Chapter 0235

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.