Working for her new master, the Alpha King, was nothing like Baka had expected it would be. He was out for most of the day and would come back past her curfew. She hardly ever saw him nor knew what he did outdoors. And when she did see him, he never said more than two words to her. He’d either eat alone or go to the balcony or the garden and spend hours on end there. The man who had spoken to her at length during their second meeting seemed to have vanished. Not that she was complaining. She hardly thought it did her any good to become his conversationalist.Baka dedicated herself to her job which included cleaning the master’s room, preparing his clothes, and making sure his food was exactly how he liked it. He had given her a long list of things he didn’t eat. She’d never met anyone so picky. He didn’t eat ketchup or mayonnaise. Didn’t like onions or garlic in his food. Only ate red meat and drumsticks and didn't like his egg scrambled.The other slaves in the palace hardly spoke
Tatum watched her leave his room, her dark, curly hair flowing behind her. She had secured it neatly in a bun but they had come slightly undone.Her scent was like a cooling balm to his rising temper. How could she smell so right?Half the time, he had to move away from her for fear of sniffing her like an animal. He sat down dejectedly on his chair, cradling his head in his palms. Something wasn't right. It hadn't been since he met her at Healer Freya’s shop.First, her scent had hit him like a moving truck. Then she'd looked at him with her stunning dark brown eyes and he had felt instantly drawn to her. It was like nothing he had ever felt before.Then the most unseemly thing had happened— his splitting headache ebbed away slowly into nothing. A headache he had been wrestling with since he had his first shift five years ago. A headache so terrible that he would black out for days on end. A headache he had sought remedies for countless times at Healer Freya’s shop, and while it ha
Out in the streets, Baka inhaled deeply, feeling the wind on her skin as the scent of fresh grass filled her nostrils.Having finished tidying up her master’s quarters and seen to it that his meal was as he liked it, she had taken some money he had given her for necessities to get some supplies at the main market.And to see her mother. She hadn’t seen her in three days and was worried. She hoped the girls were doing okay too.The sun was setting, painting the streets with a beautiful orange hue. It was almost past curfew, so they were guaranteed to be indoors by now. Someone tickled her from behind and she yelped.A grinning Bekon stared back at her, his hands raised up in the air. “Sorry.”“Bek!” She glared at him. “Don’t ever do that again.”“I said I was sorry,” he chuckled. “You used to like it when I did that.”She continued to glare at him. Maybe three years ago that would’ve been a boon that would have led to a rendezvous at the back of a tree or on the grasses in the field.
Sleep eluded Tatum that night as he tossed and turned in bed. Feeling morose, he finally gave up and got up from his king-sized bed.He walked to his mini freezer and took a bottle of wine. Pouring some in a wine glass for himself, he downed the drink in one go.He poured another and downed it with as much speed. Baka plagued his mind. Everything about her plagued him.He was plagued by her tears, by her sad brown eyes that held untold secrets and lifelong pain. He’d felt an innate urge to console her and hated himself for causing her tears.But she had gone. To meet with her lover. And the headache had returned.His hands balled into fists. More angry at himself than her, he poured himself another drink.Is this what he had been reduced to? The powerful Alpha King feeling jealous over a slave? His laugh held no humor.But he was. Jealous of her tears over him. Jealous over someone he didn't even know. He had wanted to demand her to give him his name and then have him brought over for
The days were long and the nights even longer. Sometimes Baka would cry in her sleep, missing her mother so much that her heart would hurt. Other times she pretended she was in her prison talking to the girls. Her heart ached for them. It ached for companionship too. She felt as though she would go crazy.No one spoke to her. She was treated like a plague. Aja and Emily only spoke to her when needed. Odessa ignored her completely. So Baka restricted herself within her Master’s quarters. He did as he always did; Left early in the morning before she woke and came back late in the night when she was asleep in the servant’s living quarters. She longed for true companionship, and often found herself missing Bekon’s flirtatious advances.But she did as her mom asked; laid low, kept her head down, played dumb, minded her own business. She threw herself into her work and did nothing else.By the eighth day, she had fallen ill. No one noticed. On top of that, she was on her period. Doing w
Odessa held nothing back as she bathed Baka the following morning, scrubbing her skin until they turned red with bruises.“You’re hurting me!” she cried and tried to pull away from her but she was weak from her illness and Odessa was twice her size. She shoved Baka’s head into the bath water and held it in place while Baka thrashed about struggling to breathe.It was a while before Odessa let her up again as she coughed up water, her eyes red and her entire body screaming. Still, Odessa rained a series of punches in her stomach.“You think you’re better than me, is that it?” Odessa sneered as she held Baka’s jaws roughly, digging her nails into the sensitive flesh. “You’re nothing,” Odessa continued, her eyes glinting coldly at Baka. “When the master has had his fun with you, he’ll cast you aside like the trash you are. And I’ll never have to see you again.”She shoved Baka by her jaws and Baka sank into the bath, hitting the cold metal surface with a loud thud.Laughing, Odessa grabb
