Amaryllis stopped running when she found a black raspberry bush in the woods. She'd been running for two hours and was absolutely exhausted. The terrain wasn't easy to run in and her athleticism was very subpar.

She intended on turning going in the direction that they had come from, but once she got in the woods, she lost her direction and couldn't remember which way she'd come from after being so deep in the woods. She also didn't see any exit to them once she got in them.

She'd been looking for a creek or small stream to find water in, but she wasn't sure if she would drink it anyway. She had no means to make a fire to boil the water first and she didn't want to waste time or exert her energy in trying to make one from rubbing sticks together.

The bottom of her pants had ripped when she caught them on a stick. She ripped the pants the rest of the way until she had a strip long enough to wrap the berries in and tie it around the loop of her pants.

After she took a few minutes to rest, Amaryllis began her run again. Just as she started to run about a hill, she heard a voice yelling in the distance.

"Amaryllis! Amaryllis, I know you're out here! Please answer me, my sweet angel!" Reynold called out.

Amaryllis's anxiety peaked. She increased her pace, no longer caring about the sharp pain in her ribs or the lack of air she was getting. She needed to put as much distance between her and Reynold as possible.

"Amaryllis, I don't want to hurt you. But I might have to if you don't come here right now," he threatened.

Fuck you, she said to herself. If you really "loved" me as you claimed, you wouldn't threaten to harm me.

She ran down the hill, careful not to trip over exposed roots or rocks. She knew she wouldn't be able to outrun him if he was that close, but she was hoping she could find a spot to hide.

She spotted a pile of brush that had built up. There were all kinds of leafy branches, leaves, and weeds. She pulled some of the branches away and situated herself in the middle of the piled. Then she put the branches against her body to camouflage herself.

She attempted to slow her breathing and calm her heart rate in order to prevent Reynold from hearing it. As she laid, she remained perfectly still, her only movements were from her controlled breaths.

Amaryllis closed her eyes and imagined the day before. She and Ulric had engaged in a large step of their relationship- he finally fed on her. For romantic reasons that was, not because he was angry with her.

It felt lovely, too. She felt so loved and protected as he held her in his thick arms while he drank from her, making sure she was perfectly comfortable. She loved him so much. She never wanted another man ever. She was ready to spend the rest of eternity with Ulric. When he came for her and rescued her, she would tell him that. She didn't want to waste any more time.

"Angel!" Reynold called again, pulling her out of thoughts. "I want you back in our home. I don't appreciate having to search the woods for you when you're mine!" He said. His voice was calm, but she could hear the underlying tones of aggression. He was pissed.

Amaryllis heard the sound of twigs and dry leaves crunching under his boots. He was getting closer to her with every second. Her skin turned clammy at the thought of being caught. He was obviously mentally unstable before she escaped, she didn't even want to think about how crazed he would be if he caught her.

"Come out come out wherever you are," he said in a faux sing-song voice. She squeezed her eyes shut and clasped her hands together.

Amaryllis peeked one eye open and saw a very muffled Reynold standing a few yards away from her hiding spot. It was difficult to see because all of the sticks were blocking her view, but that was a positive. Hopefully the abundance of sticks, as well as her green shirt and grey pajama pants, would camouflage her enough.

She almost squealed in relief when Reynold walked past the pile. She could hear his footsteps leading him farther and farther away from her.

"Oh, my sweet Amaryllis, please, love, come out. I'll take you home, and cook you a nice dinner. I know you're probably frightened. We can cuddle tonight, and then I'll make sweet love to you until the sun comes up," he said.

Amaryllis squeezed her eyes harder, trying to forget where she was and imagining she was in Ulric's arms. The thought of Reynold finding her and forcibly mating her horrified her. She tried her hardest not to think about it, but she knew that he wouldn't be gentle with her like Ulric would be.

After about 15 minutes, when she was sure that Reynold was gone, she slowly pulled the branches away from her body and climbed out of her brush pile. She scanned the area when she stood up, and when she saw no one, she bolted.

She ran maybe 50 yards when she came to a sudden halt to avoid hitting something that flashed in front of her eyes. "No," she whispered when she realized it was Reynold. He found her. With her last ounce of fleeting hope, she ran back in the direction she had come from.

"Ah ah ah," Reynold chastised when he flashed in front of her once more. "I told you to come out, my angel. Now I'm angry because you didn't listen when I gave you the chance."

He picked her up and threw her over his shoulder before trekking back to the cabin. She kicked and screamed the entire way, but he would not let her go. She cringed at the feeling of his arms wrapped around her legs.

When they got back to the cabin about half an hour later because he was running, he dropped her on a chair in the kitchen.

He walked around the kitchen counter and opened a door, pulling out a long rope. Reynold walked to her with his arms stretched out to tie the rope around her, but she pushed her arms out, preventing him from doing so.

