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Home / Werewolf / The Tenth Wife of the Beast King / Chapter 1 - Chapter 10

All Chapters of The Tenth Wife of the Beast King: Chapter 1 - Chapter 10

27 Chapters

1

EmilyThe air in the living room felt freezing cold, heavy with the weight of something terrible about to happen.My father stood tall and distant, staring down at me as if I were a complete stranger. Beside him stood Aunty Clara—my mother’s supposed “best friend.” She wore a cruel smile that didn’t reach her eyes, looking exactly like a hunter watching an animal step into a steel trap.“Emily,” my father said, his voice flat. “This is your new mother, Clara.”The words didn’t make sense. I heard them, but my brain refused to process the meaning.“My new mother?” I repeated slowly, my voice barely a whisper.“You heard him correctly,” Aunty Clara said, her voice sharp and amused. She turned to my father, wrapping her hand possessively around his forearm. “Or is she deaf, Lucas? Did your daughter lose her hearing along with her mother?”Dad didn’t defend me. He didn’t even flinch. He just stared at me with cold, judging eyes. “I don’t know,” he muttered. “Luna never mentioned it.”Luna.

2

EmilyI really believed I could heal her.Josh had never stopped trying. He secretly brought me potions and herbal remedies, sitting beside me in the dark corridor as I choked them down. We both pretended that the next bottle might be the one to neutralize the toxin, but the wolfsbane had already gone too deep. It moved through my veins like black ink in clear water—slow, dark, and impossible to pull back.Some mornings, I woke up and felt absolutely nothing. No inner warmth. No spiritual connection. Just a hollow, echoing silence where Amy used to be.Those were the mornings I finally understood the truth: the Emily I used to be was never coming back.I lay flat on my bed. It was the only place left in this house that still felt like mine, though even that comfort was slipping away. My body barely obeyed me anymore. My arms were swollen and sore from endless scrubbing, and my back burned with a deep, muscular exhaustion from days without a single moment of rest.Weeks ago, Clara had d

3

EmilyDrip. Drip. Drip.The room was completely silent except for that sound.I knelt on the floor of what used to be my mother’s house. My own blood was staining the wood. Somewhere in the back of my mind, a numb, silly thought popped up: I wonder if that stain will ever come out.“I’m sorry, Miss Anna.”Anna stood over me. I felt the sharp, freezing edge of the broken glass as she pressed it deeper into my fingers. I clenched my jaw so hard that my teeth ached. I bit my lower lip, trapping the scream that wanted to tear out of my throat. If I made any sound, she would take it as an invitation to hurt me more.“If you cannot obey me,” she said, her voice sounding completely bored, “you will only suffer. That is all you are good for now.”She pressed harder. The sharp pain flared up my arm, but I forced myself to breathe through my nose. Slow and steady.“I hate your face,” she whispered. “I hate you, Emily. You made me suffer for twenty years.”Suffer.The word caught me off guard. Th

4

EmilyMy stomach made a loud, hollow sound as I walked down the hallway. The last time I had eaten was yesterday morning—a small, stale piece of crust that barely counted as food.Hearing voices from the dining room, I slowed my steps.Clara and my father were seated at the table. The rich, warm scent of roasting meat and melted butter hit me, and my mouth instantly watered before my mind could stop it.“Where are you coming from?” Clara asked the second I stepped into view.“I was cleaning Miss Anna’s room,” I said, keeping my eyes glued to the floorboards.“Why are you so slow?” Clara scoffed, not even bothering to look up from her plate. “Always taking forever.”“I’m not—”“Shut your mouth!” Her voice snapped like a whip across the room. “Don’t you dare talk back to me. If I say you’re slow, you’re slow.”Before I could swallow the lump in my throat, Anna walked in and took her seat right beside my father.The moment he saw her, my father’s entire face changed. He smiled. It was tha

5

EmilyThe sun was bright, but it didn’t feel warm. It just made the dirt and the ruined bread on the ground easier to see.I stood in the back corridor for a long time, staring at the spot where they had disappeared. I waited for Josh to come running back. I waited for him to tell me it was a trick, that he was only pretending to follow her to keep me safe.But the only sound I could hear was the wind. I looked down at the bread. It was covered in dust now. I picked it up. I didn’t eat it; I just held it in my hand, feeling the grit against my skin.I promise.The way Josh had said those words to Anna... it wasn’t just fear. It was a promise he had made many times before.“Stupid,” I whispered to the empty hallway.I wasn’t talking about Josh. I was talking about the girl in the mirror. The girl who thought a few potions and sharing a loaf of bread meant she wasn’t alone.I walked toward the kitchen, my legs feeling heavy and stiff. My fingers were still throbbing from the glass cuts,

