Three

/-Melucia-/

After accepting to his terms, he gave me a room in his wing. I was not to leave the room for any reason and I was appointed a personal maid to take care of me.

Later that night, a maid came in to prepare for him. I didn't utter a word as she undressed me and prepared a jasmine bath. As I soaked in the water, I thought about the things that would happen tonight.

As a priestess, I had never known any man, but today, I was going to lose my virginity to save my people. It made me anxious.

Ezra was a very frightening man and I didn't know how he would react if I failed to please him.

“Your shoulders are too tensed, my lady; you should relax,” the maid told me. It was shocking to hear a wolf speak so nicely to a witch.

“I'm trying…” I told her, giving an awkward smile. After a few minutes, I decided to ask her. “Your Alpha… what kind of person is he?”

“You mean Alpha Ezra?” She asked. “I can't really say. He has more of a mysterious personality. He can be extremely nice when he wants to be and very ruthless of provoked. He is just as dangerous as he is harmless if that makes any sense.”

It didn't but I nodded, moving to my next question. “Does he keep to his promises? If I'm going to do this, I need to know he is a man of his word.”

“I don't know what the Alpha promised you but he will follow it to the very last. That I am sure of,” she assured me. I began to relax after hearing that.

After my bath, she oiled my body with a jasmine-scented ointment.

“Why Jasmines, though?” I asked her.

“Because it is his favourite flower,” she shrugged. She gave me a skimpy red dress to wear while waiting in bed for him. It exposed a disturbing amount of skin.

“Isn't there anything less revealing?” I asked her.

“This is good,” she told me dismissively. “The Alpha picked it out himself.”

I frowned. Did he pick out dresses like this for every woman he came across? My stomach twisted at the thought of being treated as one of the whores that graced his bed.

The maid soon exited the room, leaving me to battle with my nerves while waiting for him to arrive. Seconds turned to minutes, then hours, and soon, I was on the verge of dozing off when my room door opened.

Ezra stepped in and all forms of sleep vanished from my eyes. My throat dried up when I noticed he was in nothing but a dressing robe.

His hair was wet now, trickling water down his exposed tatted torso. My eyes trailed down, following every drop until it disappeared under the robe, and I swallowed thickly.

My palms became sweaty as my heart drummed against my chest. What do I do now?

His steel grey eyes fixated on me, locking gazes with me. My breath caught my throat. Is he waiting for me to make the first move? I bit my lip and slowly climbed out of the bed.

His eyes dropped, raking through my body. I fisted the dress, subconsciously pulling it down in hopes of escaping the burning intensity of his eyes. I knew I was half naked, but having him look at me this way felt like my entire soul was bare before him.

He looked at me like a predator staring at prey. It felt like he would devour me if I made one wrong move.

“H-Hi…” came my feeble attempt to break the awkward silence. He strolled to me without responding and grabbed me suddenly by the neck. I thought he was going to kiss me but he didn't. Inside he buried his face in my neck, raising my thigh to rest on his hip as he assaulted my neck with kisses.

I trembled in his arms, overwhelmed with various emotions and practically panicking. He pulled away as soon as he noticed my body language.

“What is wrong with you?” He asked and my heart sank. Did I piss him off? His voice gave off nothing of that.

“I… I've never done this before. I…I'm not sure how to respond…” my face went bright red as I admitted it. He searched my eyes as if to detect the lie.

“You’re a virgin?” He asked and I nodded bashfully, keeping my gaze on my fingers as I fiddled with them. “You should have told me,” he sighed.

I waited for him to snap or even force himself on me but he took my hand and led me to the bed. I was confused and scared at the same time.

“I'll take it slow,” he started. “If you're not comfortable with anything, tell me and I'll stop.”

I was shocked at the bones. I never expected him to be this gentle with me.

“What if I don't want to do it at all?” I asked him.

“Fine by me,” he shrugged. “You get the heads of your people delivered to you right before you lose your own head.”

I almost glared at him. Just when I thought there was actually some good somewhere in him, he proved that he was still that heartless man who gave me that wicked ultimatum.

“Just… be gentle with me,” I mumbled.

“I intend to,” he huffed. “Now stop talking and let me take care of you.”

I did as he said and surprisingly, it was good. It started with an intense pain that almost drove me insane, but over time, I began to enjoy it. After he released inside me, he didn't leave as I expected him to.

