You weren't going to dinner.
You'd made your decision after the "incident" and you weren't going to change your mind. Standing firm was all that you had left. Peli had begged you to reconsider and Cara had thrown a pair clothes at you with some choice words that made your jaw drop. The warrior was equally as foul-mouthed as she was intimidating, but even that was not enough to sway you.
Eventually, the two meddling women had gone to inform their master of your disobedience and your pulse thrummed beneath your skin. You were nervous, the Beast could bust into your room at his pleasure and drain you dry. Every act of insolence put both your life and your sister's life at risk.
At what point would you have to come to terms with knowing that you couldn't save everyone? You had done as much as you could for your sibling and if Kalea were smart she would have jumped ship and fled the planet. It was a stupid sentiment, you knew that the woman was just as stubborn as you were, and she was most definitely plotting the Beast's demise just like you.
The difference was that Kalea thought you were dead.
Everyone did.
Your jaw tightened until your teeth hurt.
A rap on the door startled you from your thoughts and you rolled your eyes, stomping over to the entrance. These women were persistent but so were you. They'd have to come to terms with the fact that they'd be telling their master to virtually "get fucked" in many creative ways until he killed you for it.
"For the last time, I'm not going to dinner!" You exclaimed as you smacked the button for the door.
Your heart dropped.
The Beast stood in the doorway, donning a full set of armour and a helmet that angled downwards to meet your gaze.
"I heard."
You skittered backwards into the room, blood rushing in your ears and breath rattling your chest. He'd come. You hadn't expected him to actually make his way to you, you hadn't expected him to truly care whether you showed or not.
The monster stepped into your bedroom, following your path with slow, languid movements. The door closed behind him, trapping you in the room with a creature borne from nightmares.
"Why aren't you eating?" He asked simply, coming to a halt a few healthy feet from your trembling body.
"I'll eat," you rasped, forcing your body to straighten as best you could. "You'll still be fine to feed from me."
The Beast stood with an inhuman stillness, something you had noticed despite the way he'd tried to mimic your movements. It was like he had to remind himself to move in ways that wouldn't frighten you, that would encourage you to think he was human just like you. Now, he didn't pretend.
The Beast did not twitch nor sway, body suspended in time as if he were a photo or painted on canvas.
"That's not why I asked." His voice was hard and the words were like a bite, pushing through the softening effects of the vocoder.
"You just about ripped my throat out three hours ago," you deadpanned, crossing your arms against your chest. "Are you trying to tell me you actually care about my well-being?"
While you were glad that the Beast wore the helmet, you wished you could see his expression at that moment. His head tilted in a way that said he hated it when you talked, it was such a human expression of frustration. You wondered if he grimaced or if he rolled his eyes, you wondered if he looked less like a monster.
The creature finally sighed, avoiding your question entirely. "You can't skip meals."
The lack of an answer sent a pang through your chest and you glared at him, "have you considered that I don't want to see you after what you did to me today?"
There was a long pause and you suspected that you'd rendered him speechless. You knew there wasn't much he could respond with but for some unknown reason, his silence left you bitter.
The Beast reached for his helmet, moving to pull it from his head but you made a sound of protest. He stopped in his tracks, angling his visor towards you questioningly.
"I don't-" you swallowed nervously. "Don't take it off. Please."
You couldn't deal with that dizzying swell of emotions, not today. Not after everything that you'd just endured. The monster's hands slowly lowered from the rim of the helmet to rest by his side.
You were surprised that he'd listened to you, though you supposed he was quite polite for the creature that he was. Maybe he was only humouring you, as someone would humour their grumpy pet, nonetheless, you appreciated his mercy.
"So, you won't eat dinner with me then?" The vampire said coldly, his demeanour shifting once more. You wondered if he was hurt that you didn't want to see him, that the part of himself he'd bared to you was rejected.
"No." You affirmed.
The Beskar Beast straightened to his full height and turned from you, stalking towards the door with barely restrained frustration.
"If you won't eat with me," he growled, pausing to glare at you from over his pauldron, "Then you won't eat at all."
Your eyes widened.
The Beast disappeared down the hallway, he did not close the door behind him nor did he look back as tears gathered along your lashes. You were his property, you were his prisoner and you were going to learn your place in this household whether you liked it or not.
"You're being unreasonable," Cara's voice sounded from the doorway, drawing your gaze to her leaning figure. "He's leaving for a job, he just wanted to have dinner with you."
"I don't want to have dinner with him," you stated simply, turning away from her and moving towards the window.
"He's been incredibly patient with you." Cara shrugged, prompting you to whirl around.
"I'm not a pet to be trained," you hissed, ignoring the tears tracking your cheeks.
"No," the woman pushed off from the frame, approaching you with a set jaw and a furrowed brow. "You're a prisoner."
You swallowed.
"A voluntary one," the former trooper hissed at you, reminding you of your pledge. "You asked to be here, and meanwhile you've been looked after and treated well."
