and I realized she was shuffling closer to me, whimpering as she did so.

“We are in the Coldcrest pack and we were taken by the shapeshifters.”

I frowned, confused. “Shapeshifters? Coldcrest pack? What does that mean?”

Lenny sighed. “I also don’t know what they are. But what I do know is, these people are dangerous.”

“How many days have you been here?” I softly asked.

“Four days. You and your friend were brought here two days ago.”

I couldn’t believe it. I was knocked out for two days.

I quickly shook my head. “You said these people are dangerous. What people?”

“The people who whipped me.” She replied, coughing a bit.

My heart stopped, “W-Whipped you? Jesus Christ, we have to get out of here.”

“We can’t. I tried to, but it’s impossible.”

She sounded like she was crying.

“W-Was that why they whipped you?”

“Yeah. This isn’t the first time either. I was whipped once when I refused to be their human slave.”

I was terrified. I couldn’t imagine the type of pain she was in. I had a feeling that being whipped twice in four days was a different type of pain.

“And now?” I slowly asked.

“I called their Alpha’s mistress a whore.” Lenny replied and I could hear a smile in her tone for the first time.

“What do you mean by –"

The huge iron door was roughly pushed open, halting my next question. I watched as two tall and massive men, walked in, smirks on their faces.

“Who are they?” I whispered to Lenny.

“Guards.” She swiftly answered as they got closer.

“Are you ready to behave now, Lenny?” The biggest one out of them asked a whip in his hand. His stare was cruel.

“Fuck you.” Lenny harshly whispered as he walked to the front of her cell.

“It would give me such great pleasure to watch your little human cunt tear into two as I thrust deep inside you.” He said, with a disgusting lust-filled tone as he opened the gate to her cell.

He did not just say what I heard him say. I was suddenly pissed on her behalf.

“You’re fucking disgusting and you make my stomach want to spill its guts out,” I spoke harshly, and immediately, both heads spun in my direction. I was shocked at my behaviour, it was rare for me to cuss.

The second guard walked to the front of my cell. “Oh look, the second bitch is up. Humans are so weak and pathetic, you were knocked out for two days.”

“Let us go.” I spat out, my hands clenched themselves tightly, I didn’t know where this profound courage was coming from.

They both laughed like I said something silly.

My cell gate was suddenly thrown open.

“Come on. The both of you, get out!” One of them shouted. His voice booming around the vast dungeon.

I looked beside me to find Lenny slowly walking out. I immediately copied her actions and I walked out of my cell.

My arm was grabbed harshly by one of them and he began to tug me out of the door. I struggled to walk with just one heel.

I looked back to find Lenny out too. Now that there was light, I took a good look at her. She had shoulder-length midnight black hair, with the prettiest honey brown eyes and caramel skin.

“Hi.” She smiled, sending me a small wave with her free hand.

I chuckled at her antic, sending her a small wave of my own.

“This isn’t time for some girl-on-girl action,” The man beside me grunted, a lustful grin on his face, “You have all the time in the world for that, humans. Get moving!”

I watched, stunned, as his black eyes flashed blue for some seconds.

“What the hell –“

He harshly tugged me up the short flight of stairs. Fire torches hung on each side of the wall.

Once at the top of the stairs, I was tugged to the right hallway while Lenny was tugged to the left.

“Hey! Where are you taking her to?” Lenny yelled, trying to set herself free.

“She needs to take a bath and change. She stinks.” The guard next to me answered, his nose twitched.

He collected the whip from his colleague and without waiting for her reply, he began to drag me again. We made a sharp turn to the right and we walked down another flight of stairs.

Taking a few more turns, it finally occurred to me that where we were was enormous. With grand stairs and ancient paintings hung on the walls, it was breathtaking and I knew I haven’t seen the rest of the house yet.

We passed a few other guards and slaves, whose eyes were downcast, we passed through a large kitchen with several other maids who engaged themselves in one activity or the other.

Soon, we arrived at a door, a maid was standing there with another maid attire draped on her arm. Her head was bowed and she stood in a submissive stance.

The door led the three of us to what was a backyard. It was broad, with a large fountain right at the end of it and a vast field to the left. After the fountain, was an endless land of tall trees and forests.

We arrived at the foot of the mountain and I was roughly pushed to the ground.

