Filed to story: The Alpha Kings Hated Slave
“I was forced to,” she responded instead.
“By whom?”
He didn’t believe her. He did not even believe that it was just one time, either. Vetta felt like screaming in frustration. She was angry. Sad. Enraged. All this was so unfair to her.
She’s protecting the identity of her lover, too,?King Lucien thought. He lowered his head and closed his eyes. When he opened them, he stared at her-at the woman he thought he knew. “This is very unexpected. It’s not like you, Vetta.”
She lost it. “Why? Why not like me?” She stared up at him. “I’m not your virgin, am I? I’m not Danika, who you favor. Why are you so surprised? You’re not the only man I’ve ever known intimately, Lucien, are you? You know that you’re not. After all, you were there with me in Danika’s kingdom. You were right there with me in her father’s jail houses where I became the whore of the guards.”
The king flinched as if she’d slapped him. Maybe because he remembered all too well, or she was refreshing his memory. Whatever. She was done.
Vetta straightened and rose to her feet. Her hair was unkempt, her clothes dirty, and her eyes red and swollen fromcrying all night. “You were right there and watched it all happen for years. So why are you so surprised that I’m a whore?”
“We are no longer in slavery. There are some things called commitment. Called trust,” the king stated vehemently. “I made you my mistress, Vetta, and I trusted you. This time around, you gave yourself to another lover willingly, got pregnant for him, and rid yourself of the child. You broke my trust.”
“And you neglected me!” she shot back angrily. “I did everything for you and you neglected me! When was the last time you wanted to come to my bed, Lucien!? You never wanted to anymore, did you?” She met his gaze head-on, unflinchingly. “I lost you to Danika a year ago. She came along and you threw me away like trash! You stopped caring! Stopped thinking of me! It was all Danika, Danika, Danika! Danika this! Danika that! How is that fair to me!? How!?”
King Lucien was taken aback at the naked bitterness and rage in her. He really looked at her then. His anger drained like the wind. Rage wasn’t what he left but sadness. A huge sense of loss and sadness. “I never threw you away, Vetta,” he stated. Did he?
“You did! I am here, and I’m no longer here!” She laughed, but the sound came out empty. “I fought to be with you. To have you for the past five years, but Danika only had months, and she took you from me. Why? Is it because she was one you divirgined and I wasn’t? Because I was the one the guards took turns with? I was the whore slave that got raped several times, so many times she got pregnant twice and lost them…twice! I was the whore slave!”
Lucien stood there, just watching her. He could not form words. Vetta continued. “We might be out of slavery, but I was still the whore you treated me like! You make love to Danika all the time but you fuck me like a whore anyway. Because I am Vetta, the trash. The one that never deserved you because I am not privileged too! I am not royalty!” He flinched. “I was thewhore slave, and so, you discarded me for her. The royalty. The pure one. The good one.” She let out that empty laughter again that sounded hollow. “You think she loves you, right? Is that why you’re discarding me!? Why you’re treating me this way!?”
“Vetta-“
“I’m not done!” She glared hard at him. “I know you think she loves you, and you’re already in love with her. She doesn’t love you! She is just using you so well. She is in slavery, what do you expect!? Or have you forgotten already?” She took a step closer to him. “In slavery, you do everything you can to be free. In slavery, you do everything you can to ease the pain, the torture, the suffering. It’s her strategy. You’re her strategy.” She laughed hollowly. “And oh, did it work so well! You threw me away for her, but she is just using you, Lucien!”
He said nothing. His eyes remained unreadable. In fact, he showed no reaction at all. That only angered Vetta the more. Made her more bitter. She walked closer to him until she stood in front of him. “As a slave master who has been a slave before, you forgot the most important thing. A slave will doanything at all to come out of slavery.” Her mouth to his ear, she lowered herself to a whisper. “Including…faking kindness. Faking to be good. And the most important? Pretending to love your master.”
His hands curled into fists. He squeezed them tightly.
