Pain.

That was all that Calla could feel as she rushed through the heavy forest. Her legs were on fire, her body covered in bruises and cuts as she ran, occasionally looking behind her with terror in her eyes, searching the warm glow of the forest behind her quickly before continuing to flee from the unknown danger.

It had been during one of these moments she glanced back that her footing slipped. With a scream, the girl slid down the embankment, hitting rocks and trees before finally coming to a stop. For a while she just lied there, sobbing. Her body felt broken, pain rippling through her as she lied still, looking up at the place she had just been. She couldn’t move, but she knew she had to, especially as she could hear yelling in the distance. 

Letting out a painful cry, she dragged herself up, crying out again at the pain from her broken leg. Using the trees, she forced herself forward, doing everything in her power to keep off her broken leg as she dragged herself along. Her vision was blinded by tears. Where could she go anyway? In her state, she thought about just giving up. Let her die and the pain ends.

It could have been the shadows of the night or the blinding of her tears, but it wasn’t long before a new sight would catch her attention. A cottage. It was tucked into the back of this dense forest. She only happened to spot it due to the flickering light from inside the place. Maybe, just maybe she could get inside, get some help, anything. 

She grunted, crying as she dragged her body to the door to the cottage, crashing into it with a whimper before weakly pounding on the door. There was no answer. 

Hearing the sounds in the distance again, she tried the door. Unlocked! Her eyes widened in surprise as the weight of her body pushed the door open. She whimpered, not bothering to look around as she moved into the cottage, turning to use the weight of her small body to close the door again. Once it was closed, she frantically looked around. She needs to put out that light, hoping that by doing so, the cottage would be nearly invisible in the dark forest.

It didn’t take her long before her eyes rested on the light she had seen. It was a candle, but what was around the candle made her wonder if hiding here was a mistake. 

The candle was seated on a table by the window, below it rested an open book and a cauldron. The small light danced around jars of items that made her sick. Jars of eyes, frogs, and another manner of things.

“W...Witches?” her weak voice called out in panic. No, there was no such thing, right? Still, she had other things to worry about as she moved over to put out the candle. She was bleeding, she didn’t know if there was any way she could survive with her injuries, but one thing was for sure, she needed to stop the bleeding.

Painfully forcing herself to move, using items she reached out to grab to move her around, she searched for anything she could use. She needed to hurry, already feeling her weakened state was making it difficult to stay alert. 

Somehow, she managed to get herself into one of the side rooms which appeared to be a bedroom of some kind. All she cared about was what appeared to be cloth resting on a table in the room, long enough that they could make for makeshift bandage wrap. She was in far too poor a state to care that taking items from here was stealing as she moved over to collect the cloth. 

There was at least some light from the moon that broke through the darkened cottage, just enough for her to use. Giving a grunt in pain, and keeping herself awake, she stumbled into the first room again, vision blurry as she moved to a chair, wanting to sit down.

Her blood ran cold, however, fear stopped her in her place when she heard voices from just outside the door. She couldn’t make out what was being said but they were coming closer. Calla panicked, looking for a place to hide before her eyes fell on a closed door. She quickly pulled herself over to it, doing everything she could to not make any noise. She opened the door, which appeared to be to some kind of pantry or storage room before moving inside and closing the door. She sank to the back, just able to peer out from cracks in the door as the front door opened. 

As the front door swung open, the room suddenly was lit up with candles and oil lamps, illuminating every area of the main room. What walked into the cottage were four men in a variety of height, look, and dress.

“This place smells of blood. Did you leave one of the jars open, Marick?” a grumpy sounding voice rang out as a young man standing about 5’6’’ walked in, glancing back to a taller man who entered behind him. 

The man he glanced at looked blankly at him, almost with slight annoyance at the accusation. “I am not one to leave things to spoil,” he said back, his calm voice dripping with a harsh sting.

That caused the two who followed inside to laugh, one moving over to shut the windows while the other walked over to the first male and patted his head. “That would be more on your level of competence” the taller man with hair as dark as night said to the other. The shorter man slapped his hand away, growling at the other.

