The King's Woman

There are three steps to her plan:

A: Get the King's attention.

B: Keep said attention.

C: Figure out the rest.

Sabrina hadn't anticipated this being harder than she thought. The King had chosen to bring her to his palace, so it must mean he saw something in her that pleased him. But then the man had ghosted her completely the moment she was brought to the palace. It's been three days already, and there was no sign of him.

She'd learned early on that the Dragon King didn't visit this part of the palace. If he needed the company of one of his women—which was very rare—he would have her come to him. Most of the time, the only woman whose company he sought was the Main Madam, Princess Daisy. Sabrina hadn't seen the woman before, but she'd heard from her maids that the Princess was known as the most beautiful woman in the Kingdom. Her father had been a Minister to the late Dragon King, and she and Alaric had known each other since childhood. She was the first woman he took into his Harem.

Sabrina was confident in her looks, but she also knew that looks couldn’t be relied on. There were many other beautiful women in the palace, and only a few of them had been lucky enough to bed the King. King Alaric was said to prefer the company of his soldiers over women. He'd rather train than indulge in the pleasures of the flesh.

The Luna stared absently at the red roses growing amidst the unkempt bushes. Once, long ago, she had also grown roses like this along with her sister, back when they were children and everything was good.

She reached out to pluck a flower but gasped midway when her entire body was splashed with brown, smelly water.

"My Lady!" Leyla was by her side in seconds, while Ellen rushed to retrieve a dry cloth.

Sabrina glanced up in time to see a familiar woman flashing her a malicious smile from the window above. Elisha—the woman who had gone out of her way to make Sabrina's life hell. From sabotaging her meals to confiscating her clothes, and now having her maid pour dirty mop water all over her. Sabrina was thankful for her level of patience; who knows, she might have gouged out the woman's eyes by now. She reminded herself that retaliating now would likely get her punished. She was still at the bottom of the food chain.

Ellen returned with a towel, and Leyla helped her mistress clean up. Her dissatisfaction was obvious as she spoke.

"My Lady, you are the King's woman. You shouldn't let others bully you so easily. If you report to His Majesty, the King, then he would surely defend you."

Also, it would be a perfect opportunity to get noticed by the King. Most of the women lusted after every little opportunity to see the King. They all hoped His Majesty would show an interest in them so they could rise in rank.

Sabrina scoffed at the idea. She might want to attract the King, but she didn’t want to present herself in a pitiful condition. She was raised as a strong Alpha and had her own pride. She would rather the King continue to ignore her than have him pity her.

“It’s alright. Let’s go back for now.”

As they returned to Sabrina’s chambers, Leyla tried to convince her to report the bullying to the King. All her words fell on deaf ears, of course. Ellen didn’t talk much—Sabrina had only heard her exchange a few words with Leyla—but she never spoke to her at any point. It was clear she didn’t like her mistress very much. It was fine like this. Sabrina didn’t care about other people’s opinions of her at this point.

The day passed uneventfully. At dinner, Sabrina went to eat with the other women. They mocked and laughed at her. It was background noise at this point. After dinner, she went back to her room but happened to overhear a conversation between two palace maids.

“I heard His Majesty summoned Lady Elisha tonight...”

“It’s not surprising. She is the King’s favorite after the Princess...”

Right. This was about the King. It seemed to be a rare occurrence to be summoned by the King, which meant her chances of getting entangled with him were growing slimmer by the second. As she washed up for the night, she thought of other alternatives. How could she get the man’s attention again? She was certain he had completely forgotten about her.

She couldn’t sleep. Worry burned hot in her chest. How sad it would be if none of her efforts paid off and she ended up losing her only chance for revenge. She could only imagine her sister and fiancé living their best life, with the entire pack supporting them. Just because they didn’t want a woman as their Prime Alpha, they had betrayed her in such a cruel manner.

Sabrina’s eyes stung with tears. She hated this feeling of hopelessness. Her father was dead, her sister wanted her dead, her fiancé betrayed her, and the Lycan King wasn’t willing to give her justice. She was all on her own now. She had nobody to turn to.

KNOCK KNOCK

The Luna was shaken out of her thoughts by a series of loud knocks. It was already nighttime, and her maids had retired for the night, so who could be knocking at her door this late?

As the knocking persisted, the Luna got out of bed grumpily and opened the door. Elisha scowled at her.

“Are you deaf? What took you so long to open the damn door?!”

Sabrina looked at her and said nothing. There should be no decent reason why this woman was coming to her so late at night. Whatever she was up to, it wouldn’t be good.

Taking her silence as a sign of fragility and obedience, Elisha felt very satisfied with herself.

“You must have heard by now that the King summoned me to spend the night. His Majesty has been working so hard, and the fact that he thought of me to help relieve his stress is an honor.”

Was she really gloating about warming a man’s bed? Sabrina hid her disgust well enough. If a man had ignored her every day and then summoned her to have sex with him, she would dig her claws so far down his throat, he’d taste his own nonsense. These women had no self-preservation whatsoever! It was utterly disgusting.

She wanted to slam the door in Elisha’s face but knew well enough not to offend her. The woman had the entire Harem wrapped around her fingers, mostly because she was known as the King’s favorite aside from the Main Madam. Her father was also very influential, so messing with her would only warrant more bullying. It wasn’t worth it.

“Usually, my main servant accompanies me for the night, but she is down with a fever. You will take her place.”

At those words, even Elisha’s servants exchanged looks. It was normal to bring a servant whenever a consort visited the King. The servant would wait outside and help the Madam clean up afterward. And since the King never spent the entire night with the women, the servant would also be good company to the consort as she returned to her chambers.

Sabrina was the King’s woman, although the lowest in the hierarchy. Asking the Luna to accompany her to bed the King was a big slap to the face. Elisha was reducing Sabrina to a mere palace servant.

Sabrina had guessed Elisha’s intentions but felt neither anger nor hatred. She only saw this as a perfect opportunity to see the King again. If she could utilize this chance properly, she might get him to notice her.

She lowered her head to hide the excitement in her eyes and said in a meek voice, “Okay.”

Elisha naturally assumed the Luna was too ashamed to look her in the eyes. Feeling very pleased, Elisha thought, Tonight, I’ll show this wretched thing her place in the King’s eyes.

Together, they made their way toward the Main Palace, the Dragon King’s residence.