Her Unwanted Mate On The Throne

Chapter 16

#Chapter 16 You don’t know me?

“You stupid lying asshole.” Waylon growled in William’s mind. “Turn around and claim our mate before I —“

“We aren’t meant to have mates. It’s our damned fate as a royal member, remember?” William cut off his wolf before the threats poured in.

Of course, Waylon knew exactly why William was pushing away their mate.

William’s birth mother was the Alpha king’s one and only fated mate and king Charles loved her with every fiber of his being. It almost killed his father when she died just months after she’d given birth to William. What made it even worse was when the rumors started to spread that Luna Queen Cara herself had been the one to drug her out of pure jealousy.

In the Golden Palace, true love meant nothing. Power was the only thing that mattered which meant the king never did get revenge for his mate. All he was left with was the scars from not being able to protect her. William did not want to become weak like his father because of a mate. He refused. William simply pushed out the images of her brown eyes and forced away the electric feeling he had whenever he was near her.

“I just wonder if we might be lucky with ours, you know.” Waylon said quietly, William didn’t respond.

Doris watched William disappear at the end of the hallway. She kneeled down once she was alone to slowly gather her coins back into the small bag. Her tears blurred her vision until she started to choke from them. Would her humiliation ever end in this palace?

He has no interest in me.

That’s all I wanted.

Wasn’t it?

Doris clenched her chest and felt the pain pulse beneath her hand. Why did his rejection hurt so much? He was a beast, a horrible man. She didn’t want any of his affection—so why was she crying? Doris furiously wiped her tears away and picked up the last of her coins before she headed to her room.

It must have been because of the mark he’d left on her, it was making her heart feel strange towards him when her head knew better. This was nothing more than a nightmare that wouldn’t release her. His hatred and disgust of her was enough to push him far from her mind. At least she knew he wouldn’t try to call on her now. She wondered what he would do if he saw his mark on her neck, would he be horrified at himself that he marked a maid like her?

Doris had barely gotten to lay down for five minutes before another maid showed up at her door. The girl popped her head in the room without a knock, Doris almost stumbled out of bed. “Lady Melody asked you to serve her and Prince William for dinner tonight, Doris. You’d better hurry before she gets mad.”

Doris cursed silently and asked herself yet again why Melody decided to choose her of all the maids in the castle to be her lady’s maid? Doris made Melody angry by just existing, surely there were other girls in the palace she liked enough not to glare at all day. Perhaps she only wanted someone she was allowed to yell at, that must have been it.

Prince William was the last person in this kingdom she wanted to see, but now it seemed it would be unavoidable. Doris only wondered what Melody would do this time to embarrass her in front of him and make her torture worse.

The second Doris arrived to Melody’s door, she was already scolding her. “What took you so long? Prince William has been waiting for ages for you to serve us! How dare you make the prince wait for you!”

“I apologize my lady and majesty.” Doris curtsied, her eyes anywhere but him.

“Just serve the dinner already.” Melody huffed at the table and crossed her arms over her chest like a child. Prince William wasn’t looking at either of them.

Doris brought out their dishes and carefully set each one in front of them. The smell made her stomach turn, it’d been a while since she had a moment to eat anything more than a snack between her duties. Melody never let her snack around her, she always had to slip away before she could eat anything.

After they finished their courses, Doris cleared the table and brought coffee out to serve. She made the mistake of locking eyes with Prince William for just a moment—he stared at her with a look of pure hatred in his gaze once again. It was like a fire in his blue eyes, no one had ever looked at her like that. The sight startled her, she stumbled a bit and the hot coffee splashed over the rim and scorched her hand.

Doris gasped, quickly setting down the tray to hold her hand to her chest. “I’m so sorry—“

Melody gasped as if she was the one who got burned. “How dare you—“

“Out.” Prince William’s deep voice cut through the air and silenced both of them. Doris dared a glance at the man that wouldn’t even look at her as he ordered her out of the room without a trace of pity.

“What are you waiting for?” Melody said after a beat. “Get out of here!”

Doris bit her lip and turned to leave without another word. She felt nothing but agony in every inch of her body. It was hard to tell if her heart or hand hurt worse, but at the moment she didn’t even care anymore. She was just glad to be free of both of them. For a wild moment, she imagined herself running out the front doors of the castle and never looking back. If she wasn’t a maid bound here by the alpha king, she would have. One day she would get to throw away her horrible uniform and wear whatever she wanted. She would serve no one but herself and stand up to anyone that tried to step on her and make her feel small and weak.

Doris wasn’t weak, even if everyone else thought she was. She knew she wasn’t. She’d survived blood, sweat, and tears over the years at the palace, she wasn’t about to give up now because of a rotten prince and his cruel lady. Not when she was so close to being free of them both. Doris looked down at her red hand and knew it would leave painful blisters by the morning, she could already feel the areas they would hurt the most.

Fresh air dried some of her tears. Doris wandered into the gardens and found a bench to rest on. Slowly, she inhaled the scent of grass and flowers and tried to calm herself down. He was not worth her tears— neither of them were. Only the pain from her hand was reason enough to cry—nothing more. Copyright Nôv/el/Dra/ma.Org.

“Oh my, did you burn your hand?” A man appeared at her side, Doris almost flinched away from the stranger but he smiled at her. He looked a little younger than herself, perhaps 18 or 19. He had an innocent lopsided grin that was laced with concern as his eyes flickered down to her hand she cradled in her lap. He was handsome in a boyish way with light eyes and light brown hair, but Doris didn’t recognize him.

When Doris didn’t reply, he gently went to raise her wrist up to have a better look. “That doesn’t look good, let me see—“

“Excuse me,” Doris snatched her hand away from him. The last thing she needed was a stranger touching her burn. “Who are you?”

He blinked at Doris as if he was confused by her question. “You don’t know me?”