Fated to Two Beast Kings

VIENNA POV

“Mother, please! Mother, don’t. I beg you please!” I begged, holding her leg and refusing to let go. My eyes burned from the tears streaming down my cheeks. My chest felt so tight, breathing strained my lungs and my heart beat with difficulty like my chest was squishing it. I was still trying to speak even when every word scorched my throat and sent shocks of pain to tear my insides.

“Let me go you stupid girl!” mother yelled at me, stomping on my hands multiple times. “You are a disgrace to this family. After all I’ve done for you as your mother, you still will not obey me. You still remain so heartless and wicked. I can never have a child like you under my roof.”

She grabbed my shirt by the collar and she pulled so hard, my nails scratched her when she rip me away from her legs. She swung her palms across my face and she tore off my shirt. “Get out of my house, you monster!” She grabbed the suitcase on the floor and threw it a me. I didn't raise my head quick enough to see it. The suitcase hit my head and sent me crashing against the rough pavement in front of the house.

The world broke into fragments before my eyes. Something warm rolled down my forehead and dripped on the floor underneath me. My vision went hazy and the scorching heat of that afternoon suddenly felt cold. With trembling fingers, i reached out to the fading image of mother and I murmured, “I will do it. I will...I will replace Vianne. I will... risk my life instead of hers, just... just please don’t leave me here. Please don’t leave me. I’m your daughter too.”

The lights began to vanish, darkness filling my eyes. In the split seconds before i lost consciousness, i saw mother turn and her lips curled. She heard me, I could tell.

I was out for god knows how long. I do know that it was long enough for mother to have the nurse over and clean me up, when i woke up, all the scars were gone. I stood in front of the vanity and stared at the naked body in front of me. All of the whip scares, the cuts, bruises, braces; everything was gone. Almost as if the me, who lived her whole life abused and beaten, did not exist.

“What are you standing there for, put this on and hurry. The dragon king’s convoy will be here soon. He should not be able to suspect a thing.” Mother barked the order but in a low tone. I nodded, picking up the lingerie she flung at me. I looked at the little thing in my hands, a twisted smile pull up my lips, followed by a tear.

“You are so pathetic Vienna. You know... you know what’s going to happen if you replace Vianne on her wedding night. You know what will happen if you offer yourself as bedmate to that beast. But you won’t turn back because you are that weak. They keep talking about you atoning for what you did to your sister when you were kids but you know... nothing you do will ever atone for it in their eyes.’

“Vienna!” Mother’s yell jolted me out of my reverie.

“I’m sorry. I will hurry,” I fumbled with the little thing, I still felt so naked even after I wore it. Mother helped me into the dress. I was much skinner than Vianne so she stuffed padding in a lot of places then she handed me over to the dragon king’s consigliore with a bright blinding smile.

As the carriage pulled away, I fixed my eyes on the house, watching it grow smaller and smaller from the window. I was never coming back here because tonight i was going to die. In the human kingdom of Medalicia, we had a tradition. Whenever a dragon king from the dragon kingdom of Saltore, was to be crowned he would take a human mate to be his the night waking into the day of his coronation. The problem wasn’t the ritual, it was that the dragon of any soon-to-be king matured the same night he would meet his mate and if he couldn’t bond with that mate, he would kill her.

MIDNIGHT

THE DRAGON CASTLE

I hugged my knees and buried my face in my arms, while I slowly rocked myself like a cradle. “I’m ready. I’m ready. I’m ready,” I sang the word to myself like it was an incantation to find the courage I lacked. I tried to remember the stories of the girls who survived this night. For a minute, the thought of them was like a cold glass of water, quenching the fear inside me but immediately the door creaked, everything vanished.

My heart stopped, tremors riddled my skin, a sign that all the fear was creeping back in. I raised my head slowly, my eyes tracing the door. There was a dragon maid standing there. Her blue snake-like eyes stared back at me. They were blank like her expression.

“He is ready for you.” She pushed the door wider. I rose, stepping into the hallway to meet her. She hooked her wrist around my arm. Her grip wasn’t tight but still felt like I was being dragged there instead of walking over voluntarily.

We turned into a long corridor, at the same time, a loud bloodcurdling roar tore into the silence. My heart jumped, i staggered backwards immediately. The she-dragon squeezed my arm and yanked me forward. I winced.

“Behave, human.” She snapped at me, her voice dripping with displeasure. There was finally a look on her face. It was a look of contempt, like she was disgusted by my fear, like she felt I should be proud that I was about to die.

“Tha... tha... that’s not him, is... is... is it?”

She rolled her eyes and shoved my shaking body forward. The corridor was so dark. I squinted my eyes just to see where I was going. There were three figures appearing in the dark as I came closer. One of them was holding open a door. The she-dragon let go of me the instant we stopped by the door. She pointed at the entrance.

“Go in.”

I turned my head to stare at the room past the door. It was shrouded in darkness. I gulped.

“Go in, sissy!” someone barked an insult, it was followed by a hard kick right in my spine. I jerked off my feet and crashed into the floor. The door bolted shut. I scampered, trying to get off the ground, that’s when i heard it; the beast’s roar. It broke into the room and scared me shitless. I panicked, jerking to me feet. I ran, frantically pulling the door handle and screaming. “Let me out! Let me out! Please let me out!”

No one came.

My weak legs gave up and I crumbled to my knees, one hand still holding onto the door handle. I quivered, shaking, crying, and hitting my head on the door. There was a low rumble behind me. My chest tightened when I heard it. The monster dragon king was in the dark with me. But I didn’t know where exactly, the room was so big and I couldn’t see a thing.

My hand slipped from the door handle and fell on my lap. My face twisted from the pain gnawing at my back or everywhere. I turned around, sitting on the floor and leaning on the door with my head raised.

Suddenly a mocking chuckle escaped my lips. I wiped the tear rolling down my cheek. “If you are going to kill me, get to it. I don’t freaking care anymore. I’m so tired. I’m tired of fighting everyone and everything, every time.”

My ear twitched at the sound of the floor boards creaking, alerting me that something big was coming towards me – like an angry bloodthirsty dragon. I shut my eyes and buried my teeth in my lips, so deep that my tongue caught the taste of blood.

The footsteps stopped in front me. I felt cold hands grip my throat. I gasped, my fingers flinched but I couldn’t find the courage to touch him. He lifted me off the ground, my feet dangling in the air.

The growl stopped for a few seconds then i heard something else; his voice.

“Aren’t you afraid of me?”

My lips parted slowly. They were still quivering. I sucked in a breath and I muttered. “No. I mean, you... you can’t be worse than anyone else in my life.” The words tasted bitter in my mouth.

“I could kill you.”

“I guess I should thank you then. At least you care enough to put me out of my misery.”

He went quiet, using his hands instead. He had thick slender fingers. They stroked my hair back and caressed my lips. He pulled me closer, his breath brushing the skin around my neck. I shuddered from the coldness of his breath. He sniffed my hair and he made a low, soft growl.

“You smell like wet roses in the garden on spring morning. I wonder what you look like.” He clicked his fingers and a candle flame ignited out of thin air, burning over his second finger. He held it over my face and he took a look.

He was still in the dark. I couldn’t see him.

“You are so beautiful. I want you.”