Why me ??
**Ashley’s POV**
The mating season was slowly starting to come around, and I could already feel its effects kicking in strongly. For one, I had found both my mates, and to top it off, they were both in the same house with me every single day. As the days to the mating season slowly counted down, I could feel the urge coming at me a couple of times. Lucas had gone on a very short trip to visit one of the nearby kings, King Maurice, who had actually lost his daughter, so it was just Simon and me at home.
On this fateful day, which happened to be the exact day after the incident with Veronica, I was going about my cleaning and minding my business as usual, when Simon walked towards me and threw a piece of paper at me.
“Finish up with whatever you are doing right now because you will be following me to get a couple of things this morning!” he said, and I turned to face him with a questioning look on my face.
“And what is that face about? Is there any problem with you obeying my order?”
“Not at all, my king, I just was not sure I heard you well.”
“Then open your ears clearly because I have asked you to finish up with whatever you are doing as soon as possible because you’ll be following me to get some things for the rituals coming up.” I remained on the spot, thinking quietly as to why he wanted to go shopping for all these things when he had countless maids to send on the errand. Well, whatever he chose to do was really not my problem. What really affected me was the fact that he had requested, or should I say ordered, that I go along with him for only God knows why. After all, he hated my presence and everything that has to do with me.
“You have 5 minutes to get ready. I’m waiting.”
“Oh wait, so it is now that we are going?”
“Are you deaf or something? Didn’t you hear me say it countless times not too long ago?”
“So sorry, my King, I thought you were referring to probably a while from now,” I responded, quickly running towards the stairs to go up to my bedroom. When I got there, my head was in a complete mess just thinking about what was going on with Simon. The previous day, he had literally defended and protected me from Veronica, and in front of everyone at that. I had expected him to come after the party to threaten me or to make it clear that everything he did was just to protect Veronica’s image, but there was nothing like that. I waited and waited, but despite seeing me a couple of times before he went to bed, Simon didn’t actually come to confront me at all. Now to add to things, he was inviting me to tag along on a shopping expedition which, as a king, he shouldn’t even be doing in the first place.
Whether he liked it or not, one thing was very certain: the people were definitely going to stare and whisper once they saw their King in the commoner’s market. It was obviously going to be an unusual sight to behold, but given that the people had already gotten to know about the whole drama happening in the mansion, having to see me with Simon would stir even more controversy amongst the villagers.
“Slave girl!” I heard him call out from downstairs, and I rolled my eyes. I didn’t have any makeup to touch up or anything special; in fact, all I did was apply a little bit of my lip balm and just touch up my hair a little bit. As soon as I was done with that, I quickly made my way downstairs to where he stood with his beta, Asher, who was standing not too far away from us.
“And where is the paper I gave to you?” he asked, and I laid out both my palms in front of him to signify that I definitely didn’t have it.
“What do you mean? Didn’t I give you the paper to hold?”
“No, my king, you just threw it at me and didn’t bother explaining what it was for, actually,” I responded, and he hissed in anger, obviously not wanting to accept that it was his fault.
“So what the heck are we going to do now? I do not have a replacement for it, and you just had to get the well-written and only copy lost,” he said, and I frowned at him.
“Wait, I think I might actually have a copy of the list.”
“Asher, are you being for real?”
“Yes, I’m sure I do,” Asher responded, bringing out his phone from his back pocket where he had kept it and then turning it on. He scrolled on his phone for a while, looking for what he had talked about, and it was not too long afterward that he moved closer to Simon to show the content of the phone screen.
“Oh yes, this is it,” Simon said, and I finally breathed out in relief. He turned to face me with a side-eye, and I could already feel just how judging and intent his gaze was.
“Come on, let’s go!” he finally said, and I was just so happy to be free of his judging sight. We made our way out, and the driver had been patiently waiting for us.
“Pauline, get the Lexus. I don’t want us to drive anything flashy or anything that might get any form of attention towards us.”
“Already did, sir. Beta Asher already asked me to do so.”
“Oh, that’s really nice. Let’s go then,” I said, and this was when the confusion began. Now that we had gotten to the car, came the issue of our sitting positions. It only made sense that Simon wouldn’t sit in front with the driver, nor would he want his beta to sit in front while I was at the back with him. At the end of the day, I was the one who ended up in the front seat close to the driver, and I honestly didn’t mind. The whole drive into town was thankfully quiet for me as neither Simon nor Asher said a word to me. They had both spent the time discussing work-related issues that I obviously couldn’t relate to.
