Royal Redemption

1. Disillusion

Tallula was positively ecstatic; this was officially her first date – ever! Her father had finally agreed that she could go out on an evening date with the most popular guy in school; Chase Waite. He was a gorgeous hunk of a boy with the most beautiful forest green eyes and an unruly mop of silky black hair that would stubbornly fall over his eyes more times than not. She had had a crush on him for forever!

At eighteen other girls her age had had their first kiss at the very least and some had even had their first s****l experiences; she was probably the only one in the school that was still untouched in any way by a boy. It had been a complete surprise when Chase Waite had approached her with that smile of his that made girls swoon and asked her out on a date with him.

It had taken Tallula a week of begging and bartering to get her parents to agree to a date and they finally had. She had spent the whole Saturday afternoon getting ready, so she would be beautiful enough for him. In an hour he would be there to pick her up and she had basically tried on everything in her closet before discarding it on the floor, hoping to find something that would take his breath away.

She knew she wasn’t the prettiest girl in school. Heaven knows the popular girls made it painfully clear that any boy in their school was way out of her league with her almond eyes and dark blond hair that fell to just below her shoulders. And who wanted a puma shifter who didn’t have her animal?

She had finally settled on a scoop neck three-quarter sleeve lilac skater dress with white canvas running shoes. She didn’t own a single pair of heels, because she had nowhere to wear them to anyway; her parents were very protective of her since she had no puma half yet – or at all, since everyone else her age seemed to have theirs already. Guess she was a dud, like her older brother called her.

She was close with her brother, but whenever they had a squabble or fight, he would call her a dud and she hated it. It wasn’t her fault that she had no animal side at sixteen when he had had his as early as fifteen. But then, her grandmother had been a human, which was why her grandfather was mourning his mate, who had had Cancer and died two years ago. He was never the same after losing his mate and she knew his beast was suffering their loss. They had been close before her death, but they hadn’t seen him since her death and rarely heard from him since he had started to wander. Maybe she took after her grandmother and would just be a human.

The doorbell took her out of her sad thoughts and she glanced one last time in the mirror before she grabbed her small purse with her phone and skipped down the stairs where she heard her mother open the door and greet Chase.

His green eyes sparkled when he saw her coming down the stairs and he gave her his signature smile that made her blush with his full attention on her. Her mother told him she had to be home by ten since her father was still at work and he promised he would have her back by then.

With that, he took her hand and led her outside to his car, where he told her she looked beautiful after looking at her again with hungry eyes and then held the door for her. Tallula was feeling giddy with excitement and she thanked him with a happy smile when she got into the passenger seat.

As she watched him walk around the front of his car she wondered how she could have gotten so lucky that the Chase Waite was taking her out on her very first date. How had he even noticed her if everyone insisted she was not worth the attention for being just a human? This had to be some kind of blessing!

When he got into the driver's seat, he winked at her. “So I thought we’d make our first date special and have a picnic, just the two of us, instead of the generic restaurant and movie thing.”

“That sounds great.” She blushed and smiled back at him. He was so handsome and he wanted their first date to be special. She would never have dreamed something so amazing would happen to her. This was a dream come true!

Chase drove them out to a look-out point that she’d never been before and once he’d parked the car, he came round and opened the door for her, before he took the basket and blanket out of the back seat and led the way to where they could look out on the small town, their lights flickering to life with the setting of the sun.

There he laid out the blanket and helped her to sit down on the colorful blanket, before he sat down beside her and opened the basket, taking out burgers and fries with soft drinks with an embarrassed smile. “I’m not much of a cook, so I hope you don’t mind I brought something from my favorite place.”

He handed her a meal and then took up his own. “So, Tallula, tell me something about yourself?”

She blushed, while she picked nervously at the fries. “Well, you can call me Lula; my friends and family call me that for short. What would you like to know?”

“Lula, that’s a pretty name.” He winked at her and she blushed again; the way he paid so much attention to her made her feel special to him.

“Thank you.”

“Let’s start with what you do in your free time?” He answered after a moment of silence.

“Well, I like to play violin, but I mostly try to do extra classes in school. I want to get a head start on my studies.”

“It sounds like you already have a plan in mind for your future.”

“Yes, I do. I want to study business management and hospitality, so I can open a wedding venue and hotel.” She answered excitedly.

“Wow, you have it all figured out already! I’m still wondering what I want to do with my life.” He answered with a shy smile.

“I’m sure you’ll find something you’re passionate about.” She answered supportively before she put a fry in her mouth.

His eyes darkened while he watched her eat for a moment. Then he leaned forward slowly until she felt his breath brush over her cheek. Lula glanced up at him and found herself mesmerized by his beautiful eyes while he leaned in closer, his eyes darting between her eyes and her lips.

