CHAPTER 44: CHAPTER 44: JAYDE’S TRUTH

Lucien’s headless body, still with the expression of astonishment and rage frozen on his face, fell mere inches from Jayde’s knees, splattering blood and cerebrospinal fluid. She watched it, her supposed fiancé’s body now a shattered, lifeless mannequin.

I expected screams from Jayde – maybe joy, anger, even regret, perhaps a sudden fury directed at me. I wanted any reaction, any feeling. Instead, her eyes went wide, and she froze like a silent statue, not moving a muscle. Her body began to tremble uncontrollably, not from fear of me, but from an emotion I couldn’t immediately decipher. And then, to my surprise, she collapsed to her knees, as if all strength had left her, like a rag doll.

"Thank you, thank you, thank you!"

She stammered, tears gushing as she bowed, her forehead touching the dusty ground.

"You saved me! I’m finally free of that beast! Thank you, my lord!"

Her gratitude was unreal, pure. Something in her words, in the desperation and relief in her voice, intrigued me. I knelt to her level, my voice soft but firm.

"Jayde, what happened? Tell me everything. From the beginning. I want you to unburden yourself so you can bury your past with his corpse. I’ll help you get through this."

Despite my negative feelings towards beastkins, she had something that kept me from hating her. Maybe it was her golden eyes, her silver ears, or her delicious body... I mean, her beautiful feelings. But I have to admit, I’m weak for beauties. Is that a sin, damn it?

Jayde lifted her head, her eyes flooded with tears but with a new spark of determination.

"Yes, my lord. I will tell you my story, the truth of how my clan... my own life, vanished into darkness."

She began her account, her voice barely a whisper at first, gaining strength with each word, as if speaking it aloud lifted a weight from her.

"It all began with a mission. We were ordered to steal a treasure from the Dogkin clan. But it was a trap, a cruel trap. Dogkin have an impressive sense of smell; they’re impossible to fool in their own territory. But even so, my grandfather, the best assassin of the Catkin, had to try. My uncle had been falsely accused of raping the daughter of the chief of the Catkin Clan Alliance. Although we are the same race, each clan is independent and competes fiercely. My grandfather tried to infiltrate to clear my uncle’s name, but he was discovered and brutally murdered by the Dogkin.

When the Dogkin came to claim retribution for the invasion, all the other clans, those who were supposedly our allies, washed their hands of it. They abandoned us. The Dogkin massacred my clan. Only my mother and I survived, my lord. And it was at the vilest price."

Jayde’s voice broke, but she continued, her eyes fixed on a distant point, reliving the horror.

"My mother... she was the most beautiful woman in our clan, perhaps of all tribes. To save my life, for me to live, she prostituted herself with all the elders of the neighboring clans. She crawled before them, offered her body again and again, night after night, allowing them to use her like an object, just so I wouldn’t die. For years, they abused her relentlessly. They forced her to spread her legs for men who stripped her of her dignity time and again, filled her with all kinds of disgusting fluids. I saw her eyes... the light was dimming in them every single day."

A knot formed in my throat, an uncontrollable fire of rage began to burn in my chest. Listening to her, seeing the pain in her eyes, was worse than any physical wound. A young woman who had witnessed the horrors of this world was showing me her fragility. It seems I let that imbecile die too easily; perhaps I should revive him and kill him again until my fury is sated.

"One day, my mother had to deliver a mission, but she had been raped so brutally the day before that she couldn’t move. She was shattered, bleeding. And I... I went to deliver it in her place. There, Lucien saw me. Throughout my life, I had always hidden my beauty with loose clothing and makeup that simulated skin diseases. I wanted to go unnoticed, I wanted to be invisible, terrified of suffering the same fate as my mother. But that day, my disguise failed. Lucien saw me and fell in love with what he called ’my exotic and virgin beauty.’ He asked his father to give me to him as if I were just another object in his collection... The worst part is, everyone accepted. Not a single person took pity on me."

Her words were a lament, her voice broke completely and she fell into a sad, desperate sob.

"My mother refused with all her might. She knew Lucien was a sadistic womanizer who enjoyed torturing women. Many people knew it, my lord. Dozens of families had reported him, families who had lost their daughters, murdered and raped by him. But he always got away with it, protected by his powerful family. His father... the Shadowclaw patriarch... always covered for him."

Jayde crawled a little closer to me, her eyes imploring. "When my mother refused, they forced me to promise to marry him, or they would kill me. They wanted to marry me to him in front of my mother, so she would see me become one of his victims. They wanted to use me to break her completely. I wanted to refuse, my lord, I wanted to die, but I couldn’t. I accepted... for the little sanity my mother had left."

Her voice was a broken whisper.

"My mother couldn’t bear that fate for her daughter. She tried to attack Lucien, tried to kill him. But they stopped her. And they murdered her in front of my eyes. My mother’s last words were: ’Be strong and don’t give up, someday there will be hope.’"

Jayde knelt again, her trembling hands clutching my knees, her eyes filled with a mixture of immense pain and a new, fragile light.

"And now... now I have hope, my lord. Thanks to you. I owe you my entire life. Please, allow me to be your sword, your shield. Allow me to serve you and avenge all those who made us suffer. My life... All of me is yours..!"