“Oh fuck off!” he spat before there was a hum.

“To be fair, the smell could be from that hunting party in the distance. It does seem that the non-magical people from the nearby village are busy tonight.” a fourth voice said, most likely from the man who had walked out of view. Calla covered her mouth to prevent any sound from escaping. She was sure her blood had dripped around the place, however, now with the room lit, she could see the floor was covered in dark rugs. She hoped they were dark enough to cover any trail she would have made.

“Yes, though one could wonder what could be so important for them to be out in these woods at such a late hour. It must be something interesting if they risk the witching hour.” The black-haired man replied, looking deep in thought.

The man who had answered to the name Marick with long silver hair simply removed his cloak and moved to the table on which the book sat next to the cauldron. “As long as they remain away from here, I could care less what they are doing,” he muttered, setting new jars and vials down on the table.

There was a sigh and the man who had walked out of sight reappeared into the line of vision. This man was beautiful, well, they were all attractive, but he stood out even more than the others. His hair was crimson red, long, and back into a loose updo with what appeared to be a few braids on the side. He was smiling but looked disappointed. “Typical Marick, you should be careful with those harsh words of yours. People might begin to think you're cold-hearted.” he teased playfully, ignoring the glare Marick shot him with a chuckle. “At any rate, I will be in the kitchen. Not sure about the rest of you, but I am famished.” 

With that, the red-haired man walked out of sight again followed by the man with black hair. “That does sound like the beginnings of a good idea. Blaise might even be kind enough to help us out.” the black-haired man added as he did.

Blaise, the shorter of the four men who had lighter red curly hair grumbled at that. “I’m going to kill them,” he muttered to no one in particular only to get a reply either way.

“That would require you to gain more control over your powers,” Marick replied with the same harsh tone. It looked as if Blaise wanted to say something but decided against it before grumbling and walking off. 

Calla watched the silver-haired man who was facing away from her, seemingly engrossed in the book on the table and muttering to himself. She glanced at the door, her eyes hazy as she was trying to focus. She needed to get out of here. Looking back in the direction of the man, she suppressed a gasp, no longer seeing him. Had he moved out of sight? Her heart raced, which wasn’t helping the state of health she was in. 

She waited a moment before knowing if she waited any longer, she wouldn’t make it. Silently, she opened the door, looking around. The room was empty from what she could see. Biting her lip, she slowly moved from the storage room she was in, doing everything in her power not to make a sound. Grabbing a nearby chair, she began to drag herself towards the door. She was about halfway when she heard a sigh, making her freeze in terror.

“Love, did you honestly think we didn’t know you were there?” a voice called. She slowly glanced over her shoulder to see the handsome red-haired man leaning against the wall the door of the storage room was. Had he been there the whole time? Whimpering, she forced herself to move to the door as quickly as she could only for it to open to the annoyed-looking man with silver hair standing just outside. He walked in calmly, making Calla let out a cry in fright as she tumbled backward into the arms of someone behind her. 

“Well, I guess we know what that hunting party was after.” the black-haired man said calmly, his sturdy arms keeping her standing, as she looked up at him. “Unless there is another reason an injured girl has snuck into our cottage and is trying to leave with something.”

“Does it matter? It’s not our business. Just toss her outside and let the hunting party have her.” the irritated voice of Blaise said as he emerged from a doorway. 

Calla was terrified. What could she do? Her body hurt so badly and her sight kept fading in and out. “P-Please,” she begged in a hoarse voice, her eyes looking at each person. “I-I just… I just…” Her body was becoming heavy, her thoughts fading. How much blood had she lost?  

“..H...Hey…! Shit!” she heard one of them exclaim. The last thing she saw was a flash of concern on the face of the man with silver hair as shadows of people rushed over before everything went dark. 

