Three

I am escorted to the bedroom by two maids. When we got to the door they tried to follow me inside.

“We will help you get prepared for tonight,” one of them said.

“Prepared? What for?”

They both shared a look. “For your first night with the King, my Lady.”

‘Ah, I didn’t think of that.’

“Please just have the clothes I am to wear tonight prepared; I will handle the rest.”

They shook their heads. “We cannot do that, my Lady. We were instructed to see to you from start to finish, the King won’t be happy with us otherwise.”

I sighed in defeat. I didn’t want them to get in trouble for not doing their job, but I also didn’t want them to discover the scars on my body and the mark on my neck. I didn’t see myself any higher above their status but that didn’t make me feel any less ashamed.

I walked into the bathroom and stopped short of the large tub in the middle of the room.

“Must you help me bathe? He won’t know if you do or not,” I asked.

The maids looked at each other again. “As long as you allow us to stay here, we can turn our backs.” They both turned toward the wall and stood perfectly still.

It was the best I was going to get I was afraid. I quickly stripped out of my dress and dipped into the ready-to-go bath, the water still steaming hot it burned my skin. I had once discovered a hot spring when I visited the Odia Pack and it was my first time discovering that others normally bathed in hot water and not cold, but living the life of a servant, you were lucky if your body ever touched warm water.

I wanted to sit there for hours if I could, but I could also tell the maids were getting impatient. I scrubbed as much of the dirt off me as I could and washed my hair twice to make sure I got every knot out that I could before I quickly got out and wrapped myself in the closest towel.

“I’m done,” I said.

The maids turned around and walked me over to the vanity mirror. One got to work on my hair and put it into a long braid down my back to keep it from dripping, and the other started preparing clothes on the bed. I hoped as the maid braided my hair that she didn’t catch a glimpse of the mark on my neck or any of the scars that might’ve poked out from under the towel.

Judging from her calm expression in the mirror, I’d say there is a chance she didn’t.

“We will leave you to get changed, my Lady. The King will be here shortly.” They dismissed themselves and I turned to see the sleazy clothes they had left for me to change into. I cringed at the string and mesh outfit that looked like it belonged to a doll rather than a person.

I changed into it and thankfully it was long enough to cover my behind, but I wouldn’t be bending down in this anytime soon.

I walked over to the bed crawled on top of the covers and waited for him, curling into myself to keep calm. The door opened and I flinched but didn’t dare lift my head as I heard his footsteps slowly approaching.

The bed dipped with his pressure and my heart rate spiked. He took my arms and unwrapped them from around my knees to make me look up at him. Contrary to the dark and brooding expression he had on during the ceremony and dinner, he looked much softer now.

I tried my best not to tremble from his trust and pushed down my trauma, reminding myself over and over in my head that this wasn’t the same; he wasn’t Magnus. But there wasn’t much difference, both were men I didn’t want to sleep with, but with Magnus, it was always brutal and terrorizing.

“I’ll try to be as gentle as I can until the pain passes,” Caspian whispered.

I’m stunned at his words. Did he believe me to be a virgin? Is that what he wanted, or what he was assuming?

‘What if he was expecting a pure bride? What is he going to do to me when he finds out I’m not?’

This is my only chance to beg for a quick and painless death, by coming clean before going any further.

“Alpha King, please, wait a moment.” I held my hand up to stop him. “There is something I must confess.”

He raised a brow. “Oh, what is it?”

I bowed to him instantly. “I beg your forgiveness, for I have been deceiving you from the moment I arrived. My name is not Alaira, I am not a blood daughter of the Emery family. I have been sent in her place, but I am merely an orphan servant taken in as a baby.”

I was met with silence but too afraid to lift my head.

“I am ready to receive any punishment. All I ask…is that you make it painless, please.”

Caspian grabbed me by the shoulders and turned me around to expose my backside. I gasped when I realized I had already exposed the whip and burn marks when I bowed my waist to him, not used to my hair being tied up. That was why he remained silent.

I gasped again as he ripped the material of my nightgown off my back and hurried to cover the front before it fell off. His fingers lightly touched the marks, and I winced even though it no longer hurt, the pain etched into my mind from the many memories I was unable to repress.

He ripped away from me and disappeared into the bathroom to come back out with a robe and draped it around me. “Sit up,” he said and started pacing in front of me.

“What is your real name?”

“Sevika, Alpha King. It is the name they gave me.”

“Why was it not recorded in the family books?”

“I am an orphan who was not adopted from an orphanage, I was found and taken in as a servant.”

He growled and picked up a book from the nightstand to throw across the room.

“Then why were you sent as a daughter of the Emery family? How dare they betray me like this!”

I bowed my head and waited silently for the blow to come, but it never did.

“Do you despise me?” he asked quietly.

I lifted my head to give him a questioning gaze. “I do not know you.”

His eyes widened a bit with surprise, not expecting that answer.

“But you have heard of me.”

I nodded. “Yes, I am not hard of hearing to the words around me. But to hear something is one thing and to experience it is another.”

Caspian stared at me for a long time, something unknown buried behind his gaze.

“Go to sleep, nothing will happen tonight,” he finally said.

I watched his retreating figure and wondered if I just dodged my execution, or merely delayed it.