I picked up my tea and bread after moving over to the servants’ quarters and sat down at the opposite end of the hall to finish my lunch. “Hey, Micaela,” “Hello,” I said, sitting between them. “Hey....” Josiane calls out, nudging my shoulder. “Why are you so pale white? One would think you just saw a ghost. “ She joked, laughing, but when she noticed my reaction, the smile was wiped from her face. “What happened? Don’t tell me you actually saw a ghost. “ She gasps out. “I wouldn’t be surprised if you did.” “Yeah, I feel like a lot of vengeful ghosts could be roaming the palace because of how unfairly they have been killed.” Godiva whispered so only the two of us could hear. Though I doubt that was necessary, given that the beasts had super hearing, allowing them to hear even the faintest whisper. “I wish I did.” I murmured, looking down at the loaf of bread in my hand. “Seriously, what happened?. You are beginning to scare me.” “Josie is right. You don’t look too good.” I
MICAELA The following day served as another reminder that I had to clean the king's chamber. My legs are nearly failing me as I ascend the stairs to the seventh floor. I hurried to the storage area and grabbed my essentials. As I closed the bedroom door and entered the room, I was stopped in my tracks by a strong voice that filled me with horror. “I see you are back.” I dropped my cleaning materials as soon as I heard the sound, recognising the king's voice. I kept my head down to avoid having any contact with him as my anxiety mounted. Here I was once more, in the room with the king. The realisation of my predicament causes my eyes to get fuzzy. I was making the same mistake again after he was kind enough to let me go yesterday. It would undoubtedly require a miracle for me to be forgiven this time. “I’m so sorry, your majesty. I thought you would have been at breakfast.” I hastily replied as I stared directly into the most alluring blue eyes I have ever seen. My pulse
I hastened to the kitchen after lunch, tying aprons behind my back. Even though my schedule changed and I won't be working here, I didn't want to arrive late this evening. I didn't want to be punished—not after yesterday's incident. One of the maids in charge of serving the food had gone to rest during the lunch hour but ended up coming late for her duties. Madam Despina had called the guards, asking them to take her to the dungeon, and they dealt with her. They lathered her body with various marks after caning her. before raping her in succession. The last thing I wanted for myself was this. Opening the kitchen door to check if I had arrived on time, i breathed a sigh of relief as I positioned myself in front of the washbasin. I ignored the chefs' shouts, concentrating on the dishes I was cleaning, until I felt my hair being pulled violently and was carried from the kitchen while the maids looked at me pityingly. I put my hands on my hair in an attempt to ease the pain my sca
I stirred awake, blinking for a second due to the sun almost blinding me as I lay on the bed looking up at the ceiling. Yesterday’s incident played on my mind. What i wanted at this point was the numbness to fill me up. A groan left my lips as I shifted on the bed, trying to ease my pain. My cheek had been bruised and hurt. The agony was excruciating as I tried to sit up, but it was better than the bruise on my chest. My body was sweating, my breath was heated, and my head hurt. It was clear that I was getting the flu. My legs buckled as I got out of bed, nearly toppling over. My cheeks began to water; yesterday served as a reminder of the past. My last punishment or beating had been a long time ago. these served as a reminder that, despite my best efforts, trying to get out of situations like these. I would still get beaten because of something that was beyond my control. The bruising on my face was visible when I approached the small mirror I had gathered from Josiane. Dry bl
MICAELA With my heart pounding, I turned around once I was positive he had left the room. I continued with my work, ignoring the closet door opening as I faced away from the king. After doing my chores for an hour and a half, I was about to finish when I turned around and encountered a hard chest. As the scent of lavender and wood filled my nostrils, I moaned and rubbed my forehead with my hands. I looked down, finding the floor fascinating. “You’ve been avoiding me. Why?” His deep, raspy voice asked, closing the little gap between us, making it difficult for me to think as his sweet smell engulfed me. “I’m not avoiding you, your majesty,” I reply, with my head still cast down. “Really, then why won’t you look at me?” I said nothing, biting softly on my lips and just regretting it when I felt a sting, causing me to wince. “Lift your head up.” He commands softly. I shook my head, keeping my head down and refusing to look up at him. “I said to raise your head up.” This time,
ORPHEUS I got up from my throne, walking out of the room with Loukas beside me. “Your mother has requested to talk to you.” “Tell her I’m busy.” I muttered to him, walking over to the elevator. “You need to see her, Orpheus; she has been sending in a request to have an audience with you.” Loukas continues. And I sigh, glancing at him. “You are well aware of the reason for the unending request. Right now, I am not in the mood to sit through a long list of potential females to be mated to.” I tell him, getting into the elevator and pressing the seventh button. “You know she is just worried about you. It’s been years, and you still haven’t found your mate.” Loukas stated. “She scared you might end up alone, not having pups of your own and building your own family.” I rolled my eyes and kept my hands folded against my chest. I had long given up on finding a mate; it’s been years since my first mating ritual. The mating ritual was when the younger wolves, who recently turned
