Fated to the cursed

Armonie did not like her marriage arrangement with the chief of the neighbouring human clan by her father, but she had no choice. It was important to build their army in order to defeat the Lycan King. She understood that she was nothing but a tool in the hands of her father, and her importance lay on how good an ally she could secure for her father through marriage. She sat in a tent at the moment, getting beautified by the women of her clan for the engagement ceremony happening that night. "You would make a fine bride," one of the women said as she twisted and braided Armonie's hair into an elaborate style. "Yes," another woman chimed in. She was scrubbing Armonie’sfeet with scented water. "You are very lucky, a strong man like Borus is going to be good in bed." This made the women in the tent giggle as they shared secret looks. "You no longer would be a daughter to a warrior but a wife of one." Armonie smiled at what the women were saying, a contrast to what she was feeling in her heart at that moment. Her mind flitted back to the morning when she was introduced to her husband to be. He was a fine warrior, no doubt, son of the chief of the next clan, but she was terrified of him. "So beautiful," he grunted as he poked and prodded her to see the quality of what he was getting. His hands had grabbed her breast while she stood there shaking like a leaf. The memory made her shudder and she shook her head to clear herself of it. "It is alright," she said to herself in her head, repeating it like a mantra to calm her terrified heart. The entrance to the tent opened and in came her father. All the women stopped their chattering, looking in his direction. He nodded his head, a signal for them to leave, which they did. Armonie looked at her father as he came to sit beside her. He was a short man with round belly and a face full of beards. His eyes were small and calculating and seemed to sink into his forehead. His shoulders were draped in fur. "You have done well, Armonie," he said. "You have made me proud." Armonie has waited a long time to hear such words coming outof her father's mouth, but the happiness she was supposed to feel was absent. A frown appeared on her forehead as he uttered those words. “You understand the importance of this union, so you would do well to behave and be a good wife.” Her father said as he stood up and left the tent. She wished she was brave enough to say no to the marriage arrangements, but she knew she had not the will to say no. She had voiced out her displeasure about the marriage to her aunty, Vara, who had raised her. “Why don’t you want to get married to him?” She had asked. “Borus is strong and brave, and he has completed the rites that make him a man and a warrior. What more do you want in a marriage?” Vara had asked, frustrated. “I want to marry a man who loves me and also, he looks at me like something to be devoured.” She had said. “Love,” Vara had scoffed. “Is meant for fools. There is nothing like love between a man and a woman. The only love there is, is that between a woman and her child.” “But…” She had tried to protest but was silenced by her aunt. “Tut, child. Men are incapable of loving a woman as their heart is as hard as rocks. The only love a man can have is for war, wine and s*x. “You are lucky Borus looks at you like something to be devoured, and that means you would have many opportunities to get pregnant and bear him as many sons as you can, which is the only duty of a woman in this world.” Armonie was no stranger to talks about s*x and childbearing, and although she was still a virgin, she knew what was expected of her and how it was supposed to work. The idea that she was supposed to have s*x with a man she did not love and who did not love her in return did not appeal to her, she wanted more. The Idea that there was nothing like true love between a man and a woman was not something she could accept. When she was younger, she had come across an old book, with pages so brittle she had had to handle them with care. It talked about love between shifters, that a soul would be divided into half, to find themselves again in love. That was the kind of love what she wanted. Armonie sighed as she sat in the tent thinking about her miserable life. She wished she was a shifter, then maybe there would be a chance to find love, but in the hierarchy of the world they lived in, humans were at the bottom as they were the weakest with no powers, and so, they stayed far away from the shifters. She understood that her father wanted to change that, and so the reason for this union was so that her father could join men with Borus’ father to fight against the Lycan king who rules the world they lived in, Glacia. The tent opened and a woman came in. “It is time, Armonie,” she said. The ceremony was held in the great hall, which was the only dwelling in the clan built with wood and not leather. The hall was filled with singing and dancing. The men sang in deep voices, cheering themselves as they drank wine. She sat beside her husband to be who kept on drinking, his cup getting filled frequently. Her stomach felt like it was filled with stones, her appetite absent as she stared at the arrays of food on the long table in front of them. Her mind zoned in and out, her focus only coming back when she heard the clinking of mental. The noise in the hall started to die down to the sound. Her father stood up, a spoon in one hand and his cup in the other. He cleared his throat and looked around. "We have come together today," he began when everywhere had quieted down. "To celebrate the union of our clan through the marriage of our children, Borus and Armonie. "It's been fifty years now since the war when the Lycan king decided to join all creatures together under his rule. There was much bloodshed, but who suffered the most, we humans. And so, today, we celebrate, tomorrow we go and we collect that which is ours." The hall erupted in cheers and the drinking and dancing increased. Armonie watched, her body present but her mind far away. The next morning, she watched as her father and his men with Borus' also rode away on a siege on the shifters. She stood outside her tent, draped in fur to ward off the chill and wondered if her father was not making a mistake fighting a war with the shifters when they had left them to be. She had heard stories about the Lycan king, and how formidable he was, both in human and beast form. He could singlehandedly kill a hundred men in a matter of minutes. He was not someone to be trifled with, and yet he had left the human clans alone after the war, only expecting a yearly tribute in gold and grain from each clan. As she stood outside her tent, even after they'd ridden off, she prayed to all gods and goddesses that nothing horrible would come out as a result of her father's action.