8. SERAFINA

SERAFINA

A violent tug on my hair woke me up the next day and I let out a screeching yelp. My tired eyes immediately sprang open and I saw that it was Hera, standing beside where I laid, arms clipped to her side and her siren eyes narrowed furiously at me.

“And why are you still asleep? Get up you filthy slave!” Her tongue was like an edged sword, and whenever she spoke it seemed like every word was accompanied with a venomous fury.

I quickly got up on my feet—I was tired and exhausted, still starved and had barely slept last night.. The day hadn’t even started to break yet. I could tell from the darkness that still loomed outside the open window high up in the room.

The window was set up so high for a lot of reasons and preventing a slave escaping through it had to be at the top of the list. Even if anyone made it up there, it was too small for a human body to fit in.

This place was nothing but a prison.

“I’m sorry, I overslept.” I answered to somewhat soothe her anger, even though I wasn’t aware of the time everyone usually woke up.

Her features contorted into a disapproving scowl, “What do you mean you overslept? You think this is your father’s Kingdom? The next time this occurs, I will whip you severely. Do you understand me?”

I nodded, “Yes I do.”

Her mouth opened to speak, but she shut it back and her eyes glinted in a fresh anger as she noticed something. The irritation in her scowl deepened further.

“And what did I tell you about always being on your knees when you’re in front of royalty!”

Before I could even respond to her reprimand, she moved forward to me and grabbed my arm, squeezing it tightly to the point that it started to bruise as her long fingernails grazed my skin.

The pain stung, but I had to hold it in—yesterday was for crying and screaming, today I won’t give them the benefit of delighting in my pain.

“But you aren’t royalty so I don’t have to kneel before you, stop acting entitled.” The words sat at the tip of my tongue and they threatened to lash out at her. She was no less than the lower class people back in my kingdom, how dare she consider herself royalty because a beast took her in as his mistress?

If only I could say those words. If only they wouldn’t earn me another round of pain. Instead, I quietly obeyed and knelt down at her feet and that was when she let go of my now bleeding arm.

I bowed my head, averting my gaze from her. However, I could still feel her eyes linger on me and I wondered what she had in mind, a new method to torture me? More wickedness to bestow? Or was she going to kill me now?

“Today you will clean.” She declared and I looked up at her a bit bewildered, wasn’t I the King’s personal slave? Why am I cleaning, or was he the one who instructed her to assign this duty to me? “Now, on your knees, you will follow me to the room you’re to clean.”

Her brows knitted in confusion and I felt a surge of anger in me; this is pure cruelty! “You mean I should crawl on my knees all the way there? Isn’t that a bit too ha—”

A kick delivered with the pointy edge of her heel to the side of my gut made me swallow down the rest of my words and I fell to the floor.

“I believe I didn’t stutter when I said ‘on your knees’, and you have no right to question my orders, do you understand me?” Her warning aired sternly and I gave a nod as I went back on my knees. “Good. Now follow after me.” She said then led the way as we left the room.

I crawled on my knees, against the hard floor for quite a distance and then we arrived at the supposed room. She opened it up and stepped in first then I followed. The moment I entered the room, an overwhelming stench ravaged my nostrils and it was so bad, I had to pinch them shut to block out the smell.

I looked around the unpalatable perimeter; it looked like an abandoned room that nobody has used in years, and only god knows where that awful smell was originating from. It was deeply repulsive and I mentally gagged.

Hera had a disgusted grimace on as she stared at the dirty room and waved off the smelly air from her breathing space. “Clean this up in an hour.” She instructed and my jaw slacked. That is humanly impossible! With dirt, damage and smells like this it would take days to completely clean up this place with multiple hands.

“There’s a bucket and a rag there.” She added and my gaze spiralled to the direction she pointed at, a bucket filled with water and a small rag laid at the far end of the room. This is unbelievable, was that all she was giving me to clean up this room?

“Yes Mistress.” There was no room for protest as a slave, and a kick to my gut a few minutes ago reminded me of that. I would have to set out to do my best so I won’t give her more reasons to keep hitting me.

She gave a haughty huff before she turned around and exited the room. I got up from the ground and saw that my knees were stained with the smelly dirt. They were the first I cleaned with the soapy water and rag and after that, I started to clean the room. Very, very fast.

I tried to be as fast as I could, yet cleaned it efficiently. I have never cleaned anything in my entire life, this is a first for me and believe me when I say it was a Herculean task.

While I cleaned, I sang songs to keep me company while I encouraged myself to survive, I will survive, and then I will find a way out of this suffering and escape. Hopefully, Prince Arie is working on helping me out with that soon.

The moment an hour elapsed, Hera entered the room sharply and then looked around to see what I had done. To my own surprise, I took care of the room and made it very clean, completely unrecognizable from what it previously was. Her scrutinizing gaze darted about as she took note, and when she was unable to find any fault, she huffed and then looked at me.

“Come with me.” She ordered and then opened the door to leave again. I dropped the rag and quickly trailed behind her. Silly me for expecting a compliment about how I had cleaned up the room neatly in an hour, but Hera’s haughtiness and hatred would never allow her to. “I should get my own personal leash to lead you around with.” I heard her mutter, but audible enough for me to hear.

