I was too stunned to move. His hand tightened possessively where it had no right to be, and I felt the heat of the humiliation rise through my spine like a fever. I sucked in a shaky breath, barely able to process what had just happened.
He touched like I wasn’t even a person anymore, like I was a puppet in his arms for display. And he had done it all while the prince stood behind . Watching and bearing witness to the filth and degradation Lucian so casually dragged through. My hands trembled where they rested, and I thought I would fall apart right then.
But Lucian wasn’t satisfied with just humiliation.
His hand shifted again, and before I could even recoil...
Smack!
Lucian slapped so hard on my butt that I was sure that it would have left a bruise.
I was so shocked, I almost scread.
The slap had co so out of nowhere that it ripped the breath from my lungs. My throat clenched around the sound that tried to escape, but I muffled it, forcing it back down like bile. Because I knew what it would sound like.
If I cried out, if I so much as whimpered, my voice would betray . It would sound like I liked it.
And I refused to let a single noise leave . So I clamped my mouth shut, my teeth grinding together so hard my jaw ached. I wouldn’t give them the satisfaction of a single sound.
But Lucian wasn’t done.
His hand ca down again, this ti with full force.
A loud smack echoed again through the chamber as his palm smacked hard against my other backside, the sting blooming instantly across my skin. It wasn’t playful or restrained; he ant it to hurt. He wanted to make scream.
And still, I didn’t.
I shook with effort, my entire body trembling in his grip, but I didn’t make a sound. I would not.
Without thinking, I twisted just enough and sank my teeth into the side of his neck where he had pinned my head down. It wasn’t deep enough to draw blood but hard enough to make him hiss.
He flinched, his breath catching in surprise. Then he laughed like he was entertained. Like I was performing exactly the way he wanted.
"See that, Your Highness?" Lucian said, turning his head toward the prince behind , his voice thick with smug delight. "Isn’t she sothing? A feisty bitch, really knows how to entertain."
My stomach twisted. The sha was too much.
I couldn’t see the prince’s face. I didn’t want to. I couldn’t bear to see the look in his eyes—the disgust, the disbelief, or worse... pity.
Tears slipped down my cheeks before I could stop them. Silent, hot trails of humiliation that burned more than his slap.
I had never felt like this before.
Not even when I was first marked as a slave. Not when they stripped of my na, my title, or my pride.
This... this mont... kneeling in his lap, being paraded like a broken toy for the prince to inspect—this was the cruelest I’d ever felt. Powerless. Violated. Reduced to nothing.
Lucian’s hand stroked my back mockingly, still pretending tenderness, as he whispered low beside my ear, "Good girl. That’s what you are now. Isn’t that right?"
~~~
Prince Vaelen’s POV~
Lucian didn’t seem bothered at all by my sudden arrival. In fact, he looked delighted.
Still lounging, with Selene forced in his lap like a puppet, he wore the sa smirk that always made wonder if he’d ever taken anything seriously in his life.
"Forgive the indecency, Your Highness," he said lazily, his fingers still coiled around her waist like he owned her. "You caught us at a rather... intimate mont."
Selene’s head remained bowed, her face veiled beneath the ss of her long hair. But I didn’t need to see her eyes to know the truth. Her whole body spoke it with her stiff posture. She had turned herself into a statue, not out of obedience but survival. Like a creature trying not to exist.
"She’s gotten quite good," Lucian added, his tone dropping as though he ant to share sothing personal. "You wouldn’t believe how obedient she is now. Sharp little tongue, sure, but that just makes it more satisfying to break her in."
My jaw locked tight. I didn’t trust myself to speak.
Lucian chuckled at my silence. Amused. Confident. And far too comfortable.
"You should’ve seen her the first ti," he went on, eyes gleaming with cruel nostalgia. "Feisty little thing. So full of fire, so sure of herself. But pride is a funny thing, isn’t it? Break it right, and it turns into sothing even more beautiful."
He tilted his head as he stroked her back as if she were so rare beast he’d tad through patience and pain.
"Kael says she’s still resisting," he mused, like this was so casual report about a pet’s behavior. "But I think she likes it more than she lets on. Prideful little thing... always puts on a show. But deep down? They all bend eventually."
Every word made my insides coil. Acid crawled up the back of my throat, but I swallowed it down.
I didn’t believe him. Not for a second. But Selene... she wasn’t reacting. She didn’t even flinch. That wasn’t submission. That was self-erasure. The kind of silence people use when their voice has been taken from them. When speaking becos dangerous. When even crying might be twisted against them.
I had seen her once—standing tall, proud, and stubborn to the point of madness. She used to look at the world like it owed her answers. She used to smile like fire. Now, she looked like she wasn’t even there.
Lucian watched carefully. His smirk sharpened.
"She doesn’t talk much anymore," he added casually, as if reading my thoughts. "Not unless we make her."
He laughed again. He was goading , trying to provoke sothing. But I saw it now.
He wanted to see how much she mattered to . He wanted to know if she still held value in my eyes. If I saw her as a slave, a broken thing, sothing beneath my attention... or sothing more.
And if I did? If I dared to show it?
Then she would suffer for it.
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