Feydre’s POV
I remained at the doorway, unwilling to go near the lewd scene on the bed. His eyes, one bright amber and the other a golden-yellow scar tissue from a wound that extended above his brow and down to his cheekbones, roved over me. Heart beating faster and faster, I watched them go from mild curiosity to puzzlement and then such anger that I flinched. “It can’t possibly be.” He said in a tight voice that promised unpleasantness if whatever the ‘it was’.“Step closer Girl.” He growled at me. Shaking from head to toe, the look on his face not inviting atall, I took a few careful steps closer. He sniffed the air and then his anger morphed into rage. In a flash, he rose, the naked girl on his lap thrown off in the process. I flinched at the sight of him before me, for he was naked too. “Leave.” He thundered at her and she scrambled to her feet, grabbing her clothes and fleeing to the sitting room, one last lingering glance at me. Once she was gone, his full, angry gaze honed in on me. One minute, he glared down as if still stunned by the audacity of my presence here. The next he was in front of me. I opened my mouth to say something but I never got the chance. A large hand wrapped around my throat, cutting off my air supply and lifting me off my feet. My eyes widened, watered. My arms flew to his hand as I choked and uselessly tried to pry him off to no avail, Garrick’s warnings drove out my head by my rising fear and panic. I was suspended in the air for a millisecond and then I was slammed into the wall behind me, the remaining air I had rushing from my lungs as my back hit the wall, legs still dangling inches off. “Who are you?” He fumed. He didn’t yell. Not really. His voice was just so malevolent, so menacing that it carried the full weight of his power without raising a decibel. Terror clawed at my insides and squirming did nothing but make the pressure on my neck worse. “G─Garrick… I–I I…” I choked out, clawing at the thick, strong arm that pinned me around the throat and kicking my feet limply in his direction. I didn’t know what I intended it to do but the action seemed to anger him even more and his fingers tightened so firmly he nearly crushed my windpipe. “P─Please…” I choked, feeling my vision blur at the edges. I was desperate for air but he would not yield enough to let me have it. “Garrick!” He growled at my face, a lethal rumble like the eruption of a volcano, accompanied by intense heat— “Sire? Alpha? Alpha!” I heard Garrick’s voice but I couldn’t see him. All I could see was that furious amber eye, glaring at me with such disgust as my vision slowly faded. “Garrick! Why have you brought a human into my palace?” “Please Alpha! She’s not a human! She’s the war prize from the Nostre pack! Alpha Pete’s daughter!” Garrick said in a rush, nearly tripping over his words.Xaden’s nostrils flared, taking in my scent. I continued to choke and squirm, the only change in status being that my legs no longer dangled off the floor. “She is no wolf.” He spat and my vision glazed over with black, be it from the lack of oxygen or the rush of tears to my eyes from the pain. Just when I was sure I would die by his strangulation, the pressure on my throat reduced slightly and I drew in a rush of desperately needed air. “I know. It was a bit of a surprise to me when I saw her but I had no idea─” The King’s head snapped towards him and Garrick felt silent. I no longer bore the brunt of that gaze but I winced all the same. The hand released from my throat, injurious pressure finally easing and I dropped in a heap to the floor, coughing and gasping. He turned and stalked to Garrick who kept his head bowed and his eyes averted. “You, whom I appointed to liaise and organize with the Alpha of Nostre on the matter of my highly anticipated gift, did not know that the goods you procured for me was defective?” He hissed. Garrick dropped to his knees. “Forgive me Alpha. I did not think to ask─” “So what in the world did you do?” The King loomed over Garrick who this time, gave no reply. “And you!” He bellowed, that blinding rage suddenly whipping back to me. Still on the floor, I flinched. In two long strides, he was before me again, looming dangerously, his nakedness somewhat distracting even in the light of his fury. In a flash, he reached out, grabbing a fist full of my hair and pulling me to my feet. I arched into the action with a cry, desperate to relieve the rapidly building pressure on my scalp. Tears watered my eyes when he flexed his wrist again and turned me slightly so he could glare directly into my face. “Your father dared to fool me like this? Send me a wolfless creature and call it a prize? You are no prize? You are an insult!” His thundered words chinked at my carefully constructed armor, the one I’d had for years to protectme from the comments and sneers. From the derisive laughter as I passed. The overt and hidden insults. I thought this place, this man would be tolerable like my father with the added displeasure of some sort of sexual servitude. I could not have imagined how much worse he could be. Even though I’ve never felt safe where I grew up, I longed for it now. I longed for somewhere else. Surely anywhere was better than this hell.