ORPHEUS It made sense that she was afraid of the beast, just as my people were. Especially when this fragile. I sighed, rubbing my hands against my face as I tried reaching out to her again. She kept pulling away from me, reversing position whenever I attempted to touch her, until her head struck the wall. Knowing that it is all in vain, I let out another sigh. She believed I wanted to harm her, which means she was going to keep moving away. I needed to let her know that I wouldn’t hurt and could never hurt her. Somehow, I meant every word, moving closer to touch her cheek, and as expected, she flinched. “I won’t hurt you, Micaela; I will never hurt you. Trust me.” I spoke to her as softly as possible. She studied me closely, trying to gauge how sincere I was in my words. She must have recognised something in them since she didn't flinch from my touch and instead relaxed a little. After picking her up from the floor, I left my room and went to the spare bedroom across the
Orpheus pov. For hours, I couldn't sleep and kept tossing and turning. This was not the first time I had trouble falling asleep, but this time, it was because of her rather than my nightmares. I was aware that she was two or three rooms away from me. Right from the beginning, I knew exactly why I was restless. Even though I knew there was a draw between us, it became evident now. My response to her suffering harm and Silver's protective behaviour towards her validated everything. She was my mate. It’s been years since I gave up finding a mate; I was sure the moon goddess was punishing me by not blessing me with a family of my own, and now I wasn’t sure what to think. This was going to cause an uproar, both for the wolves and humans. The last time a wolf had been mated to a human was centuries ago, before the war between my kind and the humans. I sighed, getting out of bed and absentmindedly walking out of the room to where she was. I tried for the past few weeks to vanqui
I felt relaxed with Micaela cuddled up against my skin, and my hands brushed on the soft strands of her hair. This was something I would never get tired of doing. The fact that she was better and wasn't mad at me for leaving, still trusting me to touch her, was like a dream to me because I thought after everything she would want to put a distance between us. Then, I would have to work hard to gain her trust again, but that was not the case. I stared off at the wall at the far end of the room where the window was, looking out at the dark cloud with the stars shining brighter than ever. I needed to tell her everything and how she was important to my king and me. I still wasn't sure how I planned on doing it; I couldn't count the number of times I practised the words to say and the way to say it in my head. It felt so easy to just spit it out in my mind, but I know that wouldn't be so when I do decide to tell her. My hand wrapped around her angelic body. I should be working since I h
I feel myself slowly slip into consciousness, welcomed by the sound of murmurs. Gradually, I began to regain my senses within a passing second, or was it minutes? I wasn't sure. The faint voice disoriented me further into confusion, having no clue where I was, whether I was alive or dead. My head was hazy, my brain probably trying to make sense of whatever was going on around me. Where was I? The last thing I remember was getting attacked by the guard and almost getting raped. Panic filled me up, and my fingers twitched involuntarily. It felt like my breath supply was being cut off, just like I felt before I blacked out. I shifted my body, digging my head into what seemed to be a pillow, and the scent of wood and lavender filled me up. My eyes finally find the strength to crack open, allowing them to adjust to the blinding light. I take in the features of the room and notice the familiar shelves, couch, and design. My hand clenched to the blanket I was placed on. This was no dou
Third-person perspective Orpheus sat on a seat beside the bed, watching as Micaela slept; he was not blind to the pain she felt, and the sight of it hurt him even more. As much as he wanted to rip the head off the guard who had done this to her, his main priority right now was her. He hadn’t left her side since Loukas left the room to get the things he needed to perform the bonding process. Micaela, on the other hand, had fallen back asleep minutes after Loukas left, and that had been hours ago. Orpheus was getting restless; he wanted to get it done as fast as he could. He couldn’t bear to see her wince in pain; it was a scar to his heart. The knocking on the door got him to his feet, and Loukas walked in with a small box in his hand. He placed it on the table, taking his seat as he brought the items out of the box and laid them out on the table. "The instructions are in the paper." He said, handing it over to Orpheus, who took it, going through them. "Do I really have to do
