AVERY

“ Come close. ” He says in the familiar gruff tone.

I should be relieved that he is the man I was looking for—this very King that I feared would find about another man laying claim on me. I don’t need to fear him finding out about the mark on me anymore because it belongs to him.

But…

I don’t know why. Something just doesn’t fit in.

What was a Lycan King doing in the North, a place he was never supposed to be in? Why did he mark me in the first place if he didn’t know me? And if he knew me back then…

A shudder runs down my back at the thought.

He waits, his gaze predatory. To test the waters, I shake off my thoughts and walk closer to the staircase that leads to his throne. Everything is so dark here that it makes my eyes hurt. I am used to the blue ocean, a life full of solitude—not this chaos and glares pricking my skin from everywhere.

When I reach the first stair, I pause, not sure if I should climb up or if this is close enough for him. My mind has gone numb and I can no longer make sense of anything. I can just stare at him, with a strange fear coursing through my veins.

He rises, leaving his throne and moving down the stairs to reach me. With each step closer, my heartbeat speeds up and my cheeks flush.

He stops on the last stair that I didn’t dare step on. His dark eyes look me up and down slowly. Wherever his gaze rests, I feel the skin becoming hot as if touched by an invisible force

He steps down the last stair, invading my very personal space like he did that night. The memories swirl around my head, making me uneasy and at the same time, aroused. My breathing becomes labored as I step away from him cautiously.

The corners of his lips lift in a cold smirk before he moves past me. My body stiffens as he rounds my body, taking in every inch of whatever I have to offer.

After he is done moving around me in circles and checking me out in front of his people, he stops in front of me again. Calmly, I pick up my head to meet his gaze, to search his eyes for what he is thinking or planning or anything.

“ I heard their Princess is the most beautiful girl in the Kingdom. ” His voice carries a hint of mockery. “ so? This is what they call beautiful? ”

A sudden coldness grips my heart but my cheeks warm even more. This time, in embarrassment.

The people around me burst out into small snickers first, and then it is a full-blown laughter, and chattering aimed at humiliating me further.

Despite feeling the need to hide, I stand my ground. The softness in my eyes after recognizing him fades behind a vicious glare.

He doesn’t laugh along with the others. He just stares at me, his gaze lingering on my shoulder that is covered by my hair. It’s like he wants to see the mark he left on me.

I don’t understand what’s happening. So, I decide that I must wait to find out what this humiliation means and why must he do this.

Suddenly, he turns around. His towering figure retreats while I notice the dark aura that clings to him.

The color of his eyes that night makes sense. Back then, the coldness he radiated doesn’t seem odd now.

He is a Lycan King. They are born with the curse to bear a burden far greater than what their shoulders can endure before they break and become like this—A vessel of evil, to commit sins no ordinary man can even think about.

“ Kneel, Princess. Show your respect to the King. ” The man from earlier growls threateningly and Aleister doesn’t stop him.

It’s enough to tell me his stance on everything. For whatever reason, he doesn’t mind his people disrespecting me.

“ The place where I come from… ” I steel myself and ignore the mocking laughter. “ we don’t bow down to the men who are supposed to become our mates. ”

Amusement flashes across Aleister’s eyes who sits on his throne and leans back, staring down at me as if I am some insignificant pest.

Why is he acting like he doesn’t know? Or doesn’t care that he knows me?

“ Mate? ” The man beside him utters.

I think I got the point across but the hall breaks out into a fit of laughter for the second round. Every sound of that taunting gesture drives a nail deeper into my heart.

Is this what my brother wanted? It’s not possible that he didn’t know they would treat me like this.

Or did he not know? Maybe, he didn’t.

“ Is this what your brother told you? That you are to be my mate? ” Aleister drawls, and continues to keep a straight face instead of laughing like his people.

I am already his mate since he marked me, but I can’t say that unless I know why he is behaving like this.

“ It’s what you promised. ” I say through my clenched teeth.

I am at my limit, trying my very best to not show any frustration or anger because that will give them satisfaction. If they know their actions hurt me or angered me, they will only be more happy and I refuse to let it happen.

“ Promised? Me? ” The amusement in his eyes grows so profound that I feel like I am saying absurd things.

“ The Princess thinks she is special. ” Someone says from the crowd.

Invisible cold fingers touch my spine, making me grit my teeth harder.

“ How foolish of her. ” A woman’s voice follows.

