CHAPTER ONE
TAINTED NIGHT
LUCINDA’S POV
The coldness of the night oozed into my thin fabric and blew my hair wildly around my face, my king's thick hair entered my mouth and I immediately spat it out, I was already shivering before we even got to the mating ceremony, and my stepmother didn’t allow me to take a sweater along as she was rushing me to get dressed.
Now, standing in front of my angry mate who had been ranting and yelling in my face for over an hour, I realized why she wanted me here.
I was beyond surprised when she agreed with me about going out tonight to find my mate. She didn’t want happiness for me and I wondered why she didn’t put up a fight or warn me not to leave the house… Now I know why.
“You are just a w***e! A piece of rag! And a cheap p********e!!… Do you ever think I will settle for a liar and foolish person like you… your stepmother and sister already exposed you and I reject you this instant!” His cold voice reached my inner brain, I circled to look at my gloating step-sister.
“Alpha Eric… please … at least listen to my side of the story, you can’t conclude without an investigation… at least … please..”, I was crying hysterically, holding the left leg of my mate. At that moment my fear of losing the only person that I had hoped would save me blocked my thinking.
I would Roll on the floor if I had to, I would worship him forever if he would just have me now. My crying increased when I sighted my step-sister from the corner of my swollen red eyes. She wrapped her hand around my mate's neck and he smiled back at her.
My step-sister was grinning from ear to ear, they were having an affair even before he met me, and he had the guts to call me cheap and a cheater!
Rossy finally spoke out, “My darling … throw this dirty thing out. She doesn’t deserve you!” Other pack members around us who had also attended the mating ceremony to find their mate, were staring at us and the look of pity on their faces towards me was annoying and repelling.
“I won’t throw her out! She will stay here and work as an ordinary maid, I will make sure she suffers for sleeping with other men!….” With that said, he ordered for his guards and two of them rushed toward me and dragged me away from him.
“Please…. I’m not that type of person, my stepmother and sister are lying to you…you can ask my friends about me” My eyes landed on my two friends, Abigail rushed after the guards with me, while Isabella stood still and frozen. Maybe the shock was too much for her.
Before I knew what was happening I was locked up in my mate's prison, my stepmother's victory laughter kept ringing loud and heavy in my ears, and the glare she sent my way while they dragged me out was unforgettable, “I told you I would ruin you” type of glare.
I couldn’t stop crying all through the night, my life is a s**t hole but I didn’t dream of ending up in a prison let alone of being placed there by my mate, the one person I thought would save me?.
“Get ready to meet your mate … it’s tonight and I need you there very early!” My stepmother's voice seeped into my thoughts again, now I realize why she was so concerned about me meeting my mate tonight. It’s because she wanted to see me in pain.
“Aha… my neck!” I cried out, rubbing my stiff and red neck, Alpha Eric had choked my neck while screaming at me, he called me all sorts of degrading names, and hot tears kept flowing from my already tired eyes, I hugged my trembling body to comfort myself.
“I miss you fa… father, This life is nothing without you… I want to die!” I muttered to myself and kept crying. The realization that my father was no longer alive to cuddle me and tell me everything would be okay shook me more than my mate's rejection, the fact that I had no one on my side.
He even kissed my step-sister in my presence, I would never be able to love any man after what I have been through tonight. The guards stationed in front of my prison gate snorted loudly at me before they resumed their mocking conversation.
“She’s just so unlucky … I would have married them both if I were in our Alpha’s shoes … This one is more beautiful with highlighted curves…” one of the guards was telling the other three who weren’t there when the whole thing happened.
I sniffed in my tears with my nose and ignored them, they were the least of my problems right now, they could say any gibberish they wanted to, my worry was how my life would look like now that I was my step-sister’s servant.
The same step-sister and mother who has promised to make life a living hell for me? I wasn't really surprised about the stunt they pulled, I was shocked about how my mate agreed with them and took my sister as his Luna in my place!
“You believe all their lies and deceit over what I want to say to you? Over my own story?” I had asked him but I was rewarded with a hot slap. I remember the slap and reached for my red face. The ache from my face forced me to jerk my hand away.
Tonight is a bad dream and I hope to wake up from it. Had I known what was before me I would have run into the bush to evade tonight, “a night that was supposed to be my night of joy … why me!… Even Abigail found her mate tonight!”. I complained to myself in anguish and sadness.
The next day I was given the maid clothes to wear and my step-sister in her highly expensive designer bag, shoes, and clothes couldn’t stop laughing at me. My mate got her a car too, he had started to spoil her with his money just to spite me.
“Why did I open my heart to love? … I should have realized that. I’m unfortunate and ill-fated…!” I cried to Abigail, she had sneaked into the maid's quarters to see me, rossy; step-sister, had warned both of my friends to stay away from me or receive punishment, yet Abigail came.
She held my hands and allowed me to express myself, “Abi… these people have been after my happiness since I stepped my legs in my father’s house, now that he’s dead … oho… I’m in serious trouble! They will kill me!” I expressed my worries to Abigail.
Abigail said nothing, she held me close and consoled me, I could feel her chest heaving rapidly, she was almost ready to cry with me. I smiled at her In appreciation and held her tighter for comfort.
“You will not die … Lucinda, don’t talk like that… I’m here, I will involve my parents if I have to. You cannot die here… we will find a solution.
But the solution didn’t come soon. Who were Abigail’s parents in front of Alpha Eric? Of course, they came for me, but he threw them out unceremoniously. My stepmother and sister turned me into their punching bag. I almost slit my hand one night but stopped once my fathers’ voice reached my mind. On his deathbed he made me promise to fight for my life and happiness.
My mate joined my enemies in taunting me, “You will die here in your maid quarters … I won’t let you go to another man and I will spite you with a step-sister, I will destroy your life” he threatened me while I served his dinner one night.
His threats shook me to my bones, my step-sister grinned wickedly at me, she was enjoying every bit of my discomfort, I don’t know what they told him that made him so bitter and furious toward me but I will find out.