My head felt like it was splitting into two; my face ached. Pain shoots through my hands and legs anytime I try to move them; my consciousness was slowly slipping in, but my eyes remain closed. The ringing in my ears at first made it difficult to make out any sound in the room, but slowly, I could make out the pacing sound made by the floor. “It's not your fault; I should have kept a closer eye on her like I promised I would.” A familiar voice said, angry. “If you want to blame anyone, blame me.” “If I wasn’t such a coward and I didn’t leave, this wouldn’t have happened.” “You blaming yourself isn’t going to change anything, Orpheus. What you can do now is to let her recover. I will handle the guard.” A loud growl reverberated through the room with something hitting the floor. “He is mine.” “Orpheus.....” “No one touches him.” He growls. “I don’t plan on letting him have an easy punishment; he is going to pay for this.” I gulped, wincing when the pain in my throat intensified
MICAELA POV “Hey, how is it going?” Godiva asked, watching me from the corner of her eyes as I picked up my tray of food. “Great.” I snapped, pissed at the fact that she and Josiane keep walking on eggshells with me around, pissed to have woken up on the bed alone with no sight of the king, just for me to find out that he had left, with no words, nothing. Just gone, like that night didn’t happen. Sighing deeply, I walked down the line to the maid lounge. I shouldn’t have snapped at Godiva; it wasn’t her fault. It wasn’t fair for me to take my anger out on her and Josiane; they are just worried about me. “I’m sorry, Godiva.” I said, holding onto my tray tightly. “I shouldn’t have snapped at you like that; it was not right of me. I have been a bit cranky all week.” “I can clearly see that.” She replied in a matter-of-fact tone. “I don’t know what’s going on, and I know you said it’s nothing, but it doesn’t take much of a genius to guess the reason for your mood.” My step stops w
"What do you want for dinner?" The king asked, glancing behind me.I shrugged my shoulders, having no clue what to say. It’s still amazing how he goes back to acting like nothing happened a moment ago and like he didn’t just say those words to me.The thought of it still sends a wave of shivers down my spine. I could still feel the butterflies flutter underneath my stomach, and here he was acting with such indifference."What about we go for something simple?" The king said again, his back turned towards me. "Since you don’t have any food you wish to eat, I will make some seafood.""Okay." I said I was uninterested. The king turned back to look at me for a second, his eyes quipping up, and I blushed, breaking the eye contact first.He walked over to the fridge, taking out some ingredients and putting them on the counter before taking out the pot and pan.He pushed a small plastic cup with a lid on and an inscription in the body that said ice cream, giving me a tiny spoon. "You can sna
Orpheus POV."The matters had been handled." Loukas said as we concluded our discussion.I nodded, flipping the page of the document in my hand as I read through it."With that said and done, let's move on to the next matter.""What matters?" I asked, pretending not to know.Loukas sighed, rubbing his hands over his face as he got up from his seat on the couch to sit in a chair opposite me. "You have been trying to avoid this. You know you can’t, right?""I have no idea what you are talking about.""Really, man." He says, frustrated. "I thought things were going great from what you told me, so I don’t understand why you won’t tell her. Are you scared she might not feel the same and want to break the bond?"I shrugged, pretending to read the file in my hands. He has been pestering me for weeks now, ever since I talked about introducing Micaela to Sliver."You are really not going to tell her." He asked again."I think it’s best for the both of us." I tell him plainly, keeping my voice
“Rest, and I will have a meal brought up to you.”“Why, where are you going?” I asked, stopping him in his tracks.“I’m going for a run.” He replied, his hand on the doorknob. “It has been a while since I last ran, and my wolf is restless.”“Can I come?"He looked taken aback by my question; even I was taken aback. Deep down, I knew I had always been curious what his wolf looked like.I have seen the guards change, and I tell you, I almost pissed my pants, but somehow, I knew this would be different. I watched as the king tilted his head, probably thinking about my question.“You don’t have to if you don’t want to.” I hurriedly said, I don’t want to force him to do anything he doesn’t want to do.“Go get your jacket; it's cold outside.” He stated, and I squealed, rising from the bed. I ran back to my room, taking out a jacket Elijah had gotten for me before running back out.The king was waiting for me in the hallway, and when he saw the jacket on me, a big grim graced his face.“What
It was the sensation of a hand stroking my face that woke me. As soon as I smelt the king's familiar scent, I suppressed a smile. My eyes remain closed while I act as though I'm still asleep, holding my breath to avoid making noise, and savouring the sensation of his hands on my skin. His breath brushed my neck and his chest pressed against my back as I felt the bed dip. "I know you are awake." I remained silent and kept my eyes closed, still acting like I was asleep. "There is no use pretending to be asleep; I can hear your breath, even though you tried to hold it." He stroked my hair as he teasingly says.. I opened my eyes, turning to look at him. I had a sheepish smile on my face when I saw the smirk on his. “I was wondering where you were since you were supposed to help me tidy up the library. Was surprised to find you still sleeping. It looked like you needed it, and besides, you were too cute for me to wake up." I blushed at his words, giving a little apologetic smile fo