The Wolf King | A Fantasy Romance

Chapter Three

I am to be wed tomorrow, and I cannot sleep.

I lie in bed, the covers pulled up to my chin, and listen to the wind howling outside of the window. Shadows dance across the ceiling, and there is a bite to the air now there are only embers in the grate.

I was trained for this.

I was trained to be beautiful and silent and obedient. I forged a prison for my wild and angry soul and I waited for the day to come when I was to be wed.

A small part of me dreamed that one day I would fall in love like the princesses in my mother's stories, that one day I would be free.

But I always knew there would be no happy ending for me.

So I waited and I dreaded.

And now it is here.

Tomorrow I will wed a man who makes Wolves fight as if they are dogs. Who threatened to take me like a mutt. Whose leery eyes make my skin crawl.

A man who I do not know, I do not love.

He won't touch you.

The alpha's promise resounds in my mind. I should tell someone what he said. I should tell someone he means to escape. I should tell someone he made a threat to the lord, to my betrothed. He is a wolf. An enemy.

Yet I lie here in the darkness, listening to the wind howling outside the castle.

And I remain as silent as I was trained.

It was an idle threat, anyway. There is no way that he can escape.

We are both prisoner to these walls.

Still, I glance at the silver letter opener on the bedside table before sleep finally takes me.

***

Sometimes I dream I am a statue in the palace gardens.

People wander around me, commenting on my shape, my form.

Her eyes look almost alive, they say, when the light hits them.

And all the while, I'm trapped inside myself. Screaming. But my lungs are stone and my lips are hard and my mouth tastes like old cemeteries. So no one hears me, no one cares.

Other times, I'm back in that church and I'm so scared I think I'm going to pass out.

I don't cry, though. Father doesn't like it when I cry. And the priest is in front of me with his crop.

I didn't sin, I protest.

Oh, child. All women sin. Your mother was a sinner, and you are a sinner too. Do you want the Sun Goddess to be angry? No? Good. Turn around.

Other times, I'm running. I'm running through the forest as fast as I can. The wind is in my hair, and twigs snap beneath my bare feet. I am free, but I am afraid. Because something is chasing me and I fear what will happen if it catches me.

My mother's voice ricochets off the trees as I burst into the moonlight.

Wake up, Aurora.

Wake up!

***

My eyes jolt open.

Rain hammers against the walls, and the fire in the grate is completely out. As my vision adjusts to the darkness, I realize what woke me. There is faint shouting coming from somewhere within the castle.