ELEANOR

CHAPTER FIVE

WILLOW’S POV

I am to serve him tonight, but I have no idea what I will be serving and I’ve got this horrible feeling in my gut that it’s something I will not like. 

“Stop.” The servant who has been leading the way upstairs into this strange chamber commands and I halt in my tracks. She steps forward and knocks on the oak door in front of us. A feminine voice from within gives the signal for us to go inside. The servant turns to me with an almost pitiful look in her eyes.

“You are to go in alone.” She says stepping aside and a clear view of the door comes into view.

“Oh…”

“Goodluck.” With that, she leaves with the others leaving me alone and confused in the deserted hallway that seems to go on and on like an endless tunnel.

What did she mean by that? Why do I need good luck with the person who has to prepare me to serve the Lord Alpha later tonight?

Calmly, carefully, I wrap trembling fingers around the door handle and push it open and the bedroom comes into view. It’s very spacious, with a well-furnished sitting area at the far north corner and a queen-sized bed at the center of the room. On the bed, is seated a young woman, who immediately rises to her feet and approaches me with the most unreadable expression I have ever seen on anyone’s face.

I cannot tell if she’s delighted or angry to have me in her bedroom.

“Good evening to you, Miss Eleanor.” I greet in my calmest, most polite tone, hoping she would sense my effort to start on a good foot with her and appreciate it.

She doesn’t respond.

Instead, she shoots me a disgusted look and proceeds to eye me from head to toe as though she’s carrying out some sort of inspection. I almost jump out of my skin when she starts circling around me. I can feel her gaze all over my body and it’s making me uncomfortable. My breath catches in my throat when our gazes meet again. I cannot stop looking at her pepper red painted lips. Why does she need to wear lipstick now? It’s ten pm for goodness’ sake.

“Neck as long as an ostrich's, sunken eyes, pale cheeks, large forehead and overall bony structure. You’re as ugly as a scarecrow. How come the Lord Alpha didn’t throw you out the moment he set his eyes on you?”

Silence.

“It’s a good thing you’re going to die anyway. Strip out of your clothes.” She orders and starts towards the sitting area. Her words hit me like a rock on my head.

“I’m sorry, what?” I ask in disbelief. She stops and turns to me again.

“I believe you heard me loud and clear.”

“But… Bu… I can’t strip in front of you.”

“Should I make you?” She asks in the softest tone she has used with me so far and I sense the danger in her words and in the heated look she’s giving me. I don’t want to know what would happen to me if I don’t obey her command, so, in a heartbeat, I start pulling my blouse over my head. “Good.” She remarks and turns away from me once again. As I busy myself with getting naked, I notice her giving instructions to a servant who seemed to have been in the bathroom when I walked in. Soon, the servant goes back into the bathroom and Eleanor walks over to me again.

I’m now fully naked in front of her. Her face twists with disgust as she rakes her eyes all over my body.

“Skinny.” She damns. “Too skinny. It seems all your flesh has been attached to your bones.” A step closer. “Hands down.” She orders and I unwrap my arms from my chest and let them fall by my side. The next thing she does takes me unaware. She gives a solid slap on my left breast and I yelp in pain as the spot stings uncomfortably. I glare at her in complete disgust and disbelief.

“You are not supposed to do that. You have no right!”  I cry out, breathing furiously.

“And who are you going to report to?”

“The Lord Al…” My statement is cut off by a solid smack that follows on my right cheek that sends my head swaying to the side and my hair strands scattering all over my face. She then grabs the back of my head by my hair and pulls my face up so I’m staring right into her wicked, brown eyes. I’m whimpering from the pain prickling on my scalp as a result of her assault.

“In case you don’t know, I’m in charge around here and it’s totally up to me to decide if your final days will be miserable or the best ones of your life. If you don’t stop acting so feisty and control that smart mouth of yours, you will spend the next three days begging for death at my mercy.” She sneers.

I’ve been living a miserable life since childhood, but the dark danger lurking in her eyes right now makes me understand that the level of misery she intends to subject me to is nothing I have ever experienced before.

She is the devil in the form of a woman.

“I’m… I’m sorry.” I choke out.

