Chapter 7
1312 Words
Scarlett’s POV
I sat in the bed, my spine straight and my eyes dry.
Draco was going to let them live, on the condition that I stopped acting soft and pathetic.
“What does he mean by the part he likes the most?” I asked myself.
Did he mean my body? He already had it.
If this was another one of his games, I would play it, not for him or his foolish and deluded pleasure but for them, my omegas. For Moana and for Miriam, for the survival of my girls he caged in silence.
The room still smelled like him but a new resolve was formed within me.
When the Omega maid returned to clean after us that morning, she flinched as she saw that I was awake and looking at her.
I smiled at her, not too warmly but just so she could relax.
“I need some clothes to wear, maybe something light blue,” I said. “And could you help me brush out my hair, please.”
Her hands shook as she left the room, but in a few minutes she returned.
She made quick work with a warm bath and left some good soap in the washroom for me.
As I washed my body, I felt like bringing out my claws and clawing off the skin on my body. It felt tainted.
After I was done bathing, I stepped outside. She had placed a free flowing long dress on the bed, and had cleaned up the bed.
She made quick work with my hair.
As I sat in the room, another omega came in.
“You’ve been asked to join the others in the inner court of the palace.”
I knew who she meant before she even finished her statement. It had to be the other concubines.
***
I hadn’t gone anywhere besides the dungeon, the throne room and Alpha Draco’s bedchamber. I had no idea how beautiful the garden in his palace was.
It was in bloom, with roses, hibiscus, pillows and a small fountain situated in the middle. There were benches made of stone around the different clearings.
Hanna sat in the center, she was flanked on her left and right by women who looked like they had stepped out of a painting, they were dressed in silk, and had fake smiles that didn’t reach their eyes.
“Scarlett, is it?” Hannah asked, her voice was way sweeter than it had been at our last encounter.
Her hands were on her thighs, “You look… different.”
She looked me over, it seemed she kept the picture of me in black in her head and hadn’t seen me in better conditions.
“Is this where I’m measured and weighed, by your standards?”
She laughed, softly but I wasn’t convinced. “Oh no. This is just us ladies having tea.”
I glanced at the others. One girl, with all curves and waves of blonde hair, offered me a cup. I held it to my lips but didn’t drink.
I sat down as I scanned their faces.
Another one of the ladies looked like she wanted to bite out my throat.
It was quiet, too quiet. None of them insulted me, no one snarled. But they weren’t kind, they were curious and this was an assessment.
I smiled.
Maybe this was a good time to play dumb.
I would let them think they had conquered, let them think I wasn’t a threat and maybe they’d accept me into the fold, that way they would stop guarding their secrets. The secrets of the palace and the Alpha.
***
From the corridor above the court, I watched her sit among the other concubines like that was where she had always belonged.
She laughed once, not too loud but not too soft either. It was perfectly placed.
She was good, too good for many of those concubines.
Hanna knew why she was doing when she asked for a meeting but I wasn’t sure that even Hanna knew the game she had just started.
Scarlett was truly a princess, someone who had a brain as well, most of these concubines were girls that I just fancied for their bodies and probably conquered their lands.
Others came willingly, the prospects of being a concubine of Alpha Draco probably excites them.
Scarlett was dangerous and it wasn’t because she was angry or scared but because she was poised and calculative.
***
The concubines talked in soft voices, they spoke about perfume and about new silk and about the bread coming from the kitchens these days.
I didn’t say much, I didn’t even need to, I let them keep looking at me, keep wondering and try to find the broken girl they’d expected.
The one they heard was torn out of her home, with her family killed in front of her.
Eventually, they started leaving the meeting, one by one. Either bored or satisfied with what they had seen. Even Hanna didn’t stay long, she gave me a parting smile that was so thin, it was obvious she still didn’t like me.
“She’ll last a week, soon he’ll get bored of her,” I heard one of them mutter as they left.
When I was sure I was alone, I stood up and kept walking down the side hall, where I knew the omega quarters were.
For a moment, it almost felt like I was walking through the quarters back home, with the way it smelled of firewood and fresh bread.
I turned a corner and almost collided with a girl carrying bed linens.
She gasped and dropped everything on the floor.
“I’m… I’m so sorry. I didn’t see you. Please forgive me mistress…. I’m sorry.”
She said as she scrambled to gather up the linens that were not unfolded and too full for her frail hands. I bent down to help her, kneeling beside her on the ground.
“Don’t worry,” I said. “I didn’t mean to scare you…”
She froze.
Slowly, she looked up at me.
“Mistress… you’re helping me?” She asked, her eyes wide.
I gave her a small smile. “Well, yeah. I walked into you and my arms still work so I’ll help you.”
She stared at me, surprised. “You’re… you’re Lady Scarlett.”
I stiffened. “Just Scarlett is fine.”
They must have been discussing me for an omega to know my name.
She hesitated then nodded. “My name is Lyra,” she said quietly. “I serve in the lower house. I do laundry and chamber sweeping mostly.”
“How long have you served in this palace?”
“Since I was born. I’m a native of Alpha Draco’s pack.” She said, her voice was so low, I could barely hear her.
“Do you have access to the dungeons?”
She shook her head.
Change of plans.
“Do you work with a particular mistress?”
She shook her head again.
“I can’t work in the main house because I lost two of my brothers. They were taken in the raids, I was spared, the Alpha doesn’t like people that could hold grudges.”
I touched her hand gently. “I’m sorry.”
“No one says that here, and even if they do, they never truly mean it.” Her voice cracked.
In my eyes, she looked like Moana, like Miriam. Like my girls.
We stood in silence for a beat too long.
Then I realized, it wasn’t just my Miriam and Moana I needed to save, his entire people were in pain and he was too busy conquering other packs to see it.
Maybe there was a way to make him see it.
No true Alpha would watch his pack members suffer.
- Writer