“You sent for me, my lord.”The Alpha King rose and beckoned her to come closer. Baka kept her eyes trained on him, wondering what game he was playing at this time.“Look at Baka,” he ordered.“My lord?” came Odessa’s insipid reply.“Did I stutter?”Baka saw Odessa’s throat bop and knew the girl was frightened to death. She could summon neither pity nor glee.“Are you looking?” he asked, his tone menacing.“Yes, my lord,” Odessa replied as she stared at Baka, her lips quivering. The look in her eyes told Baka that she had begun to suspect what this was about.“Good. Now tell me what you see.”“My lord?”“Are you deaf as well as dumb? Tell me what you see.”“Nothing, my lord. I see nothing.” The air became brittle as the Alpha King walked slowly towards Odessa. She was visibly shaking.“Look again.”Odessa looked confused. “I see nothing, my lord.”“Is that so? Because I see bruises. Don’t you? On her lip, on her cheeks, on her neck, and even on her belly. Like she was attacked by a wil
“Massey the midwife is your mother?” the Alpha King asked with interest.Baka hadn't wanted to admit to anything, but she hadn't had a choice. He was a human lie detector. Plus, they only knew her as a midwife. Not as the wife of the infamous human rebel leader. “Yes, my lord.”Frankly, she was surprised he knew her mother’s name at all. It also surpised her that he chose to call her by her name when other werewolf masters and mistresses never even bothered to know it. They all chose to refer to her as “girl” or “slave” or—her personal favorite— “filth.”The door opened then as Emily walked in, carrying a tray of food. Her gaze fell on Baka and she quickly looked away. She was a petite black girl with a small oval face, thin eyebrows, and long, voluminous hair that she had braided into two pigtails. Her brown dress— modest and long like Baka’s had been— hugged her small frame. She was beautiful, more beautiful than Odessa whose face bore harsh, hard lines around the eyes and jawline
Baka stared at her wedding gown, captivated. It was a gown made for royalty and it looked like it was painted on her body. It flowed into a delicate train that pooled around her feet. The floral embroidery on the train was accentuated with tiny pearls and ruffles which covered the bodice and sleeves of the form fitting gown, tapering off on the trumpet skirt.Her hair was pulled up in a messy ponytail with two strands of hair framing each side of her face.She could hardly recognise herself. The more she looked, the weirder she felt. In the best way possible.Henry appeared in the doorway, carrying little Dream in his arms. They’d become inseparable since Rohey’s unfortunate passing and he had taken it upon himself to become a father to her.“Still admiring yourself in the mirror?” Henry chastised. “By the time you’re done, Tatum will be on his deathbed.”Dream, who was playing with his curls, started giggling.Baka glared at Henry through the mirror. “Don’t influence the little gi
“Well, well, well,” Takoda whistled, slamming the door shut. “What do we have here?” He sauntered into the cell, his gaze fixed on each of them, barely lingering on Aksana’s still form. “My disgraced brother, his lover, and her lover. I came to pay my last respects and this is the scene I’m greeted with.”Baka’s heart sank. They were too late. Her gun was useless, and her dagger was with Eugene. Aksana was too far away from her for her to grab her daggers. She was out of weapons and out of time.Eugene grunted. “I tried to stop them but as you can see…” he pointed towards his injured thigh.“Interesting,” Takoda barely whispered, staring at him. “I thought you two were friends.”“And I thought we were brothers,” Tatum spat, his body trembling underneath Bekon’s arms. “You killed my wife and child!”“And you stole what was rightfully mine. We’re even, don't you think?” Takoda argued without missing a beat.Tatum brushed Bekon off him and stepped forward menacingly. “No, Tatum,” Ba
Someone was clapping. Loudly. The figure leaned off against the wall and sauntered towards them. “I gotta say I’m impressed.”Baka blinked. “Eugene?” She looked behind him, briefly wondering who else was hiding in the secret dark corners of the prison cell. “What are you doing here?”Eugene didn’t answer immediately. He seemed to look past her to Tatum’s cell, as though trying to confirm something.“What are you doing here?” he countered. “You should be at the safe haven. And who’s this?” He added, pointing demurely at Bekon. “A friend.” Baka didn’t have time for introductions. “If you’re going to help us, great. If not, please pretend you didn’t see us.”“Oh, I have no intention of doing either.”His tone sent chills down her spine. Baka lowered Aksana on the ground slowly but did not release her grip on her throat.“Please, don’t stop on my account,” Eugene advised with a strange smile. “Never liked that toad. Feel free to finish her off.”With her free hand and a wary eye on E
