Four

Caralyn hurries to hide behind the table, crouching down just as the door opens. She places her hand on her chest and tries her best not to make any noise with her elevated breathing.

“Supreme Ultima Riccardo,” she hears her father’s voice.

The Supreme Ultima only uttered one word in response. “Sit.”

Caralyn’s head moves slightly to the side to look at him. His face is icy, as if he is about to pass a cruel judgment.

“There is still less than a week left for the investigation, King Brooks. But we already found you guilty,” a voice spoke.

It wasn’t Riccardo’s voice; it was his left hand’s, Enzo Bellini. The man who handles problems that can’t be written in ledgers, Riccardo’s fierce ‘damage control’ guy. The man who stands behind the Supreme Ultima’s throne, always holding a protective dagger, just in case.

 The enforcer.

“Do you plead guilty or do you still want us to take this further?” the same voice asked.

Caralyn hears her father sigh.

She knows he is guilty, and she knows he will admit it; he always does after being found out.

“I plead guilty. I know I committed an atrocity toward the Moon Legion Pack, but I was provoked. Surely, you already found out what Alpha Carson did,” King Brook admitted.

“Yes, we did. In respect of this, the Supreme Ultima has made his verdict,” Enzo announced.

King Brooks looks toward the Ultima in anticipation, shifting slightly in his seat. But once again, it was Enzo who spoke.

“Alpha Carson is to offer a personal apology to you, and send you sevenfold of what he cunningly took from you. He has been informed.”

A look of satisfaction graced the King’s face.

Enzo continued. “And you are to offer an apology to him in front of your entire court, and also put your royal physician in charge of his daughter’s treatment. You are the one who puts her in that state after all.”

King Brooks smiles. “I’m content with the judgment. Now, I finally know why people call you a just judge.”

“If any of you tried to deviate from the supreme judgement…” Enzo leaves the word hanging.

Caralyn feels a sharp pain in her knee as cramps envelop her legs due to her crouched position. As she tried to adjust her position, she became unbalanced and almost fell to the side, but her hand shot out to hold onto Riccardo’s right leg.

He didn’t react.

She withdrew her hand almost immediately, glad she didn’t make a noise, but terrified at the same time.

“I will destroy you,” the Supreme Ultima continues Enzo’s sentence.

Then, his eyes trail down, looking straight at Caralyn. “And everything associated with you,” he finished his sentence.

Caralyn can feel the weight of those words, and she immediately averts her eyes. Riccardo looks back at King Brooks.

Two knocks sounded on the door once again. Alessio Bianchi, Riccardo’s right-hand man, entered with the king’s daughter, Caralyn’s stepsister, who looks distressed.

“The princess insisted on seeing you, King Brooks,” Alessio announced with a bored tone.

Alessio Bianchi, Ricardo’s most trusted aide. He is the face of order; calm, sharp, and fiercely loyal. Alessio is like Riccardo’s rational thinking in human form, more level-headed than Enzo, but equally dangerous.

Dora moves to her father in a hurry, speaking with a low voice. “Caralyn can’t be found; it’s just a few hours left.”

The king stands up in alarm. “Excuse me, Supreme Ultima. I have an urgent matter to attend to.”

Riccardo nods once, and the king leaves in a hurry.

Dora lingered, her eyes on the cup that Caralyn had placed on the table. 

“That’s my sister’s favorite cup, what is it doing here?” she wonders out loud.

Caralyn almost snorted. ‘My favorite cup?’ It really wasn’t.

It was the only cup she was allowed to use; they made sure to allocate her own stuff to her. According to them, it would lessen the chance of them being infected by her curse.

“Ask your servants,” Riccardo says with a sarcastic bite in his tone.

Her eyes snap to him. “Apologies, My Lord. I wasn’t questioning you; the servants must have mixed it up. I will take my leave now.”

She bows and leaves, too.

After the door closed, Alessio didn’t hesitate as he walked to the table and looked around it until he spotted Caralyn, who gave him a look similar to that of a scolded puppy. He raises an eyebrow before he starts walking back.

Enzo looks at him with curiosity. “La principessa é li?” he whispered.

{La principessa é li? - The princess is there?}

Alessio makes a bow toward Riccardo before he leaves. Enzo does the same and immediately follows Alessio, desperate to hear his response.

Ricardo rolls his chair backward and looks down at Caralyn. “Leave.”

She looks down and slowly tries to stand up, feeling utterly embarrassed. Forgetting about the cramps in her legs, she stands fully too fast, and a sharp pain registers in her knees.

Her knees buckle, and in an attempt to steady herself, she falls onto Ricardo’s lap, with an audible gasp. With wide eyes, she tilts her head up sharply, an action that brings their faces close to each other.

Thoughts run through Caralyn’s head. If she leaves now, she can never come back due to embarrassment. Which means her plan would also be automatically aborted. Perhaps this is the natural prompt she needs; she needs to be brave and take the initiative.

With that thought, she places her lips on his. She is the one who committed the unexpected act, but she is the one with her eyes wide open in shock. He didn’t move; he just looked at her, not surprised. She withdraws her lips and gets off him, as if he burns.

“Sleep with me, please,” she rushed out the words, her heart beating fast.

He becomes quiet for a few seconds, and she half expects him to chase her out, but he asks a question instead.

“What’s my gain?”

She blinks in confusion, her eyes moving on and off of him; she could not keep them on him, she was too shy to.

“D-don’t men like to sleep with women?”

He gives her an unimpressed look that makes her feel self-conscious.

‘I am inexperienced, there’s nothing special about my body, and all that I have is my beauty, she thought. 

She knows first encounters matter, and since hers wasn’t pretty, she realizes he might even find her repulsive, and that’s why he wouldn’t want to sleep with her.

 

‘I have embarrassed myself on both occasions we have met. Why would he ever agree to sleep with me?’

 

“You are the one b-benefiting here.” That was the answer she could come up with.

He narrows his eyes. “Why do you think so?”

She swallows, too reserved to be discussing that kind of topic with a man, but she has to.

“I mean, you are the one who gets to feel- pleasured,” she says the words as if they are too sacred to be spoken.

It would be her first time, and she knows all she will get is pain.

He stands up and takes two steps forward to eliminate the space between them. She recoils, but there is nowhere to escape to; the table behind her makes sure she cannot move away.

He gives her an intense look. “What makes you think you won’t, too?”

 

Her jaw drops.

She becomes speechless.