You scoffed, gathering your courage as you stared straight into the challenge that she represented. Cara was intimidating, but she was no Mandalorian.
"Is that before or after I was pinned down and had my throat torn into?" You asked quietly. "I didn't choose to be here, you out-of-touch dimwit. I begged to be here to save my sister's life."
The trooper blinked at you for a long moment, clenching her jaw over and over as if she was swallowing the words she wanted to say. "You have no idea what living hell the Beast endures."
"I don't care," you snarled, the words were an easy lie. "He's killed hundreds. You dress them up, deliver them to him, clean their wounds over and over again until they die. Their families never recover from the loss, we all live in fear, he haunts our very fucking existence and you want me to feel sorry for him? You want me to thank him for his patience?"
Your words were a thick sob, the anger palpable. You had never been so furious but you'd also never felt so hopeless. It was overwhelming, the wrath and sorrow consuming you from the inside out and suffocating you with every word you spoke. You would never come to care for these people and you would never accept death. You had a sister that relied on you, you had dreams and a life and a promise to your parents that you'd yet to fulfil.
Cara's eyes were wide, sparkling with moisture collecting across her lashes.
"We don't want this," she rasped shakily, "none of us want this. We're cursed. We're prisoners too."
The trooper's trembling hands gripped your shoulders tightly, but you weren't sure if it was to hold you firm or to keep her grounded.
"You seem pretty alive to me," you sneered.
The death of hundreds of real prisoners was not forgiven with a few shed tears and a sad story, they were not collateral damage that would easily be looked over. They were people with lives and aspirations. They deserved more than this horror.
You shoved past Cara, stumbling as you ran towards the hallway. This manor was a mystery to you, you'd only seen a few select parts of it and you didn't know your left from right in this maze. You weren't looking for a particular room though, you were looking for somewhere to hide, to be truly alone and left with your thoughts. No Cara, no Peli and no Beast.
The closest taste of freedom that you'd ever have in this prison.
There were no footsteps clattering after you and you took that as a sign that you weren't being followed. Maybe they'd grown tired of managing you, maybe they were hoping you'd run into the Beast and be dealt with.
The thought made you move faster. You climbed the winding staircase in the main hall and followed the least familiar path you could find. Soon enough, the hallways became dimmer and the air became still and it was only then that you allowed yourself to stop running.
You'd most definitely never seen this part of the castle before.
The hallway was almost pitch black had it not been for the soft yellow glow periodically adorning the walls. There were far and few in between, barely lighting the path that you walked along. It smelt of smoke and rain, the strangest scent that had your skin prickling and your fight-or-flight instinct on guard. A cold chill spilled down the length of your spine at the overwhelming silence surrounding you. There was nothing, no creaks, no groans from the house, nothing to imply anyone was near and yet you still felt unsafe.
A large wooden door slowly unsheathed itself from the shadows, it stood tall and strong and you marvelled at the carvings engraved against its face. This was the first door you'd seen in the castle that wasn't automated, the room within must be old. Perhaps, untouched.
As you approached, your heart began to thrash within your chest. There was something so dreadfully wrong, something screaming at you to leave; you could feel the warning deep in your core and your logic rattled against your curiosity. You were not meant to be there and this room was not meant for your eyes. You clenched your jaw, turning on your heel to leave. You were angry, not stupid.
But a low hum made you stop.
There was another thing hiding behind the alarms and the sirens of your mind, it was quiet and seductive and it beckoned you. Something in that room that called to you with a gentle allurement, enough to break through the fear and enough to put your palm on the handle.
The door opened, a light creak was the only indication of its age.
It was as though you'd stepped into an alternate universe. The room was wondrously huge, everything perfectly organised. There were shelves everywhere. Racks held weapons as though it were a personal armoury, flight suits hung in colour coordination along the walls and ancillary attachments to weapons and armour lined the table-tops. Books, holopads, scrolls, research databases- resources to find and learn anything lined the other half of the room. Your breathing picked up as a sinking feeling settled within your stomach.
When you spotted the large bed across the room, you prayed that you weren't where you thought you were.
That same hum that lured you into the room rang louder, caressing the anxiety from your mind. It was like a siren song, something so beautiful and unsettling at the same time. Like a moth to a flame, you began to walk to the centre of the room, burrowing yourself further into the Beast's den.
Something was glowing in a display unit, the centrepiece to the structural marvel you stood in. It felt as though the whole castle revolved around whatever was in that cabinet, like your life depended on it.
The desperation to lay eyes on it became unbearable.
You stumbled towards the unit, breath barely passing your lips as a gasp.
It was a blade sheathed in light itself.
You stared in awe.
There was an inscription on the case but you could barely drag your eyes from the artifact.
" The curse of the Mandalore "
It was jargon you didn't understand.
The blade obscured your vision and clouded your mind, you wanted nothing more than to touch it, just the hilt even. Raising your hand, you reached slowly for the cool metal that beckoned you. The hum was louder in your ears, gripping your mind tightly and poisoning your logic. You couldn't think, you couldn't breathe, you just wanted to hold it. You wanted the light to touch your skin. You wanted the blade.