Baka watched the guards make rounds on the ground and the rooftop, waiting for her opportunity to sneak in undetected. The last time she’d come through these gates, she’d been in a truck. This time she was exposed, dressed to blend into her environment.This was suicide. She knew it. Her brother had said as much. But she wasn’t going to let Tatum die.“Now what?” Bekon whispered beside her. Of all people she didn’t think would come with her on her little rescue mission, Bekon was in the top five. His hatred for the king was well known to her. But when he and Henry had seen that she wouldn’t be convinced out of coming, they’d chosen to come with her. She believed she had a way in. When she’d been captured by Ares, she’d noticed that the cells had small air ventilators that led outside. They were big enough to house a human being. So somewhere behind the city was a direct way into the prison.“We need a distraction,” she replied. “One of you should distract the guards while me and th
Tatum was thirsty. As he sat in the stinking cell his brother had left him in, he tried to ignore all the things nature demanded. In truth, he didn’t understand why his brother hadn’t killed him yet. He’d gotten what he wanted. A seat on the throne. Tatum was of no further use to him.Unless he was keeping him around to relish in his humiliation. By now his people and all the territories knew of his connection with his slave. He’d been spared the worst, having been locked up for the most part. His brother had been here a couple of times to gloat. Yet Tatum couldn’t deny that a part of him was relieved that his secret was out. He may not have liked how it got out but there was such a weight lifted off his shoulders now that it was. After Fortune had gotten the truth out of him, he didn’t stand a chance. Takoda had succeeded in convincing the Alphas that his loyalties were divided and they could no longer trust him with the throne, the city or its secrets. But that was the least of
Days passed and Baka learnt to fall into the routine of their settlement. She checked on Rohey often even when Rohey had shouted at her to stop babysitting her. The girl was too independent for her own good.Baka’s house, House Phillipi, were on kitchen duty today. She and the girls in her house, which included Mosann, were hard at work washing the dishes they had just used for lunch. The food made here held no candle to the palace food she had grown used to, but it was still pretty good.The girls did their chores in awkward silence as some of them didn’t know Baka and Mosann well enough to strike a conversation. Baka didn’t mind. She needed the peace of mind which ironically always came when working, especially doing something so mundane as dish washing.The boys fetched the water they were using to wash the dishes and some of them hung around waiting for them to finish washing so that they would return the plates back into the kitchen.“Is it true that you were Alpha King Tatum’
Baka walked into the armoury where young boys were assembling a few weapons while others cleaned it or trained with it. Rohey wasn’t in the kitchen nor was she in her room and someone had told her to check in here. She spotted her brother talking quietly with a boy called Hassan. They’d been introduced during the week she’d been here. She’d found him to be a little weird.“Have you seen Rohey?” She asked once she reached them.Her brother turned to her sharply. “Wow, no hello or hi?”“Sorry,” she mumbled, sending an apology to Hassan with her eyes. “I’m in a hurry.”Henry stared at her for a second and then turned to Hassan, patting him on the shoulders. “We’ll finish our discussion later.”Turning back to Baka, he led her away from the armory and into the pathway towards the tree in the middle of their settlement.“What’s wrong?” Henry asked once they sat on the cemented floor. “You look worried.”Baka decided she didn’t have time to hide the truth from him. He’d only press her fu
A week had passed since Baka left Khandom City behind. Her stay at the safe haven with the rebel group hadn’t been unpleasant. It was small yet spacious, hidden deep inside the woods with lots of armories and underground tunnels. There were about a hundred people living in the settlement and they were all divided into houses. House Philippi, house Rome, house Ephesus, house Thessalonica and house Corinth.They had a day-to-day schedule with routines on the upkeep of their environment, exchanging duties on a daily basis. It was very Henry to come up with such an arrangement. He was a big organizer. His idea brought order to their community.Baka was in house Phillipi. The community had been excited to have the sister and mother of their leader join them. They had welcomed them with open arms and ensured that they wanted for nothing. It was nothing short of amazing.It was as though Baka had regained her family again. It felt so similar to old times she could imagine it exactly as it
The room became more tense as the Alphas looked from the high priestess to Tatum. The high priestesses were known for one thing—power beyond imagining. The most powerful ones could inhabit the full power of the moon goddess herself. One of those special abilities was the power of confession. With one touch, they could get a man to spill any secrets, even those he believed he would take to his grave. It was a horrible invasion of privacy and the kind of sentencing they only gave to traitors who had committed high treason.Tatum had once witnessed a man being confessed when he was a teenager. It was both a fascinating and terrifying sight. It was as though the man had lost all free will, his tongue had loosened like running water, and he simply wanted to please the high priestess who had merely touched his cheeks.It was said that it worked differently for everyone. The weakest of men could become slaves to the high priestess until her death released them from her hold and vice ver