1 - WELCOME TO MY WORLD

TRIGGER WARNINGS

#EWTLOPH is a dark Reverse Harem romance novel consisting of some sinister triggering elements that you might want to look out for. There is the occurrence of rape, graphic violence, bondage, assault, explicit sexual circumstances, and particular kinks such as breath play, impact play, blood play, masochism and more so watch out.

You know what to do if it ever gets too dark and dirty.

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THIRTEEN YEARS EARLIER

ALYSSA

I couldn’t cry.

Even when a big scary man with kingly robes on, an ugly scar running thru his eye, and a crown on his head sauntered toward me, I didn’t run. I just stayed there, staring hopelessly at my mother’s dead body from afar and hugging my dead father, heartbreaking tears refusing to wash down my face.

A large bow as dark and vile as the murderer’s heart was latched across his back and the darkness surrounding him made it clear that he was the one who fired those shots into my parents.

It had been hours since before it happened but it felt like a different lifetime… a different world.

I was playing hide and seek with daddy when the house suddenly collapsed on us. I thought I would die under the crushing weight of the roof, I thought my parents were already dead, but the goddess spared us and daddy pulled me out of the rubble while mommy hugged me. They said we couldn’t wait here, that the bad men could come back. The bad men couldn’t get us, mommy kept repeating.

And so daddy carried me against his chest and we ran into the forest. I was sad because I didn’t want to leave all my toys behind but I was sadder when mommy stopped running and fell to the ground, an arrow gored into her head.

I thought daddy would go back to help her, I thought he wouldn’t leave her there, but instead he kept running. He ran faster than I ever thought he could and just when everything looked like it’d be fine, an arrow flew into his chest, and I slipped, rolling unto the ground. Daddy tried to reach me even then but when another arrow went through his head, he dropped and breathed his last.

I went to him, terrified, and did the only thing my frightened mind could think of. I started pressing my little hands into his chest, trying to wake him up because I had seen daddy do it to others many times before and it had brought them back to life. I wanted to bring daddy back to life too, then I would bring mommy back, and we could all go away together.

But the big bad man that killed my parents’ showed up… smiling evilly like the monster he was. I was too angry to cry or run when he pushed mommy’s body away like she was a discarded road kill and only stared at him in anger, imagining so many ways I could drive the same arrow into his chest.

“What’s your name, princess?”

His dark predatory voice made me shiver and I hated the way he looked at me, I didn’t understand it because no one had ever looked at me that way before but I answered, “Alyssa.”

“That’s a beautiful name,” he said sweetly, grabbing me instantly and dragging me away from everything I knew.

Away from my once beautiful and peaceful pack, a pack that he had coldheartedly destroyed.

I didn’t know why he kept me alive. I didn’t know why he decided to drag me to his castle after he had already killed everyone I loved.

James would be dead too. James was the Alpha’s son and my very best friend. He always joked about how we would be mated in the future, and sometimes I’d hear mom and dad whisper to themselves about us being betrothed. I didn’t know what that meant but it always sounded funny to me.

Now… everything was gone and I was following the evil man to the underground province of his castle. I hated him, I didn’t know why I let him take me. I didn’t know why I followed him behind like his good little slave.

There were so many other women and children in the castle who would look down at me sadly, and shake their heads in pity as I followed. Some of them greeted him as the Alpha King but I’d never heard such a title before. In the South, there were only Alphas, no Alpha Kings.

But he destroyed my pack. He must’ve destroyed others too.

As we went down the stairs of the creepy place, I started to hear sounds… frightful sounds that I didn’t understand. I didn’t know then but it was the hellish blend of something I should never have to listen to so I covered my ears, which helped, block them out but it couldn’t shut the echoes of them from my mind. I couldn’t stop my wolf-sensitive nose from smelling burnt flesh, sweat, fire and death.

I didn’t stop moving, getting closer to the cries of what mommy would’ve called hellfire.