The gentle light of morning caused Calla to give a small groan as she opened her eyes. Her sight was hazy still but soon cleared enough for her to see the sight of the unfamiliar ceiling above her. Where was she? What had happened? Her mind was still dizzy. The sounds of something bubbling nearby made her move her eyes in the direction of the sound. That was when the room became more familiar. Just by wherever she was, facing away from her was the tall lean man in a long blue robe and silver hair. He stood at a cauldron that had a fire below it. From where she was she could see that there were books open around him, including the open one on a stand on the table with jars around. He seemed pretty focused, occasionally running his finger over some words before grabbing something from the table, adding it to the bubbling cauldron before turning the handle of a long wooden ladle.

“...Where…?” she tried to say though her voice was hoarse, her eyes moving around the room. She heard a light chuckle as just to the left of the man at the cauldron, sat at a chair was the man with the black as night hair. He had a kind smile on his face, resting his head on his fist that he had propped up on a table nearby. 

“Well there, welcome back to the land of the living,” he said, his voice oddly comforting as he turned in his chair to face her. Calla tried to sit up, wincing a little as she did.

“You gave us a bit of a scare there, dear. I would advise you not to do that in the future. Scaring warlocks tends to lead to issues.” he added as he seemed to watch her move. He didn’t seem too happy about her getting up but wasn’t saying anything about it. “You’ve been out for a few days.”  

Calla frowned at that, moving to touch a sore spot on her chest before wincing again in pain before looking off. “I….I’m sorry… I didn’t…. I-I'll leave so-!” she said, slowly moving to get out of the bed.

“If you get out of that bed, I will cut off your legs.” the voice of the silver-haired man said darkly, turning Calla’s attention at him only for her to feel that terror again. His purple eyes stared daggers into her very soul, she had a feeling he was being serious but thought his threat was a bit much. He wouldn’t do something like that, would he?

She frowned. “You… You shouldn’t make jokes like that..” she said, again moving to get out. As she did, a large knife hit the wooden floor just inches from her bed, sticking into the ground. She jolted at the sight, moving back into the bed and looking at the silver-haired man who had thrown the knife as if he were insane.

“I don’t make jokes. Stay in that bed,” he ordered, turning away from them again. Calla’s frightened eyes looked to the black-haired man next to her. He just shrugged at the display before him.

“He did warn you,” he noted before he got to his feet, retrieving the knife from the floor and thumbing over the sharp edge before looking back to Calla. His eyes were cold. “It would be in your best interest to obey. Firstly, your body is covered in wounds that need time to heal. Secondly, you will not get far with one broken leg and three cracked ribs. Plus, the gash on your face took about 10 stitches.”

This content has been misappropriated from Royal Road; report any instances of this story if found elsewhere.

As he listed off her wounds, Calla looked away from him, lightly touching the areas he said. A part of her wondered how much of her injuries had been from her fall or from those who had been chasing her. She was in bad shape.

“That’s not adding the near gallons of blood you managed to get everywhere.” another voice huffed. She glanced up to see the curly-haired man scowling at her from the end of the bed. Now that she thought about it, had the bed always been in this first room? It seemed to be an odd place for one.

The curly-haired man seemed to eye her a little. His bright green eyes looked rather intense but mostly irritated. He folded his arms and leaned against the bed frame. “Do you have any idea how long it took to get the smell of blood out of here? Between the sheets and the rugs… you took up a lot of my time,” he said bitterly, making Calla look down again. She felt small around these people, it seemed no matter where she was she became a burden. 

Her attention was stolen when the man at the end of the bed yelped in pain before growling. She looked up to see the beautiful man had entered the room and it looked as if he had hit the other. The beautiful man frowned, sighing before moving about the room that was becoming quite crowded at this point. 

“Now, now, you three have no manners. The poor thing has already been through a lot and you are already treating her so rudely,” he said as he moved to sit on the bed, wrapping his arm around Calla in a possessive hug before using his free hand to lightly touch her face, making her look up at him. Being so close, Calla could see that this one had gray eyes, just like the man with black hair. His touch was also strange to her. It was warm and made her heart pound, but perhaps that was just because an attractive man was holding her. “Would you like for me to steal you away, love? I assure you my bed is much more comfortable. However, I doubt you will have time to do any kind of recovery. You would enjoy my company though, I pride myself at being able to make a woman feel good~.”   

