Four

Hours later, Olivia watched helplessly as the maids transformed her from a slave into a vision.

It was the first time in her life that foreign hands would touch her hair, hold a dress for her to step into, or do things to her face using lipsticks, brushes, blushes, and colors. Since it was all foreign and alien to her, she felt totally uncomfortable. But now as the wife of the Lycan King, these were things she was required to get accustomed to. 

Just an hour ago, the maids had arrived and awoken her from sleep. The incessant knocking had reached into her dreams.

Olivia had awoken with a start. It had taken a while for her brain to once again process her new surroundings. She had looked at the massive windows and saw that dusk had fallen. A crescent moon lay benignly in the sky, casting shadows into her bedroom. 

She sat up as her mind had processed the events of the last hours - taking Charlotte’s place, the car journey with the Lycan King, the young lady who had come to inspect her or so it seemed…. Then she had heard the loud intrusive knock again. 

‘’I’ll be right there,’’ she had called out. And when she had opened the door, a couple of maids were standing there informing her that they had been instructed to dress her up for dinner with Titan. 

Olivia let them in, apprehensively. Why did they have to dress her up? Did Titan believe she could not get dressed on her own? She did not have time to think too much because the girls got to work as quickly as possible. 

Now just an hour later, Olivia was staring at the mirror looking like a very different version of herself in a floor-length blue dress, her hair in beautiful curls held up, and her face flawlessly well made up. One of the maids spoke up. 

‘’You are required to join the King for dinner ma’am,’’ she said as she bowed. The other maids bowed as well. Olivia soon realized that bowing would be the hardest part of her new life to get used to. After all not too long ago, she had been the one who had been in the place of a slave bowing to everyone. She cleared her throat.

‘’Yes, of course,’’

The maids straightened up and sauntered out. Several minutes later, Olivia took a deep breath and went downstairs. The minute she had stepped outside she found that one of the maids had stayed behind and now that maid accompanied her as she went to join the Lycan king for dinner. 

The dining area connected the vast living room with the kitchen. It could comfortably seat twenty people. 

Once she got to the door of the dining area, the maid bowed and left. Olivia had to stop herself from calling her back. Suddenly the room seemed menacing, with the portraits of people she did not know breathing down on her, and Titan Black himself, silently powerful as always, cocooned in a world of his own. 

She took a seat near him, but he didn't even look up. If he knew that a human being had entered the dining room, it did not show. 

Olivia looked around at the dining room once again. Like the rest of the house it was filled with antiques and artefacts she knew nothing about. There was a long portrait of Titan Black in an all-black assemble that seemed to dwarf the others. As always his eyes were cold, and his expression gave nothing away. She focused her eyes on the table next. 

The food was enough to feed an entire community for three days. There was a whole roasted lamb, grilled chicken, pork chops, gravy, bowls of rice, gizzard, and tons of fruits. From grapes to blueberries, to beets, finely chopped cucumber, carrots, and even things she did not know how to name. 

The incredible amount of food baffled Olivia. She was sure Titan was not holding a feast, and she was also sure he would not call his servants to come and eat with them, so why all this food?

Time passed, and Titan did not look up from his phone. The only thing that could be heard was the ticking of the clock. 

As time passed, Olivia began to feel both irritated and impatient. What on earth was this man’s problem anyway? Why had he called her downstairs, instructed that she be dressed up if all he was going to do was ignore her? How on earth did that even make sense? She went back to staring at Titan’s portrait when his voice reverberated through the room, startling her. 

‘’Are you going to keep looking at that portrait or are you going to eat?’’ He demanded.

Olivia stared at him, as he nodded toward the table.

‘’Start eating,’’

Tentatively, Olivia took a plate and dished portions of rice. Then she added gravy, lamb chops, and roasted chicken to her plate, and then lastly some vegetables from the cucumbers, lettuce, and carrots. 

She tasted one spoon of the rice mixed with gravy and the lamb chops, and the food tasted like heaven. It was exquisite. The best thing she had ever tasted in her whole life. It would seem as though that one spoon awakened the hunger pangs that sleep had suppressed. 

She started to eat hungrily, gobbling everything on her plate. Titan’s soulless eyes watched her closely, missing nothing but Olivia was too busy with the food to notice. But when her plate was empty, she felt his stare drilling holes into her, and when she looked up, sure enough, Titan was staring at her. 

Nervously, Olivia wiped her mouth and gave a small laugh. She was about to say something humorous about her stomach when Titan spoke, his voice clear and cold.

‘’I don’t need a wife who will be eating like a starved dog, you understand?’’

Without another word, he stood up and headed for the dining door. Olivia watched him go feeling something rush through her blood, making it boil and clogging her throat until she bursted out impulsively.

‘’You know despite your obvious wealth, I would have preferred to remain a slave in Penelope’s house,’’ Olivia said audaciously.

Titan froze. He turned back at her, shock going through him. ‘’What did you say?’’ It was a chance for Olivia to apologize, to be subservient again, to laugh and say she did not mean it and she did not know what came over her, but Olivia did not recognize the chance. She was hurtling on a fast path unable to stop herself. 

‘’You heard what I said. This place is a dungeon, and you are just a man who feeds off the fear of others.’’

Titan’s eyes widened. He strolled threateningly towards her, and the confidence slithered out of Olivia. She stood up in fright, looking wildly around but unless she was going to jump out the window, there was nowhere to flee to. She cursed herself. What possessed her to speak like that? She stood up quickly when he was inches close to her.

‘’Repeat what you said,’’ Titan dared her. His features were wild and angry. Great, she had not even stayed here for up to 24 hours and she had already angered him. Remorse swallowed her up.

‘’I...I am sorry,’’ Olivia stammered in fright.

Titan kept walking towards her and she kept walking backward until her back hit the wall. The pearls of the dress bore into her back which was pouring with sweat. 

Titan pinned her against the wall, his breath on her face. ‘’You are not so tough now, are you?’’

Olivia managed to turn her face away. Her heart was hammering so fast against her ribcage that she feared Titan could hear it. 

‘’I asked you to repeat what you said if you have the guts, Olivia,’’ Titan whispered.

‘’P…..please’’ Olivia begged. ‘’I am sorry,’’ tears were threatening to spill. If she cried would he be merciful? She wondered if any of the servants would walk into the dining room. She desperately wished something could happen so he could release her.

‘’I wasn’t thinking,’’

‘’Damn right you weren’t!’’ Titan exploded. 

She turned sideways but not before she watched his eyes briefly turn to her breasts. The dress had made them look fuller than usual. Titan put his lips close to her earlobe and the immense attraction Olivia felt for him ignited a sexual tension within her. She felt her nipples harden, as his chest pushed into them. 

‘’You think things are bad now, don’t you Olivia?’’ Titan whispered again. ‘’But they could get much worse. You want me to show you? Hm?"