Chapter 9

Aurora

It feels like ages before I finally fall asleep in bed, warm under the covers and exhausted from the day. Jaxson refused to speak to me after I hit him, and I feel on some level he is busy brewing with a new idea how to punish me, how to hurt me, and I can only see the way he had thrown his own warrior for grabbing me.

His strength is unmatched.

He left me in my new room alone for the rest of the day, the only exception being the servants coming through to bring various foods and fruits, but I hardly touched any of it. I can tell the servants are all commoners. It makes me sick to dine while they are bruised and wounded all over.

I’m surprised that Jaxson hasn’t tried hurting me like they are hurt, speckling me with wounds until I conform and give into his whims. I turn nineteen in two weeks, the pressure looming while it will be a long year until my twentieth birthday, and I can tell if he’s a liar or not. I doubt I’ll still be alive by then, though.

What if the prince isn’t my mate and this is some kind of ruse? I toss and turn between long moments of being awake and falling back asleep. I shift back and forth until the sun pops up through the windows and I blink awake at the stunning view from the palace. The town is alive below, children skipping through the cobble streets, fighting with their friends as they explore the world for another day.

It still feels like that’s my home, that’s where I should be with my friends, getting into trouble and making memories. Instead, I only watch from above, my fingers stuck on the window, my soul skipping through the streets below.

A light knock rings out on the door, and I don’t reply, assuming it’s another servant here to bring me some breakfast that I won’t pick at. My stomach may be empty, but so is my heart, and I don’t think that eating grapes and pastries will do anything significant to lift my current mood.

The knock rings out a second time, harder than the first.

I grab for the handle, opening the tall door, seeing someone other than a servant standing opposite of the doorway. Jaxson is in his uniform as usual, wearing his metals and black slacks with his uniform coat, a light red thread woven down the creases of his jacket, a detail-oriented outfit for a sophisticated man.

“Sire,” I say, tipping my head down as a sign of respect, considering he could kill me for the way I treated him the other day when I hit him.

He scoffs at my words, pushing past me to enter the bedroom, holding a small silver box while I shut the door and lean against it, keeping my eyes down the entire time in hopes he takes it as an act of submission. He adjusts the lace drapes over my window, pulling them closed mostly, subduing the bright sunrise that peers through and warms up the room.

“Relax, sweetheart, you’re in no trouble,” he says at last, my wolf and I cowering in his presence. “I brought you something, in hopes you would forgive me for the way I had acted. I didn’t mean to surprise you with a kiss. I was too enthralled with finding my mate that I forgot how you felt was a little different—for now.”

I swallow hard, blushing at the memory that has crawled back into my mind the last few nights about when I went into heat and acted in such a seductive manner. It was so unlike my normal behavior, and I can only blame my wolf and my natural instincts to replace the pain of going into heat with something more pleasurable. It doesn’t stop me from thinking that it put the wrong idea in Jaxson’s mind about our relationship.

He hands me the silver box, retreating to the fireplace and flicking a switch on, hot flames sprouting from nothing and bringing back the heat in my room. I take a seat near the fireplace and hold the small, silver box in hand, trying to subdue a tremble as he watches my every move. I’m not comfortable when he is here; I’m so misplaced.

Pulling back the cover, I open the box to expose a gorgeous, opal necklace on a silver chain. The jewel is reflective of so many stones at once, hues of pink and blue swirled into the white, diamond-clear stone.

It’s heavy in my hand, breathtakingly beautiful, but it doesn’t make me any more at ease around the prince.

I offer him a stiff, forced grin but it falls when I see his intense glare weighing down on me. “Thank you, Sire,” I hum, my voice quivering. “It’s stunning.”

“Jaxson,” he corrects me, his tone not as kind as the first time he told me what to call him.

Sitting under his hefty gaze, I wonder how I could ever feel at ease when I’m now constantly concerned about him kissing me, taking advantage of my body, knowing that I couldn’t refuse him much more than I already have without some kind of repercussions. He’s one of the most powerful wolves in the world, aside from his father, and there is no mating pull from my wolf, to his. There is only tension.

“I’m afraid of you,” I admit.

His brows elevate, his hands perfectly folded behind his back like a soldier, like a fierce warrior. “Why is that?”

I shake my head, unwilling to say the truth to his face.

“Tell me.” His voice is stiff with of utter authority. It makes me flinch.

“I don’t feel like you’re my mate.”

“You don’t feel the mating pull yet, but you will,” he assures me.

