Chapter 2 Stranger with a big what... !

Zephyra

"Zephyra, dear, your mother and I have a surprise for you," Father spoke, his eyes as sincere as ever while holding Mother by her waist.

"She's a poor girl with such a beautiful soul." Mother added, smiling as she reached out to hold my hand. "Lyra, dear, come over here."

I followed their gaze, and on our left side, emerged a woman with olive skin, hazel eyes, and a single pearl clip that complements her wavy brown air tied in a half ponytail. "Hello, Miss Zephyra."

The sudden thud caused me to sit up and wake up, my heart beating loudly as I gasped for air. Clutching my cheeks, I looked up and saw two girls...I think they are twins?

One, with a face already hardened by life, regarded me with raw disdain. A jagged scar sliced through her left eye, pulling the corner of her lip into a permanent sneer, giving her a perpetually menacing air.

A predatory gleam in her dark gaze followed every slight movement as she carried a tray laden with food. "Great. Another one," she snarled, stomping forward to place the tray with a jarring clatter by my side.

As she stretched her arm down, her sleeve rode up, revealing a landscape of old, faded scars, a testament to countless battles etched across her tanned forearm. "Don't say a word about it, wench," she threatened, her voice a low growl.

"Deliah, please be nice," her counterpart interjected, her voice a soft murmur that offered a startling contrast to the first twin's harshness. "Hello, I am Maria. Please don't think badly of my sister."

She moved with a quieter grace, a flicker of genuine pity softening her gentle smile. Her face, dusted with more prominent freckles, seemed less severe, and strands of blonde highlights caught the light in her otherwise brown hair, giving her an almost angelic glow compared to her sister.

"Here are your clothes," she said, her hands surprisingly gentle as she placed the neatly folded garments into my trembling hands. "We weren't informed who are we preparing them for, so the size might be a little off."

"Thank you." I murmured, not looking at them with the eye.

Now that I am sobering up, I realized my body is wrapped in bandages, only wearing my underwear. My face feels a little stiff too because of the gauze and band-aids all over. "I-I am Zephyra. I don't know how to thank you enough for-"

"Save them." Deliah cut off, making me look up. Her arms are crossed and her onyx orbs stared back at me with a sneer. "You won't say that disgusting stuff again as soon as his majesty calls you over. Tch. You're just lucky your face is worth something."

...his majesty? My mind immediately recalled the man who found me in the dungeon-that man who, amidst the chaos, stood like he owned the world.

"What Deliah means is you have to earn your keep here." Maria phrased lightly, trying to ease the tension. "We are rogues governed by the strongest of us. The base is called Inferno, and in here, no one stays for free...especially those who were hand-picked by our king himself."

***

After they left me alone to recuperate, their last words got stuck in my head.

Since I can't get a wink of sleep, I just forced myself to stand up and started exploring the base, dressed in the bandages wrapped all over my torso like clothes themselves, and the sweatpants from what Maria and Deliah gave me.

Surprisingly, this place is more of a real pack rather than a hideout-it has detailed structures, a lively town outside the stained-glass windows, and lots of expensive furniture and interior elements here in the walls I'm trapped in.

Reaching the South halls, the eerie feeling of all the doors there painted red gave me goosebumps. The lights along the corridors are in the sensual dance of warm yellow and cold blue, and there seems no sign of life in this wing.

Thud!

When something crashed, I panicked and immediately pushed myself to go where the sound came from. Opening the door, I prepared myself to be polite and ask for companionship with the person inside-but to my surprise, I was met with moans and grunts between a pair who were currently in a frenzied coupling.

...it appears the crash came from the broken bed.

With heat rising up my face, I was about to quietly close the door when suddenly, the man spoke. "Looks like I forgot to lock the door." Recognizing the voice, I turned back and found a pair of ruby red orbs staring at me.

"Hello, little thing." He smirked, pulling away from the girl, who immediately whimpered and protested as she held his hand, but her words were immediately cut down when he slapped her in the blink of an eye.

"Leave."

I swallowed the lump in my throat and turned to leave as what he said.

"Not you." he spoke, making me turn around and saw him exercising his muscular arm, moving it in a circular motion while his other hand reached for his glass of liquor.

The girl scurried away, quickly gathering her clothes and fleeing the room without a backward glance, leaving me in an awkward position with the man who's shamelessly naked, now leaning by the bedframe as he lazily strokes his c*ck.

"O-oh my," T-this is the first time I am seeing a real one! Are all kinds this big?!

"Before you begin drooling, you should first apologize for walking in without permission, don't you think?" he spoke, his voice low and dangerous, making the atmosphere even more unbearable on my end.

"Right," I swallowed hard, my mind racing for an excuse. "I'm sorry, sir. I-I heard a noise and wanted to see if I c-could come and talk to someone," I tried to reason, my voice barely above a whisper.

I waited for his response, hiding my trembling hands by placing them behind my back, eyes looking down to not linger on his naked state for too long.

"You're lucky I'm in a good mood," he purred, making me breathe a little sigh of relief. "But I don't take kindly to interruptions."

When he added the last bit, my heart raced, making me look up, forgetting the fact he's there on the broken bed, stroking himself as he kept his eyes fixated on me. "I...I uh," I should look away and not debase myself further, but with how hard both his gaze and his c*ck is, I ended up stoned in my place, unable to tear my gaze off of him.

"Lock the door and come over here."

His order, however, quickly snapped me out of my immoral trance. I was about to argue, to decline and run away before things got out of hand, but before I could brace myself for it, he spoke once more.

"One."

H-he's counting?!

With his threat on midair, I immediately complied, shakily clicking the knob's lock before limping my way to him, barely feeling the weight of the stick as I approached the man whose lingering sensual intent gets stronger by the second.