Chapter 3 Why Am I Here

*Isla*

The head maid lets go of me when we hear a male voice demanding to know what she is doing.

She turns to address him as I cover my face, pain radiating through my cheeks and nose.

“Beta Seth,” she begins, “this girl was being careless with the king’s belongings and disrespectful to me. I was simply teaching her a lesson, the same way I would teach any new servant a lesson, sir.”

I wipe a bit of blood from my upper lip with the back of my hand and turn to see a handsome man walk into the room. He is tall with dark blond hair and white shoulders. His green eyes are focused on the other woman in the room, and his intense stare has her rigid stance wavering, but then his eyes land on me.

“How dare you?” he demands. Is he speaking to me?

I wince, my eyes watering so violently I struggle to keep my gaze on him. If Mrs… whatever her bloody name is, is allowed to hit me in such a manner, what will the Beta of this place be able to do to me?

Blinking rapidly to clear my vision, I see another man briefly enter the room. Tall, dark, and handsome, like something out of the frilly romance novels I used to hide under my mattress, but his eyes are as cold as ice as he looks from me, to the housekeeper. His nostrils flare, shoulders tightening as he leans to whisper something into the ear of the Beta. As he speaks, his eyes meet mine. There’s nothing there but malice, and maybe a hint of disgust. My cheeks flare as he turns on his heel and leaves the room.

I wonder who he was, but Beta Seth steps forward, clearing his throat. “You were asked to show Miss Isla to her room, Mrs. Worsthingshorethinshire. No one asked you to teach her anything. I can’t imagine she did anything careless. What could she have possibly done? I didn’t see anything broken between here and the king’s offices.”

I watch as the woman’s throat moves viciously as she swallows. “Well, she bumped a table in the hall and then again in here and…”

“In her own room? So what?” He seems to be getting angrier by the moment, and as he takes another step toward her, Mrs. Whateverhernameisshire bumps into the table. “I suppose now that you’ve bumped the table, we should teach you a lesson, hmm?”

I notice then that there are two other men with him. Both of them are dressed in guards' uniforms. They are large, muscular men as well, and as Beta Seth raises a hand, they step forward.

“Oh, no, Beta, please,” she says. “I didn’t mean to.”

“Well, I’m sure Miss Isla didn’t mean to either. But you took it upon yourself to slap her until her face is bleeding. So… I think Daniel and Stephen shall do the same to you.” He snaps his fingers and moves aside.

I watch as one of the large men grabs her by the collar and the other begins to slap her across the face. It only takes a few smacks for her nose and lip to start bleeding. She begins to cry, begging them to stop.

“Please,” I say, my eyes wide. “Please, don’t.” I reach out to touch the Beta’s shirt sleeve, but I fall short of actually grabbing it. “Can that be enough, please?”

He turns and looks at me while the other two continue to slap her, taking turns now. He snaps his fingers and they stop, letting her go in the process, and she falls to the ground. “You think she’s had enough, Miss Isla?”

I nod. I wouldn’t have wanted them to slap her anyway. Even though she is an awful person, and she hurt me, I don’t like to watch others suffer.

He studies my face for a moment before one side of his mouth pulls up into a grin. “You are… different,” he assesses, and I don’t know if that’s good or bad. “Daniel, take Mrs. Worsthingshorethinshire to her chamber to gather her things. She’ll be departing the castle now.”

“Yes, Beta Seth,” Daniel says, and he hauls the woman up off of the ground by her shirt collar as she begs to keep her job.

“You’re firing her?” I ask.

“Yes,” he answers as if it is the most obvious thing in the world. “You haven’t even seen your room yet. Here we are.”

I feel bad for the woman, even if she was a witch, but we have moved on, and as Beta Seth opens the door to my room, I can’t believe my eyes.

“This is… my room?” I ask.

“That’s right,” he tells me. “King Maddox wanted the best room for you.”

I stand in the doorway for a moment and take it all in.

