003

I didn't even need anyone to tell me where I was when I woke up.

One look at the room was enough. A small bed, cold stone walls, one tiny window that barely let in any light. No decorations, nothing soft, nothing warm. I've slept in bad rooms before but this one felt intentional. Like someone specifically picked the worst room in the entire palace and said yes, put her in there.

I sat up slowly and my throat reminded me immediately of everything that happened last night. It was still sore. I touched it gently and winced.

Right. My husband tried to kill me.

A girl around my age was already in the room when I looked up. She was standing near the door with her hands folded in front of her and she looked uncomfortable. Like she had something to say but didn't want to be the one to say it.

"Your majesty, you’re awake, my name is Sara." She said to me. "I’ve been assigned to assist you."

Assist me? That sounds like too nice of a word for what this is.

"Thank you," I replied anyway, because I don’t know what else to say.

She still looked uncomfortable, I didn't know how to react because everything felt so awkward anyway. I was more awkward than she was.

"Your maj—" She stopped herself and looked even more uncomfortable. "Lily. The king has given his orders for the morning."

I just looked at her and waited.

"You are to be given servant quarters going forward. This room is yours." She glanced around it quickly. "And you will be assigned duties along with the other lower ranking staff."

I nodded slowly because what else was I supposed to do? Cry? I was done crying. I cried the whole way here yesterday and it didn't change anything. I married a king and woke up as a servant. In the same palace. On my eighteenth birthday.

"I understand," I told her.

She looked at me like she felt sorry for me but was trying hard not to show it. I appreciated that she at least tried.

She took me through the palace after that and I paid attention to everything around me this time. Yesterday I was too scared and too distracted to really see it properly. Now I saw it clearly.

Everyone was afraid.

Not a normal kind of careful or respectful afraid. This was something deeper. The servants moved fast and kept their heads down. Nobody made unnecessary noise. Nobody lingered anywhere. Even the guards had this tension in them like they were waiting for something bad to happen at any moment.

Nobody looked at me directly either. They saw me and immediately looked away. Not out of respect. Out of something else. Like being near me was dangerous.

I get it. I'm the king's rejected mate walking around his palace. Nobody wants to be associated with that.

Sara was pointing things out to me as we walked, where the kitchens were, where I'd be assigned, the rules of the palace. I was listening but something she said made me stop.

"Who is the Alpha Concubine?" I asked because I'd heard one of the passing servants mention it quietly.

Sara paused for just a second before answering. "Her name is Diana. She has been with the king for years. She holds a position almost equal to a queen here."

Almost equal to a queen. In other words, the position I was supposed to have.

I didn't say anything but I filed that away immediately. There was already someone here who had that power and now I was walking around in servant clothes. That wasn't going to be a simple situation and I knew it.

Sara came to get me early and handed me a plain servant's uniform without saying much. I put it on and looked at myself for a second. Yesterday I was in a royal wedding dress. Today I'm in this. I didn't let myself think about it too long because if I did I was going to spiral and I couldn't afford that right now.

The work was exactly what I expected. Cleaning, carrying, fetching things from one end of the palace to the other. My hands already knew how to do all of it from years of doing the same thing back home.

The difference was that back home I at least knew the people around me even if they were terrible. These were things I'd done my whole life back home but this time with the added humiliation of everyone around me knowing I was supposed to be the queen. Some of them stared. Some of them whispered. None of them helped me.

It was while I was working that I started hearing things.

Servants talk when they think no one important is listening and I clearly didn't count as important anymore. I kept my head down and my ears open.

"His episode last week was the worst one yet."

"Two people from the east wing haven't been seen since."

"Don't be in the wrong place when it happens. Just disappear until it's over."

I slowed down what I was doing so I could hear better without being obvious about it.

"The previous wives... people say it wasn't just that they couldn't handle him."

"They were killed during the episodes. All of them."

I stopped moving completely for a second before catching myself.

So that's what happened to them. It wasn't just that he was difficult or cruel in a normal way. He had episodes where he lost control completely and people disappeared. His own wives didn't survive it.

And I was living here now.

I went back to work and didn't react because I couldn't afford to fall apart in front of these people. But my mind was running fast. I survived last night. What about the next episode? His mate status stopped him once but would it stop him when he's not even in his right mind?

I have no answer for that. I was carrying a pile of linens down one of the main hallways when I heard her before I saw her.

"Stop."

The voice was sharp and used to being obeyed immediately. Everyone in the hallway went still at the same time. I turned around slowly.

She was beautiful tall and onfident. Her clothes were nothing like a servant's. She was dressed like someone important and I didn't need anyone to tell me who she was. The way the servants around her shifted and lowered their eyes told me everything I needed to know before she even opened her mouth again.

This is Diana?

She walked toward me slowly, looking me over from head to toe the way someone examines something they're deciding whether to throw away or not. I stood there and held the linens and waited. Then she deliberately stepped on me for a moment before moving away, pretending not to care. I endured it.

"So you're the one," she said finally.

I didn't answer because I didn't know what I was supposed to say to that.

"The little omega they brought here as a bride." She tilted her head slightly. "I heard you survived the first night. That surprised a lot of people."

She didn't look surprised. She looked annoyed.

"Let me make something clear to you right now before you start getting any ideas." She stepped a little closer and lowered her voice just enough to make it feel personal while still making sure everyone nearby could hear every word. "I run this palace. Not you. I have been here for years and I have earned my place next to the king. You are a servant with a title that means nothing because he took it from you on the first night."

I kept my face still. I was very good at keeping my face still.

"You are an omega." She said it the same way Alexander had. Like it was something dirty. "You have no power here, no allies, no standing. The sooner you accept that the easier your life will be. And if you ever get the idea that your mate status means anything to him—" she smiled and it didn't reach her eyes at all, "ask yourself why you're holding those linens right now instead of sitting at his table."

She turned to the servants watching and her voice went back to its normal sharp volume.

"Why is she standing here talking? She has work to do. Get moving."

Just like that she walked away and everyone around me immediately pretended they hadn't been watching. They went back to their tasks and the hallway moved again like nothing happened.

I turned around and kept walking with the linens. I didn't cry. I didn't say anything. I just walked away.

But inside I was burning. I wasn't sad at all. I was just angry. I had nowhere to go and I was trapped here for now. I wanted to find my mother but look where my lovely family put me. Now they could live as a happy family of three.

Diana was right about every practical thing she said and that made it so much worse. I was holding linens. I didn't have allies or standing or power. The king did take everything from me on the first night. All of that was true.

But the way she said it was in fact annoying. She just had to check that she made sure every single person in that hallway watched her put me in my place. She didn't do that to inform me. She did that to make sure I knew she was the one doing it. She wanted witnesses. She wanted everyone to see that she could do that to me and nothing would happen to her.

I finished my duties for the day and when I finally got back to my small room I sat on the edge of the bed and just breathed for a minute.

I lay back on the bed staring at the ceiling and let myself feel all of it for a few minutes. Then I noticed how quiet it had gotten.

It happened gradually at first so I didn't catch it immediately. But at some point I realized I couldn't hear footsteps in the hallway anymore. No voices. No distant sounds of the palace running the way it normally did in the evening. Everything had just gone completely silent.

Then my door opened fast and Sara slipped inside and closed it behind her quickly. Her face said everything before she spoke.

"You need to stay in this room," she said quietly but urgently. "Don't open the door. Don't come out for any reason. Whatever you hear, stay inside."

My stomach dropped. "What's happening?"

She looked at me and I could see the fear on her face clearly.

"The king," she said. "It's starting again."

Again?