Chapter 6: The Hybrid's Bite
SERAPHINA
My legs propelled me toward my father, my hands flying wildly to push him away, but before I could reach him, Gravestone knocked me to the ground. His punch came hard and fast, my body shattering against the stone with such intensity that I felt my bones crack.
The screams of my father pierced through the air as I watched his dragon burn him to death, his hands flailing through the flames with agonizing pain. I watched him turn to ashes, the awful stench of charred flesh filling the air.
Hot tears filled my eyes as I stared at the burning remains. My father's remnants looked like a sight straight out of a horror play.
"Nooo...no...no...NOOOO!"
I screamed so loudly—louder than anything I had ever screamed before.
I slowly crawled toward my father's burning ashes, watching as they disintegrated into the ground.
I stared, face shocked, body sprawled on the stone floor, hands outstretched toward my father's remains.
My face was dry, cold, and expressionless as I gazed at the floor. The shock was so overwhelming that I felt like this wasn't reality—like I was in another universe and all of this was just a nightmare. It had to be a dream. It couldn't be real.
But when I snapped my eyes open, his ashes still remained there. He was dead. This wasn't a dream.
My head slowly lifted to look up at the tall, imposing figure staring down at me.
My hands clenched at my sides, too choked up with cold emotion to even speak.
"How could you?" I finally spoke. "How were you able to...control the dragons?"
The question I had been holding for too long slipped through my lips, but he smiled instead. His smile was devilish, dark, disgusting—like he had been waiting for this very moment.
"Oh, there is so much you have to learn and so much I want to put you through. How does it feel...?" He stopped, squatting down low until his face nearly touched mine. His red eyes looked even more demonic than anything I had ever seen—it was one hell of a sight. "How does it feel being hopeless...being helpless...not able to do anything while watching your dear papa burn to ashes?"
He whispered in my ear, his voice cold and thick, sending a terrifying chill down to my toes.
"This is just the start of your torture...the beginning of your kingdom's downfall."
His hand suddenly shot toward my cheek, forcefully raising my face in a rough manner as his fingers dug into my soft skin.
"I will make your pack suffer. They will become slaves; they will toil and be broken. And you—you shall be more than just a slave. I will make sure you are so broken that you will beg for death and it won't come. You will seek hell, and hell will reject you."
He whispered. If I had felt fear before in my life, then I had never felt this feeling I was experiencing now. It was more than fear—it was something else, something much more terrifying.
"Please...don't harm my people. They did nothing wrong, please..."
I managed to speak, but he chuckled instead. His eyes instantly switched to complete black, and quickly, I dropped my head, unable to stare into the void of darkness within his gaze. But that incited a growl from him as he roughly snapped my head back up.
"You have no right to speak or to look away when I'm addressing you. And your people? They watched your father punish all these slaves."
He said, forcefully turning my eyes to stare at the slaves who had been part of my wedding. Most of their masters were now dead, while some hid in corners, their hearts trembling.
I knew I had nothing to say, no mercy to beg from him. My pleas would fall on deaf ears.
I had heard stories about Draven Gravestone—how he had destroyed kingdoms, how he had killed everyone in each realm, how he had taken slaves from those lands. Even the nobles, he had made into slaves. And now, with my father being the head of his torturers, he would make our punishment even heavier, our suffering doubled.
"Kill me then. Kill me—there's nothing left for you to do."
I whispered, but someone laughed instead—so loud and horrifying.
"Kill you? Our alpha has so many plans for you."
The woman who had previously spoken stepped forward, walking toward us. For the first time, I was able to see her features fully, since she had been mostly shrouded in darkness before.
Her dark, shiny hair gleamed brightly under the light. Her body was sculpted like a goddess—she wore a fitted black leather corset that showcased the swell of her breasts and matching leather pants embedded with shining diamonds. High leather boots completed her outfit. She was everything I could never become, with a jagged scar running from her collarbone down across her chest, telling stories of tortures I could only imagine.
She stopped in front of Draven. The moment he stood up, her hands roamed around his chest, and Draven instantly grabbed her, pulling her close. Without hesitation, he crashed his lips against hers, his hands palming her ass as he kissed her hard and passionately. The entire time, his eyes remained fixed on me, his expression cold and calculating—as if this display was meant entirely for my benefit.
Then he stopped, giving her ass a sharp spank that elicited a moan from her.
He pushed her away and turned toward me fully.
"Why don't you show her what makes you a hybrid alpha king?" the woman said, chuckling as she stared down at me with repulsion.
My eyes widened in shock, and I quickly pushed my body backward the moment he took a step toward me. Something had changed about him the moment she spoke those words. I knew he was dark—dark enough to control our dragons and make them turn against us. They had betrayed us. The goddess had betrayed me when I needed her most. And now, watching him approach me, I knew it wasn't just darkness. There was something more about him.
The question kept pushing through my head: how was he a hybrid? What made him a hybrid?
As if to answer my question, his hands shot toward me. His fingers wrapped around my throat as he lifted me up, my black wedding dress dragging against the ground, blood already sticky on my skin.
I tried to gasp, to pull air back into my lungs, but he smiled instead.
"Now let me show you why your father despised me, why my family was slaughtered."
Suddenly, his fangs descended—sharp and long. My eyes widened in shock as I tried to push him away.
"Please...don't..."
I didn't know exactly what he was going to do, but something already told me what kind of hybrid he was.
He smiled instead at my pleas, as if my begging made him more wicked.
My legs dangled in the air as he brought me closer to him, his fangs growing longer and sharper. That was when I saw the changes in his eyes—the cracking around his eyelids, the black veins forming beneath them.
"Please..."
His fangs came crashing against my neckline, piercing deep, drinking roughly and hungrily as I shook helplessly in the air. My eyes rolled back, my hands weakly hitting against his massive arms. Slowly, the hitting stopped, but he kept feeding until I felt nothing and darkness engulfed me completely.