Taming The Cursed Beast

CHAPTER 5: Who Is Visiting?

“T-that’s my bag.” Agnes slowly breathed out. The kid was hanging on the Alpha King’s hands as he gripped him from the collar of his shirt.

“Oh, it is?” he mumbled, before aggressively pulling the bag away from the kid’s helpless hands.

“Pathetic little thieves,” he murmured, eyes staring intensely at the kid with so much hatred in it.

He gives the bag onto Agnes’ hand with a playful wink.

“Now,” he proceeds to shift his hand from the back of his clothes onto his neck, holding the kid higher and higher as it wriggles on his tight grip.

Agnes’ eyes were wide, and before her self control could get to her, she was fast enough to try pulling the kid off Armaros’ grasp. With her strength though, her attempt were merely futile.

“Stop!” she shouted before gripping the Alpha King’s coat, as though it would somehow wake Armaros up from the evilness he was doing.

“I said stop!” she yelled, staring right into his nonchalant eyes.

Agnes stared back at Armaros with tears collecting into the corners of her eyes.

“Please . . . stop,” was the last thing she could mutter as her knees felt weak from the sight.

Armaros dropped the kid on the ground with a thud and Agnes instantly turned to him. She attended to his small body. The kid was both crying and coughing, and the mark on his neck was evidently red, bruising instantly.

“I am sorry, lady!” he muttered before suddenly getting into his knees, bowing the tip of his head on the ground.

“Please spare m-my life, I would not do it again . . .” he stammered, leaving Agnes confused.

Has he said anything to him to make this kid yield so suddenly? Shouldn’t he be begging the Alpha King? Why is he saying sorry to me?

“I am in no mood to kill, lady. Simply take that kid back to you pack and make an example of him.” Armaros muttered. He turned around and was abouot to head inside his carriage, yet it wasn’t long enough before his head darted back towards Agnes.

“Hush now, little child. You are not to be punished,” Agnes assured, wiping the tears falling from the child’s face. She took the bag from the ground before taking a clanking purse inside.

It was gold coins, of course.

Armaros’ face cramped up even more from the sight. He stole yet was given a bag full of coins? Just how generous yet foolish was she?

“I am not to be pu‐punished?” the boy asked, a few hiccups escaping his throat as he stared up at Agnes who to his little heart, seemed like a fallen angel. Armaros fisted his palms, knuckles turning white as he observed the obnoxious scene in front of him.

“No, of course not. Now off you go and do good,” she forced a smile out of her trembling face before she ruffled his dirty locks.

The boy stared at Agnes with a look as though the Goddess herself flew down the earth before running off.

“You freed the child?” Armaros was still there, standing as he still cannot grasp how Agnes’ foolish brain works.

Agnes looked up at him with a void gaze. Her body was still trembling from the sight that had befall right in front of her. It was unnerving, even for the Alpha King.

That poor child could have been killed, how in the world was he not fazed about that?!

With restrained tears in her reddening eyes, Agnes glared up at the King.

Somehow, Armaros realized that though he liked how tears look on her from earlier, a look with not even a single emotion on it, was far scarier.

“You . . .” Agnes spat, stepping closer onto the King right in front of her. Indeed, when he offered to kill the rogues for her—she knew she was dealing with someone really dangerous.

Yet she blamed herself for not expecting that the Alpha King who‹s generous enough to let her in his carriage would dare lay hands on a child. A mere child with no armor nor anyone to defend him around but Agnes who was still morally sane.

She had no fear anymore, and with her trembling finger, she placed it on the Alpha King’s hard chest. She would never stop cursing him.

“You are a cruel beast,” she gritted under her breath, lowering her head as her shoulders shook from the pent up mix of anger, frustration, and fear of what she had seen.

She was, afterall, raised inside the castle walls and had no sight of death and even mere threats apart from the newspapers, and now that she had seen one before her. It was a disturbing sight that seemed to have hauled her in a deep pit of helplessness.

“That is what I am,” Armaros responded.

“No!” she took his collars aggressively and pulled him down close to her face. Her eyes were intense, none that Armaros had ever seen anyone having the guts to do so at him.

“That is what you have made yourself to be,” she breathed out, faces inches away from each other.

She then pushed him away before taking her bag on the floor, walking away without looking at him ever again.

That was their only meeting.

And probably the last.

Probably.

-

Agnes sold everything at the auction house.

She was determined, thinking that it would take a lot of effort, but all the things she’s brought were from rare tailors and shops. It was extraordinary that the auction house even offered a price higher than she was selling her clothes for.