We entered another room and I gasped, immediately shocked and taken aback by what I saw the moment we did. There were so many women, walking around half–naked; they were slaves, from their short hairs and collars.

I knew what they were the moment I saw them but I didn’t want to believe this was what girls taken from our kingdoms were reduced to.

They were cubicle stalls in corners, where some men took in one of the women, sometimes two or three and then there was a big podium in the middle, where these half–naked women danced seductively to the amusement of the men in the audience, who hollered and cheered at them. The perverted men touched them indiscriminately, groping the women as they passed by and calling them degrading words.

It was an eyesore.

Hera continued to walk further into the room, so I followed her. There was a segmented part of the room, and it seemed like it was reserved for a high class of people as they looked rich and drank expensive wine from golden goblets. We went into the segmented area and to a table at the middle of the room, where a man I didn’t recognize sat.

When we arrived, he looked up at us with a smile and when he saw me, his smile deepened into a risque smirk.

“Oh? So this is the princess slave? She really is a stunning beauty, why don’t you come over here and stay beside me?” There was a slight slur in his tone, meaning he was mildly drunk and his eyes twinkled with an uncanny form of lust. It was disgusting and revolting.

“As a slave, you will have to pleasure the noble men of the Kingdom. Any one that requests for you, your only job is to give them pleasure, do not disobey and do whatever they ask.” Hera stated and I felt my blood run cold, a chilling shiver running down my spine. I looked at the man again, his eyes were practically undressing the little I had on as he shamelessly raked them through my body.

I swung around to look at Hera frantically, “Please, I can do any other form of punishment but not this. Please, I beg you.”

She erupted a laughter that made my skin crawl, “Oh, this is your duty, not a punishment. You haven’t even begun serving your punishment.” Her statement made a hard lump form in my throat as fear began to rise within. “You’re a virgin as custom demands for a princess, but you will learn. And eventually, you will —”

I didn’t even give Hera the time to finish up that statement before I sprinted away from their midst. They were going to reduce me to a harlot? A mere toy for men to use as they like? Never. I would rather die than be reduced to a whore for beastly abs unworthy men.

“Get that whore!” Hera screamed after me.

I wasn’t even able to make it out of the segmented area before I was caught by two guards and they immediately tackled me to the floor. I landed roughly and hurt my shoulder so badly in the process that I screamed but my screams of pain fell on deaf ears.

The guards dragged me by my legs despite my refute and protest, like I was a sack of waste and I was brought back to Hera and the perverted man’s presence, where I was forced to kneel before him.

“Ahhh…” the man slurred again, “She is a fiesty one. I like my women this way.”

I wanted to spit in his ugly face.

“You think you can run away, right?" His smirk was unwavering and then he got up from his chair and stepped forward to me with wicked intent. I trembled, the fear of my fate coursing through my veins—I would lose my virginity as a sex slave to a rotten man. Tears began to stream down my eyes.

I struggled to take a step back as he advanced towards me, but I was held in place by the two guards that stood beside me. My tears intensified and I began to struggle and cry loudly as I fought against their grip. My theatrics attracted the attention of everyone else in the room; the music stopped playing and the onlookers' cheers and dancing fizzled out. Everyone's attention turned to me, the insubordinate slave princess.

"No, please. Stay away from me! Please!" I pleaded amidst my tears, thrashing my legs and kicking forward to avoid the man coming any closer to me.

“Help! Anyone! Help!” I cried hard, asking for a savior despite knowing the chances of anyone showing up to save me was low.

The drunk bastard chuckled darkly, “Look around, there is no one to save you, princess.” He said making a mockery of me by straining my title on his perverted tongue.

The man grabbed my legs mid–air and halted their movement. He let out a low, menacing chuckle as he finally got close enough to me. The guards let go of me as the man took me into his arms, bringing me closer to himself. His calloused groped my breasts tightly through my clothes. I let out a shrilling scream of disgust as he touched me.

Just then, the door to the room barged open— no, it flew out of its hinges and fell to the ground and gasps erupted from the crowd, before ultimately turning into screams and cries of fear. I turned around to see what was causing the commotion or rather, who was causing it. Even the hand of the man on my body stilled.

My eyes widened as fear greater than the one I felt when I was doomed to be taken by a man I barely knew.

I took in the beastly monster that stood in the room. From its wolftaur form; what resembled an extremely hairy, giant human or a wolf standing on its hind legs, it was a clear indication what creature stood before us.

A lycan wolf.

I’d only seen them from a distance when they attacked us. I have never seen one up close like this and it made me want to crawl into a ball and hide.

Its glowing red eyes found me and I froze before it left me to fall on the man holding me. I watched as his eyes darkened.

"How dare you?" Its voice rumbled with depth, like a low thunder in a rainstorm and it aired with force that was likened unto a Tsunami ravaging a small village.

I knew instantly who it was by that voice.

King Zahir.

And he didn’t look happy.