22

CHAPTER TWENTY TWO
ASTRID’S POV
The day has been a long one, but not boring.
For the first time in forever, I actually watched an entire movie without being interrupted, halfway to do something for someone.
I stayed in my room all day as Alpha Asher instructed. Till now, I still no nothing about his plans for me, but one thing for sure is that I will never let him take me back to that hell hole of a castle to serve those tyrants. If he shows any signs of wanting to take me back there, I will escape and go somewhere very far from here. Maybe to the human world.
I look at the time on the wall clock and it reads seven pm, it’s about time I get an evening bath.
When I was still Freya’s personal maid, I always had my evening baths after supervising hers, but right now, I don’t have to do that.
As I walk over to the closet to take off my clothes, I hear a gentle knock on the door and when I signal whoever it is to come in, the grumpy looking maid who served me in the morning walks in and the look on her face tells me that she is not happy to be here at all.
“Hello” I greet putting on my best smile but she just walks past me and goes into the bathroom. I quietly follow her to see what she wants to do.
“Uh, you don’t have to do that, I can take my bath myself”
“This is what I was instructed to do. Now don’t make my job so difficult and get ready for your bath already” She spits out coldly and I purse my lips and quietly nod my head.
It’s obvious.
She hates me.
Funniest thing is, I don’t even know what I did to deserve that.
I exit the bathroom and into the closet where I strip off my clothes and wrap the usual oversized towel around my body. I walk into the bathroom and meet her seated by the bath tub and when she motions me to step in, I let the towel fall off my body and walk close to the tub without uttering a word
There is a lot of steam coming out from the water and it smells so nice.
I wonder who gave these instructions.
Once I put my right leg into the water, I wince in pain as I quickly take it out and jump on my left leg numerous times as I try to maintain my balance.
The water is hot. Not too hot enough to feel off my skin, but it’s too hot for a bath.
“Oh my God! It’s too hot!”
“Really? are you doing it start whining now?” She asks rudely and I look at her in total disbelieve.
She just saw my reaction to the water temperature, how can she say I’m whining?
“I swear I’m not whining, the water is too hot! Look at my right foot is all red”
“Look here young lady, I prepare baths for Freya and Arya and at this same temperature, they have never complained about the water being too hot. Now stop being a whining little bitch and step in.”
“I’m not …” I start to protest but the intense look she gives me makes me stop talking.
She looks so angry and I’m scared about what she might do to me if I refuse to obey her. I close my eyes and exhale heavily as I walk closer the bathtub. I swallow dryly as I look at the vapor coming out of the tub.
That water is actually too hot to take a bath with.
I put my left foot into the water and close my eyes as the hot water stings and bites my flesh. I can feel my skin shrink and cry for me to liberate it from this torment, but the murderous look the woman is giving me makes me act otherwise. I put in the second foot and gently sit in the tub with the hot water burning by entire body.
She takes a sponge and pours some lotion on it and begins scrubbing my body harshly.
All I can do is wince and cry as she does her sorcery on me.
“Ouch!” I cry out loud but she doesn’t stop.
The ordeal goes on for a whole lot of minutes. The moment she announces that she’s done, I quickly step out of the water and wrap my towel around my body. I look at her with tears cascading down my cheeks and the satisfied smirk on her lips makes me understand that she had a great time tormenting me. I quickly rush out of the bathroom and go into the closet where I burst into tears as I put my clothes on.
My entire body feels like I fell from a skyscraper.
Numb and red.
I have a few bruises here and there and my entire body is as red as the color red itself.
I don’t normally tell on people, but I have to report this to Alpha Asher. This is manslaughter!
I don’t leave the closet until I hear her leave the bedroom.
I don’t want to see her face again.
I tried to be nice to her, but she treated me bad instead and now I hate her.
I hate so much that I never want to see her face again.
I keep looking at the door, wondering what could possibly happen if I go outside. I’ve been indoors since morning and I know one of the reasons why Alpha Asher asked me to stay in here was because he doesn’t want Freya to see me, but it’s already nightfall and I know all too well that Freya would be nowhere outside at this time. She has a lot of TV shows to watch from now till about midnight, so she is obviously comfortably seated in front of her TV right now, watching one of her favorite programs while sipping some lemonade.
I let out a heavy breath as I make up my mind to disobey Alpha Asher.
I know he is going to be very mad if he finds out about this, but I can’t do otherwise.
I badly want to go out there and see how the environment looks like.
“Just a sneak peek. I won’t take long.” I try to convince my conscience that’s already preparing it’s cutlery to eat me up.
I take calculated steps towards the door and when I get there, I gently creak open the door and poke my head outside to of someone is around and fortunately for me, the long corridor is void of any werewolf presence.
I carefully sneak out of the bedroom and take the long corridor that leads to a long flight of stairs. Below the staircase is a large sophisticated living room that has got stuff that scream wealth.
Damn this pack and their money!
I descend the flight of stairs as quietly as I can all thanks to the pair of oversized carpet slippers I have on. I expect to see a swam of maidservants lurking around every corner of the living room doing one or two things, but it’s just empty and very quiet.
The huge chandelier at the center of the roof is a wonder to behold and the white lights makes everything look lit!
Everything from the carpet to the couches, to the tables, even the drapes scream expensive and I’m totally wowed.
How can one man be so rich?
“I thought I asked you to stay in your room” I jump in fright when Alpha Asher’s voice comes through.
My heart instantly starts beating in my chest and a beat of nervous sweat rolls down my left cheek. My now stiff body turns to face him with much difficulty and when my eyes land on his flaring nostrils, and clenched jaws, I swallow dryly and wait for my unfortunate fate to befall me.
“Al… pha… Alpha…” I stutter as I take a few steps backwards.
“I asked you a question, now stop stuttering and answer me!”
“I … I … I got bored and I wanted to take a walk around… I…” I stutter yet again and now I’m nothing but a nervous wreck.
The instruction was easy, do not come out of the room.
Astrid and stubbornness!
“To your room, now!” He commands.
“Yes Sir!” I say nodding as I take on my heels towards the staircase.
I quickly take the flight of stairs and find the way to bedroom. When I get in, I almost melt when the door opens again and he walks in!
“In case you didn’t know, I despise people who do not follow my instructions Astrid”
“I’m very sorry Alpha Asher, I… I… just” I keep stuttering.
“It seems to me like you want to go back to your Alpha, do you?”
“No!” I debt as I fall on his feet and hold them. “I’m sorry Alpha Asher, I promise it won’t happen again. Please don’t take me back there” I plead but he doesn’t say a word, he just pushes me aside with his right leg and exits the bedroom.
I lie on the floor and weep bitterly.
If this is how it’s going to be, then I have to find a way to escape.
Yes! I have to escape.