Chapter 3: Ava’s Plight

AVA KILLIAN

“Are you really going to claim her?" Kaila's voice trembled with barely contained fury as she watched Alpha Axel sip his wine from a silver goblet.

"Perhaps," Axel replied, his expression blankly inscrutable, while he could see the jealousy blazing in his mistress's eyes.

"How can you even consider it? That wench's father slaughtered your entire family! She's nothing but a beast like him. How can you think of claiming her, even if she's your mate?" Kaila's voice cracked with rage and jealousy, each word laced with hate.

Ava’s very existence threatened to shatter everything Kaila had worked for. If the princess became queen, it would undermine Kaila's position and make her seem useless in the eyes of the king.

"You shouldn't be so troubled, Kaila. I'm fully aware of who she is—the daughter of the mad king who annihilated my pack and many others. But she is also the last of the pure Lycans blood, and my mate. The moon goddess has her reasons," Axel said, his tone cold and detached.

Kaila was stunned. The man she knew harbored a deep hatred for the mad king and his offspring. How could he soften toward the princess now? Her ambitions felt as though they were crumbling, threatened by this girl who would take everything she had acquired with just her privileges.

"My king! What about me? What about our daughter Alys? She is to be your heiress. Are you going to take in that vicious princess as your queen and make us worship under her feet?"

Kaila immediately pulled out the daughter card, the only weakness of the king she knew of. The king loved nothing or no one more than his only five-year-old daughter, Alys, whom he had with her.

"Do not bring my daughter into this!" Alpha Axel dropped his wine and growled at Kaila immediately. His eyes, which were unreadable moments ago, now spelled rage.

"Do you fear for my daughter or yourself?" Alpha Axel asked.

"I assure you..." Kaila tried to speak.

"And are you giving me the impression of what I think it is?" Alpha Axel cut her off.

"I know you didn't swear an oath to marry me or make me your queen. I and my father willingly offered myself to you as your mistress, which automatically makes me a presumed queen. However, my grievances are not all driven by that ambition!

I am just a mother who fears for her lovely daughter. Princess Ava is dangerous. She would do anything to stop a possible threat.

Our daughter is a threat to her as long as she breathes! Though the princess is powerless to go against you now, you plan to claim her, giving her a new hope and ambition of being the queen and the mother of your children. Which queen wouldn't want her child to be an heir or heiress? And this has automatically put my little Alys in danger, considering how vicious she is, like her father, who annihilated all the powerful houses and packs he spelled to be a threat!"

Kaila broke down in a dramatic facade of tears as she said all her manipulative, on-the-foot practiced dialogue.

"You may leave now, Kaila!" Alpha Axel ordered.

˙⁠❥⁠˙

After a hell of a month in the palace, facing the rage and punishment of the king, though the people in the palace still anticipated her fate—either claimed as the king's mate or his slave—Ava knew she had been rejected already. The only thing that baffled her was the fact that the king still had her dress noble, which kind of made sense, as she ended up in his bed anyway and was punished brutally.

Ava strolled the palace garden as her appointed guard—or more of a slave watcher—was three steps behind her. After being in the dark horror and punishment room of the king, seeing anywhere that was not her room or the punishment room made her feel some sanity.

She spent her time reading books in this flower garden when she was a princess, when her father was alive and she hadn't been sent to the temple monastery.

However, Kaila was holding her five-year-old Alys as they walked toward the flower garden with four palace attendants holding baskets of fruits, books, mats, and blankets for a relaxation picnic.

As Kaila sighted Ava roaming freely in the garden, she was consumed by rage immediately, swallowing her saliva.

"How could a wench like her roam free in the palace? She is a slave and should be locked in a dark room all her life!" Kaila grinned.

"She's not yet been claimed as a slave, Your Grace. That's why she has the privilege to roam free, unless the king bars her from seeing the light of day," one of Kaila's attendants explained.

Kaila rushed toward Ava with rageful eyes, forgetting she was holding a five-year-old who couldn't keep up with her pace. Little Alys fell to the ground upon reaching Ava.

"Wench! Aren't you supposed to be locked in a dungeon?" Kaila's voice rasped with anger.

As Alys burst into tears, Ava immediately fell to her knees, holding Alys up lovingly.

"Are you hurt? Are you okay?" Ava inquired. This scene left Kaila expressively mad, and she hurled a resounding slap on Ava's cheek, causing it to burn red.

"How dare you, evil wench, touch my daughter? Will you kill her too?" Kaila yelled at the top of her voice, her neck veins visibly contracting.

Immediately, the attendants helped little Alys up and escorted her away from seeing Kaila's dreadful side.

"I was only helping her up. She clearly..." Ava was saying, holding her burning cheek, when Kaila aggressively hurled another resounding slap on her, making her fall back hard. Her cheek exploded in pain, the stinging heat spreading across her skin.

"Take this evil wench back and lock her inside. She shouldn't be roaming about!" Kaila yelled at the top of her voice, and the guard immediately grabbed Ava by her arm so harshly that he dragged her away.

"You can just say the word, my lady, and I'll get rid of her," Kaila's bodyguard; Jeremy asked again, as he slightly unsheathed his sword.

"Do it!" Kaila ordered in the spur of the moment.