Hope
I woke up to a headache. My entire body ached. I sat up on my bed with a sigh. I turned to look through the window and saw that it was already dawn. I suddenly became alert. What time was it? Why didn’t Kyle wake me up for training?
As I was about to stand up from the bed, I noticed that my shoulders were heavy. I threw my head down to check and saw that I was wearing a jacket. A heavy one that did not belong to me.
Darius.
I pulled the jacket off of me in an instant as memories of what happened last night replayed inside my head. I facepalmed myself at the thought. “I can’t believe that I did all of that.” I said to myself with a shameful tone.
I wondered what he was going to do to me today. I called him out so ruthlessly. Was he going to finally send me away or maybe even kill me me? I shook the thought from my head. If he wanted to do either of the two, he would have done them already.
What was he waiting for? What did he even want? I stopped to think. Did it even matter what he wanted? I knew that whatever ran through his mind, it could never be for my benefit. With that thought in mind, I threw his jacket to the ground and stood up from the bed.
I went in the bath room and cleaned myself. After I was done preparing for the day, I opened the door of my room, expecting to see Kyle but he wasn’t there.
“Where is he?” I asked myself as I stepped out of my room. If he wasn’t here, that would explain why he didn’t wake me up for training. What happened?
I walked down the empty hallway, then down the stairs, expecting to see Kyle standing around somewhere but I didn’t. Instead, the servants around didn’t whisper about me like they normally did. It looked like they wanted to, since they were sneaking glances. I ignored them like I always did and minded my business.
On my way to the dining hall, someone jumped in front of me and I shrieked, stumbling back and colliding against a pillar. I used a moment to catch my breath and when my breathing evened, I saw that it was that Gwendolyn girl in front of me.
She had a bright smile on her face and she bounced on her toes with excitement. Something about her seemed awfully familiar. She reminded of… Light.
“Good morning, my lady. Are you on your way to eat? I’ll get you something! What do you like? Eggs? Pancakes? Beef? Vegetables?” she questioned, sticking her face in front of mine.
I pushed her back a little, then stood upright, towering over her by a few inches. “Anything is fine, thank you.” I said with a cautious tone, then sidestepped her and continued my path to the dining room.
Thankfully, neither Darius nor Annalise were sitting on the table so I had the whole sixteen-seater table to myself. I settled on one end of the table. After a few moments, Gwendolyn came with a tray and set it in front of me.
Expecting her to leave after she did that, she stood over me by my side like Kyle normally did. Only this time, it felt somewhat uncomfortable. So, I voiced out my thoughts. “You can leave now, you don’t have to watch me eat.” I said.
She opened her mouth to protest but before she was able to, the sound of heels clicking on the tiled floor caught her off guard. I smelled her before I saw her. Annalise strutted into the dining room with a red evening gown, wearing her hair down and with her painted red lips.
I had noticed that she liked the color red a bit too much. She didn’t seem to notice me as she took the seat on the first chair to the left by the other end of the table. That was where she always sat down. It was only after she was settled that she noticed me. Her red lips curled into a sinister smile.
“Hope, you’re here…” She said with a sickly sweet tone.
I faked a smile on my face. One that said I was obviously faking the smile, shamelessly. Annalise seemed to notice that which made the fake smile on her own face to falter a little.
“I am. How are you? It’s been a while.” I said as I started to eat, Gwendolyn still standing quietly by my side. Was this what Kyle meant about her being next to me every second of the day? If it was so, then I’d be uncomfortable every second of the day.
“I’m fine, thank you for asking. And you’re right about that,” Annalise replied, placing one side of her cheek on her palm and leaning in, forgetting all about the plate in front of her.
“Pardon? Right about what?” I prodded.
“That it’s been a while. I heard that you had a rendezvous with Darius last night. It seems like your relationship with him is going well.” Annalise said with a polite tone.
My brain froze as I gave it time to register her words and tear them out from the tone she used to say them. Once I was done assimilating, I dropped my fork on the plate and leaned back.
“I didn’t have a rendezvous with anyone. And my relationship with my husband is as it is. As it was. As it always will be.” I felt the need to emphasize on that.
It didn’t seem to clear anything up, maybe even thicken things because Annalise stood up from her seat and slowly walked over to me. I felt a hive crawl up my skin when she settled on the table, the space right next to my plate.
“And what is that? Do you think that your relationship with him is going to strained forever, Hope?” Annalise asked. “No, my dear. One day, the councilmen are going to ask him for an heir. I’m not his wife. I’m his mistress. You’re the one who he’ll come to meet. And you won’t have a choice.
“You do know how babies are made, don’t you? And if it doesn’t work the first time. You and him will keep on trying and trying and trying and trying-”
“Enough!” I slapped the table and stood up, feeling like a child since I couldn’t even match Annalise’s height though I was standing and she was sitting. “You’ve said enough.” I toned down the pitch of my voice.
