LOGIN(Thomas POV)The door opened slowly.I looked up, expecting perhaps a servant. Instead, Ciara stepped inside.For a moment, I couldn't move. She stood there in silence, her expression completely unreadable. The room suddenly felt suffocating and the memory of everything that had happened that day came rushing back to me. I had been trying not to think about it.But now she was standing in front of me. And she looked nothing like the Ciara I remembered. She looked tired and empty. Then, without saying a word, she began removing her clothes.My eyes widened. “What are you doing, Ciara?” My voice came out sharper than I intended.She didn't even look at me while slipping the straps, continuing with the same cold expressionless face.My irritation rose immediately, not because she was doing what had been ordered. Because she was doing it without any hesitation and reluctance. “Ciara, stop.” I yelled at her, making Ciara flinch with my Alpha voice. “What the hell are you trying to do?”
(Ciara POV)I thought I had already learned what it meant to have my heart broken.I had been imprisoned for five years for a crime I didn't commit. I had watched the people I loved turn their backs on me. I had lost my freedom, my family, my reputation, and the future I had once imagined for myself. I had believed there was nothing now that could hurt me.I was wrong.Standing in the middle of the royal hall, watching Thomas take Alicent's hand, shattered me in a way I had no right to admit.The wedding hall glittered, noble families had arrived in their expensive clothes. Flowers covered the pillars, and the royal crest hung proudly behind the altar. Everything was beautiful except what was happening before me.Thomas stood at the altar dressed in ceremonial white and gold. Alicent stood beside him as his bride, the place where I was supposed to be. The woman I hated, who had destroyed my life. The woman who had killed my best friend over a quarrel.My eyes remained fixed on thei
(Ciara POV)The servants were already talking about my examination. I had become a living laughingstock.What’s worse, Alicent hates me even more when she came to know Thomas visited my room after the public incident. Apparently, one of the maids living in the servants' quarters had seen Prince Thomas leaving my room late at night. By morning, the entire palace seemed to know. And by afternoon, Alicent knew about his visit too.Before this, her cruelty had been disguised in sharp words and stares. Afterward, she stopped pretending.She summoned me without explanation. When I entered her room, she was sitting before the mirror while her maid brushed her hair."Ciara. Come here!" Her voice was unnaturally sweet."Yes, my lady?" She looked at me through the mirror."The room has gotten dusty. Clean my room." I glanced around in confusion. "It was already cleaned this morning.""I said clean it." She pointed toward the floor, then smiled when I looked at her. "With this."She held up a
(Ciara POV)The screams.The memories I had spent years trying to bury. I could feel the restraints around my wrists again. Whatever happened in the hall had triggered those nightmares.I could hear the guards.I could feel the pain.My breathing became frantic while I was crouching on the floor holding my chest. “No...”I tried to move.I couldn't.“Please...”The first blow struck my shoulder. I screamed. Another hit landed against my back and I fell. My hands scraped against the floor as I tried to crawl away. “Please!”The word tore from my throat. “Please stop!”The figure laughed and I covered my head. The blows continued then someone grabbed my hair and forced my face upward.“You're a murderer.”I shook my head. “No.”“You killed her.”“No!”“I didn't!”The nightmare tightened around me and my wolf yelled in my head, she used her dormant powers to calm my trauma. My vision became blurry and eventually blackened out.My body fell on the floor with a thud, I didn't faint but I
(Ciara POV)I hadn’t figured out what to do when the guards seized me. Someone brought a stretcher and I was shoved onto it. “No! I said no!” I kept on shouting, struggling to move free from their grasps when the doctor tied the straps.I was made to kneel on the stretcher on my fours like a broodmare. “Assist the doctor in examination.” the queen demanded making other guards walk towards me. One of them pulled my body upwards from my tummy.Horror clouded my senses.I couldn’t move and instinctively looked at Thomas. My eyes pleaded to him. Say something Thomas… But he said nothing and instead stood there with his head sideways. I didn't matter to him anymore, not even as a person.Alicent has a victorious grin over her face.“Proceed with the exam.” The queen ordered.“No! I said no! Leave me alone.” I shouted, struggling. Alicent wanted to hear my screams, that's why she didn't cover my mouth instead tied my hands. “Please miss, don't move too much else you'll hurt yourself.”
(Ciara POV)From that moment forward, Alicent deliberately made me attend to her every need. She made me carry her clothes, prepare her baths and arrange her jewelry for the wedding. Alicent reduced me to the point of being her maid like others. I cleaned her room, fetched her warm food which she threw on the floor. She made me stand beside her during fittings of her wedding gowns. “How does it look? I think the neckline isn’t deep enough to catch Thomas’s attention.” Alicent tried to get a reaction from me. Sometimes she would drop something simply so I would have to bend down and retrieve it. Sometimes she would spill food on her dress and blame me for not being careful. Thomas saw all of it but he said nothing. It wasn’t like I had any expectations from him, I knew he wouldn’t protect me. My nanny was still under Alicent's control. And now I had Mia to think about too. The little girl had become my friend far more quickly than I had expected. She worked in the kitchen, and wh