“Did you both think I would not care? You must surely have thought that I wouldn’t mind since you did not come to be a wife. You think the Lycan King has no standards for his whores?” He growled in my face and when I remained silent, shook me by the hair. “Answer me!” He demanded and even though I didn’t know the question, I spoke, if only to reduce the pain in my scalp and stop my hair from tearing at the roots. “No, my lord! Please… I’m sorry! I didn’t know! I didn’t know!” I cried frantically. His displeasure was all blinding, or perhaps that was just the tears in my eyes. My explanation came out in a rush, my fingers clawing at the punishing grip of the hand in my hair, desperate for reprieve. “I didn’t know you weren’t aware. My father didn’t inform me of this arrangement. All he did was tell me to follow your men and I did. Mercy my Lord.” His eyes narrowed at me. “You did not plan this with your father?” His hands tightened again and I gasped, drops of colorless fluid that pronounced my misery trailing down my cheeks. “I swear! I swear it my King I didn’t! I didn’t!” My breath hitched, my voice rising with panic. He glared at me for a moment longer and made a sound of disgust before turning around with me in tow, an action that pulled more screams from my lips, and then he flung me to the floor in front of Garrick’s kneeling form. “What do you think would be the best way to handle this disrespect? Hm, Garrick? Pete Manning has notfulfilled the terms of our treaty. I asked for a war prize from his pack. I did not think I needed to clarify that I wanted a wolf. If I wanted some humanoid creature I’d go into the human cities and pick one. You are fully aware of my… predilection for wolves so I cannotunderstand how you allowed this to happen. I’m very disappointed in you.” “My sincerest apologies your Majesty, I didn’t think he wou─” “Silence!” He thundered and Garrick snapped his mouth shut, bowing his head in apology. “Call that lily-livered bastard Pete and tell him that if he doesn’t have a better replacement here by tomorrow morning, one who is an actual wolf, I will raze his pathetic little pack to the ground, behead his puny little males and share his females amongst my soldiers.” I shuddered at the threat knowing from the stories I’d heard, and my own experience just now that he meant it. Every single word. “Either way I will get what I want and what I want is not some wolfless wench who might as well be human for all the wolf blood she’s got.” He strode towards another corner of the room where the bar lay and turned himself a glass of dark brown liquor, cursing under his breath the whole time. Garrick hesitated, glancing at me still sprawled on the floor, gasping and clutching my throat before bracing himself and tentatively throwing forward his question. “And the girl, Sire?” A new explosion occurred. The Lycan King whirled on him, the glass in his hand shattering to several many pieces as he clenched his fist. He hardly seemed to notice, stalking towards us, full of angry intent. “I don’t fucking care, Garrick. Throw her off a cliff! Give her to the men! Drown the bitch if you want! I don’t fucking care! Just get her out of my sight! Now!”I tried to rise to my feet, but my shaky legs would not allow it. I stumbled once and would have stumbled again if not for Garrick’s strong hand that held my arms and pulled me up, wrapping my hand around his back and leaning my weight on himself. “Alpha.” He said with a nod of his head and turned towards the door. With his help, I limped out of the Lycan King’s bedroom with none of the little pride, dignity, or sense of self-worth I’d had coming in. Now there was only pain and humiliation and wondering what the hell was going to happen to me now.Feyre’s POVI was taken to a much smaller room than the one I’d originally been shown, given the progression of events. My neck still ached, the memory of the Lycan King’s crushing grip etched into the slate of my consciousness. Garrick wordlessly showed me inside, turning back out and bolting the door shut so that I was locked it alone. I turned around to take in the room.There was a narrow bed inside along with a modest desk and chair. Nothing else adorned the room by way of furnishing or decoration. A single door stood on the other side of the wall. I opened it to see a small bathroom with a shower installed to boot. A tiny window opened to the outside, the only source of light and ventilation. Two scones were perched on the wall, but the fading rays of the sun, still yet to set, provided enough light for the moment. I didn’t bother to put them on. Evening was fast approaching, I thought walking to the window. I had somehow managed to survive my first day within that ruthl
Feyre’s POVThey didn’t come for me until the next evening. At first, I thought it was the maid so I didn’t bother to stand up from my bed or even turn to look. She would drop the food on my table “You need to come with me, Miss.” A strange male voice I’d never heard before said and I startled, turning my head to see a guard waiting at the entrance of my door. I sat up straight, heart flying to my mouth immediately. I was already dressed, albeit still in the outfit I’d worn upon my arrival. I’m sure I looked a sight in my rumpled outfit, but my bags hadn’t been brought up and I’d had to re-do the same dirty, rumpled dress after my shower this morning. Despite my bedraggled appearance, I arranged my skirt around my legs and walked past the guard, staring straight ahead and keeping my chin high, doing my best to bolster my courage with a few breathing exercises and mantras. I would not cry. I would not beg. I would accept whatever fate I was given with as much grace and
