Chapter 14: Chapter 14

The brush touches my nose and I sneeze, “How long is this going to take?”

I watch Gwen from the mirror as she focuses keenly on the ‘work.’

“Hush, this needs to be perfect.”

“I think it already is.”

She pulls out her touches as she brushes my nose again.

“Okay, now it is,” She sets it down and claps her hands together, “Don’t you look great? You look like a princess, silly me, a queen.”

I blow out a breath, not understanding her enthusiasm, “Sebastian is going to introduce her today. He is going to introduce her as his mate and there’s nothing I can do about it.”

Gwen’s happiness level drops and I sense it, in her voice and on her face.

“I’m so sorry.”

I smile weakly, “It doesn’t matter if I agree to birth his children or not. He is going to marry her anyway. He loves her.”

Gwen twirls the chair to make me face her, “You don’t know her, I don’t even know who that girl is. All I know is that he met you before her.”

She waves her hands in the air, her hands holding make up tools and I glance away, “He proposed to her when she was having her birthday, last year and when she came to see him a few weeks after we met, he locked me up because he loves her.”

I feel so numb as I tell her this, she looks downwards and presses her lips in a thin line.

“I can’t imagine my brother would do this.”

I stand to my feet, “I can because he did that to me.”

I tie my artificial hair into a bun, “Are you sure this looks good on me?”

She nods, “Yeah and I told my parents that I have a friend around, so when Sebastian asks you who you are, tell him that you’re a friend of mine.”

She walks over to her dresser and brings out a small bottle from one of the drawer, I eye her as she pours the content into a glass and hands it to me.

“Drink.”

It seems like saying one syllable runs in the family.

“What is this?” I look into the glass, “It looks like green gue.”

“It is a potion that will change your voice for a while, we can’t let Sebastian to lock you up again.”

I make a face as I twirl the cup, “I have had my own fair share of experience when it comes to potions.”

“Don’t worry, it won’t shock your insides to your outsides,” She rolls her eyes, “My brother played a dick move on you, just drink it.”

I look at her as I gulp down the contents and hand her the glass.

“You and your brother should change the witches you both by from. That was more disgusting than his.”

“That’s the idea,” She eyes me, “Now speak.”

“What should I say?”

My voice is now soft and calm. It almost feels like a dream.

I place my palm on my throat and smile, “That’s so cool.”

“It’s not that effective but it will work,” She keeps down the glass on her nightstand, “When you go out please remember, you are a friend of mine. Your name is is Rye.”

“Got it?”

I nod, “Yeah, I got it.”

That’s how I find myself out of the cell room for a few weeks, I am safe to say that I kind of miss it.

Greyson and I still see each other, he is in the king’s guard now and frankly, we are all finding a way to undo whatever Sebastian did to me so that I can leave this place.

Sebastian thinks that I have somehow found a way to escape, and secretly, he sends guards to search the city and even beyond.

All I can do is hide in my disguise as Paul and Gwen try to figure something out.

“You haven’t touched your food, is anything wrong?” Sebastian’s mother asks, knocking me out of my thoughts.

“If you don’t like it, you can take mine. I am more than capable to feed you,” Josh winks at me and winces when Gwen flicks his arm.

I smile, “I’m okay, ma’am. Just lost in thought.”

The table goes back to how it was, silent.

I take a peep at Sebastian with the expectation of him turning to me too, but he doesn’t.

As I hide my scent he can’t actually feel the bond unless we touch.

He sits and focuses on the woman sitting besides him.

The way they look at each other and laugh, smile at themselves always ticks me off, but who am I to talk?

I am just a friend of Gwen.

After he introduced her as his mate, they walk everywhere together and soon they will mark each other, well, he will mark her.

The thought of that happening makes me sad but I know that anywhere I go, he will look for me. It excites me but also angers me for his reasons, his reasons that I can’t understand.

It’s like everything just rushes before my eyes and stops on the day that they are to be marked.

I am among the crowd, in the royal section I stand.

Gwen had to do a lot of convincing for me to be here. My heart is beating loudly and my wolf is curled up in a ball in my head.

I can barely focus on the decorations.

I just know that they are going to get marked and probably mate today and it sends a blast of pain through my chest.

“Hey, aren’t you going to sit down? The ceremony will soon begin,” Gwen appears at my side in a flash, “You can still see them from over there.”

My hands tightens on the railing and I put up an uptight smile, “I am alright here.”

She sighs, “I know that you are hurting but I think this is the best way, as he marks her the bond will break and you can be free, we just have to worry about leaving here without you being fried. I still don’t understand why you didn’t reject him before now.”

My smile threatens to slip off as I catch Sebastian going to stand before the crowd with a smile on his face. He is putting on a clean white tuxedo and a silver crown sits on his head.

I begin to imagine myself in the female’s shoes. It is like a human wedding but if you look closely, you’ll see a whole lot of difference, the most obvious are the two thrones in front of the crowd.

“He used the alpha command on me. I can’t reject him no matter how badly I want to.”

She shakes her head and looks down, directly at him, “Such a dick move. He has a lot of those under his sleeves. What is wrong with him?”

“It doesn’t matter anyway. I will be free in a few minutes, no matter how hard it hurts,” I actually smile for real this time, “Let’s go sit down, the ceremony is about to begin.”

As I walk to my seat, she follows behind me. I guess she’s worried about me but I’ll be fine, I know I will.

Like any normal wedding, a slow music plays in the background and after a few minutes, I sight Grace walking down the path made.

She approaches Sebastian and he smiles.

I can feel his happiness from where I sit and I am only sad that I am not the one who gave him that happiness, the happiness that reaches his eyes, that brightens up his day.

I pull my emotions back and watch the ceremony go on.

I sense Gwen turn to me, “I hope he treats her right.”

I smile, still staring at them as they hold hands and lean into each other. He whispers something in her ear and she laughs. From everyone’s view they look like a happy couple and I believe it, I really do.

Grace is dressed in a white long gown matching Sebastian’s tuxedo, her hair is pinned elegantly and her fair skin glowing beautifully in the moonlight. I hold myself from looking down at my skin, feeling insecure won’t help me right now.

The elder chosen by the royal family brings a gublet and a knife, presenting it to the king, and the music stops immediately, silence fills the environment.

Sebastian takes the knife as the elder speaks.

“With this mix of blood, I unite your souls with the moon goddess’s blessings.”

What?

At his statement, Sebastian cuts his palm with the knife and we watch his blood drop into the gublet, Grace does the same thing too.

The elder dutifully presents the gublet to Sebastian again but this time he takes a drink off it and hands it over to her.

“It’s not like their souls where ever united,” Gwen mutters and I glance at her.

“Yeah, I guess so.”

I look back at them and see that they are still performing a few traditions.

“I never thought it would be like this,” I said and Gwen turns to me with a laugh.

“Me too. Through the years traditions lessened and the modern world took over. I am still shocked that we are doing this in a forest and why are we still living in an ancient castle.”

“Some traditions never change,” I laugh as she looks down at them, making me stare down too.

His mark is on her necks and I see his canines shooting out to mark her.

Immediately, a sharp pain goes through my neck and I grip the arm of the chair as my other hand holds the side of my neck.

“What is it?”

I can’t focus on my environment, it zooms in and out till all my vision is clear, my senses more efficient.

I feel a bust of emotions and it is closed off immediately the pain subsides.

I move my hand away from my neck and Gwen gasps, “Minerva, you’ve been marked.”

That’s when I look down at the couple only for me to see Sebastian staring up at me as he licks the blood off his canines.

“Shit!”