The hall is filled with people who seem to know more than me and their demeaning laughter continues to flow across the huge place.

“ If this is your way of establishing your dominance over the Princess who belongs to an enemy Kingdom, then you are using the wrong approach. Isn’t humiliating me the same as humiliating the King since I am to become his woman? ” I say in a soft voice that is void of any hint of emotions.

Immediately, the people in the hall fall silent and even hold their breaths. Smugly, I lift my head towards Aleister again and find him still staring at me, assessing me, overpowering me silently.

Then, he waves his hand in the air. “ Make her kneel. ”

Surprise flashes across my face and before I register what’s happening, my hands are already behind my back, and silver chains are around my wrists, their coldness biting into my skin. Silver can’t affect me and I should be able to break free but no matter how hard I try, I just can’t do it. It’s only possible if the chains have a spell on them.

I frown as I think about the possibility of magic being this common in the South. What are these people doing here?

The man who called this my prison kicks my ankle from behind and I fall to the ground. My knees hit the edge of the stairs and pain sears through my legs but I don’t let any sound out.

“ Princess. ” Renee yells from behind. “ let her go! What are you doing?!! She is the Princess of the North. You can’t treat her like mmmhhh mmmhh. ”

I glance over my shoulder in panic when her voice gets muffled, only to meet a pair of legs and no view of her.

“ What do you think you are doing? ” Anger flares to the surface as I face him.

A surprised gasp leaves my mouth when I find him close again. He is on the second stair, looking down at me with the same degrading glint in his eyes.

It’s different from the look he gave me that night. When I first met him, he looked ready to just…devour me but now he seems like he can’t wait to trample all over me.

“ Let’s talk about some important things, Princess. ”

AVERY

“ First, release Renee! ” I hiss, losing the cool from before.

If Mom was here, she would tell me I am a terrible person for letting the enemy see how I care about a mere maid but I can’t help it. This girl came with me to the enemy Kingdom without bearing any resentment towards me, how can I leave her to be abused at the hands of these imbeciles?!

“ You don’t realize the position you are in. You can not order the King, girl. ” The man behind me clicks his tongue, taunting me.

I glare at Aleister fiercely, “ Release— ”

“ Your brother lied to you. I made no promise to him. I simply heard his plea and agreed to what he had to offer. ” He says before I can finish stating my demand again.

I close my mouth, shooting him a look that clearly states ‘I don’t buy it’.

“ Do you believe you are here to become my mate? ” Aleister closes the distance between us and places his forefinger under my chin, lifting my head higher.

Electric jolts whizz past the length of my body, striking my core and then the soles of my feet.

“ I have plenty of them. ” His thumb brushes over my lower lip, parting my mouth as his intense gaze lingers on the movement of his fingers.

“ What? ” I think I am…not hearing things right.

“ If my people are to respect every girl I get offered by people that are too desperate, they will be too busy so they respect those that I cherish and not the rest. ” He pulls his hands away, taking back the semblance of comfort his touch provided.

My ears buzz with an odd ringing. I blink, trying to clear my head but find my whole body frozen on the spot.

“ You…You promised my brother. ” My voice seems to be coming from a dark tunnel.

“ He lied to you, Princess. ” Aleister’s superior frame looms over me like a familiar grim reaper.

“ My brother will never… ” I trail off and then lose the will to talk altogether.

Dustin…never talked about any promise. I assumed, since I am to be in the South then I must become the King’s mate and Queen, right? What else can a Princess be?

My heart drowns as I recall the fleeting look in my brother’s eyes. He avoided telling me something. Dustin only ever dodges questions when he is hiding something.

“ Why am I here? ” I whisper, to myself, and not to him who is suffocating me with his mere presence right now.

“ Intriguing. ” Aleister’s voice becomes playful. “ so you don’t know that to save your ex-fiance’s mate, your brother offered to send you to the South instead? That he was eager to get rid of you just so I spared Amelia and didn’t harm a hair on her head? ”

“ What—What are you saying? ” I stop struggling like a person who is too tired to go on.

“ Amelia is my half-sister. She has a claim to the throne so I thought I should take care of that threat before she becomes a problem. Well, I suppose your ex-fiance and the rest of your friends…what are their names? ” He hums, pretending to think.

“ Nora. ” I whisper. She is the only friend I can think of.