Selie, who was tied in the tree, was fortunately still there. She went home with a heart as heavy as a boulder, certain that what has happened today will remain in her nightmares for all dreams to come.

“Delphi!” she dropped her bag on the floor, running towards her pet that was chewing on the rose buds. She kissed her fur before heading over to her vanity with a whirling enthusiasm.

Of course she’s far from happy.

This was the product of her desperation to forget everything and simply go on as though nothing happened. She was trying to enliven herself.

She went over to her vanity before picking up a pen and paper to write to her lover, Frederick. They were in a secret relationship for as long as she had ever known. He was the only person who did not desire her.

He was a scholar man from a poor family.

Agnes never saw him for what he lacked, but for what he possessed and what he was willing to give. For months, they wander along, lovestruck. A poor scholar, and a wealthy brat. How romantic yet so forbidden, right?

It was of course, taken away from Agnes when he was to follow his dreams in a prestigious academy. She waited for him, and now that he was back in the pack, she’s willing to go through lengths to be with him once more, and that means taking him with her runaway plan.

If he obliged, of course.

. . . I ought to run away from the path my parents have laid out for me. And if you would come with me, my Dearest, I will make sure it will forever be the greatest decision you will be making. You have stolen a large piece of myself, and I will permit to have you steal more in the future.

Agnes Burroughs, lover.

“Delphi!” she yelled, having her pet on her lap the next second. She inserts the letter in an enclosed envelope, stamping onto its opening before handing it over to her trained monkey.

“Frederick. Fre-de-rick, you understand?” she trained her monkey to have her deliver things for her, thank goodness she complied over years of practice.

She received a small sound that seemed to say Delphi understood before it swung its way down her balcony.

It was not long before her mother banged the door right after her monkey’s departure. Agnes cannot help but groan in frustration at her parent’s persistence.

I swear to the Goddess above, if this is about that marriage again, I will forget everything and leave tonight!

“Agnes, look!” her mother enthusiastically opens the letter with speed faster than any she has seen. Agnes rolled her eyes.

“What is it now, Mama?” After holding the door open for her mother, she quickly walked back on her bed only to sigh heavily with her eyes on the ceiling pondering about how her life is going.

I wish my book of life was written in graphite pencil. There are a few pages I would like to erase.

“Your husband-to-be has sent a portrait of himself! We shall have a look, come, come!” her mother hastily tried to call her but she was too tired and uninterested.

Before her mother could bring the portrait out of the envelope for them to look at, she places it back in and pushes her mother out the door with an exaggerated yawn.

“I am tired, Mama. I promise to look upon that drawing once I have woken up for tomorrow,” she said, shutting the door.

As if I would.

“Do not forget to pray to the Moon Goddess, honey,” she reminds.

For what?

She has never given me my wolf nor my mate.

The Goddess loathes me.

Agnes plopped down her pillows as the sleep took over her.

“You are a cruel beast!”

“No! That is what you have made yourself to be,” was the last word that left my mouth before the Alpha King shifted into a midnight wolf, his eyes flickered to crimson red.

The next thing I knew, I was trotting on my last breath on the ground, with blood that seemed to be leaking right out of my neck, staring at those eyes that held no mercy after another slaughter.

“Ha!” Agnes shot up from bed, caressing her throat that was just slit out from her nightmare. She looked around. This was not the capital market. It was her room, with decorated walls and high ceilings.

It was merely a dream.

A dream.

Just a bad dream . . .

She turned to look at the creature beside her. It was her monkey, Delphi. A letter was already in her vanity and pushing everything aside with a glass of water from her nightstand, she runs up to open it.

. . . I will of course, follow you wherever you are and will be. But as much as I am too shameless to do ask, I need more money to help myself. If you could send more, I will be most grateful, my love.

Frederick

Agnes embraces the letter, shrieking to herself before dressing up and heading down after feeding her monkey. She isn’t wearing any cloak today, afterall, her transaction would not be something that should be hidden from her father.

Not unless he’ll try to know who I sent the money to.

“Agnes, Agnes!” Before she could go outside the pack house, her siblings, Fiadh and Hollie followed before her.

“The Alpha King!” at the sound of his title, Agnes’ shoulder stood rigid before her innocent sisters.

“He will be visiting our pack house tonight!” Fiadh added, making her stare wide eyes at her sister.

The memory she was trying hard to push away came knocking once more.

Well, s**t.