To my left, there’s a large, cherry wood dresser with a beautiful mirror and a bench where I can sit and do my hair and makeup, if I had any makeup. Just down from there is a plush blue chair that looks cozy and inviting. A large window with drapes the same shade as the chair is next to it, and there’s a matching one on the other side of the bed.

The bed is massive, big enough for at least three people. It is a four-poster bed in the same cherry wood as the dresser, and the bedding matches the rest of the fabrics in the room. The mattress looks so plush and divine, I can’t wait to try it out. I’ve been sleeping on a thin piece of foam for so long, I can’t remember what a real mattress feels like

Next to the second window, there’s a door, which stands ajar, and I can see that inside is a bathroom, and a clawfoot tub looks so inviting, I want to jump right in. The tile on the floor is black and white checkered, and it looks very sleek and polished inside the en suite bathroom.

There’s a large fireplace, though it isn’t lit at the moment. The mantel has some beautiful blue vases and over it is a cottage scene that I imagine I could stare at for hours.

Near the fireplace stands a larger armoire that matches the other furniture, and there’s another door that I imagine is a closet.

In the corner to my left is a round table in the same cherry wood finish with four chairs, upholstered in the same blue.

The carpet is beige, but there’s a large throw rug that has beige and blue woven through it.

“Well?” Beta Seth asks as I stand there gaping at all of this.

“I think that Mrs. Worthershtirshirehover was right,” I say, noting that he is chuckling at my butchering of her name.

“What did Mrs. Worsthingshorethinshire say, dare I ask?” Beta Seth questions.

“She told me that she thought there’s been some mistake and that I’m actually supposed to be shown to the maid’s quarters. Beta Seth, sir,” I begin, bowing my head in respect, “I went to my Alpha to borrow money to repay a debt, and he brought me here to repay a debt he owes to the king. I believe I should be working to pay that debt off. Shouldn’t I be in the maids’ quarters to do that?”

Beta Seth’s smile fades. “No one told you then?” he asks me.

My eyebrows raise and I feel my heart begin to thunder in my chest as I try to guess what his words are supposed to mean. “No one told me… what?” I ask.

“No one told you what your duties shall be… in order to pay off the debt?”

I shake my head. “No, sir. No one has told me.”

He clears his throat. “I don’t really want to be the one to tell you, but if it isn’t going to be King Maddox himself, then I suppose it’s going to be me.”

“Please, sir. You’ve been so kind. I’d like to hear it from you, if you don’t mind.”

He nods, and I brace myself to hear what he has to say. I have no idea what it could possibly be. None at all.

“You’re going to repay your debts by becoming the Alpha King’s Breeder.”

I certainly wasn’t expecting that.

***

Maddox

I need to prepare for my meeting with Alpha Jordan’s pack before the formal dinner we’ll be having. We have many points to discuss, and I need to be on top of my game to make sure that I don’t get swindled on any of them.

After all, Alpha Jordan is one of my strongest allies, but he’s also quite shrewd and nearly twice my age.

It would be quite easy for him to take advantage of me if I’m not paying close attention.

But I can’t get my mind off of the girl, and that’s irritating.

I’ve sworn not to ever take another Luna, so there’s no need for me to even let that thought cross my mind. It’s not that.

I just wonder… what is she doing here? And am I crazy for even letting Alpha Ernest’s ridiculous suggestion enter my thoughts?

Breeder….

I had been thinking about it before, though. It used to be common practice, a long time ago, back when Lunas had trouble conceiving male heirs and Alphas wanted to make sure that they had a strong son to put on the throne or to rule the pack after them.

Just because I hadn’t heard of anyone doing it in decades didn’t mean it wasn’t a good idea.

Still… the girl….

I’d only caught a glimpse of her as she’d gone down the hallway, and she hadn’t seen me at all. I hadn’t even seen her face until it was covered in blood and reddened by violence of some kind. I assumed she’d shown up here like that. That hadn’t shown me much of her potential. I let Seth handle that mess, having far too many important things to worry about right now.