“ Oh, that’s right. Nora and Striker. The King and Queen of the West. They all fought quite valiantly to save Amelia from me. It seemed they didn’t care about their lives as long as they could save her. ” Aleister smiles. It’s a sinister gesture that shatters my heart.

“ Then your brother came and offered you up to save Amelia’s life. What a heroic display of affection for a woman who has nothing to do with him, I must admit. Trading his sister for the mate of her ex-fiance? That’s just amazing. ” His smile widens and the nail in my heart digs so deep that suddenly, I can not breathe.

“ Your brother must hate you too much, Princess. He didn’t even try to offer some other terms. I found it rather interesting. Perhaps your brother likes your fiance’s woman? ” Aleister keeps talking but I have lost the ability to comprehend things.

“ You…You are lying. ” It has to be a lie.

“ That’s what people say when they find out how foolish they are. You can’t admit that you were lied to so you refuse to accept anything that goes beyond that belief. ” He says before I feel him moving away from me.

“ It has to be… ” A Lie.

I often heard people saying that once in their life, a moment came when they felt like they were not inside their bodies and that the world came to an end. I never believed this could ever happen to a person and it must be an exaggeration. Because I didn’t feel it that night when I was almost killed years ago and was betrayed by the people closest to me.

And I thought I will never feel something like this ever because I am not overdramatic, nor am I overemotional.

But right now, all my thoughts disappear and I find myself kneeling in front of an enemy, staring up at him as if I am not here but someplace else.

I am back home, yelling at my brother, asking him to tell me why I must go to the South.

He says it’s peace that I must sacrifice myself for. It’s to save the lives of the people in our Kingdom that I must leave for an enemy territory and spend the rest of my life with them. It’s to fulfill my duties as a Princess that I must be here.

It’s everything but it’s not about my ex-fiance Tyson or his mate Amelia. It can’t be about her. Dustin, my elder brother can’t care about her more than he does about me right? I am not that insignificant that I can’t even be compared to Amelia Kingsley, right? Right?

Then…why does it feel like the world has just ended?

For them, even Amelia who recently appeared in our lives holds more importance than me who spent her whole life trying to get them to love me, or just like me. A few words of appreciation will be fine too. They didn’t even need to have to proceed to like me.

Just tell me I mean something. Even a near zero will be good enough. Anything will be fine for me.

But I have never gotten anything. Nor I ever will.

They betrayed me. All of them. Nora, my best friend, and her mate, Striker. Tyson, the man who was supposed to spend his life with me. And my brother, Dustin.

I could have expected anything from anyone, but not this from Dustin. When he told me that I must leave, I was sure he was doing this for the greater good and not to protect a woman he was supposed to despise. How can a brother sell his sister to the enemy to save the woman who took away her fiance in the first place?

How can he do this to…me?

And the rest of them?

They helped Amelia.

But who came for me?

They all waited for me to beg them so they could appear and act like my saviors. Did Amelia beg them to save her? Did she have to lose her dignity and reach out to them first or did they notice that she needed them and decided to jump into a fight not meant for them?

‘ You are a worthless whore. That’s why no one wants you. ’ Mom kept saying but I didn’t believe it in my heart before.

I guess, she was right all along. She was straightforward with me. She never tried to act to be on my side to stab me in the back.

“ What do you want with me? ” I swallow the lump in my throat and look at the man who shattered what was left of my expectations of others.

He sits on his throne, looking like the part of a dark fairytale that is about to unfold and unfortunately, I can’t be the main lead.

“ I can see why your brother abandoned you. ” Aleister blinks lazily.

My heart drowns, leaving me a breathless mess who wants to hide behind someone but is forced to face this monster who has appeared before her.

“ What does that mean? ” It becomes even harder to breathe.

I won’t fall in front of them. A hundred pairs of eyes in the room won’t see me crumble because I am a girl who stepped into the wolf’s den without knowing anything.

“ You have a mark on your neck. ” He says, surprising me.

Instinctively, I try to touch the mark but I realize my hands are still bound. I am not at home. I am here, in the middle of a hall, bound and forced to kneel like I truly mean nothing.

“ It’s your— ”

“ Your brother broke the promise he made. He sent you here because you are possibly already marked by another man he doesn’t approve of. ” He cuts in before I can finish.

“ What? ” My lungs are aching and my eyes are wide in disbelief.

“ You are someone who let another man stake his claim on you and your brother thinks he can use you to keep me away from Amelia? ” His lips curl into a smirk.