Chapter 4 Tell us the truth!!

Axl’s P.O.V

“Why are you picking at your food, Axl?” Elder brother Elliot asked from across the dining table, startling me so hard I almost fell off my chair had Ellis not helped me sit firmly with a hand on my shoulder.

“Easy, baby sis.” Ellis reached over and ruffled my hair. “You look a little too thin and pale. Is everything okay?”

“yeah.” Eric butted in. he was sat next to me, the plate of chicken and rice in front of him almost cleared up. “ever since the coronation night when you’d just disappeared, you’ve been acting weird. Do we need to call the doctor?”

“It’s nothing. Maybe just a stomach bug.” I forced my hand to lift my fork to my mouth, gagging at the scent of chicken that filled my nostrils. Oh no. I was going to throw up. Before I could make a spectacle of myself, I scraped my chair back and bolted away from the dining hall while ignoring the looks my brothers and father gave me. Even though the blood rushed to my head and the dining hall swam before my eyes, I rushed away from them, blindly stumbling through the halls till I got to a restroom.

I barely made it to the toilet before the contents of my stomach hurled into the bowl as my stomach retched and retched till nothing else came out. Returning the lid of the toilet and flushing the toilet, tears stung my eyes and I leaned against the toilet bowl after the vomiting spree. I felt so tired and weak but I didn’t know what was wrong with me. I didn’t understand what was happening to me and I didn’t know why my heart always felt like it was ripping into two.

The tears fell without control and I sobbed heavily into my hands while curling up into myself right there on the restroom floors. What was happening to me? I asked myself.

Once the tears abated, I closed my eyes and rested my head back on the toilet boil, letting my mind wander to that night.

The last thing I remembered was walking in the garden and then darkness. Then I woke up in my room, in new clothes, my clothes actually—the dress I’d worn to the ball was gone—and a strange soreness between my legs. I’d refused to think about it. I’d refused to even contemplate the thought that someone had…had….forced…forced…

No. No. it was impossible. I dragged my knees up under my chin and wrapped my arms around my body as tears threatened to fall again. I was okay and nothing happened that night. Maybe I was stressed up and still hurt from the rejection so I fainted and hit my head. The caked blood I’d felt that morning behind my earlobe was from my head hitting the ground. Nothing else.

But when I asked everyone who brought me to bed that night after I fainted in the garden, they all denied it and looked at me weird. My lips trembled and I caught them between my teeth to hold back those tears. Maybe it was one of my brothers who carried me to bed and forgot about it.

Sucking in a breath, I struggled to my feet and blanched when I came face-face with my reflection. I looked like a shadow of myself. Leaning over, I washed my face and mouth with water, scrubbing hard till some semblance of color crept back into my cheeks.

I’d better go back down to join them or they might come barging in and asking me questions I had no answer to.

So I went back to the dining room. But as the smells of the food in the hall reached my nostrils. The room spun and I felt dizzy again—the way I’d felt that time after I’d ridden on a carousel years ago when my brothers took me to the carnival. We haven’t actually done that in a long time… I thought as my eyes swam. I felt hot and cold, all at the same time. There was a peculiar roaring in my ears, and I heard all my brothers yelling my name as I fell into blackness.

````

The room was no longer spinning. Carefully, I opened my eyes and turned my head, meeting my father’s gaze.

For the first time, my father had another expression on his face other than disgust for me. “Lie still. The doctor is on his way.”

But it was me so yeah, I immediately jerked upright—and gagged as a wave of nausea swept over me.

“For the moon’s sake! Do you ever listen and do as you are told?” concern overrode the impatient irritation in his voice as he pushed me back onto the pillows.

“My dress will get creased if I lie down in it, Dad,” I said hoarsely, although this time I didn’t even try to raise my head. I might get sick again.

“you are worried about a dress right now?” his voice was scathing.

I simply shrugged in response. It was he who made breakfast in our family such a royal affair. Only brothers were allowed to dress slightly informally, that is without tuxes but I was to be adorned in a full princess dress that I really didn’t fancy. I just thought it would be very wasteful to ruin the expensive dress. “I’m not really sick, Dad. I don’t need a doctor.”

He waved me off like I made no sense. “Nonsense. You can’t eat any food and you keep fainting.”

“Father, the physician is here.” Elliot broke into our argument before I could answer. The old man, always soft-spoken and gentle took a few shots of my blood while talking to me about the moon. My father had long gone, leaving me with my three brothers who surrounded me on the bed as the doctor took my blood. “I am going to take a few samples of your blood to test for anemia.” He finally said closing his suitcase after giving me an injection on my wrist to help with my nausea.

“It’s fairly common amongst young ladies like you to lose lots of iron once they are menstruating.” He narrowed his eyes at me. “Or most cases, because of the fashion trend to be…er…slimmer, they starve themselves and…”

“Our sister is perfect the way she is, doc.” Ellis interrupted sharply, eyeing the doctor with slight rage. “And we tell her this every day. I can assure you that she isn’t starving herself to look thin.”

“If that’s all you can leave now,” Elliot added and held my hand. I hid a grateful smile and gave the doctor a sheepish look.

He nodded. “Of course, the test results will be ready tomorrow morning.”

That night as I went to bed, I dreamt of strange hot male hands on my body and firm lips molding mine to his.

```

I opened my eyes to find sunshine flooding my bedroom. Frowning, I glanced at the clock and was startled to see that it was eleven a.m. I had never slept so late in my life, but the long sleep must have done me so much good because I did not feel as nauseous and tired as I did the other day.

“How are you feeling?”

Elliot’s voice made me jump and I turned to my head to see three of my brothers sitting in an armchair. Okay, Elliot sat on the chair while Ellis and Eric perched on the edge. But one thing was strange about them. Their eyes were as hard as diamonds and there was an odd tense line on their jaws. How could they even have identical raging faces?

Ignoring the warning in my gut, I muttered. “I feel fine. I don’t know why I fainted yesterday. Maybe I’m a bit anemic as the doctor said.”

“By the fucking moon!” They all leapt to their feet with such violent force similar to a volcanic eruption. “You can’t stop the fucking pretense that you don’t know what is wrong with you? TELL US WHO IT IS!”

Ellis who had never raised his voice at me was the one who spoke now and it made me shiver helplessly as tears stung my eyes. He sounded so similar to….him--Kael--…when he’d rejected our mate bond.

“What…what are you talking about?”

“Who the fuck got you pregnant, Axl?” Elliot said in his usually calm, but deadly voice. “You know you can tell me anything. Just give me a name and I’ll kill the bastard.”

Oh—oh goddess. Oh, goddess. No.