"Sweet angel, don't make angrier than I already am," he said and aggressively pushed her arms down to her sides. She huffed in annoyance but remained still while he wrapped the rope around her. There was no way to escape and she didn't want to elevate his anger.

"Now, I'm going back outside to finish cleaning up the yard," he said. Reynold grabbed her chin between his fingers. "Do not try to escape." He touched his pointer finger to her face and traced it down her cheek.

Amaryllis threw her head back, breaking away from his touch. Don't touch me, she said to herself.

He left through the front door, leaving her to her thoughts. She looked down at the rope, but couldn't find any possible way to escape. The knots he tied were far too intricate for her to undo and there weren't any sharp objects lying around for her to grab. She was in a loose-loose situation.

She sat restrained in the chair for quite some time. It felt like forever to her as she thought of the impeding horror she would soon endure. Her mind raced with awful thoughts. In reality, she only sat there for a little over two hours.

When Reynold came back inside, it was mid-afternoon. She'd been with him for a little less than 24 hours. Her heart rate spiked when she saw him walk through the door as she conjured up all the things he wanted to do to her.

Reynold looked in her direction when he walked in the door but walked past her without saying a word. He walked up the stairs and a few minutes later she heard the shower turn on. Amaryllis released a breath she didn't realize she was holding. She had bought herself a few extra minutes of peace.

Reynold strolled down the stairs about half an hour later wearing a t-shirt and a pair of basketball shorts. He went to the fridge and pulled out a raw piece of steak, eating the thing just as it was. She almost gagged. She didn't think she'd ever get used to vampires eating raw meat.

"I brought hamburger meat. I know you like burgers so I thought I'd cook you up a few," Reynold said as he pulled the packaged meat out of the fridge. She watched as he turned the heat on and placed a skillet over the flame.

If he's focused on cooking me dinner, he won't be focused on raping me. Good.

"Do you cook often?" Amaryllis asked. She was attempting to keep the conversation going between the two in order to diverge his thoughts from bedding her.

"Not often, but sometimes. I like to do it though, especially for beautiful women." She wrinkled her face up in disgust, but thankfully his back was turned so he couldn't see her facial expressions.

"So, how did you find this place?" She asked.

"The cabin was built in the 1800s when people used to colonize around the area. There was a mining town a few miles away, so it was easy prey for the vampires."

"Oh, did you live here then?"

"No," he said with a shake of his head. "But I had friends that did. I would visit them up here. It's beautiful here, isn't it though?"

"Yes, very gorgeous." Reynold turned and smiled at her before going back to cooking the burgers. Amaryllis felt giddy at the success of her methods of distraction.

"How old are you, Reynold?"

"I'm 296 years old."

"Wow," she said. "That's a long time to be alive." She attempted her best to create an enthusiastic tone anytime he spoke in order to keep him happy and unsuspecting.

"I know. I'm happy I'll get to spend my future with you." Her face fell. Amaryllis couldn't even coerce herself to respond somewhat positively to that, so she stayed silent.

After a few more minutes of them talking back and forth and Amaryllis acting as though she was interested in his life, she knew she had finally manipulated him into trusting her. Gosh, this guy was an oblivious fool, she thought to herself.

"Reynold, these ropes are very tight and they are hurting me. Could you please take them off?" She practically begged in order to persuade him.

"Promise you won't try to escape?"

"I promise." Reynold walked around the kitchen table and pulled a knife from his pocket. Then he cut away the rope that bound her wrists and arms.

She stretched once she was free of the ropes, feeling her muscles relax in relief. She situated herself better on the chair. She wasn't going to attempt an escape, that would be foolish with him standing only a few feet away. She just wanted to be free from the restraints.

After a short time, the burgers were done. He grabbed buns form the cupboard and condiments from the fridge. He laid everything out in front of her. She scooted the chair closer to the table and dressed her burger up as he creepily watched.

She ate as slowly as possible to buy some time before the unknown, inevitable would happen. She could tell Reynold was growing impatient by her slow movements, but she couldn't care less.

"Okay," Reynold said as soon as she ate the last bite. He grabbed the plate from in front of her and deposited it in the sink. Walking around the table, he appeared in front of her. He raised his hand and brought his fingers to her cheeks.

Amaryllis couldn't help but flinch at his touch, something he did not like. He repeated the movement, and she flinched again. "Sit still," he growled.

He wrapped one of his hands around the back of her head and cupped her cheek with the other. Her breathing picked up due to the fear she felt. She wasn't sure what he would try to do to her, but it scared her. She didn't want to be his victim, especially not when she had a mate waiting for her.

She pushed her hands on Reynold's chest in an attempt to create space between them. She needed space to calm down before she hyperventilated.

