Maeve has always been scared of the darkness.

Darkness helds in the monsters of their world. That was where the beasts lurked in. In every story about darkness there is always light. A person who is searching for light.

Or at least that was what Maeve has always thought. No longer was she unconscious as she had woken up few days earlier. No one had came in to bring her food or water. No one came in to check if she was breathing.

Maeve was all alone.

The mice that had held her company were all dead or too scared to come out from their hiding places. The King send a giant cat to kill them.

She did not have anyone anymore. Not even light. The sun disappeared as well.

"When it rains, come to seek my hand. When it shines, you are not alone. When it is dark, they come for you."

Maeve remembered a song that her mother had used to sing to her and her siblings when they were little. Although she was not able to remember how it ended. Maeve shook her head lightly and looked at her bare feet.

It was freezing.

"What are you to him?" A voice hissed as Maeve startled. There was no one in the cell except for her. "Hello?" She whispered and tried to look through the darkness. The voice held raspiness.

No one answered. It had just been her own imagination.

A hand touched her already tender throat. "Do not act like you do not know what I mean." The voice hissed.

"I.-" The owner of the voice put a blade to her throat. "Tell me what he is to you." Maeve did not answer. The voice was talking about the king. The person pushed the blade closer to her skin. "N-nothing. I am nothing."

The voice gasped.

"Nay, you are lying. If you were only nothing your lungs and heart would not be working anymore."

"Plaything. I am his p-plaything." Someone had said that. Her memory was too hazy to make out the details.

"Nay."

Maeve whimpered as she felt the blade dig deeper into her skin. The voice murmured words that Maeve was not able to understand. For a second the voice was quiet.

And then the knife sliced Maeve's throat open.

The only thing in the cell was the human lying on the ground unconscious.

***

Once more darkness surrounded her.

"Maevey?" A young girls voice asked. A cold arm touched Maeve's shoulder. "You need to open your eyes for me."

She sounded familiar. Almost too familiar.

Maeve's eyes shot open. "Sophie?" She screamed.

Her older sister who had unfortunately died at a very young age. Plague took her before her time leaving her family mourn. Alison was never the same after her daughter's death.

"Sophie?"

"I'm right behind you Maevey."

Maeve turned around. Her eyes widened as she saw her once beautiful sister as a corpse. Her beautiful blond hair was muddy and her scalp half bald. The eyes, that Maeve had always envied, were no longer blue. Her skin was rotten. Her beauty was long gone.

"What happened to you?" It looked more than painful. Maeve could not comprehend what she was seeing. The creature in front of her was not her sister.

Sophie gave a sad smile. "I am dead."

When her sister was still alive she was the envy of the entire village. A creature so beautiful that many adored her, even the werewolves. Maeve was sure that one of them would someday marry her.

There were laws in their world. Laws were humans were not respected. A werewolf could do whatever their hearts wanted to humans. But a human could never do the same without a sure death.

Humans were also weak in their eyes. They could not run fast enough, they could not see as well, their hearing was not to be praised and they have diseases. Additionally humans almost never survived giving birth to a child of a werewolf.

Maeve could not answer. All of this had to be only a miserable dream. The cell had finally gotten into her head.

"I am on a mission."

Maeve stared at her. That could not be her sister. She touched her neck and felt nothing more than her cold skin. No blood, no knife. "Where am I?"

Sophie didn't answer.

"I a-asked you a question."

"Wake up Maeve. It is not your time. Wake up and go to your soulmate."

"Soulmate?"

"Stop him before it is too late." And then the corpse was gone just like the voice from earlier. And then the pain hit her. Never had she had much experience on discomfort. But now It felt like something was burning inside of her and that something was trying to make its way out.

"Do not scream" an unfamiliar voice said.

"She kicked me" another voice yelled.

"I thought that she was dead?" The other man only grumbled an answer.

"We should probably tell the King that-". Maeve tried to open her eyes but with no luck. "No and that is my final command. I do not want to be the person to tell him the turn of events.".

She tried to form words but failed. "Pl-please" was the only thing she got out of her mouth.

The men looked at each other. There was a long silence between them.

"We are taking you to a sickhouse. They are going to take care of you."

"Wh-where is C-Caspian?" She remembered the name of the man who had been friendly to her. Maeve looked at the men's faces through her blurry vision. Perhaps she should have not said that because the faces of the men paled as if they had seen a ghost jumping around.

"How do you know our gammas name?"

"H-he came to see me and w-was nice to m-me." He was the only one that had not called her by disparaging words.

"It would be better for all of us if you never utter his name again."

"W-why?"

"Because from now on he is our former gamma."

"What h-happened to him?" The men looked at each other once more. "The story time is over human. We are at the sickhouse."

Maeve did not understand what was happening to her. She was carried into a bed and was given some water to drink the bitter taste away from her throat. One maid gave her a soft bread to eat as well. She thanked them but the servant girl only spat on her face. She really was the lowest skank in the castle. Maybe even in the entire kingdom.

She touched her throat were she could still feel the knife but there was nothing. No wounds nor a single drop of blood.

What happened to her?

She hoped that they were letting her go. To run back to her home. No matter what Maeve could not deny the pain she felt as she thought about leaving. To never see the king again.

"W-why does it hurt so much?" The human whispered.

"Why does it feel like someone is crushing my heart."

"Why does it feel like half of m-me is gone."

"Why doe-."

"Stay quiet!" A man called Mathias hit her. "Shut your dirty mouth human. We have problems of our own. Do not force us do something that we will all regret."

After that, she did not say anything. She did not complain about the pain in her head. Nor about the feeling she had in her legs. Maeve figured out that it would be easier if her mouth stayed shut. They would have no reason to assault her again.

While deep in her thought a sentence came to her head. The only sentence that she could figure out in her hazed head.

"Queen of the Beasts."

She could feel eyes on her and turned to look at the door as the King of Beasts walked inside of the room. He looked at her straight into her hazel eyes before muttering the words that made Maeve's heart throb.

"Mate."