She pushed away from him, moving to the side of the bed that was right against the wall. That only seemed to entertain him as he let out a loud laugh.

“And you told us to leave her alone. Damn creep.” The curly-haired man spat, looking more irritated than normal. All the while, the silver-haired man seemed to be ignoring the rest of the room.

The black-haired man sighed, moving to sit at the end of the bed. “Gwy, she just woke up. At least give it some time before you talk about deflowering her,” he said, playing it off as if it were nothing. However, he soon returned the wicked look, his eyes daring the other male. “Besides, while you take that time talking about it, I will have already stolen it.”

“E-Excuse me!” Calla exclaimed, shocked and slightly disturbed by the topic. They seemed to ignore that as soon enough the topic was changed with a simple roll of the eyes from the man next to her and the man with black hair waving it off and turning to her again.

“What is your name, dear?” he asked casually. Calla frowned, looking off and trying to make herself as small as possible. 

There was a sigh before she was pulled back into the arms of the red-haired man who took hold of her chin to force her to look up at him again. “Love, don’t make me use a spell to loosen that tongue of yours,” he told her calmly.

“Maybe if you two hadn’t been so creepy towards her she would listen to you.” the man with the curly hair muttered, turning to face away from them.

The man with black hair sighed at that before catching Calla’s attention with a smile. “Here… to show you we mean no harm,” he said, pointing to the man with curly hair. “That is Blaise. He’s the newest to our coven. He comes off a bit pissy but I assure you to not take it too seriously, he just likes being grumpy.” That caused Blaise to glare at him before the man pointed to himself. “My name is Raven. I am the second oldest in the group and I help run the coven.” He pointed to the man next to her. “That is my younger brother Gwydion.” Calla looked to Gwydion when he was introduced only for the man to give her a playful wink back.

“And finally, the guy busy making potions is the oldest of the group, Marick. We just kind of found him.” Raven said with a smirk, finding even more amusement as the man with silver hair shot him a glare. Raven chuckled. “He comes off a bit cold but don’t take it too personally. Now, what are we to call you?”  

Calla frowned, her eyes moving to each person before back to Raven. She sighed, looking down. “...Calla…” she finally said. The idea of her being able to get away from these people was becoming more of a fantasy than being in a room of warlocks.

“What a lovely name” Gwydion replied, patting the girl on the head. Raven gave a light chuckle at that. 

“Quite literally, I do believe your name means beautiful. It’s rather fitting.” Raven started with a smile. Calla just sighed again, moving to lay down facing away from them. She felt the bed move, making her head turn to look up to see Blaise was leaning on the bed frame again, eyes staring intently at her.

“Mind telling us why a village of non-magicals decided to hunt you down in our woods?” he asked sharply. However, Calla just looked away. Painful memories filled her head. So much had happened, so much pain. The room was silent for a while before there was a sigh from Gwydion.

“The poor dear has a lot to take in, we should let her rest,” he said, gently rubbing her arm, his hand warm and soothing. “I’ll bring you something to eat later.”

“Rest? She just woke up!” Blaise stated, agitated with a huff. 

Raven rolled his eyes, getting up from the bed. “She also has a lot of healing to do. Plus, it’s not as if there is much else she could do at this moment.” he pointed out, his eyes slowly taking in her form in the bed. He hummed, looking as if he wanted to add something but changed his mind before calmly leaving the room.

Blaise grumbled but soon moved to head out the door, allowing for the sunlight and air of the outside world to fill the room as he did so before its fleeting freedom was once again gone. Gwydion sighed, watching the other before turning to Calla who was still facing away from him. He gave her an unseen warm smile before he got off the bed.

“Behave yourself around the young lady, Marick. Just because she is in your bed, doesn’t mean you get to have all the fun with her.” Gwydion sang playfully to which Marick shot him a look.

