Chapter 7.

Feyre’s POV

I was led out of the dressing room by Mrs. Esmelda afterwards and taken to the dormitories where the girls slept in shared rooms.

The receptionist Garrick and I first met informed the Madame that only two rooms had any free bed spaces. After letting her know which, she was dismissed and Mrs. Esmelda took me back through to the hallways, stopping at one of the doors.

She didn’t bother knocking, flinging it open, and striding in like she owned the place. She didn’t but even if she had, some courtesy would surely not be out of place.

A small girl with dark brown hair jumped at our intrusion, knocking a bottle of ink off the table she sat at in the process.

“Oh!” She exclaimed, scrambling to pick it up. She stood suddenly, knocking the chair with more force than necessary, and the weak, plastic thing toppled backward.

“Mishka!” Mrs. Esmelda bellowed.

“Sorry! Sorry!” She apologized profusely, dabbing at the ink on the table with a rag.

After she was done, she righted the chair and then turned to us, a furious blush on her face.

“Sorry.” She muttered awkwardly again and for some reason, her dishevelled nature settled a few of my nerves that had been going haywire all evening.

“Hmmph” Mrs. Esmelda harrumphed, her disapproval apparent.

“Feyre here is your new roommate. She’s new to the palace in general so you’ll have to explain the rules and show her around the harem. Willa will bring you her schedule so you’ll know where she should be at any given point in time. Any questions?”

She asked in a voice that invited no questions.

Mishka shook her head rapidly.

“Good.” She grunted and then she was gone, closing the door behind her.

I stood at the entrance of the room hesitating.

She hesitated herself and after a few awkward minutes of the back and forth staring, we both broke into smiles.

I didn’t think I could still smile considering everything that had happened so far. It was nice to find out.

“Hi. I’m Mishka. Oh well, I guess you already knew that. Since Mrs… um…”

I let out another smile and stepped forward with a handout.

“Feyre. But I’m sure you already know that too.”

She smiled. “You’re the King’s war prize. Right?”

I stared, shocked that she was aware of such dealings. Embarrassed that she’d spoken of it out loud but there didn’t seem to be any mockery behind her words.

“Well… Yes.”

“Hm. It’s kinda odd that you didn’t last longer in the luxury suites. You’re certainly beautiful enough.”

I flushed at her compliment and ducked my head shyly.

“Thank you.”

I suppose it was only a matter of time before everyone found out why the King had all but rejected me. Until then, I was grateful they didn’t know yet. It would have been one thing if I was a human or even a half-breed. A full-born werewolf with a lineage like mine had no business having no wolf. I would always be a thing of scorn wherever other wolves and Lycan shifters were. She sat on one of the two beds in the room and patted the space next to her. I sat down and looked to her expectantly.

“So… Um. I suppose we can start with the Harem itself? This is where King Xaden keeps the women from his conquests. He usually keeps four to six girls in his private wing for himself alone, but the Harem is like his reserve. The place he keeps courtesans he’s not really interested in anymore but doesn’t want to sell yet.”

My stomach rolled with every word. By the gods. How awful.

“We’re currently twenty girls in the Harem. Twenty one including you now. Um…” Her nose scrunched prettily as if she was trying to think of any other details she might’ve been missing.

“Oh! Only Lycans and Werewolf are here. The King doesn’t like humans or even other shifters very much.”

My heart pounded so hard in my chest that I was surprised her wolf ears didn’t pick up on it. “Of course, as an omega wolf, he doesn’t like me very much either.” She sighed deeply and glanced at me.

“Do you know it’s been almost six months since he last touched me?”

I gave her an incredulous look, unable to believe she would actually want that monster to touch her.

“You sound like that’s a bad thing.”

She shook her head.

“It’s not like I like being with him. It’s just… being one of his special girls means living in an apartment in his wing by yourself with your own maid and freedom to go anywhere around the palace. Plus there’s the fact that no one else touches his girls.” A grimace crossed her face.

“All his friends and top-ranking officials have access to us.”

Cold ran down my spine. I’d felt faint the first time Mrs. Esmelda had mentioned it, but hearing someone who had to actually live with the experience caused another wave of terror to wash over me.

