Chapter 10

Esther’s POV

I had angered him now. And that was a bad thing.

He was going to punish me for speaking as I had. He wasn’t going to allow me to insult him that way.

My heart racing, I began to back away, but he followed me. He was too fast for me, and I couldn’t dodge to one side.

My back hit the wall, and I gasped as he crowded me in. If anyone had come upon us then, they would have seen two people in a supposed intimate clinch.

The fact an Alpha King was doing it with someone who wasn’t his chosen Luna wouldn’t have raised any eyebrows.

I had wanted to scream, but I had known nobody was going to come to my rescue—not after what I had just said.

“Look at me, Esther,” he snarled.

I couldn’t. I stared at a point on his chest.

We were in a place where we could be found, and I was terrified about it. I just wanted to get away from him, but he had me trapped in.

“Look at me!”

He grabbed my chin and forced me to look up at him. His eyes flashed, and I felt his fury in his gaze.

Fear pooled in my belly, and I could feel myself shaking.

“Do you want to seduce him?” he asked quietly.

“What?”

“You heard me. Do you want to seduce Kevin Hill and become his Luna?”

I couldn’t believe what he was thinking. That had never even crossed my mind when I was talking to him.

Sure, he had been kind and gentle, and he had seemed to be looking out for me, but that didn’t mean I would have wanted to get into bed with him.

Why did Nicholas’s thoughts go there?

“What is wrong with you?” I whispered.

“What?”

“Why would you assume that’s something I would do? How could you think that of me?”

“Because you’re a whore who will do anything to keep that space between your legs warm,” Nicholas hissed at me.

I flinched at that.

“I’m not a slut.”

“Then what do you call throwing yourself on me before we go to my bed?”

“That wasn’t me! I would never touch you like that if I had any control over it.”

I was shocked to find that I meant that. If I had been under complete control of my own body and hadn’t been drugged, I wouldn’t have gone anywhere near him.

Nicholas repulsed me with the way he treated me and how he exploited our bond. I couldn’t bring myself to be aroused around him naturally.

He growled and leaned in, his breath tickling my cheek.

“You won’t touch your mate, but you’ll happily touch another Alpha King, would you? Are you trying to seduce all of the Alpha Kings in the area?”

I knew he was taunting me now, wanting to call me a slut. He seemed to enjoy saying that to me.

I simply glared at a spot on his shoulder and ignored him. I wasn’t going to cower before him, although I felt sick being this close to him.

I just wanted to get away.

Nicholas grunted and shook his head.

“Kevin Hill’s not only a hypocrite, but he also has poor taste.”

“Why is he a hypocrite?”

Nicholas didn’t answer, which left me confused. Why call him that and not explain it?

And was he saying that Kevin had poor taste in women or something? He wasn’t making any sense.

He was crowding me in, and his fingers were still on my chin, beginning to pinch until it hurt. I wanted him to let me go, but I doubted he would listen.

“Answer me, Slut,” he whispered, giving me a little shake. “Do you want to be Kevin Hill’s Luna?”

“Let me go.”

“Not until you answer me. And given you’re ignoring the question, it suggests that you do.”

“You’re ridiculous.” I pushed at his chest.

“Get your hands off me. You’re hurting me.”

I gasped as he pressed my head against the wall, his hand now against my throat. He wasn’t squeezing hard, but I knew he could.

My heart raced, and I felt lightheaded. Nicholas smirked at me.

“Good.”

He kissed me, and I was shocked at the passion coming from him. It was like when we had been in his bed during the night, and he had fucked me until my eyes were practically rolling in my head.

Where was this coming from now? What was going on with him?

All I knew was that I couldn’t stand it.

I bit down on his lip as hard as I could. Nicholas snarled and pulled back, staring at me in shock as blood dripped from his mouth.

I knew I had angered him too much, but this time I didn’t care. At least he wasn’t kissing me.

Although that was a brief reprieve when he called his guards and had them grab my arms to haul me away. I didn’t need to ask where we were going: we were heading to the dungeons below the palace.

It was where those who defied Nicholas too much ended up. I had been there myself in the past, sometimes for days without any food.

He had tried to starve me almost to death before, but then he would give me something to eat—just to taunt me.

He knew he could control me that way, and he had no intention of stopping.

It was cold in the dungeon, but with the warm weather outside, it wasn’t so bad. There was a thin mattress to sleep on and a bucket in the corner.

That was emptied once a day, but the smell still lingered. There was a window in the cell I was in, high in the wall, just so I knew there was light coming in.

When it was dark, it was so dark I couldn’t see my hand in front of my face.

I could have been in there for several days, and I wouldn’t have known what day it was. Time passed so quickly that I was unable to keep track.

I had to rely on the guards, who seemed reluctant to tell me. But I did find out what the date was.

This time, I was surprised at how long Nicholas kept me down there. It felt longer than before, and I could tell that something was different.

What it was, I wasn’t sure. Maybe it was because of the link between us, and Nicholas knew it.

He couldn’t bring himself to hurt me further, but he was keeping me out of sight.

If he had to suffer because I was his mate, then so did I. He was intent on doing that.

As I lay on the mattress, staring up at the ceiling with my eyes adjusted to the gloom, I wondered how long it would be before I got anything to eat.

From what the guard had told me when I had asked earlier—after he emptied my bucket—I had been in the dungeons for three days. That was without food or water.

How I was functioning without even water to drink, I had no idea.

All I knew was that I was weak, and I felt like I was dying. I was so scared.

Especially when I felt like there was something different with my body. I didn’t know what it was, but something didn’t feel right.

It sent my mind into a spin, and I began to think that I might be sick—or something worse.

Maybe I was pregnant? I had had my period a few days before my eighteenth birthday, and I was aware that it was too early to know, but I had had sex with Nicholas.

We hadn’t protected ourselves, the intensity between us making us forget everything else. With the drug in my body, I hadn’t thought to ask.

But was there a possibility that I could be pregnant, even now? I would have to find out when my next period came, but if it turned out I was…

I could feel my panic building. I couldn’t be pregnant.

If I was, then things were going to get worse.

And Nicholas would make sure of that once he found out.