Chapter 29
-DAX-
3%8
“Erm… well.” Her cheeks were already red from helping him up, but it seemed like they’d darkened further.
Her eyes came back to his before then going to his cut as he felt more blood well up and drip through his eyebrow. It hurt and seemed to pulse with his heartbeat, but he was more interested in her response.
She grabbed one of the rags on the side table and moved to hover over him as she treated the cut. “Well, when I was first found by the Chevalier, they brought me and my mother to your father. They’d already executed Papa, but I was something they didn’t know how to handle.”
He knew all about the Chevalier and how vicious the hit squad of his father could be. His presence was required during certain training exercises and executions. He knew firsthand how brutal they were, and he was anxious to hear what happened. He hadn’t asked for more information other than her name, but he wasn’t going to stop her either.
“Alpha Leo was as generous as I think he could have been. He sent Mama off somewhere, and I was a gift to Concubine Rebecca.”
At the sound of that wicked woman’s name, his frown deepened. He despised her and all she represented. She wrapped his father around her greedy little fingers, and it only worsened when his mother passed.
“She looked at me and… well, I can’t really remember her exact words. Just something along the lines that I was a half–breed and a mutt and one of the most beastly things she’d ever seen. The name stayed.” She stopped talking and focused on her work of cleaning his cut and clotting the flow.
She spoke like it was nothing abhorrent. It was as if such a traumatic event was an everyday conversation for her. There was no anger or malice in her tone.
Yet he couldn’t stop it from entering his words when he said. “That’s horrible.” Although his eyes had shifted to her cleavage, and the show was nice, he couldn’t get over the disgrace that was placed on this woman. His wife. “And it just won’t do.”
He remembered a similar feeling of disgrace when Rontell had come to him and read out loud, as was required under law, his father’s decree that Savonnuh was still required to marry him. How would things be now if Savonnuh had been here instead of Bea?
“Oh.” Her sweet voice interrupted his thoughts, and he watched as a small smile formed. “Well, it’s not all that bad. When I got burned, she laughed and said that Beastly truly was the best of names for me. I remember her pulling the bandage away from my face and saying how life truly was good to her because she needed the laugh. Rebecca is most definitely a storm to deal with, but-” She paused, and the smile from before left. “It didn’t truly
bad until after I was given to Visca. I didn’t truly feel beastly until I got there.”
“And now you’re, here.” The words left his mouth like they fought to come out, and once he started, he couldn’t stop. “And I say that’s not a name at all.”
She pulled back like he’d slapped her. The rag in her small hands, dabbed in blood, slipped from her fingers before
1/2
Chapter 29
landing on the floor. Noticing her mistake, she leaned and grabbed it before turning to the water bowl beside the
bed.
Had he said something wrong? Her reaction most certainly seemed to suggest so, but he meant what he said. He
would give her a better name. A REAL name.
“Do you remember your name from before? The one your parents gave you?” He was beginning to feel dizzy, and a foggy smoke started to bleed into the sides of his vision.
She shook her head and continued to clean the rag. Dipping and squeezing. “No. But that’s okay, too. I’m okay with how things turned out. I’m content with my life here, even if it did begin with me wearing the dress of a dead girl.”
Chapter Comments
Visitor
this story is really well written.
View All 4 Comments >
✔ 1
<SHARE
POST COMMENT
2
2/2