She noticed my deathly expression and bit her lip.

“I didn’t mean to scare you. It’s not that bad. They’re not allowed to hurt us too badly. And most of them aren’t so terrible. Some are just… worse than others.”

Her words didn’t bring me the slightest of comfort.

A knock came on the door at that moment and Mishka went to get it.

No sooner had she opened the door than that girl from earlier, Willa came storming in, nearly knocking my new roommate to the floor.

Instead of apologizing, she gave Mishka an annoyed look, as if it was her fault. She turned to me and threw the bag she carried at me.

“Esmelda says this is all that was salvageable from your luggage.” My eyes neigh bugged at the meagre tote bag she handed me, knowing fully well I’d come with almost three boxes of clothes and shoes. All the things I had to my name.

I’d barely gotten the chance to take in the state of my wardrobe before she stuck a paper under my nose.

“Your schedule.” She snapped impatiently. The moment I took it from her, she turned for the door.

“Wait! I don’t know where these places are!” I called out to her, after one glance of the words on it.

“That’s your problem.” She said irritably before leaving.

Mishka sent me a sympathetic look. “Don’t worry. I’ll help you figure out where you need to go.”

She took the paper from me and glanced at the schedule. After a few seconds, her eyes bugged.

“You need to be at Dr. Schaffer’s in ten minutes!”

I was confused, very confused. I didn’t need a Doctor. The bruises on my throat had healed completely. What would be the point?

“What?”

She didn’t expand further, taking my hand and pulling me off the bed.

“We need to hurry. One of those rules the Madame spoke of is never to be late for appointments. We get punished for every rule we break.”

I needed no further words of encouragement. I followed after her, doing my best to keep up.

We never left the Harem. Rather she led me to a staircase that led up to another hall with more rooms.

Dr Schaffer was apparently some sort of sexual health doctor. Mishka explained on the way to her office that she helped the girls with everything from infections to birth control. She assured me that my session with the Doc would only be a clinical evaluation, but I couldn’t help the wave of anxiety that arose in me the nearer we got.

I had to go in alone and I gathered my courage to do so.

A red-haired woman sat behind the desk. She was younger than I’d thought with a serious expression that made her seem decades older.

“Sit down Feyre.”

Once I did, she got right down to business.

“Are you a virgin?” I flushed but I answered.

“Yes.”

She scribbled something on her notepad.

“Do you see your periods regularly?”

“Um. Yes.”

“How many days is your cycle and how many days do you bleed for?”

Wow. These were really personal questions. I told her and she wrote down my answer as well.

“Have you ever had any vaginal or urethral infection?”

I shook my head. “No ma’am.”

She scribbled something else and then dropped her pen.

“Take off your clothes and lie on the hospital bed by the corner there.”

I groaned at the request, but remembering the Madame’s warning about punishments, I scrambled to obey.

I took off my clothes and lay down on the bed. For the next ten minutes, I was prodded, poked, measured, and examined completely from head to toe.

She even asked me to spread my legs and used a torch to look inside me. My face and chest were completely red by the time she stepped away from me.

She documented whatever it was she found during her examination and then nodded at me.

“Thank you Feyre. You may go.”

I went back out to see Mishka waiting anxiously for me.

“How was it?” She asked once I returned.

I hesitated. That hadn’t been so bad. A bit invasive but nothing I couldn’t handle. It was almost like going to an actual doctor for a check-up.

I nodded that it was fine and she patted my shoulder.

“Good. Because you have the mud and hot springs bath tonight.” She gave me a look that could only be described as envy. “Usually those are closed to the girls in the evenings but it seems like they’re trying to get you prepared to start serving as soon as possible.”

Prepared for what? Serving His Majesty’s men? Or was it his majesty himself?

Panic spread through me. I couldn’t do this. I simply couldn’t. There was no point in yielding to any of this. Surely I could quietly find a knife in the kitchen to slit my wrist with or a high balcony from which I could jump. Either was far more preferable to this. I decided that I would look into it. Instead of submitting to being a sex slave for any of the King’s men that wished, I decided to die.