Then his lips touched hers and she felt both elated and embarrassed at the realization that this was her first kiss and it was with the boy she had had a crush on since she had first seen him. The butterflies burst to life in her stomach at the sensations caused by his lips gently dancing on hers.

*TW: s****l Assault, not for the sensitive*

Suddenly, he deepened the kiss from a sweet touch of lips to a demanding, domineering kiss, conquering her mouth with aggression and she was shocked to find herself suddenly on her back on the blanket before she had even had a chance to pull away. He was much too strong.

Lula felt fear rise in her throat. He was moving too fast for her and she tried to push him away, but he was too heavy for her to get him off and he didn’t seem to have any intention of breaking the kiss, but he caught her hands in his one and held it above her head in a hold she couldn’t seem to break.

She tried to turn her face away from the kiss, but he was holding her in place, then she felt his free hand on her inner thigh and she tried to scream and fight him off, but he was swallowing her screams and that only seemed to excite him more. She needed to get away from him but he had pinned her down and had pushed his hips between her legs so she could only wiggle helplessly in her attempts to get away.

Suddenly, she felt the rip of material and she realized that he had ripped her underwear off. Lula fought with all her might. She didn’t want to do this, she wasn’t ready; this was supposed to be a sweet first kiss. She wanted her mate to be her first if she ever had one.

Without warning, she felt something big and hard shoved into her and she screamed in agony when it felt like he was tearing her apart, but he swallowed her screams, never breaking his hungry devouring of her mouth while he tore her insides apart and his hand, not holding her wrists kneaded her breast and hip painfully, tearing her dress in the process and bruising her skin wherever he touched.

Tears were running down her face, staining her face like his actions were doing with her body. It felt like her insides were being ripped apart, but he just kept going for what felt like hours until she couldn’t stand the pain anymore, while his free hand moved to her throat and started choking her and she blacked out.

*End of assault*

When she finally came back to herself, she started sobbing uncontrollably without even opening her eyes and she just managed to roll over before she threw up whatever was in her stomach. She hurt everywhere.

When she finally opened her eyes she saw him standing above her with a look of disgust on his face. “You’re not getting into my car; I don’t want blood and puke on my upholstery. You were a great f**k, but that’s expecting too much.”

Then he walked away and just left her there, alone and broken, her body wracked with agony so that she couldn’t move. So she lay there sobbing brokenly while she heard him start the car and drive away, leaving her there like the trash of their take-out meal.

She had been wrong; this wasn’t a dream, it was a nightmare.

How could he do this to her? Her body was shivering at the pain and shock she was going through while she sobbed uncontrollably about what was supposed to be a beautiful night. He had used her and left her like she was nothing.

Lula had no idea how long she’d lain there sobbing, the cold air adding to her pain and misery. She wasn’t able or willing to move from where she lay, though she heard her phone ringing in her small purse. She just lay there sobbing brokenly; he was not worth the crush she had felt for him. She would never allow herself to feel anything other than fear and revulsion towards men; how could he do such a thing to her and just leave her there?

She was vaguely aware that her phone kept ringing, but she didn’t have any energy to move and she just hoped that this was all a horrible dream and she would wake up in her cozy bedroom surrounded by her favorite things.

She blacked out again somewhere in her sobbing and when she woke up, she found herself in a hospital bed with her mother sitting beside her sobbing and apologizing for letting that happen to her. She vaguely realized that there was an IV inserted in her hand where she lay, but everything was tinged with the pain.

Her brother stood in the corner looking broken and her father was screaming at someone outside the room. How had she got here? The last thing she remembered was lying on the cold ground, broken and sobbing.

“I’m so sorry, baby! I wish this never had to happen to you.” Her mother kept crooning while she held her and brushed her fingers through her hair repeatedly and that started her wailing her pain and humiliation all over again, which just seemed to tear her brother apart as he sank down to the floor, holding his head in his hands with a tortured expression on his face and tears running down his face.

Suddenly, the door burst open and a bunch of men in suits came in with her fuming father on their heels. “Miss Tallula Kasey?” The first man didn’t even wait for her to confirm or deny it before the hard-faced man continued. “I was charged with offering you compensation for the night in exchange for your discretion in the matter of Chase Waite.”

“She was raped you sick bastard!” Her brother screamed his anger at the man who continued to ignore him as if he hadn’t spoken.

“I will need you to sign this non-disclosure agreement in exchange for seventy-five thousand dollars.”

“We don’t want your hush money; we want that boy to be arrested for his crimes!” Her father screamed at the man. “Look what that son of a b***h did to my daughter! She may never have children after what he did to her and that’s if she’d ever come close to anyone again.”

