Tyrant's Obsession With The Heiress

With that being said, Van Merikh allowed Lady Karina to slip from his hold as she fell back into the damp straw. He turned his back on her, deciding to stand by the cell door until she had redressed herself.

Stunned, in tears, Lady Karina tried to gather her wits as she struggled to reclaim both her senses and her clothing.

She went about redressing, labouring not to make a sound even as stinging tears poured down her cheeks. She would never again allow Orpheus Van Merikh to see how exposed, hurt, and frightened he made her.

Although what he did was not as bad and severe as what he could have done.

She knew very well that he could have stifled her cries with his large hand as he drove into her without mercy, yet for some unknown reason, Van Merikh showed no signs of desiring her as his pleasure doll.

However, Lady Karina's anger was rapidly developing into hatred.

Being stripped of her heiress status and rights to rule over Moonveil was but one humiliation, but now her dignity was torn to shreds.

She shook her head out of those weary thoughts and focused on redressing.

When she finally reclaimed her last leather strip and donned it, she simply sauntered over to where Van Merikh stood.

Lady Karina never uttered a sound.

And with the glare vanished from his expression, Van Merikh opened the door and allowed her to pass through before following.

The vault was built below ground level in the main keep, accessed only by a door from the outside, and Van Merikh proceeded to trail behind Lady Karina up the stairs and into the bailey beyond.

The open courtyard spanned a large area where the knights of Moonveil keep often trained on the daily.

It was also where they would bring out some of the beasts they reared from hiding to bond and communicate with them.

Little did the pampered heiress know that it would come to be their graveyard of her father's knights.

And that was when all of her courage and hope had fled.

One look at the unbelievable horrors of the Bailey, and the scream she fought so desperately to suppress flew from her lips with surprising ease.

There were dead men everywhere.

Her father's men.

They weren't simply dead; they were pitched on poles like a macabre army of scarecrows all throughout the bailey.

Their bodies were cased in shells of black ice but she could still see their faces clearly since it was the only part of their body that was not covered by the shell.

It was a scene straight out of Hell, although not even Hell could have been so horrid.

Nothing could have possibly prepared Lady Karina for the atrocities she would face and she instinctively turned away from the gut-wrenching sight.

Van Merikh happened to be right behind her and she ended up with her face pressed into his chest.

In a matter of a few seconds, she was in full-blown hysterics.

Van Merikh warranted no emotion whatsoever as he gripped Lady Karina by the shoulders and shifted her back around.

He pushed her forward but she found difficulty in walking as her legs trembled, somewhat frozen on the spot in the same breath.

Lady Karina covered her face with her hands as her breathing came in harsh, weeping gasps.

"Into the keep, Lady," Van Merikh rumbled behind her.

Lady Karina made every effort to move her shaking limbs but she couldn't seem to make her legs obey her.

Her hands were still over her eyes as she took a few timid steps forward, hearing Van Merikh march around her and his footfalls as they faded away.

Now she stood in the midst of the horror alone, weeping heavily and refusing to uncover her eyes. Her forward momentum came to a halt and she stood there, sobbing among the bodies of her father's men.

She knew all of them by name.

She knew those who had bonded with the creatures they were keepers of.

The beasts would mourn for them when they would learn of the knights' deaths.

They were a great part of her childhood that would never leave her sweet memories.

Van Merikh had already reached the steps that led into the large keep but paused at the base, waiting for Lady Karina to follow and realising that she had come to a grief-stricken halt.

She simply stood there and wept.

As he observed her, it began to occur to him that Lady Karina had no intention of moving forward, so he retracted his steps until he returned to standing right in front of her.

"You will walk, Lady," Van Merikh ordered in a low voice.

Lady Karina was sobbing so uncontrollably that she could barely catch her breath.

One hand came away from a very red and very wet eye, struggling not to look at the bodies around her.

"I…I…" Her words came out as a heavy stammer. "I…am trying but I cannot…I…"

What Van Merikh perceived as irritation growing within him swept over him. However, on its heels was another unidentifiable emotion that tugged at his chest again.

For a beast who had been emotionally dead for most of his life, the sensations were bizarre.

He didn't like them one bit.

"If you do not walk into the keep, I will leave you here for the vultures," Van Merikh remarked in a dangerous tone. "Walk or remain. You choose."

With that, he matched back to the steps of the Keep, mounting them and disappearing into the entry of the second floor.

Lady Karina didn't realise how long she stood there, weeping and sick.

But eventually, the tears faded, and an overwhelming urge to depart from the bailey washed over her.

She could no longer stand in the midst of the corpses of her father's knights.

Now while her mind was reeling with memories of the moments she spent around them for most of her life.

Out of necessity, Lady Karina removed her hands from her eyes, focusing on the bloody mud of the bailey and praying that it would prevent her from seeing anything that would cause her to retch out the contents of her stomach.

She could smell the decaying scent of the bodies around her already.

It was beyond belief.

Lady Karina began to walk, losing her balance almost immediately as she fell to her knees.

Van Merikh watched her go down.

He and his second in command were observing from the lancet window of her father's solar.

The dirty blonde knight who usually led all the interrogations turned his attention to Van Merikh.

"Do you want me to go and retrieve her?"

Van Merikh's dual-coloured eyes gazed steadily at the limp form of Lady Karina struggling to rise from the blood and muck.

The tugging in his chest grew worse and his confusion over it was irking him.

It only made his manner snappish.

"Nay," Van Merikh said, turning away from the lancet window. "She was strong enough to beg for her father's life and accept my punishment. She is strong enough to walk into the keep by herself."

"As you say."

"What do you imply by that?" Van Merikh asked immediately.

The dirty blonde knight lifted an eyebrow as if confused by the question.

"Exactly what I said."