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CRYSTAL’S POV

I withered in pain; every fiber of my being screamed in protest, but the fear of getting beaten up again made me freeze, not daring to move. “I revoke my rejection!” I rasped, with rawness in my throat, but it only made Elyon pull harder on my hair.

“Say it the proper fucking way, you little worm,” barked Elyon, his voice dripping with fury.

Right.

I didn’t say it correctly; my revocation was invalid. If the names of the parties involved were not mentioned, it was considered invalid by the goddess. I don’t know who made the rules, but it has been that way for eons.

“I, Crystal Meka, slave of Alpha King Elyon Salvany, revoke my rejection of him as my mate.” Tears streamed down my face, blurring my vision. The blood from my mouth cut stained my tongue, with a metallic taste in my mouth that made my throat dry, a sickening reminder of the beating.

Satisfied, Elyon released my hair with a push. Stars exploded in my vision as my ribs screamed in protest. “Get your worthless self out of my presence before I break your neck!”

Not wanting to see his threats manifest into reality, I stumbled out of the grand hall. It was not until I was leaning on the walls at the entrance of the maids’ quarters did I notice that I had left my cane in the hall. Hunger gnawed at my stomach, but the only thing I had tasted today was the coppery tang of my blood; I was only allowed to eat the remnant of the king’s food, and that was almost little to nothing.

A sudden flicker of heat at the edge of my senses startled me. My ears still ringing from the slaps I received didn’t register the footsteps approaching. “Crystal? What in the goddess’ name happened to you?” Gaipa, an omega slave captured by Elyon’s men, gasped.

He was among the few people who interacted with me in this hell hole, but I didn’t want to speak to him right now; I didn’t want anyone to see me like this, so I bolted into the quarters, knowing he couldn’t follow. My room, cramped and barely big enough for my cot, felt suffocating. I looked around, no heat signature, meaning that my bedmate, Annla, was not in. My shoulders slumped as I crashed to the ground, sobs racking my body. I don’t know how long I cried, but every second felt like hours. Finally, when I began to feel light-headed, I had to stop.

Sniveling, I wiped my face with the sleeves of my sack dress, which was already stained from my bleeding nose and cut lips. Not once in all the years I spent here have I bled as much as this, or at least not from Elyon’s beating. He had never laid a finger on me before today; yes, he constantly rained insults on me, but he has never been provoked to hurt me.

I guess getting rejected by a lowborn maid bruised his ego, so he decided to leave me in bruises. Unlike his clan and my half-clan, werewolves, I can’t heal fast; I was just like a regular human in terms of healing, slow and painful.

I was already used to pain since I was always the subject of bullies even among my fellow slaves. They saw me as an outcast, and what was worse, I was also a hybrid, a misfit of the supernatural race. Surprisingly, Elyon was also a hybrid, but his people never judged like they did me.

Sometimes, I wished he killed me the day that his brutal warriors murdered my mother, but no, he kept me alive. Now I finally understood what he said all those years ago.

“I am keeping her because I have no choice,” I overheard him tell his beta while I was being handed to a guard wolf. Yes, he had no choice because the goddess tied our fate together. Sigma Alphas like Elyon hardly find their mates, but when they do, they love to keep them by their side because they are stronger with them than without them. They mostly cherish and care for their mates because if they lose them, they would forever be broken, but in reverse was the case in my situation; my mate wanted me dead, probably why he made me the royal food taster knowing how dangerous the job was.

Sighing, I pulled myself up and was about to move when there was a sudden knock on the door. Knowing my bedmate, she wouldn’t knock before entering, so I was certain that she wasn’t the one. Lifting my brows and pushing up my lips, I masked my pains and presented a polite face as I opened the door. “Yes?”

“The king requires your presence in his chamber,” delivered the lycan guard wolf who was standing before me. I could tell his identity from his smell; all guard Lycans smelt like pines while warrior Lycans always oozed blood.

I wasn’t allowed to ask a single question before the guard started walking away, but then he abruptly stopped and pointed at my feet. “He said you should be done in that dress and smell nice.”

“What?!”

The guard lycan didn’t wait to see my shocked face; he just left me standing there. My eyes trailed down to my feet, and there was a neatly folded silk dress and other ornaments on a tray that I got to know after feeling them. My heart echoed the narrow hallway as I imagined the infinite possibilities of what this meant…

I couldn’t tell how I looked since I was blind, but my bedmate told me that I looked heavenly. I had never been in Elyon’s chambers before, neither could I guess why he was summoning me, but strangely, all these excited my foolish wolf; she completely forgot about all I went through hours ago. The sight of a broad-shouldered man sitting by himself on a large table welcomed me.

“Why are you staring at me?” Elyon growled, stamping the heads on his cutlery on the table. “Come and taste this food and bloody leave!”

Hurriedly, I rushed to his table and stumbled, but I didn’t allow myself to fall. I bowed and let my cane fall as I picked up a saucer to begin my life-threatening duty. However, no matter how hard I tried to ignore it, I could feel Elyon’s eyes on me… well focused on the upper part of my body. My blood ran cold. No, it can’t be. He couldn’t be staring at my cleaves, right?

No, I was wrong; he was staring at my cleaves. My breath got caught in my throat when his big, scalding hand grasped my breast in a twisting motion.

“Who would have known that you are this ripe under all those rags you wore?”