Seraphina Pov
“I should’ve known they were up to something”, Seraphina soliloquize.
The way Marcellus, my stepfather grinned at me like I was a pawn he’d just sacrificed in a game he couldn’t afford to lose. The way my mother avoided my eyes as she fixed my dress, her fingers trembling. The way the guards came for me.
“You’re to appear before the Alpha King,” one of them said.
“What for? I don’t even belong to a pack”,
I laughed, he didn't answer instead he just
stepped aside and let the others flank me.
“ Seraphina”, mother whispered and pressed something into my hand.
“Don’t fight it,” she whispered, like that would be enough, I had never been more lost in my life, I was taken away.
Rumors didn't lie, the throne room was everything talked about in passing, magnanimous, filled with glory, and carved from obsidian stone.
He sat at the end of the hall. Alpha King Lucien; The Blood Moon Beast, a man masked in power, he didn’t even look at me.
“Bring her forward,” he said, voice like steel and the guards pushed me to my knees.
“I can walk,” I hissed, shoving back.
“You will kneel before the king,” Marcellus barked behind me.
“What the hell is this?”, I spun to face him.
“My offering”,he said smugly.
“You should be grateful to be here”, he added.
“What?, Grateful?”, I was pissed.
“You’ve always been unremarkable but now… you’ll be useful”, he stepped closer.
“I am flesh and blood…yet you're selling me off like cattle”.
“To a king,” he cut in.
“It’s the highest honor someone like you could ever hope for”, he snapped.
“Someone like me?”, my eyes burned.
“A bastard, a stray, don’t forget who gave you this life”, he said caressing his chin.
I wanted to scream to spit on his face and run but the guards were solid, I couldn't outsmart them, I was alone.
“Enough.” Lucien’s voice cut through us.
“Bring her”, he demanded, his voice shaking the walls.
“ Please”, I hesitated but I was dragged forward, forced to my knees again before him.
That was the first time I looked directly at him, he didn't meet my eyes, his gaze stayed fixed on the fire beside his throne, like he couldn’t be bothered by my presence.
“She will do,” he said.
“She will?” I repeated, stunned.
“Do what?”, I let out and Marcellus smiled.
“Bear the king an heir”, he said with pride.
“ What?”, my breath caught.
“You’re joking”, I said holding the hem of my garment.
“I do not joke,” Lucien said quietly.
“You want a breeder?” I spat.
“That is your purpose,” he replied, still not meeting my gaze. “Bear me a son. Then disappear”.
“You can’t be serious…”
“I’m not in the habit of repeating myself”, he twitched his brows.
“And I’m not in the habit of being owned”, I retorted and he finally looked at me then.
It was like being pinned beneath a glacier.
Eyes silver and void of warmth, I expected fury but I got indifference instead as if I didn’t matter enough to hate.
“You’ve been chosen”, his voice meant every word.
“The deal is sealed, my seer confirmed it. You will conceive before the next moon cycle”, he said indifferently.
“ You speak am some toy”, I murmured.
“Not if I throw myself off a cliff”, I said voice higher.
“Do it after the child is born”, he said leaning back.
“You’re sick”, I flinched.
“No. I’m king”, he said and that was it.
They gave me a room in the east wing. Not a cell, not quite a suite either. It felt like a holding pen. A place to keep something until it was needed.
A maid entered soon after. Small, soft-spoken, with downcast eyes.
“I’m not staying,” I said.
“You are,” she replied gently.
“Please let me help you undress.”
“I’m not a pet”, I snapped.
“No, my lady. You’re the king’s chosen. That makes you... devotional”.
“Wonderful”, I scoffed.
I paced the floor as she folded my dress.
“How many others has he done this to?”, i asked.
“None”.
“What?”, I stopped in my track.
“You’re the only one”, she confirmed.
“Why?”
“They say the king cannot bond”,she hesitated, her voice lower than before.
“Meaning?”
“His wolf rejected every mate he was offered. The seers said the next Luna would be one with no roots. No bond. No claim to any pack.”
“So they picked the stray”, I laughed bitterly.
“They picked the only one who could survive him”, her eyes met mine for the first time and I flinched.
“ You may leave", I said and she dismissed herself. I stood by the tall windows and stared at the blood-red moon rising above the pines.
So this was my life now, trapped in a palace with a man who wanted my womb, not me. A king with no soul, no warmth, no mercy, I was reduced to an animal for mating. If I had to play this game, I’d play it on my terms.
“ The King seeks your presence”, the maid knocked on my door.
I walked into the war room with my chin high, ignoring the generals who stared. I found Lucien at the head of the table, surrounded by maps and strategy markers as expected he didn’t look up.
“You asked for me?”
“I did.”
“Well?...”
“You’ll begin preparing for the bonding ceremony.”
“There won’t be one.”
“You refuse?”, he glanced at me.
“I redefine”, I said and the room was dead silent.
“Explain”.
“You said I was to give you a child, not wear your ring. If I’m to be used, I’ll at least keep my name”.
“You dare dictate terms to me?”, he rose, tall and dangerous.
“No, I just don’t answer to men who can’t even look me in the eye when they ruin me”.
The room went silent, he stepped forward, inches from my face.
“You will do as commanded.”
I held my ground. “Or what? Kill me? Fine. Then you’ll have no heir, and your precious throne will fall”.
He studied me then, really studied me. Like I’d just grown teeth.
“You’re not afraid of me”, he smirked.
“I’m not afraid of anything anymore.”
“ Keep it that way”, he dismissed me.
“ What did he mean by that?”, I couldn't sleep.
I lay on the too-soft bed, staring at the ceiling, replaying his words over and over.
“Bear me a son. Then disappear”.
I won't let him break me, I’d been surviving men like him my whole life and this time, I wasn’t going down quietly.
