Chapter 14

Esther’s POV

Nicholas’s voice was like the crack of thunder rolling through the corridor, sharp and merciless.

“What did you do to her?” His eyes cut into me as Amanda whimpered at his side, clutching her arm and looking at the very picture of a delicate, wounded maiden. “Why did Amanda fall?”

I could still feel the phantom weight of her grip on me, the way she had dragged me toward the obstetrics wing moments earlier. But now she looked so fragile, so pitiful, like she might crumble into dust if he breathed too hard in her direction.

Amanda sniffled, tilting her face upward so her tears glistened prettily in the torchlight.

“She pushed me,” she said faintly, her voice trembling with feigned weakness. “She wanted me to miscarry, Nicholas. She wanted to kill your child. She can’t stand that you chose me over her.”

The lie was like a blade sliding between my ribs.

My lips parted, but no sound came. I couldn’t let him know the truth that I was the one carrying his child. His heir was already inside me, fragile and desperately clinging to life. If Amanda suspected it, she would destroy me, destroy them.

So I said nothing.

“Is it true?” Nicholas’s voice cracked like a whip, the Alpha King authority lacing every syllable. His fury pressed down on me like a storm wind, suffocating.

Still, I kept silent. My nails bit into my palms, my body trembling, but my lips were sealed tight.

The silence enraged him further. His eyes flared with a dangerous light. Without another word, he wrapped his arm around Amanda, lifting her from the ground as if she were breakable glass, and barked an order over his shoulder.

“Dan. Take her. Dungeon. Now.”

The dungeon swallowed me whole.

Cold stone pressed against my back as the iron door slammed shut with a metallic screech. The darkness was so thick it felt alive, curling around my skin and seeping into my lungs.

My stomach churned with hunger, the bitter taste of bile rising to the back of my throat. I placed my hand on my belly, remembering the babies inside me. They were a fragile reminder of why I couldn’t collapse.

I wrapped my arms around myself, shivering. The night was endless, broken only by the drip of unseen water and the faint scuttling of rats in the corners.

When morning finally came, I wasn’t sure if I had truly slept or only drifted in and out of nightmares.

The iron door clanged open, flooding the cell with light. Two guards stepped inside, their faces blank as stone.

“On your feet,” one ordered.

I stumbled, legs shaky, and followed them up the narrow staircase into the blinding brightness of the main hall.

The hall was already full. At the center, standing with regal confidence, was Amanda. Her gown was pale rose today, chosen to make her look soft and angelic. But her eyes—sharp and calculating—glittered with triumph when they landed on me.

“Whip her,” she commanded, her voice sweet as honey but sharp enough to draw blood. “One hundred times.”

The guards shifted uneasily.

“She was in the dungeon all night,” one said carefully. “She looks weak. She hasn’t eaten—”

Amanda’s smile vanished. “Do it. Or face punishment yourselves.”

My heart dropped. A hundred lashes. My body could not take it. The babies could not take it.

“Please,” I whispered, my voice breaking. “Don’t. I beg you. Don’t do it.”

The guards hesitated. One of them lowered his whip slightly, his eyes flickering with something like pity.

Amanda’s voice cracked like a whip of its own. “Cowards! Do it now!”

The guard raised his arm again.

“No!” I cried. I lunged forward, seizing the whip with both hands. The leather sliced into my palms as I held it tight, blood welling from the torn skin.

The guard shoved me back roughly, my body stumbling against the stone floor. I curled protectively over my stomach, every nerve in my body screaming with the instinct to shield the lives within me.

The guard raised the whip again.

“Stop.”

Nicholas’s voice rolled through the hall, freezing every breath in the room.

He strode forward, his dark presence cutting through the crowd like a blade. His eyes burned with authority as he fixed them on Amanda.

“Who gave you the right,” he said, each word low and dangerous, “to punish anyone in my name?”

Amanda paled. “I—I only wanted justice. She pushed me, Nicholas, she tried to kill our baby—”

He cut her off with a sudden movement, flinging something at her feet. A sheet of paper fluttered through the air before slapping against her feet.

Amanda bent down, her fingers trembling as she picked it up. The color drained from her face.

Nicholas’s voice was ice. “You dare lie to me? You are not pregnant.”

The silence in the hall was suffocating. Amanda’s lips trembled, but no excuse came.

“The coronation of Luna is postponed.” His tone left no room for debate.

Amanda’s eyes filled with horror as whispers rippled through the gathered crowd.

Nicholas turned away from her as though she no longer existed, his gaze sweeping instead to me. “Take her.”

The guards obeyed, leading me out of the hall.

I was guided into a quiet chamber where Nicholas dismissed the guards with a flick of his hand. He tossed a small bottle toward me, the material thunking against the table where it landed.

“Heal yourself.”

I stared at it, my hands still bleeding, my breath shallow. What if this was another way to rid himself of me once and for all?

Nicholas’s eyes narrowed. “What are you afraid of? That I’d poison you?”

Before I could answer, he seized my hands. His grip was firm but careful as he snapped open the lid with the flick of a single finger. He took a small amount of the ointment and smeared it across the wounds. The sting made me flinch, but he didn’t let go.

His brow furrowed in concentration as he wrapped the bandages with surprising gentleness. For a fleeting moment, a memory surfaced. Years ago, Nicholas, quiet and unsmiling, had tended to my wounds without complaint when I fell of my bicycle as a child.

There used to be a time where he showed me kindness in his quiet actions. He had never needed words to show he cared.

My heart twisted.

For an instant, I almost told him about the babies. A small part of me thought the old Nicholas was still in there somewhere, and he might actually care if he found out I carried his children.

Then his voice cut through the moment, sharp with sarcasm. “What has you so entranced? Kevin?”

I blinked, startled. “Kevin?”

“Don’t play dumb.” His eyes darkened. “I had him removed from my territory. If you think you can seduce him to escape me, you’re wrong. You will atone here, by my side, until your last breath.”

The words sank like lead into my chest.

So that was it. He hadn’t kept me alive out of mercy. Only to torture me until the end.

The fragile hope I’d nursed shattered completely. Whatever kindness he showed was nothing but cruelty wrapped in gentleness.

I lowered my gaze, silent. If he wanted me broken, I would let him think me broken. For the children’s sake, I could not afford to stay here forever. I would find a way to escape.

Amanda’s POV

My hands still shook as I crumpled the false pregnancy test sheet. The humiliation burned worse than any wound.

Nicholas’s eyes when he looked at Esther had been too sharp and conflicted. He had not rejected her.

If she was truly pregnant—if she carried his heir—then everything I had fought for would be destroyed.

The title of Luna would slip from my grasp forever.

A cold resolve settled in my chest. I wouldn’t let her take anything from me, not ever.

I called for Bobby.

When he arrived, I lowered my voice, though the venom in it was unmistakable. “Find someone. Make it clean. Esther must die.”