Chapter two

Lillie

My anger didn’t go away. No matter how many times I tried to tell myself that there were reasons my mother did what she did, I couldn’t shake the feeling of betrayal.

She knew how much I hated the royal family. She knew what they had done to our family, and how we only came back so my brother, Logan, can get better healthcare. Crescent Heart pack where we had stayed after being banished had hospitals that were far too expensive for us, and the mark on our necks only made it worse. Coming back to Darkmoon was only to make things easier. Even though we were treated like filth, at least we were home.

I had promised to do everything within my power to make sure Logan was taken care off. From working three jobs, and throwing all I made into his healthcare and running the house, I was doing my best. Waitress in the day, bartender at night, and cleaner on weekends. There was nothing I wouldn’t have done for my mother and brother.

Why didn’t she have faith in me? Why didn’t she wait? I hadn’t been paid in five months because all my employers were total jackasses, but I had promised I would find the money to take care of him somehow. Why didn’t she believe me?

The royal family wanted nothing to do with the likes of us. Twenty years ago, my father was exposed as part of a large scale trafficking ring that had sold and killed hundreds of women and children. He, like many others, was executed, and our family was banished.

Until we were called back and the opportunity of a second chance was…was given to us.

What second chance this was.

My thoughts kept me up till 5am the next morning. The luxurious room I had been kept in only suffocated me the more. I felt like a sheep being fed fat while awaiting slaughter.

Once the sun rays began to slip through the curtains, I rose from the bed. The stinging headache I got as a result from crying and thinking all night made it difficult to stand, but I was determined to get out of the palace that instant, and not a second longer.

My mother would have a lot of explaining to do once I got out, that was something I was very sure about.

Still in my nightwear from the night before, I pushed the door of the room open and stormed into the corridor. The palace halls were already busy.

Maids came in and out of rooms with cleaning tools, food trays, and trash cans. I avoided the gaze of everyone I walked past, but the tattoo on my neck continuously drew attention. I ignored their shocked and hateful stares and made my way towards the staircase, ran down the hundreds of steps, and made my way out of the exit door.

No one cared to know why the crazy banished girl was running down the steps, which was to my own advantage.

This building seemed to have been made for guests, because the exit door led to one of the most beautiful parts of the palace; the garden.

Dandelions, daffodils, lavender, primroses. Each beautiful flower bloomed in its segment, the wild colors complementing each other. The mix of the fruity scents kissed my nostrils, and I closed my eyes to savor the scent for just a few seconds, and to catch my breath as well.

The second mission came to a halt once I felt a tall brooding male figure stand behind me. For some reason, cold rushed down my spine. The air suddenly changed, became tense, and the fruity smell I had once enjoyed began to choke me.

He cleared his throat, causing me to do a quick 180 degrees spin in his direction.

Tall. That was the first quality of his I noticed.

He stood at least one foot and a lot of inches above me. My eyes met his white shirt first, and I immediately knew he wasn’t a guard.

I risked looking up at him.

My breath hitched in my throat, almost choking me. The cold that had settled in my spine caused goosebumps to appear all over my skin. It took everything in me not to wrap my arms around myself.

Cold blue eyes stared down at me, holding me in some sort of trance. I couldn’t speak, couldn’t move, couldn’t breathe.

Beneath those daring eyes were hard lines, which led to a pointed nose, tanned like the rest of his face. The nose was accompanied by a set of dark red lips that held my gaze longer than they should have.

I could swear I heard him say something before my gaze rose to meet him again.

Sea blue eyes darkened on my neck, I snapped out of the trance immediately. The look in his eyes brought me back to reality; the reality of who I was, and what the tattoo on my neck signified.

It was only then I noticed the sapphire ring around his left pinky finger, and every bit of admiration I had felt earlier turned into disgust.

He wasn’t a guard alright. He was a fucking prince.

“Fuck this.” I muttered to myself.

“You’re definitely not a maid, then.” His deep baritone resonated in my ears, and I took a step back.

“No. I’m not.”

“Of course. Not with that mark on your neck.”

Molten rage coursed through my veins. He spoke as though his family was not the reason it was there in the first place.

“Many people I know with that mark would never show their faces in public. Yet, here you are. I take it you’re here to participate in the games.”

Hell! His voice and accent mixed together to create a dangerous yet sexy delicacy of sin. One I couldn’t ignore no matter how much I wanted to drive his handsome face into a wall and scream out my frustration.

I shook my head, as though it would take the numerous thoughts I wasn’t supposed to have out of my mind, and glared at him.

“Listen, I don’t know whatever twisted games you guys have going on here, but I do not want to be here. As a matter of fact, this is the last place I intend to be. So, if you would just get out of my way, so I can…” I tried to walk past him, but all he took was one step to block me.

He clearly wasn’t going to let me leave without a fight.

“I don’t think that is true. Every family received an incentive for their daughter’s participation. So you’re definitely here with your family’s permission. Unless…”

I knew what he was going to say, but it didn’t do anything to prepare me for the sting of his words.

My watery eyes stared into his, eagerly waiting.

He chuckled dryly.

“Now you know what it feels like to be bought and sold like a…”

He was forced to swallow his words when my right palm crashed on his cheek in a resounding slap.

I pulled my hand back to myself immediately, breathing heavily. My heart pounded against my chest, and that was the only sound I could hear at that moment.

His face had shifted to the right, and he placed his hands on the soft flesh of his face my palm had hit. The next thing I knew, I was being dragged from behind, both my hands were cuffed behind me, and a rough palm pressed against the skin of my neck.

It had all happened so fast, I could barely keep track.

He raised his head and looked down at me. I swallowed hard when I caught the wry smile that formed on his cheek.

He wasn’t fazed by my anger. As a matter of fact, it excited him.

He loved to see me infuriated. He loved that his words had gotten to me. I didn’t know which of the triplets was the alpha king, but if he was anything like this man standing in front of me, it was no wonder they had to organize a contest for him to find a woman. Who would want to be with a man as overbearing as him?!

“By your orders, your majesty, we would throw her out of the palace this instant and disqualify her from the contest.”

I closed my eyes.

Goddess, thank you! My wishes were finally going to happen! A ticket out of the palace and out of the stupid game had finally come!

“Not at all.”

My heart dropped to my stomach, and my eyes flew open.

“That is exactly what she wants. She would stay here, and she would participate in the contest.” His gaze dropped to me again.

“Or she can opt out by paying three times the incentive given to her family. How much was that again?”

He never took his eyes off me. Not even when the question was directed at the guard that held me captive.

“Thirty thousand, sir.”

That would be ninety thousand. With my current salary, I wouldn’t be able to pay that back in three years, and he knew it.

He was fucking toying with me!

“Take her back to the guest building and make sure she doesn’t wander around again.”

He took one step closer to me, covering whatever bit of distance had existed between us. He lowered himself, so that our faces were on the same level, and stared straight into my eyes.

I froze. Something about the clear blue of his eyes made me feel like he was searching the depths of my soul, and seeing how much dislike resided in it for his family, for him.

“Pull a stunt like this again, and it’ll be the last time you have hands.”

The words rolled out of his tongue with so much ease. I didn’t need a soothsayer to tell me he had caused men to lose hands before.