I think more than anything, what I didn’t realize I was missing out on until that exact moment was the sight and feel of the real world that existed outside the homes I had been sold to as a slave. Completely lost in thoughts in my own world, I looked out through the window, watching people living their normal lives according to their own terms and not what they were constantly being ordered to do. As the car zoomed around the town towards the market, I kept getting reminded that I was nothing else but a slave that practically lives and breathes under the instruction of the Lycan kings. I was their mate, but it never truly felt like I was, not for once, and just thinking about that made me feel so sad, close to tears.
When we started getting close to the marketplace, Simon instantly spoke to the driver to make a turn towards a jewelry shop, and the latter nodded in response. When we got there, he requested to be the only one to go in, and so myself and his beta, Asher, remained in the car with the driver.
“Why do you deny yourself peace?” I heard Asher say from behind, but I had at first thought he was speaking to someone else on the phone, so I didn’t really pay much attention to what he was saying, at least not until he actually mentioned my name.
“Ashley, it’s you I’m talking to.”
“Excuse me? What’s that supposed to mean?”
“Do not be offended or anything, but I really have to ask, why exactly do you deny yourself peace?”
“What are you talking about?”
“Listen, I am the beta of King Simon, and so one thing I would definitely not be able to do is to make him sound like a bad person when I know he really isn’t. Princess Veronica had been said to be the one the Lycan kings would marry, and this is something their parents had agreed on way long ago during their early years. Do you seriously think this is a battle you can fight? Instead of trying to make myself what I cannot amount to, I would rather go for what is much easier to attain in my reach.”
“I don’t understand.”
“If I were you, I would have spent all my energy and strength just on attaining freedom, and not to be competing for the space of the luna of the pack, and that with the daughter of the Norways, that’s nearly impossible,” he said, and I sighed, trying to reflect on what he had just said.
“So wait, why are you saying all this to me?” I asked, and he chuckled lightly.
“I’m saying this because I know that you wouldn’t be accepted so easily. Besides, it would be an extremely hard process if you do eventually even end up getting picked. You are a weak woman, and it’s a pretty obvious trait to note about you, actually. However, with the type of training the Lycan Kings have gone through over the years, it really wouldn’t help having a non-skilled and zero-experienced woman who can barely even fight for herself, let alone the pack,” he said, and to be very honest, I actually did find his words extremely hurtful, however, they were undeniably true. One thing I definitely knew I lacked training in was obviously self-defense and martial arts in general.
Turning to face Asher, I looked up to see if he held any emotions while talking, but his face was still as straight as it had always been. I bit my lips trying to make more sense of what he had said, and it actually did sound like something I should have been fighting for all this while.
“So if I’m to get something from all you have said, then you are implying that I should start focusing on attaining freedom instead of pursuing my fated mates?”
“Exactly! That fight is something you cannot go after when you do not even have a say over the decisions you make, the places you go, or other basic things as well. When you are finally at a place where you can speak for yourself, then you can try fighting, but for now, you’re practically a mere pawn in a losing game.”
I was just about to respond to what he had said when we saw Simon coming back out from the jewelry store. I knew better than to proceed with the conversation, so it just had to end there. Looking at Simon’s hands, I could tell that he had definitely gotten something inside the jewelry store, but we just couldn’t tell what it was or who it could be for. In my honest opinion, I could already guess that he had gotten something special for Veronica, but that was something I obviously couldn’t confirm just yet. Getting back into the car, he carefully kept the item in his bag, and then looked back up towards the driver.
“Move straight to the market now. We have a lot to buy, and I don’t think I want to spend more than two hours getting everything we will need for the rituals,” he said to the driver, and the latter instantly started the car, zooming back to the main road, already so close to the market.
The moment we got out of the car, people instantly started noticing Simon, which I wasn’t too surprised about. The whispers began, and it didn’t take long before the whole market and even the neighboring markets heard that their one and only King had come down to the market. People started moving about to see him, while some market women charged even higher prices, claiming that since their stalls had been visited by King Simon, their commodities should consequently be sold at a higher value.