Chess
1360 Words
Chapter 2
Chess
POV Cassy
A guard grabs me and starts dragging me away. I leap for Sebastian’s desk and hold on to the desk leg. I’m not going down easily.
‘We should just bite him!’ Cush yells in my head.
Sebastian notices the desk moving, hears the guard struggling, and turns around. My belly is showing. I swear I see a smile on his face, which is rare, he’s always angry about everything.
“No, not that one. That one.” He points to the girl beside me.
‘That was close!’ Cush says.
I let go of his desk and get back in line.
The poor rejected girl screams all the way out of the palace.
A handsome man who looks a lot like Sebastian walks into the room.
“Do you mind if I pick one?” he asks. “I really want to just have a wife without the drama of picking one. Dad said he’s already picked over the girls and chosen the ones he likes.”
“Help yourself, brother,” Sebastian says.
The brother stares at all of us for a few minutes.
“What’s your favorite colour, girls?” he asks.
Everyone answers him, except me.
“Describe your perfect day.”
Once again, everyone talks but me.
He goes to ask another question, and then stops.
“Hey, mute. Why aren’t you saying anything? Did you forget how to talk?” he asks.
I give him a wicked smile, hoping he’ll think I’m boring and not pick me. How was I supposed to know it would have the opposite effect?
“I’ll take the mute.” He picks me up like a paperweight and heads out of the room.
‘He’s kind of handsome,’ Cush whispers.
“Put Cassy back, Josh!” Sebastian growls.
He knows my name? I thought we were all just numbers. I’m Number Six.
Josh continues walking, ignoring him. “You have four left, Sebastian. You can’t have everything.”
I hear Sebastian throw another book through his freshly fixed window.
“Put her down. Now!” Sebastian roars from his office.
As he continues walking and ignoring Sebastian, a book comes flying at the back of Josh’s head with good aim.
Right before Josh falls on me. Sebastian grabs me and checks me head to toe, running his sexy hands down my body. Then he peeks at my belly, smirks, and puts me back in line.
‘Oooooo, he likes us! He’s pretending not to,’ Cush giggles.
Josh tries to choose another girl, and Sebastian growls at him and kicks Josh out of his office.
We spend the next week learning tennis.
Well, the girls learn tennis.
I don’t have an athletic bone in my body.
Cush can talk to me, but we haven’t shifted yet, so I’m about as athletic as a human.
I’m watching Sebastian play tennis with a friend when Ethan walks over and interrupts their game.
“You can’t marry five girls,” Ethan yells.
Josh lurks around in the background, hoping I’m let go.
“Which one?” Ethan says.
“Hmm, Lisa, I mean Amber. I don’t know; pick one of those two.”
Josh walks over, swaps me with Amber, and walks off again, while Sebastian isn’t watching.
This time, Sebastian follows Josh on the way back to the castle, and flips Josh around with one hand and grabs me with the other and punches him in the face with his free hand.
I hear a loud crack.
Then, Sebastian puts me down and slides his hands down my body. He skims his warm nose along the nape of my neck, sending tingles throughout my body.
‘He’s toying with us, that bastard,’ Cush pouts.
“Take Lisa,” he barks at his father.
He steps away, and I suddenly feel cold.
The Queen Mother comes back from vacation. After a few days of ranting at Sebastian to just pick a girl, he kicks us all out of his office and says he doesn’t want any of us.
Cush feels rejected all over again.
“He threw all the girls out,” I tell her. ”Just relax.”
Luckily, Josh is away for five days. Not that Josh would be that bad. I just want to touch Sebastian’s hair, maybe his butt.
‘You take the hair; I’ll take the butt,’ Cush says in my head.
We follow Sebastian’s father, Ethan, around instead.
He tests us in different ways, makes us cook a fancy dinner from scratch, then read a boring book and summarize it. Boring stuff. I really don’t think this is how Sebastian would choose a girl.
Then he pulls out a chessboard. Which I have no idea how to play.
I watch him teach us the basics and then beat all of us.
I sneak off on our bathroom break to the library and get a book on chess. I’m a bit of a sore loser.
I’m climbing to the top shelf; I’m only five two, short for a wolf, I know. Hopefully, once we shift, I’ll be taller.
I reach the top shelf, about ten feet up from the ground, and pull out a big book called Master Chess for Beginners.
I’m wiggling the book out and manage to fall. I scream at the top of my lungs and land in strong, muscular hands that smell like peppermint. Without looking at who caught me, I swipe the book off the ground and run for the safety of Ethan’s sitting room.
I slam the heavy book on my new favorite lounge chair and disappear in it.
I’m no genius, but I have a photographic memory, and I rely on it to get good marks in school.
I sit, memorizing the book.
When I’m done, I ask to go to the washroom and drag the book back to the library. This time, I grab the sliding ladder.
It feels like all the books are against me and huddle together, leaving no space to squish the book back in, and I accidentally drop it.
Forgetting where I am and having spent way too much time around Sebastian.
I mutter, “For f**k’s sake, book! You have one job! Now I have to lug your stupid...”
“Just leave it, Number Six. I’ll put it back,” Sebastian says.
I peek around the corner, and he’s sitting at a small desk in the library with his feet up and his eyes closed. I step closer, wanting to touch him.
I take another step and breathe in his peppermint scent. I reach out my fingers and slide a few strands of hair behind his right ear, just when he opens his eyes.
I bolt out of the library.
I find everyone in the kitchen getting a snack before sleep. I have a snack and then head back to the library again. No one is at the small desk.
I choose a lighter book, Chess for Dummies. I zip through it, memorizing the pages, put it back, and head to bed.
The next morning I get up early. By evening, I have enough information to fumble through and have a good chance of winning.
Ethan complains I’m taking too long only because I’m kicking his butt.
He beats me again, making me more determined to win.
‘Your such a sore loser, Cass. Just let it go.’
I continue memorizing chess books. I accidentally passed out on the desk with a bunch of books surrounding me.
I wake in the wee hours and happen to look out the window.
A massive black wolf with black eyes stares at me.
I fall off the chair in surprise. A stack of heavy books lands on my head, and everything goes black.
I wake up with the other girls and a bad headache.
I’m trying to figure out if the wolf really happened, or it was just a dream.
Maybe the guard put me back while I was sleeping.
‘Maybe,’ Cush giggles.
I’m kicking Ethan’s butt at chess again when Josh grabs me and lugs me off to his room.
- Writer