"You bitch!" Reynold boomed, the noise reverberating off her eardrums. "I provide you a place to sleep, a home for our children. I feed you and this is how you repay me? By being an ungrateful bitch!" He yelled.

He turned around and raked his hands aggressively through his hair. It looked like he was trying to decide what to do with her. "Reynold-" Amaryllis started but was interrupted by a harsh pain to the gut.

"Don't speak!" He yelled after he slammed his fist against her stomach. She felt a searing pain in her side. A panic attack was on the horizon as she thought of the time she was attacked at home. It was one of the worst days of her life and she couldn't believe she was about to relive it, especially by the person who saved her from it.

"I love you, you are my mate, and for some reason, you don't show me the love and respect that a mate should! Why's that? You show Ulric your affections and he isn't even your mate! Why not me?" His yelling was causing her a headache.

"I'm sorry!" She said in attempts to alleviate his anger. Obviously, she wasn't sorry for loving Ulric, she was only saying it to ease his unstable mental state. His mind was clearly compromised.

"Stop talking!" He yelled and launched his fist into the same spot but with much more force. She hunched over in pain as his fist connected to her body. She hadn't felt that type of pain in years. The pain of the impact made her want to vomit.

Out of fear and impulse, Amaryllis made a very unwise choice. She bolted from the stairs and ran out of the front door. Before she could make it off the porch though, the mentally insane vampire caught her. He pulled her by the arm back to him and touched her cheek with a harsh slap from his palm. The intensity of the slap caused black spots to creep into her visions before she saw the world turn sideways and felt a hardness connect with her head.

Amaryllis opened her eyes about seven minutes later after having been knocked unconscious. She looked around the room, but it was quite difficult as her vision was very foggy. She had been placed on the couch in the living room and she turned to her left when she heard a quiet mumbling.

In the middle of the room, Reynold was pacing from left to right all the while mumbling to himself. Amaryllis moved her head slightly and felt a hot pain on the side of it. She brought her hand to the side of her head and felt a bump. Great, she thought. She hissed slightly as her fingers brushed over the wounds, causing Reynold to look over at her.

"You're awake," he said, relief evident in his face.

He sunk to his knees and rested his elbows on the couch. "I'm so sorry my sweet, sweet angel. I didn't mean to hit you. You just made me so angry. I see you show affection to Ulric and it made me so angry that you wouldn't show me the same affections. But I know you must be nervous, so I will give you time to open your heart to me."

So, you're blaming me for you attacking me? Sure, it makes sense. Because I'm the one that told you to punch me in the stomach.

Amaryllis couldn't even respond because the pain in her head made her unable to do so. She simply closed her eyes in an attempt to escape from the place.

He reached over and twirled the ends of her hair in his fingers. "I'll let you rest, you took a big hit to the head when you fell. Please don't make me do that again," he said. Reynold stood up and all Amaryllis could do was glare at him. How dare he, she thought, how could this possibly be my fault?

After she was sure he walked away, Amaryllis lifted her shirt up to see the damage left by him. She noticed a bruise beginning to form in the pattern of a fist on the side of her stomach. The skin was turning a dark blue color with some slight yellow tones.

Around 14 hours later, Ulric arrived back at the castle with Thierry in record time. He'd never made the trip so fast before.

"Lawrence," he boomed upon walking through the castle doors. Lawrence appeared before him immediately. "Sir, we have not yet been able to find her. Her scent is scattered all over the place and her scent is very faint since as it has been sitting for so long, but we have men following the trails now. There is one good trail that we have been following for the last few hours, but it too is scattered all over. Hopefully, it is the correct one."

"Stay here Lawrence in case she or Reynold comes close to the castle. Maintain the lockdown, no one leaves. Where have they picked up the strongest trail?"

"The northern border, heading toward the Sentinel werewolf pack, but missing it about 20 miles to the left."

Ulric nodded and unfolded his arms from across his chest. "Thierry..." Ulric started, about to order him to come along with him. Then his mate visited his mind once more, ordering him to be kinder. "I would like for you to come with me, but I know you have a mate you wish to see as well," he said, knowing he would do anything to wrap Amaryllis in his arms right then, but also knowing she would be mad at him for forcing Thierry away from his own mate.

"I'll come with you, Ulric. Marley is safe here," Thierry said.

"Thank you," Ulric responded. "Let's go."

Ulric easily followed the scent trails of both his men and his mate and caught up with them in an hour. "King Ulric," Samuel bowed. "We just picked this trail up about three or four hours ago. It's the strongest one we have found so far."

"I'll take the lead on tracking it," Ulric said. "I'll be able to pick her scent up easier," he said. For one, he had stronger abilities since he was King, and she was his mate so he would be able to detect her better than other men who weren't her mate.

After a little while of following the trail, Ulric realized that Amaryllis's scent was heading in the direction of an old mining town. An old mining town he recalled Reynold mentioning a few years prior.