6

Emily“Don’t kill her yet.”Anna’s voice cut through the darkness, pulling me back from the edge of unconsciousness.Josh’s grip loosened slightly, allowing me to breathe a little better, but not enough to fully catch my breath. It was just enough to keep me conscious and in a state of suffering.“She’s still useful,” Anna added.“She hit me.” Josh’s voice was a low growl against my ear. His fingers tightened again briefly. “Look at my face. She drew blood.”Anna leaned in closer, staring at the blood on his face with fake surprise. “Oh my. I didn’t know she still had it in her.”She reached out, gently touching his bruised jaw, before looking down at me with a dark, twisted smile.“A warrior is still a warrior,” she mused. “Even when you break them down to nothing, they still try to bite.” She tilted her head. “Just like her mother.”Anna’s lips curved into a slow smile. “She’s too valuable to kill right now. If you end her now, the entertainment stops.” Her eyes moved over my body. “

7

Emily“What if the Alpha King actually likes her?” Anna said, her eyes fixed on me with something ugly in them. “Once she’s cleaned up, she looks just like her mother. And we all know how beautiful her mother was.”The room went quiet for a moment.Then my father laughed. “Anna.” He shook his head. “We are talking about a king who has killed nine queens. Nine. What makes you think Emily will be any different?”“I know.” Anna’s jaw tightened. “But what if—”“She won’t survive her first night,” he said flatly. “She’s going there to die. That’s the point.”Anna stared at me for a long moment. She walked toward me slowly.“Emily, darling,” she said, her voice dripping with false sweetness. “You should be grateful. We’re sending you as a queen. That’s more than a slave deserves, isn’t it?” She tilted her head. “A queen, even for one night, is still better than dying in that cell.”Josh stood up from where he was sitting. He walked over and bowed low in front of me, his voice thick with mock

8

EmilyThe knife came down more than once.“This is what you get for being too pretty,” Anna screamed.The silver blade caught the light an instant before it bit into my cheek. She dragged it down, tearing through my skin.“Ah!” I shrieked, the sound echoing off the walls as a wave of hot blood gushed down my neck. “Please! Please stop!”But no one moved. Josh sat in his seat, staring at the floor. My father turned his face away. Nobody stopped her. Anna didn’t quit until her arm was tired and she was satisfied with the ruin she had made of me.“Now!” she panted, wiping the blade on her silk dress. “You look much more adorable like this.”I curled into a ball on the floor, screaming as my face burned as if it were on fire.“Must you do that?” Father’s voice was flat, totally empty of any love. “You know what is at stake with the King.”“The King needs a wife,” she said, turning to face him. “Not a pretty one. Just a breathing one.” She shrugged. “She’s still breathing.”“But...” Josh fi

9

EmilyMy head throbbed with a vicious, blinding heat. Through the heavy fog in my mind, I could hear people whispering—low, buzzing voices that sounded miles away. I tried to open my eyes, but my eyelids felt as though they had been sewn shut with lead.“Emily! Emily, can you hear me?”The voice was urgent, but I couldn’t move my lips. I couldn’t speak. It felt like everything in my life had completely broken down, including my own body.“Throw the water on her!” a harsh voice ordered.An icy shock crashed over my face. I gasped, choking on the cold water, and my eyes finally snapped open. The room stopped spinning just enough for me to see Anna standing over me. Beside her stood Josh. He was no longer dressed in his casual clothes; he wore the heavy ceremonial Alpha robes.“Nothing must happen to her before she leaves this pack,” Josh said, his voice laced with a strange anxiety. If a stranger had walked into the room, they would have thought he actually cared about my life.“I didn’t

10

Emily“The ceremony has started,” a guard barked. “Miss Anna demands your presence. Move.”I didn’t say a single word. I straightened my spine, ignored the cold wind biting at my exposed skin, and followed them out.Today was the day Josh would crown Anna as his Luna. And today was the day I would begin my descent into the terrors of the Nightclaw Pack.The courtyard was grand, filled with the overwhelming scent of roasted meat, expensive wine, and toxic joy. The entire pack had gathered, and the moment I walked into the sunlight, a heavy, suffocating silence fell over the crowd.Every single pair of eyes locked onto me. They stared at my see-through dress, my exposed skin, and the monstrous scars cutting across my face. I could see the disgust in their eyes. I could hear the sharp, judgmental intakes of breath.A small, bitter laugh escaped my lips. Let them stare. Even I knew I looked like an ugly freak.“Sit here,” a maid muttered, shoving me into a wooden chair right in the front r

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