Chapter 3

Fully dressed in the royal wedding garment with her hair and make up done, Althea stood in front of the large mirror as she stared at her reflection. Tears slowly rolled down her eyes in the realization that in any moment from now she is going be forcefully married to a man she didn’t know, a man she has heard scary things about, a man that has a beast inside, a man that is a complete evil, merciless and unkind to his people.

Althea shakes her head in disbelief, she could not still believe it, she could not still believe that she is going to be marrying the Baron of Westland. Never in her life did she think that her life could become more miserable than it already is. She thought staying indoors in the castle and living like she didn’t exist to anyone would be the most miserable thing she would experience in her life. She had waited all her life for the day she would leave the castle and be free to do whatever she wanted to do.

She thought her 20th birthday will be the beginning of something new for her, she has always felt that this age will change her life and it actually did, the only thing was that it only changed it for the worse. She went from bad to worse and her parents who made her leave like this are also the ones who caused this same misery she is about to experience.

Tears rolled for her eyes

After she was caught yesterday, she became unconscious and only woke up this morning thinking that everything was a dream until she was told by her maid that none of it was a dream. Lydia her maid had told her about the shock in everyone and her the whole atmosphere had changed in the castle including that of the king and queen when the Baron had come to the kingdom with his men which were over 50,000 like a war was about to happen. The king was shocked when he was informed about his arrival and had no other choice than to grant him an audience in his throne room.

Lydia said according to her friend who is a guard stationed in the throne room, he has said that the dark and intimidating aura of the Baron is enough to make a person kneel on the floor with heads bowed to him. His gaze was so dark and scary that it made everyone present in the courtroom to shiver even when he hadn’t spoken yet.

Everyone felt so inferior in front of him which they were sure included the king, no one was able to look him in the eyes, even the king avoided his dark gaze. Everyone feared that one wrong move from them the man might unleash his beast since they knew he possessed the strongest beats in Westland.

When the Baron revealed why he was here everyone was shocked but remained mute. When the king asked which of his daughters he had said “Your last daughter, you only have one left who is unmarried” Lydia said it exactly the way her friend who is a guard in the court had told her. Lydia informed her that he had also mentioned her full name and according to him he has been waiting for this day for ten years and that he is going to do alway with any that got in his way.

Althea was confused as to how he has been waiting for ten years and if she has known him before now.

Lydia had shivered in fear while explaining these to her; she went ahead to tell her that the king had refused, making his face to darken and the air in the room to become suffocating for anyone to breathe in. The young Baron reminded the king of the promise he made after he had saved him and his nation from war, that he was going to grant one of his wishes and that marrying his daughter is his wish and if he is to refuse them he is given him no other choice but to take his daughter by force and unleash his anger on the people of the north since their king broke his promise which is why her father had no other choice but to agree.

Her whole body had felt numb after her maid said these things.

Lydia also went ahead to tell her that he was the one who caught her and brought her back himself.

“He had sat beside you when you laid unconsciously on your bed and nobody not even the king could come close” Lydia had said

She was taken by surprise by what Lydia said, the last thing she remembered before being unconscious was falling in the embrace of someone who she had tried to struggle away from but was too weak to do so and then she inhaled something that made her weak and had fainted. Was he the person? Althea thought.

Lydia had told her that he had replaced the guards who protect her chamber with his own men that even none of her family members including the king and queen is able to enter.

That only she and the royal seamstress was allowed.

This is what happened before she was forced to wear the royal wedding gown with make up on and jewelries.

Her maid walked into the room “Your highness, everyone has arrived and according to what I had the Baron is already in the royal temple were the marriage ceremony is going to hold”

Althea clenched her fist and her lips quivered

Lydia looked at her with a worried and sad gaze, she wished all this was a dream and that her princess wasn’t going to marry the Baron but sadly it’s not a dream. This is reality, a sad and painful one at that. The princess's birthday that was supposed to start a new faze in her life became a nightmare.

Althea gripped her royal garment hard as tears rolled down her eyes, her whole body went cold..