Thrown Into Cell

Chapter five

Diana's pov

I was startled as the chief maid waltzed into the room with so much vigor and walked up to me, she swung her hand across my face in a hard motion, turning my head to the side.

The pain stung, but not as much as my heart at that moment, I twisted my head to gaze at her while she stood over me.

“How dare you? Have you any idea what you've done, disrespecting the entire royal family by bringing shame and embarrassment when you ran out of their presence?” She yelled at the top of her voice, her face becoming slightly red and the bulge on her forehead began to appear.

She gave a short laugh filled with mockery. "You are quite the lucky one, his majesty only decided to lock you up for your indiscretion last night, if your punishment were up to me, you'll be lashed hard enough until you pass out, because you also disgraced me as well, and here you are having a wonderful time just having a nice nap,” she huffed and puffed while I tried to drown the noise out.

She didn't know how much pain I was in last night, nothing about my sleep was nice, it was painful, rough and confusing in between.

“You are going to be locked up. Guards! Get in here and take her to the prison,” she yelled out and immediately two huge guards entered the room and picked me up on both sides before dragging me out.

I didn't have the energy to make a fuss or to even walk, so I just let myself be whisked away. My feet dragged on the floor as we approached the prison to the side of the palace at the bottom.

Headmistress Beatrice followed suit into the prison and she watched as the unlocked one of the doors threw me onto the rough ground, luckily I was wearing a long gown and so I didn't bruise anywhere.

They jammed the doors and bolted it with a key and the guards walked away out of the prison while the headmistress still remained. “You are unlucky to be mates with the prince, he would never accept a peasant like you, not in his life, not in the next, you are everything he despised." She gave a curt laugh before she headed for the door and then stopped abruptly without turning to face me. “For all we know, you might just be left to rot here," she called out before jamming the cellar doors behind her.

I sat in silence on the hard cold ground while I thought about how I ended up in this situation, for the past three years, I have worked in the palace, undetected and unrecognized by the lycans, just another mutt running around to do their biddings, even most of the servants have no knowledge of me, but now I've been brought to the spotlight.

I left my pack to work as a maid in the palace because I didn't want to stay home. My mother never really liked me, she blamed me for my father's death and others that were in the pack did the same, I needed a place to work and also shelter and the palace provided both.

I cursed the moon goddess in my heart, why couldn't she just let me live my quiet life, tossing me into the mouth of lycans themselves. I knew from now, if I survived this prison, my days won't be as quiet as they were before.

I tried to remember what happened on the night of the prince's birthday party; how his eyes filled with disgust watched me, making me feel things that I had never felt before. I was frustrated with myself. The worst part of it all was that I reacted, the mate bond made me react to the way he spoke and his gaze even after he rejected me.

There's no way I could compare myself with a Lycan let alone the prince himself. Maybe he was right, the moon goddess must have been insane to pair us up.

It has been a few hours before the sound of the doors echoed through the dark cell, I didn't think they would let me out just yet and so wondered who it might be, something in me longed for it to be the prince and for him to take me back, but that was only wishful and stupid thinking.

When I gazed up, Marilyn was in front of me with a tray of food in her hand. At the sight of the meal, my stomach grumbled and I realized I hadn't had anything to eat since last night before the party started.

She dropped down and one knee, “Here, I brought something for you to eat,” she whispered looking back and forth from me to the door. “I'm not supposed to be here, I lied to the guards that the food was from the mistress before they would let me in,” she announced.

“You might get in trouble for this, you need to leave now,” I tried to persuade her but she wouldn't listen.

“I heard about what happened,” she said before sliding the tray towards me. “I'm sorry." She casted a sad look at me but didn't say anything else.

I sighed, “Thank you for the food Mer, and it's alright, I'll be fine." I didn't know if I was reassuring her or myself. “But you need to leave now before they catch you, I don't want you to be punished for helping me.”

Marilyn was a good friend and I didn't want anything to happen to her because of me. "If they don't let you out soon, believe me when I say I'll be coming over more often,” she promised before she rose to her feet and left.

After a while, I heard the sound of the door again, I thought it was Marilyn and almost yelled at her to leave, I was so wrong…