"Stop!"
Your body was wrenched away from the cabinet and your breath snapped back into your lungs. You choked on your own spit, groaning as your back pressed hard against a nearby shelf.
"What are you doing in here?" The voice was a roar but you were disoriented and trying to regather your scattered thoughts.
Your chin was jerked upwards roughly, gloved hands wrapping around your jaw roughly. You cried out sharply, suddenly aware of your surroundings and of the wrathful Beast before you.
"Why did you come here?" The Beast thundered, his free hand ripping his helmet from his head. Blood trickled from beneath his hair and the scent of blaster fire and smoke was heavy on his armour. He'd returned from his "job", protecting Nevarro and it's interests by waging war on anyone who dared to threaten it. It's why you were here.
The red in his eyes burned bright, lit by the fire of his fury. His gaze was wild and he was almost unhinged, you'd never seen him like that, never seen him so frazzled. You realized suddenly that his body was angled between yourself and the blade, he was protecting it from you.
'The curse of the Mandalore.'
The curse.
You gasped.
"I'm sorry," you whispered, trying to distance yourself from the raging creature before you. He dropped his helmet carelessly by his feet and your eyes widened as he walked you backward. "I didn't mean to-"
"I told you never to come here." The Beast's voice shook the room, you'd never heard him yell and as your stomach weakened and your knees shook from beneath you, you never wanted to hear it again. You began to sob, hands raising instinctively to cover your neck.
You'd gone too far this time, you were meddling with things you did not understand.
Objects that could hypnotise, curses on beasts, human sacrifices, what had your life become?
"I didn't mean any harm," you sobbed, stumbling backward into one of the benches. The Mandalorian did not stop his descent upon you, his eyes blazing from beneath the dark curls splayed across his face.
"Do you realize what you could have done?" The Beast roared as he gripped your shoulders tightly. Your legs gave way from beneath you and you crumpled in his grip, whimpering as you wept.
"Please," you sobbed, hands gripping the sides of your neck tightly. His eyes were drawn to your trembling fingers and you knew he'd understood what you were doing. Faster than you could blink, he'd ripped your grip from protecting your throat and you screamed in protest, words of begging and pleading slipping from your lips mindlessly.
"Get out," the Beast shook, speaking through gritted teeth. His fangs flashed as he growled, dipping dangerously close to the pulse hammering wildly from beneath the soft skin of your throat.
"Please, stop!" You shrieked, your voice hoarse and wild and your body thrashing from beneath his. He was not going to kiss you to ease your pain, he was going to tear straight through the skin and rip out whatever was needed. Anything to get your blood flowing freely onto his tongue.
"Get out!" He roared again, shaking your wrists in his grip.
You stared in tearful confusion.
He was fighting the urge. He was fighting the bloodlust and he was fighting the control of that blade.
The Beast was fighting his curse.
You wrenched your hands from him, falling to your knees as you threw yourself past him. As you scrambled to your feet you briefly glanced behind you to see the Mandalorian grip his head. You weren't going to wait around to discover how long he could withstand whatever magic controlled him.
You practically launched yourself down the staircase, your breaths were gasps and your vision was clouded by tears. You knew the Beast would be after you, the predator instinct would be triggered as you fled from him.
You would outrun him, you'd run like your life depended on it- because it did.
"Where are you going?" Peli shouted, reaching for your arm as you shoved past an unsuspecting Cara in the main hall.
"I have to go," you shrieked, scrambling towards the main entrance. "He's coming."
You smacked the button as hard as you could manage, the door sliding open and revealing the gnarled, dead remains of the garden. You wasted no time, sprinting across the cobble-stone pathway as fast as your shaking legs would carry you.
Your stomach sunk as you realised you wouldn't get far on your own two feet, he'd catch you in minutes even if you didn't stop running. You came to a screeching halt.
The Beast had just come from a mission, he would have had to have taken some form of transport.
Rather than run away from the castle like your body screamed for you to do, you took a turn and followed the perimeter, praying that there was some sort of garage. Sticks flung up, stinging your legs as they ripped through your thin trousers. Blood trickled towards your ankles and you stifled a sob, he would be able to smell you from miles away now.
Finally, as though the Maker was smiling down on you, a speeder came into your blurry vision. Paved tarmac led further into a garage that held ships and speeders alike but you ignored them in favour of the speeder before you.
Throwing yourself into the vehicle, you quickly worked to get it started. You wept manically as you primed the engine and flicked over the isolator switch, praying that it had enough fuel left in the tank to start. Wet, heaving gasps slipped from your lips as you pressed the starter, slobbering prayers as the starter motor turned over. Finally, the speeder rumbled from beneath you, already warm from its previous mission and ready for its new one.
You reefed back the accelerator handle, bracing yourself as you rocketed from the driveway and out onto the open sands of Nevarro.
As the wind and sand whipped your face painfully, you'd never felt so free.