Emelia Lane ‘s POV
I live in a distant town. This is a place called “The Midnight Empire”. It is a place governed by werewolves. We do not have the Internet here. Even the highways are under the werewolves’ control. We can not get in touch with the outside world or ask them for help. No one in the outside world knows our stories. This is a kingdom of werewolves. Humans here can only be slaves, servants, and other humble things, but we can never be the owner of the kingdom. We know this is unfair, but we gradually get used to it. I always thought that my life would continue to be like this, peaceful yet boring. However, something happened to me. I did not expect that my life would change completely because of this. “On September 29th, 2022, the midnight empire is about to change its king. The current Alpha will soon pass his title off to his son, Cody Stark, who is 17 years old.” Our neighbor Finley Galloway is coming to visit us. She always pays attention to the news related to werewolves. We all know it is because her daughter was killed by werewolves. My mother looks indifferent and hands Finley a cup of tea to welcome her. “Oh? Really?” Finley frowns, “ Do not you know what it means?” My mother shakes her head. We do not pay attention to news related to werewolves very often.” This means the annual slave-choosing ceremony this year will be specially designed for Cody. Cody does not have particular interests. About the age of the slave, as usual, he chose 16.” My mother’s eyes are wide open. I lower my head. We all know that I am 16 this year. ———————I sit in my room, looking at the things on my table. I am stunned. My head is blank. I know I am nervous. “ May I come in?” My mom knocks on my door. I say, “Yes.” She walks in. “Oh, my poor girl, all human girls at the age of 16 should go to the slave-choosing ceremony today,” Mom says with tears on her face. “Slaves must be miserable, right?” I ask. Mom stops crying. She tries to comfort me, but she can not think of any good words. She shakes her head and says, “In the world of werewolves, we humans are humble and miserable all the time, no matter whether we are slaves or not.” I frown. “ Why do werewolves treat us badly? They need us, right?” My mother thinks for a while. “I heard that in ancient times, humans treated werewolves badly. So they take revenge.” I nod, but I think that I should not be treated badly since I have not treated werewolves badly. “Mom, if I treat werewolves well, will they treat me well?” My mother stares at me as if she does not understand what I am talking about. “Honey, never think that way. The revenge between humans and werewolves will never end. What you should do, or pray for is that the future alpha will not choose you, and you can come back to our home just as I did before.” “If I were chosen, I mean if, what would happen?” My mother frowns. “Maybe you will die... like Finley’s daughter...” I am not the only child in my family, but I am the eldest daughter. No daughter in my family has ever attended the ceremony. My mom attended it when she was young, but she was not chosen by anyone, so she knows little about what will happen after being chosen. Our knowledge of the ceremony and the tradition is mostly from hearsay.————————— I am dressed in a gorgeous dress, with delicate makeup. I know that werewolves like beautiful girls and the best thing I pray for are not to be chosen. I dress up just because I have to. If I do not dress up for the ceremony, I will be beaten up. I sit in my room waiting for the werewolves to pick me up. I see my parents crying. The depressing atmosphere makes me want to cry too, but except for the fear because of my mother’s story, I am not as afraid as I think. After all, I do not think I will be chosen because I look common. I am not a beauty. There are plenty of beautiful human girls, even in the town. I do not think werewolves will be so blind to choose me. I look in the mirror. I am wearing a bubble dress. My face looked fair, with a little pink on my cheeks. I look like a yummy cupcake. I like myself, but I do not think the future Alpha likes me as much as I do. Cody is said to be handsome. It is said that he looks cold and superior when he looks at others. When he smiles... No one has ever seen that. But it is said that when Cody was little and knew how to smile, his smile was warm and impressive. If someone is loved by Cody, she may always see his beautiful smile. Talking about love, werewolves are known for their love and loyalty. When I was a little girl, I read novels and history books about werewolves' impressive love and sensational loyalty. So when I grew up, I could not believe that they were hungry for human slaves for sex. I suddenly thought of something and turned to my weeping father. “I have read that werewolves were not lascivious like this in ancient times. They were loyal to their mates and would not have sex with others when they were single. Why are they like this now?”I ask my father, “I have read that Werewolves were not lascivious like this in ancient times. They were loyal to their mates and would not have sex with others when they were single. Why are they like this now?” My father looks surprised when he hears my words. Maybe he did not expect that I would ask questions that are not directly related to me when I am in this terrible situation. He wipes his tears and says, “Oh poor girl, it is because of the future Alpha’s great-grandfather. Since Cody's great-grandfather created this slave tradition, every werewolf from the noble families could choose his slave for sex. Humans were against this tradition, but humble humans have no say about it.”I frown. I am always curious about all kinds of stories, even if I should be too nervous to speak at this time. My father knows what kind of person I am, so he sighs and continues, “I heard that Cody's great-grandfather, who created the tradition, was gorgeous but cruel. His mate is said to be ugly. He
