Acting different from the woman he knew
The Pendragon Empire was the largest among all empires in the world, or that had ever existed, with more than twenty kingdoms under it's territory. Each kingdom had its own king and rules, but they all answered to the almighty Emperor Alaric Pendragon, known for his ruthlessness and fierce ruling.
He had seven children—four sons and three daughters—all from his four wives, whom he married either to strengthen his political power or for their beauty. However, two of his wives were deceased.
The Empress, his first and most favored wife, was a princess from the largest kingdom in the Empire. Her influence had helped him seize the throne after his father, the late Emperor, passed away. Despite the fact that the current Emperor had two older brothers, he ascended the throne with Princess Elara's help, and due to that, he favored her among his other wives.
Like their father, the Emperor's four sons would not ascend the throne based on birth order but according to who had the most powerful backings and who conquered the most kingdoms outside the Empire.
However, the second prince, the son of the late third consort—a princess from a poor, fallen kingdom rumored to be associated with black magic and destroyed by Emperor Alaric—was not among the sons eligible to ascend the throne. Emperor Alaric had married her solely for her beauty, and when she passed away, her son Lucian became an outcast in his own land and family.
Lucian lived far from the main palace, exiled to his own palace on the same grounds but distant from the castle. He had no familial bond with his siblings, most of whom feared him, except for the first prince, the son of the late second consort, who had fought in wars with him and served as the Empire's general.
Lucian rarely received invitations to the palace, except on nights when the entire Pendragon royal family gathered for dinner to discuss important matters of the Empire with their father. Tonight was one such night. However, the invitation hadn't been sent directly to him but to Selene, as they didn't believe he would survive the assassination attempt made on him the previous night.
Lucian sat in the darkness of his room, shirtless, his body wracked with pain and sweat as he tried to force himself to heal and extract all the poison from his system.
The arrow wound from the night before wasn't healing fast. The arrows had toxic poison that would have killed a normal human on the spot, and he had been lucky that a certain someone had been there to help him remove it before it penetrated his heart.
One thing he hadn't been able to get off his mind was the fact that Selene had been in the forest at the same time he was being assassinated.
He had stumbled upon her unconscious body when he was escaping the men hunting him down in his cursed form. He hadn't recognized her at first and had almost stepped on her to pass when she stirred and moved. She had turned to him slowly and then screamed when she saw him, just like everyone else had always done when they saw him in that form.
He hated it so much when people feared him and called him a monster even when he did nothing to them. Whether he was in his beast or human form, he was a monster to them. Whatever disaster befell the Empire, the people would blame it on him rather than their misfortune and curse at him.
Some would even go as far as to throw stones at him the moment he stepped into the village saying he was the cause of their misfortunes and suffering. He had grown up being hated by many who would request the Emperor to execute him.
Lucian had never once complained about his life and misfortunes because he'd thought even if the world was against him, one person he cared about was not. Selene.
He had liked her since the day she was brought to the Empress as a little errand servant girl. Her mother had come from the same kingdom as his own mother, which Emperor Alaric had destroyed. She had been nice to him among every other person.
The days when he'd be locked away in the dark tower as a punishment for losing his temper on his brothers who never failed to bully him, Selene would sneak there with her flowery smile, holding a basket of food for him to eat.
Whenever he got whipped for disobeying his father's or the Empress's orders and was suffering in pain before he healed, Selene would be waiting for him in his chamber with medicines to help him with the pain.
She would insist on applying it for him no matter how much he tried to push her away from him. She'd tell him silly stories that would brighten his darkened days despite the fact that he didn't show it in his expression.
He had liked her among every other person to the extent he'd overlooked the fact that she was under the Empress's wings. He had thought she was different from everyone, and when the Emperor suggested a marriage between them, he'd accepted quickly without a second thought.
He had been so contented about the marriage that despite not having much as a prince, he'd made their wedding grand and used up most of his money to buy her the most expensive dress in the Empire.
Before their marriage, he'd noticed her change in behavior but overlooked it as he believed she must be feeling anxious a day before the wedding. He'd assured her by saying,
"I know I don't have much, but I am willing to give you my all to make you happy. Whatever you want in this world, I will give it to you."
Now recalling those words made him cringe and angry at his past self. He had been fooled. The moment they got married, the Selene he thought he knew disappeared. She changed completely and would curse at him at every given opportunity.
On their wedding night, she'd locked the chamber after her scented bath and refused him entrance when he knocked. She'd pretended not to hear him, and when he'd questioned her about it the next day, she'd said she'd locked the door by mistake and fallen asleep.
He'd let that go and believed her, but it happened again, not once but four times. Then, on the fifth day, she'd said she was disgusted by him and would rather die than allow someone like him to touch her.
He could never forget the look of disgust in those blue eyes of hers. She'd looked at him with so much hate that his stomach had tightened into a knot.
Though she'd said those words, Lucian still somehow believed that the girl he knew, who had treated him kindly, would return. He had still hoped in his heart and kept on overlooking her behaviors of slandering his name in all the gatherings she attended and spreading rumors about him.
He'd let all that slide because he believed the Empress was threatening her and manipulating her into doing things to ruin him, and that had been one of the many reasons he wanted so badly to be the next Emperor—to give her freedom—until the incident at the inn.
That incident had shed light on many things he'd turned a blind eye to and filled him with loathing for her, making him detest every single moment he'd spent with her in his childhood.
His hatred for her burned so fiercely that he would have killed her if he didn't want her to stay alive just to witness him ascend the throne she had so desperately tried to keep him from.
However, what he didn't understand was how she had ended up in the forest last night and even dared to help him in his beast form. Selene might have been beautiful, but she was the world's greatest coward. A little harmful insect was enough to get her running and screaming at the top of her lungs.
The only thing she was good at was fooling people. Though she acted kind to him in the past, he'd never shown her his beast form or done anything he knew would scare her away.
When she'd screamed at him last night and he'd pounced on her, ready to snap her head if she screamed again, he'd been caught by surprise when she began to fight back, saying all sorts of things that made no sense to him.
'I didn't come all this way to get eaten, you motherfucking beast! If you eat me, you'll have indigestion and die from poison because I am poison to anything that moves! You messed with the wrong person, bitch! I, Aveline, will survive, and I will make it to 2024 and face-slap my damn family and Victoria!'
He had pondered over her words the whole night, but nothing she'd said made any sense to him. Motherfucking beast? What did that even mean?
She'd not only tried to fight a beast but had also laid still not to make noise to attract the men hunting him down. She'd even gone as far as to help him remove the arrow and tied her cloth to stop the bleeding.
The fact that she'd been wearing her undergarments and even told him he could look at her thigh if he wanted to had made him almost doubt if that woman last night was the same Selene he knew.
He also hated that his beast form had reacted in such a way he had no control over it. He had wanted to hurt her, but his beast was against it, and when she shivered, he'd pulled her forward to keep her warm despite his protest for his beast to stay away from the witch.
He'd always been in full control of his beast's actions, but last night, he hadn't been. His beast had been protective over her to the point he'd carried her back to the palace and passed her to Zane, who he'd found with a few of his trusted men at the edge of the forest looking for him.
The fact that Selene had been acting completely unlike herself from the moment she woke up from her unconsciousness means she was cooking up one of her other plans to fool him again with the Empress.
Perhaps Selene knew of his beast form and had planned to be in the forest at that moment to win him over again after her betrayal.
If that was the case, then she was dead wrong if she thought for a moment he would ever believe or forgive her for her betrayal. Selene, he thought as he clenched his fists in anger, was now among the enemies he planned to get rid of the moment he ascended the throne.