“Don’t compare me to something you would do, Gwy. I have been nothing but appropriate with her, unlike the rest of you.” he shot before returning to what he was doing. Calla didn’t know when Gwydion left, she had somehow managed to drift off again, her body weak and throbbing with pain once in a while. She expected to be in much worse pain than this with all the injuries she had. Then again, she was among warlocks, they probably had something to do with it.

She had no idea how long it had been since she last awoke, groaning as her pain caused her eyes to open. It had been increasing slowly as she rested, only making it clear it had been dulled by something before. Her groan must have caught Marick’s attention as he was still working at his station, however, his attention turned to her. He was silent but soon waved his hand, causing the ladle of the cauldron to work on its own as he grabbed something from the table and moved over to the bed, sitting on the chair nearby.

“It’s a real difference in pain level when the potion I gave you fades, isn’t it,” he muttered, motioning for her to sit up. It took her longer to do so, her chest hurting a lot more than it had before, making her close her eyes tightly as she forced her body to sit up. Her eyes opened to see Marick holding a small vial of a clear liquid before her.

She couldn’t help but look curiously at it. The liquid looked like water but shimmered with all kinds of colors when the sun hit it. “What.. what is it?” she asked, her eyes moving to the bored expression of the man looking back at her. He raised a brow at the question, tilting his head which allowed strands of his long silver hair to fall around him.

“Does it matter what it is?” he countered, moving it closer to her. “All that you should care about is that it is what has been keeping your pain at tolerable levels. Just drink it.”

Calla hesitated at that but carefully reached out to take the vial from him. She had no reason to doubt what he said but the whole situation was still very strange to her. Still, her body throbbed in nearly unbearable pain by this point, begging for her to just drink it already. She put the vial to her lips and carefully allowed the liquid to go down her throat. She made a face, whimpering as the cold liquid burned like fire as it did. However, it didn’t take long before she felt the stabbing pain in her body begin to dull once again, at least allowing her to breathe without it hurting. 

She was about to hand back the vial before she suddenly felt Marick grab her chin, holding it in place. Her eyes widened, watching as he leaned closer to her. “W-What are you?” she asked, to which Marick’s eyes just shot to hers, his expression serious but also slightly annoyed.

“Relax. I’m just checking over your wounds,” he muttered before turning her face and thumbing over the bandage on her cheek. She frowned, having forgotten about the cut that she now remembered had needed stitches. She watched his expression the best she could. Marick’s hands were cold, much like his personality towards her. It seems he was just a serious person in general.

He hummed, seemingly thinking something over before muttering to himself. “Will probably have to change the dressing on this one soon,” he stated before his eyes caught hers again. His eyes had a way to command attention. She wasn’t sure if it was just the way his aura was around people or the strange color of his eyes but they seemed to lock attention immediately.

“I have to check the rest of them, so you will have to lay down,” he ordered before his neutral expression frowned a little. “You’re not going to like this, but put up with it for the moment.”

She had no idea what he meant by that but figured it would be best not to argue with him as she nodded and slowly moved herself to lay down again. As she did, Marick seemed to be deep in thought, waiting for her. With a swift motion, the blanket was pulled away from Calla, making her curl up the best she could, suddenly feeling exposed. Marick’s eyes never changed from their serious expression. Soon enough she would understand what he meant as he took a hold of the end of the night shirt she just realized she was in and began to lift it.

Her face lit up with a blush, her hand catching his as the night shirt stopped at her waist for the time being. “W-Wait..!” she exclaimed with a small whimper. Marick just clicked his tongue, his eyes looking annoyed to hers. 

“I told you that you were not going to like this. However, I can’t check anything when clothes cover them.” Something about the expression that Calla had on her face made his eyes soften slightly before he sighed. “Look, I am not planning on doing anything inappropriate.”

Calla still looked nervous about this but looked off as he spoke, moving her hand away from his. “I… I know, just…” she started, her body still flushed red with her embarrassment. He took the leg that was wrapped into his hands. Luckily, her leg was able to bend, the break being in the lower leg. 

