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1196 Words
A Y L A
The moment my fingertips brushed the side of his leg, just a shaky, desperate reach for balance, the world exploded.
Hands clamped onto me like traps snapping shut.
The rogues yanked me backward so violently that my chest slammed into one of them, stealing every last breath from my lungs. My ribs screamed. My vision flashed white.
“How dare you touch the Alpha!” one spat into my ear, his voice shaking with a fear that didn’t belong to me. No, they were terrified too. Terrified of him.
Before I could even find my footing, they shoved me down.
Hard.
My knees hit stone with a crack that shot pain straight up my thighs. I gasped, palms slapping against the cold ground to keep from collapsing completely. Everything hurt, my arms from the restraint, my throat from the sob I choked back, my pride from the humiliation burning through me.
I lifted my head just an inch, only to freeze.
Someone was approaching Raiden.
A maid.
Tiny, silent, appearing out of nowhere like the palace had spat her out.
Her head was bowed so low I could barely see her face beneath the neat bun of dark hair. She carried a polished silver bowl of water in trembling hands… and a pristine white cloth folded perfectly on top.
My stomach twisted into knots. She was looking at Raiden’s leg. She knelt before him reverently, dipping the cloth into the water with shaking fingers, and then…
She wiped him. Slow strokes. Careful strokes. Silent strokes.
As though any trace of me needed to be erased.
Raiden didn’t look down. He didn’t speak. He didn’t move. He just let her purify him. That somehow made it worse.
My heart pounded so hard. The humiliation crawled under my skin like poison, urging tears up my throat. I tried to blink them back but they kept gathering, burning.
I had always known I was nothing but watching a maid wipe me off the Alpha’s skin carved the truth deeper than anything my father had ever done to me.
She finished and bowed so low her forehead touched the stone before she vanished as quickly as she had appeared.
Silence closed in, thick, heavy, suffocating.
Then it shattered.
“Go,” Raiden said, his voice cold enough to freeze bone. “Get the Hale family.”
I went still.
His tone shifted, dropping like a blade.
“Every. Single. One.”
The rogues stiffened. One of them inhaled sharply. Their grips on me tightened so hard I hissed.
“They will pay with their head.”
A roaring filled my ears, drowning out everything else. My mind spun so violently I thought I might pass out right on the stone floor.
My heart felt like it was cracking open and then his gaze fell on me again.
Sharp. Cutting. Unforgiving.
“And this one…” His voice shifted again lower, darker, something dangerous curling beneath it. “Take her to my chambers. Prepare her.”
My breath stopped.
My heart stopped.
I froze so completely that for a moment, I wasn’t even sure my body remembered how to breathe.
Then the rogues moved violently. They yanked me upright, my feet barely touching the ground before they dragged me forward. The courtyard blurred around me as panic surged up my throat, hot and choking.
“Wait…wait, stop…please!” My voice cracked into a sob. “Please, no…please…”
They didn’t slow. They didn’t react. They didn’t even glance at me.
Prepare her.
The words spun in my head like a storm, growing sharper, darker, more terrifying with every step.
Prepare me for what? For punishment? For torture? For death?
For him?
The thought made my stomach drop so hard I nearly collapsed.
The palace doors opened, towering and merciless, swallowing the courtyard behind us.
“Please…” I sobbed again, the sound tearing painfully from my throat. “I didn’t do anything…I swear, I didn’t…please, don’t…”
My voice bounced uselessly off the walls.
The rogues’ hands didn’t loosen. Their steps didn’t slow. Their expressions didn’t flicker.
They just dragged me deeper into the palace as if I weighed nothing.
The halls around us were bright and grand, but I barely saw any of it. Gold designs lined the walls. Huge chandeliers hung overhead. The places I had dreamed of seeing as a child were right in front of me but my mind couldn’t take in any of it.
All I saw was the floor rushing past beneath my feet.
All I heard was my own heartbeat thundering in my ears.
All I felt was terror crawling up my spine like ice-cold fingers.
They pulled me around corners, up two small steps, through another set of large carved doors. My legs trembled so badly I almost fell several times, but each time they yanked me upright again. My lungs burned. My throat was raw from crying.
And then suddenly, they stopped.
We were inside a wide corridor, darker and quieter. Heavy wooden doors lined both sides. The air smelled faintly of pine and smoke, stronger here than anywhere else. My fear only grew. Something about this hallway felt… important. Private.
One of the rogues pushed open the door to the last room at the end.
Raiden’s chambers.
The air changed instantly. Warmer. Heavier. Like stepping into a place where breathing required permission.
Inside, two young maids were straightening the massive bed, smoothing the sheets with quick, sharp movements. An elderly woman stood at the side, her hands folded behind her, watching them like a hawk. Her back was straight. Her face was strict and unreadable.
The moment the rogues entered, all three of them froze.
The maids dropped into deep bows so fast it looked painful. The elderly woman bowed too, though slower, more controlled.
Before I could speak, before I could even try to make sense of the room, the rogues flung me forward.
I hit the floor hard, my palms scraping against the rug. Air rushed out of my chest, and a small cry escaped before I could stop it. Tears blurred my vision again.
One of the rogues addressed the elderly woman without emotion.
“The Alpha has asked that you prepare her.”
She didn’t ask why.
She didn’t look surprised.
She simply nodded once, curt and obedient.
The rogues didn’t wait a second more. They left immediately, slamming the door behind them. The echo shook through my bones.
I was trapped.
Trapped in the Alpha’s room.
Trapped with a command I didn’t understand “prepare her.”
Panic clawed up my throat again.
“Please… please…” I cried out, my voice trembling so much the words almost didn’t come out. “Please… please…”
The elderly woman turned toward me.
Her footsteps were slow, steady, almost calm, which somehow made my heartbeat even faster. I tried to push myself backward, but my legs felt weak and useless.
She reached me.
And without warning…
SLAP.
The sound cracked through the room like a whip.
“Will you keep quiet?!” she snapped, her voice sharp enough to cut.
- Writer