“I don’t know what you’re trying to hear from me or what you want to happen but I can assure you that I’ll have no part of it. And forget about all you said about being on my side. I know that you’re only on your own side. So you should take your sickly sweet voice and stay away from me.” I didn’t wait to hear her reply before I turned my back to her and marched out of the dining room.
Since I needed air, I ambulated straight outside the castle, then settled down on the first bench that I could find. I clutched my chest through the material I was wearing as I gulped in huge bundles of air.
Never. I would never bear an heir for Darius. How could she even say that to me? Nothing like that will happen, I just couldn’t.
From India’s diary, I knew that to give birth to a lycan child I had to turn into one myself. And there was no way that I would willing want to do such a thing. I would never let myself become one of them no matter the cost.
In that moment, I realized something. I looked up by my right hand side to see that Gwendolyn was standing over me. Just like she was in the dining room, meaning that she must’ve seen the entire interaction between me and Annalise.
Somehow, having another human witnessing what I experienced in the castle didn’t make me feel good at all. I had no idea why Darius thought that bringing another human to the castle was a good thing. I only managed to feel even more down than I already was with her by my side.
I would’ve preferred it if Kyle was by my side. Speaking of, where was Kyle? I still hadn’t seen him all day which was unlikely of him. And why hasn’t anyone talked about me going for training? Where were the soldiers who eyed me whenever I was walking around the castle, showing their disappointment in me that I wasn’t training?
“Where is Kyle?” I asked Gwendolyn.
Her brows raised a little, then her mouth formed an ‘O’. “He’s in the training grounds,” she answered.
I reared back. In the training grounds? And he left me to sleep in? “Are you sure? What is he doing there?” I asked.
“Serving his punishment,” Gwendolyn fiddled with her fingers as she answered me.
I stood up from the bench in an instant. “His punishment? What do you mean his punishment?” I questioned, raising my voice.
“Yesterday, you were not in your room and he was guarding an empty room. The king happened to be the one who found you in a bad state so… He’s being punished for not being beside you when he needed to be.” Gwendolyn answered.
My right palm found my mouth as I gasped into it. Kyle was being punished because of me. If I had just stayed in my room, nothing like this would’ve happened. I had to go there right now.
Giving Gwendolyn no explanation, I turned my back to her and started to trot over in the direction of the training grounds. So many things had happened yesterday that they were all starting to blur inside my head.
I still hadn’t forgotten about almost being killed and now Kyle. What if he was already dead? I knew that the punishment for anything in this castle was death. What would that mean for him? That he would die because he wasn’t with me?
I couldn’t let that happen! I wouldn’t let another person die because of me. The maids had given me a harsh slap of reality and I had made a mistake outing them. I quickened my pace. By the time I got to training grounds I was already running.
This was the only time that I was grateful that I wasn’t wearing a long gown with a skirt and in its place trousers and a tunic. Soldiers in training casted me curious looks as I ran past them, using my eyes to search for Kyle.
Once I finally did, I saw him kneeling on the ground taking two whips at a time to his back. My jaw dropped at the sight. From afar, I shouted, “Stop!”
Everyone around seemed to obey me. I ran over the soldiers were still holding the whips against him.
“Stop it!” I cried, shoving one of them away from Kyle. Kyle lost balance and fell onto my lap as I crashed on the ground. “What is wrong with you people!?” I asked, their eyes all watching me with no words to be said from their mouths.
“Why are you people like this!?” I turned back to Kyle, his blood staining my tunic and trousers. He seemed so out of it. I couldn’t even tell if he was aware of what was happening. His breathing was loud and so ragged.
“My lady, you cannot be here. The king-”
“The king what!?” I cried, cutting the soldier off. “Tell me! The king what!? He ordered you to beat him till he died, didn’t he? Or what were you about to say? How could you guys even do that? Isn’t he your mate? Your fellow soldier?” I turned to the rest of the soldiers in the training grounds as they watched me.
“You all just stood by. You didn’t even care. You watched him get beaten to the point where he doesn’t even know what’s happening to him! Are you guys that insensitive? That heartless?” No one said anything. They just watched me.
“You all make me sick.” I spat, then used all my strength to stand up with Kyle leaning on me. Like clockwork, Gwendolyn took his other side and slung his arm over her shoulder just like I did.
The three of us started to move slowly through the still crowd. No one said anything after that. No one in the castle itself said anything when we got there. From the men standing guard, to the servants working by, to the probable councilmen that went in and out of the castle. None said a word.
I guess I wasn’t the only one they treated poorly here. Their own kind weren’t even an exemption in the cruelty exhibited by lycans.