“I am aware,” he noted, moving his fingers to prod at areas on her leg. “Your body has never known the touch of a man.”

Calla was silent at that, relaxing slightly. “You… can tell?” she asked with a small frown. She guessed that was why the others spoke so freely about deflowering her. They must all have known. She winced as he prodded a particular spot on her leg, making her body tense, to which Marick took note of.

“I can nearly smell the purity of your blood and I am not a beast that would desire it,” he stated harshly before he moved to undo the wrappings on her leg. He frowned, his eyes focused on the task at hand. He seemed to make quick work of redressing the wound as soon enough he was finished and set her leg down again, pulling her night shirt up to her chest, his fingers beginning to do the same to her healing ribs as he had done to her leg. Having his hands moving about her body made Calla blush again, looking uncomfortable. While he was keeping his focus on what he was doing, she was still not used to being touched like this.

“We can deal with the issue of your virginity once you are healed,” he added as he did. Calla’s body froze at that, her eyes wide. 

“I...Issue?” she asked, her body squirming at his words and touch. His purple eyes caught hers again, his fingers stopping in place. 

“Whether you like it or not, you stumbled into a coven of magicals. We cannot simply let you go. Even if I thought you had someone to run off to and tell or not, we cannot risk non-magicals learning about the beings in this forest and hidden in the other realm.” he explained rather coldly. “From the moment you entered this cottage you became the property of the coven.”

His last words made her a little angry and frightened as she tried to give him a glare to show she wasn’t afraid of what he was saying. “You aren’t going to let me free after this?” she asked, clarifying what he said. “You… You can’t just keep me like a pet.”

He hummed at that, prodding a spot on her chest which made her give off a whimper in pain. “Call yourself a pet if you like, it doesn’t change the fact that you cannot return to whatever life you had before. Your fate is now in the hands of my coven and you cannot change that. If you try to run, I will think of it as a potential threat and will treat the situation as such.”

She didn’t know how to reply to that, keeping her eyes locked with his, she could tell he was being brutally honest. She didn’t doubt for a second he would kill her if it came to the safety of his coven. After a while she gave in, averting her gaze from his. 

“What does that have to do with my virginity?” she asked after a moment. He had already pulled her night shirt down and had moved to the bandage on her face.

“It would be a waste of energy to keep you locked up in the cottage while we are out and about, so you will more than likely be traveling with us when we leave to handle business. The other realm is full of creatures that would be rather dangerous, especially for a pure non-magical maiden. So, to prevent any unnecessary trouble from happening, you remaining a virgin would not be beneficial.” He said matter of factly. 

Calla looked mortified by the whole idea. “So I don’t even have a choice in the matter?” She asked, clearly unhappy about any of what he had said. 

Marick, however, seemed unbothered by her discomfort at what he had explained. “It doesn’t matter who you choose to give it to. Knowing this group, I wouldn’t be too surprised if you ended up warming the bed of more than one person.” He added calmly, finishing up. He noticed the look on Calla’s face, knowing the girl was both upset by this news and also mad at it. He sighed, “As I said, we will deal with that later. After all, you have to heal and we have no reason to travel to the other realm any time soon.”  

He got to his feet, taking the bloody wrappings to toss them in a basket nearby. He cleared his hands of anything that might have gotten onto them before returning to the cauldron. The room was quiet other than the bubbling sound of the brew he was making. However, Marick soon tapped the side of the cauldron with the ladle and hummed in thought. “The potion I gave you had the bonus of healing your wounds faster. I give it a little over a week before you are fully healed, however, if you listen to my orders about staying in bed, I will allow you to get out sooner, walk around the area, and regain your strength.” he said calmly. Calla watched him silently. She found Marick to be difficult to read. To be honest, she found the whole situation difficult to understand. These people were so back and forth with how they dealt with her. She didn’t feel in danger, just trapped. All she could do is follow orders and hoped things would start to make more sense.