“That’s more like it.” She lets go of my hair and turns to the servant who just joined us.

“The water is ready.” The servant announces and Eleanor dismisses her. Once she’s out of the bathroom, Eleanor turns to me again. “After you.”

I quietly lead the way into the bathroom, trembling from not just the cold, but fear as well. Eleanor is terrifying. I wish I could disappear from here at this moment. Every second in her presence feels like an eternity of both physical and mental torture.

“Get into the bathtub.” She commands and I do just that, but…

“Ouch!” I wince in pain and quickly retract my foot from the basin of water. It burns. “The water is too hot.” I report to Eleanor who raises an unconcerned brow.

“So?”

“I can’t bathe in it. It’s too hot!” I insist and she picks up a leather belt from a nearby towel rack and starts to approach me. I know exactly what she has in mind to do if I’m not in the bathtub by the time she gets here so I abandon my efforts to beg her to reduce the water temperature and sink into it, wincing from the burning sensations prickling every pore of my body.

It’s not hot enough to peel my skin or cause any serious damage, but it’s really uncomfortable and painful. I will be as red as a beetroot by the time I’m done.

“You’re a fast learner. I like fast learners. The last bride-to-be was so slow, I had to whip her every night for the three nights she was here. It seems you and I will get along really well, Willow.”

I want to spit in her face and tell her to go to hell, but I really don’t want to have the same experience as the bride-to-be before me, so I swallow my words and focus on distracting myself from this uncomfortably hot water I’m sitting in.

The next ten minutes go by with me shedding tears and holding back my screams as Eleanor scrubs my body with the hardest sponge known to mankind. It feels like it’s made of concrete, leaving tiny bruises on my skin but I can’t even complain or express my pain because she would kill me if I did.

My body is scorching red and scorching all over as I apply lotion on my body in the closet.

“Are you a virgin?” Eleanor suddenly asks from a distance. She’s searching for a dress for me to wear. I’m tempted to tell her it’s none of her business, but we all know how things would turn out for me.

I nod my head.

“Yes, I am.”

“At least you won’t die a virgin.” She walks over and places the outfit she has chosen on the closet island.

It’s a matching red lingerie and see through red night dress to be worn over it.

“You do not have the body to make any dress look flattering on you, so it’s best if you just go half naked. Put that on.”

I ignore her condescending remark about my body and proceed to wear the lingerie. It’s the skimpiest thing I’ve ever worn in my life and I hate that I have to go and see a man dressed like this, but what choice do I have?

When I’m done dressing up, she gives me a dressing robe to wear over the lingerie and for the first time ever, I feel grateful to her.

“The moment he sets his eyes on you…” She explains as we take the hallway leading to the Alpha’s chambers. “… you strip naked and walk over to him with a smile. He’s not going to be impressed with you because your body is nowhere as sexy as mine, but he’ll manage it.”

Ugh!

“We’re here.” She says as we both come to halt in front of a doubled oak door. My soul leaves my body. “Knock and go in. He’s waiting for you.”

I nod and do just that.

The moment I’m in, she closes the door behind leaving me to deal with whatever is waiting for me here all alone. The snakes in my stomach start turning wildly.

“You’re here.” Says Alpha Killian as he rises from his bed and starts walking towards me.

This is not how I planned to lose my virginity. I always imagined my first time would be with my mate and it would be a magical experience, but look how things turned out. My mate is getting married to my sister and I’m about to lose my virginity to a man who’s going to kill me in three days.

My only consolation is that I won’t have to bear this humiliation for long. In three days, it will all be over.

I start by taking off the dressing rob and let it drop to the floor. I do the same with the see-through night dress and…

“What are you doing?” His voice stops me. I shoot him an annoyed look.

As if this humiliating ritual of stripping before him like I’m a whore is not enough, he wants me to say it with my mouth.

Jerk!

“I’m taking off my clothes.”

“And why are you taking off your clothes?” He asks, sounding genuinely confused and I don’t know whether to be confused as well or even more furious.

“You said I’d be serving you tonight.”

“Yes, I did. So, where’s the food? Why are you taking off your clothes instead of serving me my supper?”