She saw it. “You know what I say is the truth. No, youfear what I say will be the truth,” she amended with a coy smile. “That is why you’re so hesitant to uncollar her. What else is holding you? You and I know it’s no longer about her father or revenge. Uncollar her then and give her back her free will. Then we will see if she will still choose you. If she will still choose to be with you. Let’s see if she doesn’t run away andnever come back!”
Vetta tsked and shook her disarrayed hair. “But you won’t, will you? Because then you would have to find out if she’s thefairytale you want you to believe she is, or she is thedaughter of her father! You’rescared to find out. Because then you will be losing her.”
Then she returned to her usual spot and lowered herself to the floor again. Suddenly, Vetta was drained and tired. All those things said, she couldn’t meet his eyes anymore. She wiped the angry tears that had rolled down her cheeks.
Silence descended on them-one that stretched for so long, Vetta was forced to look up to make sure he was still there.
“You’re right. I neglected you. If I didn’t, I would have found out long ago that you are so bitter. How did you become so bitter?” He was looking at her with new eyes. This was not the woman he’d spent ten years with in the dungeons of Mombana. “What happened to you? How did you become this way?”
Vetta did not like the new look in his eyes. He was staring at her like she was a stranger. Was she? When did she change so much? With her anger all vented out on him, she had nothing else to shield herself with anymore. So she only shook her head. Whendidshe change so much?
He looked tired. Drained. He turned and walked out of her dungeon.
Her mouth opened to call him back. To say something. Anything! But there was nothing else to say. She closed it.
He stopped at the door, his back to her. “Do you remember what I told you once upon a time?”
“Wh-what is that?” Her voice was throaty and hoarse from shouting so much.
“The day you whipped Danika badly, I said some words to you.”
That day flashed in her mind.
“I freed my people because I want my people to experience being free again. Cone made me a monster, but it is my duty toprotect my people. Let me carry all the burden alone, Vetta. It is my responsibility. My duty as a king. As my father’s son.”
“There shouldn’t be two monsters together, or the vicinity will be in danger. Two monsters cannot stay in the same place.”
He’d turned and stared at her. There was sadness in his eyes, but there was conviction too. “We have been through so much together, Vetta, but the day I look upon you and see a monster is the day I let you go. Completely.”
The memory caused a shiver down her spine. Dread and desperation missed becoming one.
“Lucien, please-“
Hands at his back, he threw her an unreadable look over his shoulder. “I will be back, Vetta. And when I do, I will pass your judgement. Until then, you will be here.”
“No, wait! You know how much I hate enclosed spaces! You know how much dungeons terrify me! This place will drive me mad, Lucien! Please-“
He walked out of the door without a backward glance.
Two weeks later, Danika was seated beside the riverbank on the bench that overlooked the beautiful view of the river. But she wasn’t watching the soft turbulence of the water or the beautiful view of the yellow evening sun that stood out loud above the water. Instead, her eyes were watching the king lovingly. He stood with five men, all new guards who were training to be professional archers. He was teaching them.
In the past few months, Danika had come to understand how strong King Lucien was physically-how much of a warrior he was. No wonder he was able to raid a coup against her father and get his people out of slavery.
Five men aimed their arrows at the practice board in front of them. His hands together behind him, he instructed and directed them.
“Aim for the head. Do not overthink your aim. Assume a relaxed stance. Do not go stiff. Hook your arrow right. Do not croak it. Grip the bow correctly. Do not squeeze so tightly.”
Danika’s eyes followed all his movements with a small smile. Her back was aching, and her feet were swollen. She was happy he allowed her to be here while he taught the new guards.
Something had changed in the past two weeks, but she had no idea what it was. The king still treated her with much care and was very protective of her and the child she carried. He also made love to her some nights, and during those times, he was very careful and gentle with her, especially since she started having back aches that wouldn’t abate.
He made sure she ate chicken broth-which she didn’t like, but he was always patient and even spoon-fed her from time to time.
And yet, she couldn’t help thinking that something had changed.
His eyes. There was a new sadness that was so tangible it hurt to see. Was it sadness or pain? She had no idea what it was. She also had no idea how to help him with it. When he thinks she is not looking, he looks at her with those eyes. When he thinks she’s asleep, he is always awake, staring at her…with those eyes.
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?