Like the prospect taking this small, innocent woman as my breeder.

Alpha Ernest had said she was beautiful in an effort to close the deal, but that didn’t mean anything. Beauty was in the eye of the beholder. If I were to do this, I needed someone strong. Someone sharp witted and intelligent. I didn’t want sons whose eyes watered the second someone threatened them with violence. I need someone like me to bear my future child, my future heir. That’s what mattered the most, not her beauty or her innocence.

Beyond that, I had a reputation for being a cold, cruel, uncompassionate man on the battlefield.

Could I also be one in the bedroom? Could she handle it, if I was?

People spoke of me as if I had a harem of women that I used and abused, but the truth of the matter was I hadn’t slept with many women at all since my wife had died. When I did, they knew that there were no feelings involved.

“Rebecca….”

Her name rolled from my lips so easily, even though I wished it wouldn’t. Even when I wished her memory would fade to the back of my mind and simply become a part of my subconscious.

A knock on my door brought me out of my thoughts.

“Seth,” I said, seeing my Beta walk into the office. He knew he could walk in any time I wasn’t with someone else. “Did you do what I asked?”

“I did. And Isla Moon is resting. She’s… a tiny thing. Sweet—a bit odd, perhaps.”

“Odd?”

He shrugged. “It’s hard to describe. You’ll have to meet her formally, I’m sure, if you decide to really go through with this. She’s quite lovely, though. At any rate, it isn’t her I came by to tell you about.”

With my elbows on my desk, I leaned toward him. “What is it then?”

“It’s Mrs. Worsthingshorethinshire.” Seth let out a lamentable sigh as he sat down in a chair across from me. “I’m afraid I’ve had to let her go.”

“Let her go?” I repeat. “That’s not what I asked you to do. I asked you to assign her to another maid, someone younger and softer. Mrs. Worsthingshorethinshire is my head of staff!”

“Well, when I walked into the room, she had slapped the girl, Miss Isla, so hard, she’d knocked her across the room. You saw the aftermath. The wretched woman had just met the girl, and when I asked Mrs. Worsthingshorethinshire why she’d reacted in such a way, she said it was because the girl had knocked into a table in her own room. Naturally, I couldn’t let that be tolerated. It’s not the first time I’ve heard of Mrs. Worsthingshorethinshire doing something so cruel.”

I can only stare at him for a moment, not believing my ears. My housekeeper did this? “And I have the reputation for being brutal.”

He nodded. “I was so infuriated at the sight, I had my men give her a taste of her own medicine.” He looks down at the floor, a bit embarrassed, I think. “Maybe I shouldn’t have, but I thought she deserved it.”

“No, don’t beat yourself up about it,” I say, trying to crack a joke, but Seth doesn’t seem to think I am funny right now. “You did the right thing. How is the girl?”

“I left her in her rooms. I have sent for Poppy. I think she’s the right maid to take care of her. I will also have some dinner sent to her and a wardrobe. I assume you will be in to see her… eventually?”

I shrug. “I don’t know what my plans are, Seth. This breeder business… it’s probably not for me. Especially if she is as you say she is… tiny and frail.”

“Well, she is tiny, but I don’t think she is frail. And she is quite lovely. There’s something about her that’s quite striking—and before you say it—no pun intended.” He gives me a look that says he likes me better when I’m not trying to be funny.

“Is that what’s odd about her then? The striking part?” I ask, putting my strange sense of humor aside.

“No,” he says. “I think what’s odd was that she just took it, like she’s used to being knocked around. And that sort of seemed sad to me. That someone so young should be so used to being hit so hard.”

I can only shrug at that. Empathy is not my strong suit. “Thanks for letting me know,” I say. “Alpha Jordan will be here soon, and I need to prepare.”

“All right,” Seth gets up and heads out of the room, and I go back to my notes about my meeting with Alpha Jordan, but I cannot concentrate at all.

All I can think about is the girl.