“This is the one and only offer we will make in this situation. The money has already been paid into Miss Kasey’s account and we need to get her signature.”

“What if we take this to the courts?” Her father challenged.

What was he thinking? They all knew they barely had enough money to get by as it was. Her father worked long hours to bring in enough money so her mother could just work a half day to be with them when they came off school.

“If you refuse to sign the non-disclosure agreement, we are tasked with removing the problem.” The man answered shortly; the meaning of his words making it clear that whoever was backing Chase Waite would have them removed off the face of the earth if they didn’t agree to keep it quiet.

Lula realized that her father was about to take them on despite their clear threat to their family, so she pushed her mother away from her and painfully sat up under the horrified stares of everyone in the room, including the men threatening her family. She was not about to let her parents suffer with her. She did not want them hurt because she had wanted to go on a first date with a boy she had had a crush on. She would not have them pay for her stupidity.

When she was finally sitting upright with tears rushing down her face at the pain she was in and feeling lightheaded from what she assumed was blood loss, she ripped the offered file and pen out of the clearly surprised man’s hand and signed the non-disclosure agreement before she looked him straight in the eyes without any fear. If they killed her here and now, it would be no worse than what had been done to her, but she would not allow them to kill her family for her ignorant wish to be loved.

“I’ve signed your stupid form, Mister. But know that you are just as guilty as he who did this to me and I hope that your daughter or son will never have to go through what I did, because you are enabling a monster.” She said in a surprisingly cold and calm voice despite the agony and the emotions she was dealing with at the moment.

The man had the decency to look guilty at her words while he watched her lie back down with agonizingly slow movements since her lower half felt like it was torn apart. Then she stared at him with cold eyes. “Please leave me alone in my misery now.”

The man seemed haunted by what he saw in her eyes, but he nodded once and left the room with the other three men that had not had the courage to meet her gaze. Her mother reached for her while she was sobbing and her father seemed utterly broken apart while he stared at her.

“Could I please be alone?” She asked softly. She didn’t want to look at anyone else’s sadness and pity. She needed to work through this for herself. It was obviously not just a nightmare and she had to decide what she had to do from there, because she had no intention of going back to the school where her rapist was happily living his life without the consequences of what he had taken from her.

“Baby, don’t shut us out.” Her mother begged, knowing that she’d always lock herself away when she was in pain, like she had done with her grandmother’s death.

But she couldn’t look into their eyes at that moment. She needed to work through her emotions. She needed silence and time alone if she was going to move on from everything that had been taken from her.

Her virginity that she had saved in case she was someone’s mate, her stupid expectation that everyone was a good person deep down; she had learned her lesson. There really were monsters out there and she would never be able to trust anyone after that. Her trust in humanity had been broken and she needed time to come to terms with that.

Finally, her family left her in defeat, her mother kissing her forehead and promising her that she was not alone in this and that they loved her. She shrunk away from her father and brother and they looked hurt, but she couldn’t help the revulsion at feeling a man touch her after everything that had happened.

Lula wanted to believe that there was some way that she could move on from this, but right now, she couldn’t see anything but the humiliation of being used and cast aside like she wasn’t worth anything. When she was sure she was alone, she closed her eyes and mourned the loss of everything that had been forcefully ripped out of her life.

The following days she had shut down emotionally, she was barely hanging in there. The hospital had sent her a counselor, but she refused to speak to anyone. She spent the days in the hospital staring at the white walls and wondering why she had ever thought that she could have any boy like her when she was just a mere human in a shifter community.

When she was finally released from the hospital, she spent her days in her room, staring out the window. She barely ate and never touched her violin; she didn’t answer calls from her friends who wanted to know why she wasn’t in school. She had even gotten a few calls from Chase Waite. But she stared at the ringing phone until it cut off, like she did with all the other phone calls. She didn’t want to see anyone. She rarely spoke to anyone, even the members of her family; conversations just seemed redundant, so she had pretty much become selectively mute whenever words were not necessary.

Eventually, two weeks after that night, she decided that she would have to find a way to finish her schoolwork. She had to either kill herself or find a way to move on with her life; killing herself was not completely off the table, but she decided to try moving on with some semblance of a life was the first choice. She sent an e-mail to the principal and asked if she could do her schooling from home and just send in her work.

Apparently, the principal had heard about her being raped and had agreed to assist her with getting her schoolwork done from home, but she would have to have an exam on the school premises, but the teachers would assist her with doing that without anyone else nearby.

The principal obviously knew that she had been raped, but he didn’t ask who had done it, which she found helpful. She assumed her parents had informed the man of why she had not been to school for a couple of weeks.

But it didn’t matter in the end; she had been defiled and left to die. Perhaps she still might die, but for now she was taking small steps to attempt a life after what had happened.