“Are you going to beat me?” I breathe. “The servants, the other commoners, they’re all wounded. I heard them screaming all night, Jaxson, I don’t know why I am here unless I am to be used like they are.”

His lips squeeze into a tight, thin line.

I’ve offended him with my words.

I push his gift aside and find my strength when I stand, moving toward the doorway of my new lavish room. “I can’t be here, I can’t do this,” I say, holding back tears. “I’m only a commoner. You should reject me.”

“No,” he snaps, grabbing my arm and spinning me in place, forcing me to face his daunting size. “You do not leave this room without me. You’re staying here and that is final.”

I cough a breath, feeling warm tears push down my cheeks. “Please, sire. I don’t belong here. I am a commoner and—and that means you will hurt me until I submit. I can’t be your mate. I’m a consort, if anything and—” I cough my cries, sobbing shamelessly in fear. “I don’t want to be used, sire, please!”

“You will stay here,” he snaps, pulling the door open but blocking it from my exit. “I mean no harm to you, Aurora, but that requires you to stay in this room and never leave without my company. Am I understood?”

I croak out my reply, “Yes—yes, sire, but—"

He won’t let me speak in rebuttal, shutting the door behind his timely exit. I reach for the knob, curious, pulling it to the side and feeling the lock mechanism stop me from being able to open it. I fall to my knees, sobbing into my hands while I beg for this nightmare to end. I shouldn’t have been at that casino, I should have been with my friends somewhere else, anywhere else, and this wouldn’t be happening.

Hours turn into days, the pointless gifts piling up in the corner of my room. Prince Jaxson is busy having his warriors and servants bring me exquisite bouquets of flowers I have never seen; of trinkets and knick-knacks I have no idea how they function and sending spreads of food tastier than the ones they had brought me before.

I try to pick through the pile to make sense of these gifts, finding glass ornaments and colorful roses with specs of every shade dropped into the pedals, forming an array of color and making my heart race. He is trying to show me his affection, I can tell, but it doesn’t make me feel any more safe than before.

The door opens for the third time today, Jaxson walking in with a tall square box, something about the sight of another present making my chest hurt. He waltzes over to me anyways, a sideways smirk on his face as he hands it to me, something different about this present. I give him a curious, uncooperative look.

“What is this?” I ask.

“It’s a gift, sweetheart, open it up. I believe you will like this one.”

“I don’t need another gift,” I sigh, feeling the box move in my hands.

I almost jump back, shivering, feeling the box kick again. I ignore my own words and open the lid, a small white kitten pacing the box and prancing around in joy with a small, purple ribbon tied around its neck. My eyes widen at the sight, Jaxson taking the box so I can reach in and pull the kitten to my chest, no longer feeling the frown that has been tattooed on my lips for the last few days. I grin, the kitten meowing and purring into my neck, my hands never holding something so precious before in my life.

“It’s— I can’t believe—” I sigh. The little creature explores my neck, her rough tongue brushing my chin, her light meowing making me laugh.

Jaxson smiles with a proud grin, setting aside the box with a gleeful look. “Do you like her? I figured you were getting a little lonely, so I thought I’d bring you some company.”

I give him a puzzled look.

Being alone is the saftest thing I could ask for in this palace from hell.

I pull the kitten into my palms, so small and delicate. I will protect this kitten, I decide, stepping away from Jaxson, my heart pounding when he follows my steps exactly.

“I was hoping you would be able to attend dinner tonight with me and my father. His second wife, Vivian, will be in attendance with my half-brother Xander. They have been asking to meet you and seeing as you’ve been staying here for over a week now, I would agree it’s an appropriate time to make yourself familiar with my family.”

I can tell I don’t have much of a choice in the matter, and only nod, my stomach aching with the pressure of meeting the most powerful wolf, more powerful than Jaxson, and thinking that if I slip up and make a mistake, I could really be a prisoner, or maybe killed.

“Will it be safe?” I hum, my nerves making me shiver.

“Yes, Aurora,” he says, even this stiff prince seemingly unsure with his reply.

It’s the truth, though. He doesn’t know if it’s safe because the second the Alpha, the king, knows his first-born son is supposedly mated to a commoner, he will have me executed for ruining his perfect bloodline if it is true.

“Just behave, and do as he says,” he adds, turning his back to me.

The prince leaves and I close my eyes, clinging to my new little companion, not releasing my exhale until I hear the door lock me in for good. A prisoner, a mate, a future Luna; I begin to feel the spiral of my life take effect while I struggle to make any sense of who I am, and why I’m here. I yearn for my old life, for my old home, for my old love.