(RUBY'S POV)
"You stupid girl!" A heavy slap landed on my cheek, almost knocking me off the chair.
I tasted the familiar metallic tang of blood in my mouth and returned my eyes to my father's furious glare.
"Have you gone mad, Ruby!"
I said nothing. I just stared at him, because I had nothing to say.
I have been dumbfounded since I found out the gardener was the Lycan Prince. I had simply watched him as the guards explained they were under the King's commands, and further watched as he told them not to harm me.
When he told me to take care of myself, I had felt a sort of betrayal before I was taken away and back to my angry family.
"You are going to pay for this," Dad added with a dangerous snarl that sounded more like it belonged to a werewolf than a full-blooded human.
"You must be forgetting who I am," he added.
How could I ever forget? My father is the main reason why I do not have a life. He is the architect of my miserable state. He is the reason why I was betrothed at the age of ten to the Tyrant Lycan King, King Drako.
"Be thankful that you were found on time, Ruby. If you had ruined this day and brought on a royal disgrace, I would have killed you myself wherever I found you," he stated with disgust and then glanced at my fuming stepmother, Briana, who stood in the corner with my grinning stepsister, Lala.
"Have them cover up her face!" he spat, and then gave me one more angry look before he turned to walk away.
I felt rage spark in me, realizing the next step after the last round of insults and threats would be the walk down the aisle to the Old King.
My hand slapped a table-top mirror to the ground, and I heard Lala gasp just as my father whirled around to the noise.
"You never loved my mother! You were just obsessed with her beauty, because if you loved her then you would never treat her child this way!" I screeched loudly at him with the most accusatory glare I could muster.
There was a flash of surprise in my father's eyes while I waited for it—a hard knock against my nose, an even more painful slap on my face, perhaps a kick?
But he just stood watching me. Of course, he would not want to ruin my face. It would be a royal disgrace.
"You will be marrying King Drako today, no matter what you do," he finally said, and with that, he walked out of the room.
The moment the door closed, Briana marched over to me, tipped my chin up, and gave me a very hard slap. "You wanted to destroy us!" she accused with a screech. "You want to deprive me of my high-status rank that your whorish mother never enjoyed!"
My cheeks were burning from being slapped hard, but I did not flinch or even break away. My eyes were set on my stepmother's hateful hazel eyes.
Briana closed her eyes and she seemed to be trying to control her breathing as she stood before me.
Normally, I would have received more slaps. More insults and even more slaps. But how lucky I am to be saved by the marriage to one of the most dreaded men in the world.
"Now listen to me," Briana began after opening her eyes and placing a hand on her hip. "Your sweet Gen is going to pay for this. She will have a little 'party' when we go back home after this wedding!" she spat.
I said nothing, but I finally dropped my eyes down to my lap, feeling all my defenses tremble.
"I thought so," Briana gloated over me.
My defiance was broken, just as she expected. It always worked when she used Gen against me.
"Please, don't hurt Aunt Gen. She has nothing to do with this," I managed to plead, and Briana burst into a short, sharp cackle.
It was not like I expected her to agree with helping me anyway.
"When has that ever saved your sick aunt from getting more… treatments?" She teased mockingly.
My heart sank to the ground as I imagined my old aunt being tortured for my wrongdoings.
This was one of the reasons why I had hoped to escape. With Aunt Gen here, she got a lot of punishments on my behalf because my family knows that she is the only one I have besides them.
My Aunt Gen, who is also my god mother, fell down the stairs years ago and became unwell. Briana then enrolled her in some kind of recovery home, but I soon found out it was a place of control, a tool for her personal intentions.
"You tried to run. You must be growing some wings, but I am here to remind you that you will always be the daughter of a whore, a dirty-blooded person who is nothing more than a waste!" she mocked me. "You don't fit anywhere. Not with werewolves or with humans. I think you should be grateful that you're marrying the supreme king of the West. In my opinion, you don't even deserve him."
"Now let me warn you that if you try anything stupid, I will deal with you," she said with a hiss, and then she turned around and walked out, throwing over her shoulder as she departed, "Let's go, Lala. She needs to be redressed."
Lala was smiling devilishly as she walked towards me, waving a hand over her pretty lacy white dress. "I would have been so sad, Ruby, if you robbed me of a chance to meet my future husband looking this stunning," she said, pushing her brown hair past her shoulders.
"The most beautiful woman in the world and still ending up with a man older than life itself." She burst into laughter. "I guess beauty isn't everything." With a cackle, she walked away, telling me thank you for taking one for the team.
I sobbed a little when I was alone, but soon enough the makeup artists and designers were back in.
It took a whole hour for them to hide the bruises on my face, to fix my dress and rid it of the stains and tears.
Throughout it all, it felt like the preparation for my funeral, and that feeling worsened when the door opened and Dad tucked my hand in his arm.
My head replayed the memories of me and my mother when I was a child. The only good memories my life has ever had. Memories that ceased when I turned eight and my mother died.
It all went downhill from there. I thought losing my sweet, loving mother was the worst thing that could happen to me. But there were so many more.
Like getting an evil stepmother and sister that matched the tyrant energy my father had. Like getting singled out by the Evil Lycan King two years later, on the night he celebrated conquering his seventh human territory. Like losing freedoms and control of my life from then on and being hidden, preserved for marriage when I turned eighteen.
Ryan, the only friend I have, had tried to save me and if his plan had worked, I would be running away with him to my mother's Kingdom.
But it failed, and instead, I am making my way through the court, accompanied by over a hundred pairs of eyes and beautiful instrumental music that sounds tragic to me. I kept my eyes down, letting myself be led by my father. When I got to the altar, I took the stairs, not expecting a hand to be held out to me. The room was silent and I could hear the priest start speaking. But it felt like I was in a trance, not in the real world.
Only when the microphone was brought to my mouth did I snap out of my thoughts. I knew the words; I had practiced them yesterday with a representative for the king.
"I do," I mumbled.
"Now, you are Prince and Wife. You may kiss your bride to seal this marriage."
My ears twitched. Did I just hear Prince? My eyes darted up immediately and through the haziness of my lacy, flowered veil, I could see a familiar but unexpected face.
The face of the man I had met only this morning. The one I had thought was a groundskeeper but turned out to be the prince.
His name echoed in my head as he lifted my veil so that I met those intense dark eyes again.
Dylan. Just, Dylan.