Chapter 16
1142 Words
Scarlett’s POV
Without Draco here, the palace felt different.
It’s not that it was quieter or even emptier.
No. It was wilder.
Like something had been removed from the palace and now there was this big empty space, free for the wrong people to fill.
Draco ruled with fear, control, sharp orders and cold looks but at least he kept the wolves in check. The concubines whispered, yes but they whispered carefully.
And now?
They were wantonly destructive.
With Draco gone, the Coyote Palace became their playground again. The omegas shook like leaves in the wind, with their heads bowed so low one would think they had all developed hunches on their backs.
There were no rules now, only hierarchy and the omegas were at the bottom.
I was at the top of that hierarchy but all the concubines wanted me knocked off.
***
I heard her before I saw her.
I heard Lirah’s sharp voice laced with venom slicing through the hallway.
“No! I said don’t touch that, you stupid little b***h! Is your hearing broken? Do you have no sense of direction?”
There was a small whimper of pain.
I turned the corner fast.
Lirah already had her hand twisted in the hair of a young omega, the girl looked like she was barely past girlhood.
Lirah was dragging the girl down with her claws digging into her scalp. The girl’s face was scrunched up in pain, her lips trembling and she had on no shoes.
“Let her go,” I said, my voice flat.
Lirah pretended not to hear me and continued with her dragging.
The girl’s eyes widened when she saw me.
“I said,” I repeated, growling. “Let her go.”
Lirah finally looked at me, her mouth curled into a devilish smirk.
“Well, well, well,” she sneered, letting the girl go with a shove to the ground. The omega scrambled up from the floor, crawling closer to my feet.
“Your Majesty,” Lirah mocked me with a dramatic bow. “I’m absolutely honored…”
The girl ran behind me, trembling.
“You can’t touch them like that,” I said coldly. “You don’t drag them around like they’re animals.”
“But she dropped my robe.” Lirah said in a mocking voice.
“She’s not your toy.”
“She’s property of the palace.”
“And this palace belongs to Draco,” I reminded her. “Not you, so I repeat, she’s not your property.”
Lirah looked at me with pure hatred.
The omega behind me bolted for the stairs.
A smart girl.
I could handle being left alone with Lirah,
And with Hanna, who was just now entering the room.
“Oh, please don’t stop on my account,” Hanna said smoothly. She folded her arms and I could see her eyes dancing with excitement. “I was enjoying your performance.”
I didn’t respond.
She smiled, a cold smile but it didn’t take away from her beauty. “I see you’ve found your new project, saving measly omegas from punishment. I do hope you’re not expecting applause.”
“I don’t expect anything,” I shot back.
“Of course you don’t,” she said in mock sweetness. “It’s not like you’re queen, anyway. You’re just a war souvenir with good timing.”
Lirah laughed at the joke.
I didn’t move.
“You know, now that Draco’s off doing what he does best,” Hanna continued, “I wonder how long it’ll take before he returns… with something shinier and younger. Maybe even a little bit more…obedient.”
My chest tightened but I didn’t dare betray my feelings by showing them.
“I know you know you’re not the first one he’s brought back like that, don’t you?” Lirah said. “The bruised beauty he didn’t want to sell. The one he wanted to keep for himself, at this point, it’s almost routine. He is predictable when it comes to that.”
“Like I’ve told you before, you think you’re different,” Hanna chimed in. “But you’re not. You’ll just be another girl he touched, another name no one will remember in the long run.”
I swallowed.
She stepped closer to me now, her voice maintained that softness but her words were cutting.
“Do you know what the guards called you the day they brought you in? You didn’t have a name, you weren’t Scarlett. You weren’t an Alpha’s daughter. You were nameless, part of the trophies from your pack. The blood on his hands was barely even dry.”
“I remember she wasn’t even conscious when she was brought in that day.” Lirah said. “I thought she was dead.”
Hanna tilted her head slowly. “But I guess she was never truly alive after that day. Because how can you sleep comfortably beside the man who ended everything you loved? A man who killed your entire family and took you from your roots. If it were me, I’d not be able to sleep at night… but you seem to be sleeping soundly.. in silk.”
They weren’t yelling, neither were they throwing punches.
But these concubines’ words hit me harder than any punch or any physical assault could.
I hated them with everything in me.
Even worse, I hated that the things they were saying were things that I thought about when I was alone.
Things that bothered my soul.
Falling for the man that destroyed everything I knew. Everything I loved.
“You don’t belong here,” Hanna said, in a whisper. “And once Draco finds someone new, he’ll remember that. Maybe you’ll be one of the omegas then and I’ll love to torture you every single day.”
I turned sharply.
“Maybe,” I said. “Maybe that might happen but right now, I’m the only one he wants.”
She smiled again. “Not for long, Scarlett. Not for long.”
***
I held my tears in until I returned to Draco’s bedchamber. It was only after I had closed the doors and secured the latches with my back pressed to the wall that the first sob escaped.
I slid down until I was curled on the cold floor, biting my lip so no one could hear the sobs that ripped through my very being.
I didn’t know if they were right.
I didn’t know if I was still the girl on the battlefield, the one who had preferred to die by Draco’s hands. Or the one dragged in chains and left in the dungeon.
The one who got lucky.
And I didn’t really know what hurt me more, if it was what Draco had done to me then.
Or what I felt for him now.
- Writer
