Filed to story: The Alpha Kings Hated Slave
He said nothing. Instead, he started for the door. “Come and take me to that girl, Baski.”
“Oh, yes! Yes, Your Majesty!” She led the way as they walked out of the room.
The two bodyguards attempted to follow, but Lucien shook his head once, and they backed away immediately, their heads bowed.
Baski led him through the long hallway and into the door of the secret room that held the stairs leading underground. On the way, she hurriedly filled him in on all the activities from the afternoon and everything about the visit from the medicine man. It was a long walk, but eventually, she led him to the room and opened the door.
Sally lay on the bed, her cuts cleaned, her bruises treated. Her wounds dressed, and she slept. Beside her, Danika lay with her eyes closed, her breathing labored as she slept. One hand held Sally’s own.
Baski saw who the king’s eyes rested on and felt the need to say, “She is completely exhausted. She’s been here all this while. Refused to leave this entire time.”
His eyes took in the way Danika’s body curved protectively on her former personal maid; the way she loosely intertwined her hand with the girl’s own. Both girls looked so vulnerable lying that way.
“What did Argie say?” he asked.
“The medicine man emphasized that her condition was critical because of everything she went through. He said it was something of a miracle that she’s still hanging in there.”
“Yes. A miracle.” His mind has traveled back to Mombana. Back to that very day Declan died. He fisted his hands tight on his garment and closed his eyes to the memories. They didn’t go away. They lurked in his mind. His headache throbbed instead of easing.
The king’s eyes were on the girls for some time. His mind fought the war within himself.
Baski didn’t know what was on his mind, but her heart was in her throat. She waited for the king to ask questions about Sally and Danika swapping in court. Baski knew the laws of the land, and the law they broke today-if sanctioned-was punishable by death.
Would he call them on it? When?
He said nothing about it. About anything. He didn’t ask. He didn’t question.
Instead, he stood for many minutes, just watching the two women on the bed. Then he turned and walked away….
THE LOUD VOICE OF PAIN 1
In the comfort of his room, King Lucien wrote notes the financial status of the lower market of Salem and its improvements. Naturally, it should be the royal accountant writing about it, but he’d instructed the accountant to leave it. Not because of anything in particular, but it was a good way to exhaust the mind. Who knew-he might sleep relatively well tonight.
He considered going to Vetta’s room. Then he’d put the thought out of his mind. The financial books needed updating.
As he wrote, the girl’s screams banged around the back of his head. With each scribble, her agonizing scream rose in his head. And then he’d remembered Danika.
Today, he saw a different Danika. He saw the princess, and he saw the slave. He didn’t see Cone’s daughter.
As he wrote, her face stood at the back of his mind. Her pain as her former personal maid screamed behind the door.
Why did the sight of it affect him so much?
Maybe it was because he looked at her and saw himself. Each pain on her face mirrored his on that very day Declan died. The helplessness.
He never expected to see her that way. Maybe because he underestimated the love between those two young women. The girl, Sally, who gave up freedom to come and stay here as aslave, just to stay close to Danika. The girl, Sally, filled with fear and terror, but still determinedly took her place in court. He remembered the determination in her eyes. It mirrored the familiar look on Declan’s face. On Chad’s face.
But, when her screams came, and Danika’s reactions followed, it had taken everything in him not to go in there and declare war.
However, even in the face of such painful circumstances, his mind reminded him about the condition of his people.
The people of Salem were still vulnerable. Five years was a small amount of time to have freedom after being slaves for ten long years. Everyone was still trying to pick up the pieces of their battered lives. He’d fail himself, his people, his father, and everything he fought for in the past fifteen years if he had declared war against five kingdoms.
Even if Salem was at its strongest, war against five kingdoms was impossible. Salem would lose, and they would be slaves again. And, if by some miracle there was no war, there would never be a chance for a better life for the lowborn.
The kingdoms thought he solicited reluctantly and unaffectedly; they needn’t know that it was personal to him. They needn’t know it was a passion project for him, because if they did, they’d see it as a weakness, and they’d use it against him.
He withdrew his writing feather and stuck it into the ink bottle, his head pounding. Even in captivity, he’d had to make a lot of choices for freedom. Those choices were among the demons that lied on that bed with him when he slept; those demons that hovered around him every long hour of every long day.
He dropped the feather and stared at the sleeping tea Baski kept on the desk. He took it and drank it.
When Declan died, the pain almost broke him. Now he wondered how Danika was coping under such suffocating pain.
Danika woke at the first scream she heard. Sally was twisting and struggling beside her, screaming her lungs out.
“Sally! Sally, it’s me!” She tried to wake her, but the girl wouldn’t stir. Her eyes shut tight as she twisted her body on the bed.
Danika remembered that Baski instructed her to make sure Sally’s stitches didn’t get pulled out. She tried to get Sally to still, but Sally started crying. Tears filled Danika’s hurting eyes immediately, and she ran out of the room in search of Baski. The woman had told her she wouldn’t be going home tonight, and Danika hoped to the heavens that she was still at the palace.
When she checked her bedroom at the maid’s quarters and saw Baski, she started sobbing with relief.
“It’s Sally! It’s S-Sally! She’s restless! She—” she could barely get the words out.
“It’s okay, Danika, it’s okay.” Baski got up and slipped her feet into her slippers.
As they hurried away, she stuck her head to the bedroom of one maid. “Uyah!” she called.
The girl woke immediately. “Madam Baski.” She rubbed her eyes to clear the sleep.
“Run to the medicine man’s house and get him!”
“Yes, Madam Baski.”
Danika and Baski ran to the underground room. They heard Sally’s screams as they got closer. She still lay on the bed, twisting and struggling. Baski climbed onto the bed and started talking to her. As she talked, she held Sally’s hands and asked Danika to hold her legs to still her before she opened her wounds.
But holding her body captive seemed to only make it worse. Sally’s body was so damaged, she was running a high fever. The captivity made her crazy even while she still wasn’t conscious.
She cried louder and started pleading as she struggled. “Please stop. Please stop!” she cried.
New Book: Veiled Desires of the Alpha King Novel
Dayson was the alpha of the largest pack in North America. Powerful figures from other packs sought to offer gorgeous girls as potential mates for Dayson. He steadfastly rejected these advances, he was not a pawn to be manipulated. But eventually there came a mysterious girl he could hardly say No. Who was she?