42. My Fear & Surrender

TRIGGER WARNING – CHAPTER CONTAINS DISTRESSING SCENES – I will mark the most upsetting part with a double line of *****

YILEYNA.

I looked in the mirror at the gown that I wore, trying to calm the storm that bubbled beneath the surface. It was the following day, and after being given food and allowed to bathe, two omegas had come to help me get ready. Now, save for the thick black collar around my neck that was cutting into my skin, I looked like a queen, but it was not the queen I wanted to be.

I was wearing an off-shoulder amber gown, that was cinched in from the waist with a jewelled corset, and skirts that flowed to the floor with two slits down the sides. My hair was up in a coiled bun, adorned with a gold tiara. My arms and hands were covered with jewellery, and my make-up was dark.

Theoden’s queen, that was what I had become, but I didn’t recognise the woman staring back at me.

I wish I had some way to contact Deliana, but goddess knows where my necklace was. I had tried to