Feyre’s POVI let Garrick lead me out of the throne room unseeingly, tears blinding my gaze and sliding quietly down my cheeks. After a few minutes, I pulled away from him and wiped them off with the back of my hand, preferring to follow on my own. He glanced at me but said nothing, taking his arms off me once I tried to shrug him off and striding so he was firmly in front. We went through the halls of the castle and I could barely notice the surrounding decor, defeated as I was by the proceedings of the meeting I’d just left. Xaden had let me go. Something I hadn’t thought possible. His disinterest had actually worked in my favor. I could have been on my way home by now. I could have had a chance to figure out what to do with my life, even if I was no longer welcome in my pack. I could have been spared this but instead, I was here, being led further and further into the castle that was to be my new prison. And it was all because my father hated me. Hated me for being a disappoi
Feyre’s POVI 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, s
Feyre’s POVI spent the next day being waxed, scrubbed, oiled, and primed by three maids. I was naked for hours in a large spa-like room where I received what would ordinarily have felt like really nice pampering. Knowing why it was being done, I felt more like a chicken being fattened for slaughter. Or more specifically, an object being beautified for use. After they were done, I was smooth all over, all the hair on every part of my body aside from my head had long disappeared. My skin felt so soft and sensitive. I was slightly disturbed by it. I smelled differently too, not strange considering I’d practically been bathed in several perfumed oils. My nails were perfectly trimmed, the soles of my feet scrubbed till they were soft and pink. I felt like an entirely new being, on the outside at least. Inside, I was miserable. I waded out of the spa room in fluffy slippers and a kimono to see the maid who had escorted me over waiting impatiently. I was starting to learn, here at t
Feyre’s POVI stared at the rigid sex toy in front of me and blushed. All around me, girls were fiddling with theirs, practicing stroking and licking and the seemingly impossible task of putting those things down their throats. Judging by the large, flesh-colored organ on my own workbench, I was clearly expected to do the same thing. I could barely even look at it, much less touch it and make the same choking, gagging sounds the other girls were doing. I stared at my feet, willing the ground to open and give me respite from my embarrassment. The… sex instructor, for lack of a better description for the woman who asked us to do these things, glared at me. “Why aren’t you practicing girl?” I swallowed and stared down at the large, intimidating organ then back at her. “Pick it up.” She growled. I jumped. Many ears and certainly all eyes were on us. Mishka had explained how I didn’t want to attract punishment. From our handlers or instructors or clients or the king himself.
Feyre’s POVI couldn’t imagine what the King would want with me. I tried not to listen to the voice that sneered how it was clear what he wanted. Hadn’t he been incredibly disgusted by me? He hadn’t even wanted me around. Surely he hadn’t changed his mind. I searched Garrick’s face for a hint of whatever was going on but found it blank as usual. “If you’re ready, I will escort you there now.” I looked down at myself. My stylist had done me justice last night, updating my wardrobe to one suiting a lady of the night. I was wearing the most decent outfit I’d been able to find, a lovely pastel pink two-piece with a flimsy kimono over it that might have well-been lingerie for how little it left to the imagination. To think I would be led all the way through the palace halls and have everyone see me in this! It was one thing to endure it within the walls of the harem, but did I have to be gazed upon by anyone who looked? My role here announced by the state of my dress. “I should
Feyre’s POVI couldn’t move. I stood frozen into place staring in fright from the bed to back to Xaden. He was getting angrier with every second I hesitated, but try as I might, I couldn’t force my legs to move further into the bed. I couldn’t force myself to quietly accept this. I turned to him again, the plea on my lips dying at the sight of him rising. I took several fearful steps back but he didn’t approach me. His fingers moved to the rest of the buttons on his long-sleeve shirt, undoing them one by one until they were done and pulling the material off himself. He threw the shirt somewhere behind him without looking. His pants went next, my heart pounding fiercely when he undid his buckle. I trembled, eyes flying shut. I wanted to back away, but I was all too aware of the danger of the bed behind me. The door out of here was so far away. Even if I ran to the bathroom, what would that accomplish but piss him off further? He already looked furious enough, his amber