“Come on! Take your dress off.” The guard barked at me.

I waited for him to burst out in laughter and tell me it was a joke and I could go home. I waited for him to tell me that I was being punk’d and Nana and Ama were behind the cameras watching me.

But it never came.

I suddenly cracked up, fully realizing that this was real. I didn’t know what was funny but I laughed.

“No.”

He turned beet red at my answer. “No?”

“No. I won’t take off my clothes. Get me the fuck out of here.” I rose to my full height and folded my hands, a sham smile on my lips.

The sudden smirk he gave me, chilled me to the bones but my stance didn’t falter.

“Well then, I guess you leave me no choice but to whip you.”

That, that right there was what made my facade falter, I snapped my gaze to the maid beside me, but she gave me none of her attention. “W-What?”

He couldn’t possibly think of whipping me, could he? I looked around to find out that we had the attention of other guards and maids close by.

He beamed. “I have always enjoyed mixing pleasure and pain. But I must say, the pain I inflict on innocent humans as you gives me so much pleasure.”

He looked at the maid beside me. “Hold her down.”

The next few seconds were a complete blur to me. The next thing I knew, she bounded both of my wrists with her hand. I was shocked at the amount of strength a feeble girl like her had.

The guard harshly ripped my gown into two from the back, baring my back and ass to him. The only thing stopping my breast from the eyes of others was the front of my gown.

I heard the sound of the whip in the air before I felt it and it burned. I screamed nonstop in anguish as he whipped me three more times in the same spot. All attempts to free myself from the maid’s grip were futile and all I could do was stand there and take it.

By the time he was done, my face was red from all the tears and pain and the throbbing in my head intensified.

The maid gently steadied me and I watched with blurry eyes as the guard glared at her.

“Bath her and give her what to change into. When you’re done, take her to Yelena who will assign her duties to her.” He barked out the order before storming off.

She pursed her lips and inhaled before loudly exhaling. She softly helped me out of the gown and my heel, leaving me in just my black pair of panties.

I wrapped my arms around my chest– inwardly cursing myself for refusing to wear a bra– as she walked me to the other edge of the fountain, which was far from the leering eyes of others.

“Wait here.” She ordered before walking away. I looked into the forest, a few metres away, wondering what would happen if I tried to run away.

I shivered when the feeling of being watched washed over me, I quickly looked back at the mansion and my eyes caught a glimpse of a retreating figure in the shadows of the window right at the top floor of the building. My cheeks flushed at the thought of someone watching me.

“This should help for now.”

Carla’s voice startled me and she looked at where my gaze was before looking down at me.

I looked at her hands to find her holding a washcloth and a small bottle of oil.

“This is for your wound.” She announced, shaking the bottle of oil.

She giggled when she saw the sceptical look on my face. “Don’t worry, it’s safe. You aren’t the first girl to be whipped.”

Her smile warmed my heart and I felt the need to introduce myself. “I’m Akira.”

She made me sit on the tiled edge of the fountain and I winced at the chilliness. “I know. Your friend told me about you.”

I gasped, surprised. “Eve? I thought she was placed in the other cell.”

She nodded as she placed the washcloth in the water before wringing the water out. “She was, until last night. She isn’t as stubborn as you are.”

I chuckled, the chuckle turned into a whimper as she placed the surprisingly soft and warm cloth on my back. The water from the fountain was also warm, immediately alleviating the pain on my back.

“What do you mean?” I asked her desperately trying to choke back a sob as she gently wiped the cuts on my back.

“She didn’t put up a fight. Unlike you and the other girl.” She responded, wringing out the mixture of blood and water from the cloth.

Eve was the fiercest one out of both of us. I was confused as to why she hadn’t put up a fight.

“What’s your name?” I asked, recalling that I forgot to ask her name.

“Carla.” She smiled.

She added a black substance to the washcloth and when it began to lather, she started wiping the makeup off my face.

“That’s a beautiful name,” I murmured with my eyes closed as she rinsed the dirt off my face.

She finished washing me up in silence and I gently changed into the maid gown after she applied the oil on my back.

It was a black dress with white trim, and a full skirt. She then gave me a pair of simple black loafers and styled my red hair in a loosed ponytail.

Once I was dressed to her content, we both walked to the house with my ripped dress, thong and heel long forgotten.