The girl shakes her head, but she is turned around. The werewolf who slapped her face turns to her ass. The werewolf shows no mercy. He whips the girl with a horsewhip. The girl screams and cries as if her body is cut open by a sword. The werewolf seems to be very comfortable. He sighs happily and invites other werewolves to whip the girl. I can not ignore the helpless human girl. I shout, “Stop it.” I demand as I go up to the guard. “Did you just order me what to do, you pathetic little human?” The leader werewolf snarls viciously. He comes to me and slaps me straight across the face. The slapping is so hard that I fall to the ground. Another guard comes to hold me. The leader werewolf goes to take his whip and starts to hit me. I let out loud cries because of the pain, but he does not stop. The girl who was beaten just now is trembling helplessly. But soon, she comes to her senses and tries to stop the werewolf who beats me hard. But unfortunately, another guard holds her quickly a
Then Cody leads his guards to get the five girls. I feel so scared because the guards are the ones who beat me just now. But this time they behave pretty well. I hope I am not chosen, but things always go against my will. After praying for a few minutes, I am held up by the two guards. As I expected, Betty is held up too. And I notice that my neighbor Megan is held up too. I am not very familiar with her, but with two people I know accompanying me, I feel better in some way. The guards tie our hands behind our backs tightly with ropes. I can feel the bruises forming. I think if I get so much pain here in the ceremony, I will suffer more if I become Cody's slave.The road is bumpy. I heard before that the place where werewolves lived always had bumpy roads. Werewolves can run fast on this kind of road, but humans can not. So no one can escape from werewolves. We, five girls, were put in a small car. The car was so small that we always hit our heads against each other on this bumpy road
“I will stop beating you as you wish, and I will give you something enjoyable.” Then he comes up to touch my breast and crotch. When he comes closer, I finally notice that he is the werewolf who bullied Betty and me when I first arrived at the ceremony. I can feel that his fingers are rough and hot since my skin is very tender. I struggle violently. I do not want to be touched by these dirty werewolves. But the Werewolves around me seem to be delighted by my struggle. They chuckle and want to tear my underwear in public. Betty comes up and tries to stop them, but she is held by Bruce. Bruce says in a cold voice, “She may become the future alpha’s private slave. You do not want to be killed, right?”The werewolf who is groping me stops when he hears these words. But there seems to be a mock on his face. I wonder why, but Bruce does not care about it. He turns around and comforts Betty with his beautiful eyes. I see it and I think maybe Bruce likes Betty. Then it will be a sad story bec
I do not know if I can tell the truth. And most importantly, my body hurts. I do not know what to say, so I keep crying. Cody is a little annoyed. He says, “Stop crying and tell me.” I heard that if a girl shows that she is vulnerable, the werewolf will show mercy. “I... I am...sorry...” I continue crying but lower my voice to show that I am obedient. Cody seems to be satisfied with my behavior. Although he sighs impatiently, he takes a damp cloth and starts cleaning the blood on my body. He starts from my neck. I look at him hoping that he will not notice that I am looking at him. His black hair is messy. It looks wild and manly. From his hair, I can imagine that he must be the most handsome Wolf in the world.Suddenly, I feel that my legs are a little itchy. I lower my head to see what is happening. I see that the handsome werewolf seems to be licking my legs. I know I should feel disgusted. After all, it is what I always feel when I am facing werewolves. But this time, it seems th
It is night now and I am pretty sleepy, just like any other girl in this room. All of us look tired. We are almost naked now, so we are also very cold. Betty quietly asks Bruce whether we can have a rest. Bruce thinks for a while and says, “ I will go ask King Cody.” Although Cody is only 17 right now and he is not a king yet, some of the guards have already called Cody King. Cody will become the king at the age of 18. There are still about 10 months left. It is said that werewolves find their mates usually at the age of 18, although there is always an exception.“Cody said that you can go to sleep.” Bruce comes back with good news. Among the werewolves I have seen, I like Bruce best because he always makes us happy. Bruce closes the door to let us go to sleep. We look around, only to see the cold hard floor. There is no furniture in this sleigh room. We can only sleep on the cold hard floor even if we are almost naked. I keep on tossing and turning. Although my family is not rich, I
“ What kind of girl does Cody like?” Betty raises her head as if she tries to look at the moon. “ Maybe a virgin.”As I want to ask more, suddenly, I hear someone coming. I sign Betty to lie down as if we are sleeping. Then, a guard snarls at us and shakes us roughly. “ Get up!” I quickly get up to see that all girls are standing there. “ Cody will choose who he wants as his slave now,” Bruce says. All the sleepy girls in the room tense up at this news. I am the same. Although I still sometimes dream that if I treat the werewolves well, they will treat me well, I do not want to be Cody’s slave. Because 10 months is too short, I do not want to die so quickly. “ Line up.” All the girls seem obedient at that time. I am standing at the last, hoping that I am lucky enough to leave. Cody first comes to Betty. “ Leave.” Betty is stunned as if she does not understand what Cody is saying. Cody Frowns. Betty cries and quickly runs away. I hope I can meet her again and listen to her stories. S
“I am...sorry.” I apologize, but Cody stops me. He tries to smile softly and walks to me. He puts his arms underneath my legs and waist to pick me up. I was like a bride in his arms. Although my back hurts so much, I do not cry anymore. I am wondering, “Why does he become gentle all of a sudden?” I can see that because of my blood, his shirt is getting stained. He does not seem to care about it. He quickly carries me into a room different from the room I stayed in just now. It seems to be a slave room too, but it looks different. This room is much better. It has a small bed in the middle of the room, and a small table beside the window. Yes, there is a window. There are about four doors on the wall. One seems to be the door of a closet, and another one seems to be the door of the bathroom. One is for the outside, and I do not know what the other one is for.Cody puts me down on the bed. When I touch the bed, I tremble because of the pain. After that, Cody leaves. I start crying becau