Instead, he fixed a warm bath for me and changed the sheets. The gesture made my insides tingle and for a second, a very brief second, I saw him in a different light.

After that, he came to my bed every night, each time just as gentle as the last. The way he took care of me had me looking forward to seeing him every time.

Everything seemed good, even though he remained detached and refused to strike up any conversation with me outside our affair. Until the thirtieth day when the doctor came to conduct the first pregnancy test.

From his expressions alone, I could tell it wasn't good news.

“I'm sorry, Alpha, but she is not pregnant,” he informed us. I looked at Ezra but his expression remained stoic.

“Thank you, Doctor. You may leave now,” he said and the doctor bowed before leaving. My heart slowed as I anticipated his reaction.

“I'm sorry,” I offered. “I'm sure we will get there eventually.”

I wasn't entirely surprised that I wasn't pregnant. I mean, if I was, I would have seen the signs.

Ezra said nothing in response and it worried me. His threat resounded in my head at that moment and I gasped. I had totally forgotten about that.

Was he really going to do that, or was he just saying it to scare me? I searched his face frantically for answers or even a clue on what he was planning but there was none.

I watched him walk out of the room. I could only hope that he didn't have the intention of carrying out any of those threats.

Perhaps I should have prayed harder, because later that evening, Ezra came to my room with a servant carrying a big bowl.

“What is it?” I got off the bed and turned to the servant. “I know I said I was hungry but I didn't mean you should fill up the biggest bowl you could find”.

Her expression didn't change. She didn't even bother to hide the fact that my joke was unappreciated. I turned to Ezra.

“Did you get something for me? A gift maybe?’ I teased.

“Open it,” he instructed and excitement burst through me. I opened the lid and my smile vanished before me

I slapped my hand against myself to keep from screaming. My chest squeezed so tightly, and I could barely breathe.

When he said he would present three beads to me every time I failed to fall pregnant, I thought he was joking but now, I could see that he wasn't bluffing.

Despite his kindness towards me in the last few days, he had once again proven to me that he was a monster.

“How could you!” My voice started out quiet. “They were innocent! How could you take their lives for no reason? What kind of monster of you?”

I was practically screaming at him now, yet not once did his stoic expression falter. He didn't even care about the tears streaming down my cheeks.

“You knew what was involved when you made that deal, you don't get to play victim,” he stated.

I couldn't utter another word. I couldn't believe it. Couldn't believe that this was actually true. I single-handedly caused the death of three innocent people. How long will this go on?

I broke down sobbing as my heart ached.

“When she's done wailing, dispose of them,” he instructed the maid and walked out of the room.

My heart burned with rage and anger. I hated him. I hated him so much.

After that incident, our dynamics immediately changed. He was no longer gentle with me and I hated every moment that he touched me. I was still haunted by the memories of those severed heads and couldn't wait to give him a child so it would all be ours and we would go our separate ways.

However, as the second month passed, I was unfortunate once again. He didn't even bother to see me that day. The heads were sent to me once again and I cried bitterly. I hated him so much.

Yet, as much as I wanted to kill him or even strike him with magic, I couldn't. Not only was I bound, but the lives of my people depended on the arrangement.

The third month went the same, and when he came to my bed that night after sending me the cruel reminder, I snapped.

“How evil can you be?” I screamed at him. “Have you ever considered the fact that you could be the problem? That the only reason this is not working is because you don't deserve a child?”

He simply stood there staring at me as I poured out my anger.

“You have taken nine lives already. When are you going to stop?” I yelled. “When will it be enough for you?”

“When I get what I want,” he said coldly. “If you're done yelling, take off that dress and get on the bed.

“No, I won't!” I screamed. “Do you know anything of the nightmares that keep me up at night because of your cruelty? How can you even live with yourself? You want a child yet you are busy taking the lives of others!”

“You should have thought about that before placing such a ridiculous curse!” He snapped.

“Me? I had nothing to do with it for goodness’ sake!”

“But a witch like you did. She placed the stupid curse on my father with hopes that she could stop him from wiping out your worthless kind. Because of her, every woman I mate with dies. Because of her, I am forced to sleep with a witch to reproduce and you think I care how many of your people I have to kill to achieve that?” He snapped and my throat went dry with tears pricking my eyes.

“If you want to play hero, you will shut up and get on that bed or I will make you watch me kill them all in the most painful way possible. Are you in or not?” He growled and I flinched.

Trembling, my fingers reached for the hem of the dress.