I am no Mate of the daughter of my Enemy

My feet were heavy as the maid led me toward the hall. There is this wrenching feeling in my chest. I suddenly feel too terrified, hurt, and confused about what happened in the garden. Terrified, because I thought meeting my Mate would give me a ticket on my way out of all this mess. Hurt, because Aster was already engaged to someone else despite being my Mate. And I have never felt so devastated after hearing it from his lips. And no matter what I do, I am still a slave in my father’s eyes; not even my Mate could save me from this. Confused, the man’s face was bright as the moonlight until the maidservant came and the reaction on his face changed from being amused to disdainful.

Was he scared when he heard that I am the daughter of the Emperor? Because that’s what most people feel whenever I try to make friends with them. My status stops them from getting too close to me because they know how my father despises me and no one wants to make the Emperor upset. Unless they have a death wish.

“Princess, your father wants your presence at the banquet! You cannot stay here…” My maidservant begged me while I cried miserably on the couch. The heaviness I felt in my chest is too much for me. 

Tonight is just too unbearable for me to go on after seeing my Mate and knowing that he is already engaged to someone else. And now, I am being auctioned by my own father on my eighteenth birthday!

“Please, just leave me.” I sobbed at her and she just helplessly sat, having no idea how to console me. Nina has been the most sympathetic one of all the maids I have and I have been considering her as one of my friends here in the palace. But because the Emperor is too strict with me, she cannot get too comfortable around me, especially since the other maids are also watching everything I do. Nina is five years older than me and she has been like an older sister to me ever since he was assigned as one of my maidservants.

“I’ll stay here until you calm down. But I am scared that the Emperor is getting impatient with your absence in the hall, your Grace,” she muttered gently and with kindness, making me look at her with my swelling eyes. She always has a benign smile ready for me when I get so depressed like this.

“I–I saw my Mate in the Garden…”

Her eyes widened but then gloomed because she knows it was very unfortunate and harsh that I have met my mate on this very occasion when my father is about to sell me to those creepy nobles out there, “That’s untimely, your Grace. I wish he could do something to get you out of this mess.”

But we were both baffled when the door suddenly opened with a loud bang and my father marched inside the room. His steps were heavy and quick and I watch him with terror in my eyes while Nina immediately stepped away from me and lay low on the ground, with her forehead touching the floor.

“Your Grace, I am helping the princess get prepared for—”

“SILENCE!” My father bellowed, his pudgy figure is well fit for a tyrant and greedy Emperor like him. My whole body trembled when he glared at me with his fists curled into knuckles and before I could even anticipate it, the back of his hand had already landed on the cheek and I fell on the floor with my face feeling numb from the pain.

I didn’t even have enough time to react. I just sat there, my eyes wide with terror and my hands touching my face while I endure the stinging pain spreading across my face.

“You are testing my patience, Eodelle!” He snarled at me after he grabbed my face and glared at me in the eyes. “Make sure you look your best when you get back to the banquet and stop fussing! Don’t embarrass me in front of everyone! You hear me?!”

He snarled with his eyes changing from green to red hue and marched out of the room with his guards and maidservants following him.

I desperately went to Nina with my eyes full of tears, “Please Nina Help me get out of this! I never want this!”

She looked at me her eyes mirroring my terror in despair, “I wish I could something to help you, your Grace. But I am just as helpless as you…”

I sobbed terribly as she urged me that she had to work on my makeup and check on my dress. She had to apply a thick foundation on my right cheek because it was starting to swell and the bruise was too obvious after my father slapped me brutally with the back of his hand. I had to pull myself together so I won’t break in front of everyone. While looking down at all the people besides my father’s throne, I cannot do anything but act tough and swallow all the fears that are emerging in my throat. I cannot steady my eyes, especially when I caught the man in the garden staring at me from afar, a glass of wine in one of his hands.

“Everyone in this banquet, I introduce you to my only daughter, Eodelle Wycliffe. The first princess of the Realm and is of the right age to wed a noble that could offer the highest bed, a gift that is deserving for an Emperor!”

The whole crowd cheered and I saw the lustful look in the eyes of the noble as they smirked and grin evilly while staring at me from my skirt up to my face. Even King Richard grins so eerily at me while raising his glass of wine to my father.

I am dead. Truely dead.

While the bidding continued, the event organizer asked me to dance with the nobles and King Richard didn’t waste his time. He immediately went straight to me and took my hand for a dance. I wanted to grimace but I couldn’t or father will beat the hell out of me again if he finds out.

“You are so beautiful tonight, your Grace! You look so much like your mother,” He murmured to me while he led the steps. Everyone was watching us. After I made a twirl, my eyes caught Aster, the man I saw in the garden and my inner wolf just screams and feels so restless whenever our eyes meet. King Richard must have noticed it because he frowned and looked around, searching for the one that caught my attention.

But screams filled the hall when the lights suddenly went out. And when it came back, my eyes widened to see King Richard being impaled by two swords from his back that protruded through his stomach and chest, and the blood just sprayed all over my dress.

I looked around and heard slashes of swords. Metal to metal. Some have shifted to their wolf form and plucked out heads from every person near them. I couldn’t even scream while watching everyone die before me. The last thing I saw was my father being dragged out of his throne before someone suddenly appeared behind me and covered my head with a thick flour sack. I was grabbed by strong hands while I screamed at the top of my lungs to let me go. But I almost fainted when someone punched me in my stomach and then carried me somewhere. The screams and cries turned bleak and distant as seconds passed. And I didn’t know I already passed out.

The first thing I felt was the hard, cold ground underneath me. When I opened my eyes, I was already inside a cold miserable prison inside the dungeon.

“W-What? What’s happening? Why am I here!” I yelled as I ran and gripped the metal bars. I looked around but there was only darkness around me.

But my eyes widened when an unexpected person approached me from the dark with the same cold stare he showed me in the garden.

“You… What did you do?! Get me out of here?!” I screamed at him and he just stood in front of my cage, both of his hands on his back while staring at my terrified face with his unmerciful eyes.

“I am sorry, Your Grace. That you are involved in the mess that your father did to my pack years ago,” Aster uttered stoically, his voice low and eerie which made my skin crawl in fear.

“But… But you are my Mate!” I looked at him with desperation in my eyes, “And you know that!”

“I am no Mate of the daughter of my enemy,” he snarled at me while glaring straight into my eyes. He pulled his lips against his razor-sharp teeth, threateningly.

I have never seen pure hatred until I met this man…