When we rode in the carriage, the Alpha King said nothing to me. When I walked miles with him before we reached the underground, he still said nothing to me. But as soon as we alighted the steps and set our eyes on the misery ahead, he turned to me with a delighted smile, looking so devilish with the scene of suffering behind him.

“One day, Alyssa…” I shuddered at the way he uttered my name. “…you’ll understand what’s happening down here. Or do you understand what’s happening now?” I shook my head, my shaky apple red eyes unable to look at either the horrible scene onward or the fearsome face of the Alpha King.

“Of course you don’t, but remember this, you’ll be my favorite.” He reached his hand, one that had the blood of many innocents blemishing it, to touch me but I stepped back and he laughed, his laughter more gruesome than the combined wails of the dungeons.

Then he dropped his bow in my hand, a very heavy one that was responsible for ending my parent’s life, and continued walking. The bow had the golden emblem of a crown on it, the same crown he wore. I had seen this emblem on many of the maids’ attires, the walls of the castle, the uniforms of his Sigmas, and even on some doors of the castle.

I was so scared that it was the only thing I noticed in his magnificent castle. The urge to break the bow overwhelmed me but even if I could, I didn’t want to end up here today. He said ‘one day’ and whatever that ‘one day’ was… I hoped it’d never come.

I didn’t dare look to my sides as we got deeper in because the very sounds were coming from there, fire stands lit their cells, and the smell of bodies was so pungent that it choked me.

My body ached and because the bow became too heavy for my little hands to hold onto, I dropped it. Fear invaded my senses and I quickly bent down to pick it up but someone had first me to it. I couldn’t hide the shock on my face when I saw a young boy of closely my age with the Alpha King’s bow in his hands, looking at me… in this horrible place. He reminded me so much of James.

The boy had golden hair and blue eyes, and looked so nice but was also afraid. The boy smiled at me as he gently placed the bow into my hands. I had barely opened my mouth to say ‘thank you’ when he turned to his left, to where the Alpha King was walking ahead, and ran the opposite way.

I didn’t check to see if the Alpha King knew what happened but continued following, keeping my head down and dusting my favorite black dress—a dress that mommy said she’d get rid of because it was all I ever wanted to wear. I used to tell her not to because it matched my straight black hair but it was never a good enough excuse.

We arrived at the end of the dungeon, my shaky hands still holding on to the bow, when I saw a scared young girl trembling in the corner. Her legs and hands were chained in pairs. I was terrified to see her wearing rags that barely concealed her, scars marring her beautiful skin, but she did her best to cover what was left by folding her legs over her chest.

The girl had dirty blonde hair and blue eyes, and seemed terrified. She also looked a lot like the nice boy that helped me.

The Alpha King signaled the girl to her feet and the girl wobblingly rose, keeping her head down.

He turned to me and I looked away in horror when he started removing his heavy layers of clothes and laughed again. If I could, I would’ve killed him just for that wicked laughter.

“Look away from me Alyssa and I will slay this slave.”

My eyes teared up but I couldn’t let him kill the girl because of me so I squeezed the bow with my little fingers and watched… watched the horror I was forced to witness but didn’t dare blink or snap my eyes shut even when it got unbearable.

I did it for the girl, I didn’t want the evil King to harm her more than he already was but her racking sobs told me before anything else I was seeing that he was already doing that.

I knew that everything was wrong about me seeing this. My instincts kept telling me to look away from the abomination because it felt like a thing mommy and daddy would cover my ears and eyes from but they weren’t here… and I had to keep looking.

My trembling body died of innocence when he finished, my little hands holding to the bow so tight that they had gotten red.

The Alpha King turned to look at me with dead black eyes, his long silver hair shimmering, the girl choking on his hold as she tried to hold her cries. “Welcome to my world, Alyssa.”

I screamed, collapsing on the ground and dropping the bow, when he snapped the neck of the girl and dropped her lifeless body on the floor. The hellish yells of the Alpha King’s dungeons continued to ring in my ear and it was only then I realized that this was my fate except… he’d make me wish for death and never give it to me.