But just after dinner was over, Rymora decided to leave, fully aware that Zyren was bound to return soon—and meeting him, or even passing by him, was the very last thing she wanted.
Waving goodbye to Aria, she stepped out gingerly, her eyes flicking left and right, hyper-aware of everything around her as she made sure no one was in sight.
With the warning she got the day before—the one she’d shredded but hadn’t forgotten—she had no doubt in her mind that Lord Drehk wouldn’t hesitate to send his guards to drag her to him if that was what it took.
’I have better things to do than entertain a vampire lord!’ she thought to herself, aware that what she had already done with him was more than enough grounds for the pack to kill her—if anyone ever found out. Not to mention her boyfriend, Gregor.
After greeting the guards briefly, she headed off as quickly as she could, intent on making her way to the lower quarters. There was no way Lord Drehk would assume she was staying there. It was where the low maids and servants lived—those whose positions were at the very bottom of the castle’s hierarchy.
But she had just gotten to the bottom step—her hand brushing the wall for balance—when she felt it. There was something different. Everywhere felt quieter than usual. The maids and servants that she always walked passed seemed to have also disappeared.
This thought had just occurred to her when all of a sudden she felt it.
A sudden hand. Rough and cold. Slamming over her mouth.
Another arm—solid as iron—snaked around her waist and hauled her backward with alarming force. Her body jolted in shock.
The scream that formed in her throat never made it out.
The world spun as she was dragged swiftly and silently into the shadows. Her heels scraped against the polished floor, leaving faint streaks behind. She clawed at the arm around her waist, kicking wildly, but the figure didn’t falter, didn’t even grunt.
The last thing she saw was darkness closing in and the ground tilting beneath her feet.
Darkness swallowed her vision as everything went quiet.
When she woke up, the first thing she felt was a dull ache pounding at the back of her head, even before her eyes managed to flutter open.
A deep frown crossed her face as she slowly blinked to figure out where she was—though a nagging feeling already twisted in her gut, telling her it could only be one person.
Who else would dare to kidnap her from within the castle walls?
Her suspicion was confirmed the second her vision cleared. She was lying on a bed—too soft, too expensive, too grand to be something she would have willingly climbed into.
She moved to scramble off the huge white bed just as the door opened, revealing the one man who made her suck in a sharp breath.
King Zyren might have been taller, but Lord Drehk was more muscular—his body packed with powerful, heavy muscle that made it feel like he could dominate any space he entered.
He dwarfed her in size completely.
Rymora scooted away quickly on the bed, her eyes fixed on him, ignoring the piece of parchment and pen that had been placed beside her.
She said nothing, but the wariness on her face was impossible to miss as she watched him approach.
He wore a black shirt and dark pants, but what worried her more was the obvious dampness of his black hair. He’d just taken a bath.
Before the silence suffocated her completely, Rymora opened her mouth to speak only to freeze as she grabbed the paper and ink and began to scribble on it.
"You brought me here," she wrote shoeing it to him, not as a question but as a statement—even as she watched Lord Drehk pause a few steps away from the bed, fixing a firm gaze on her.
"You ignored my summons. Any more... and I myself would have forgotten that I’m a lord," he said, pointing out the level of disrespect she had shown him—something he could easily punish her for, even kill her over, and no one would so much as blink.
She was just a maid. A servant. She, like every other servant, had been thoroughly reminded of her place before entering the castle. The king’s word—and that of the lords—was law. Even if they asked her to carve out her own eye and offer it for their amusement, she’d be expected to obey.
"I apologize, my lord," Rymora scribbled in the same parchment immediately, bowing her head low in the most respectful way she could manage as she quickly scrambled to think of an excuse—one that might actually protect her.
"I needed to attend to my mistress. With her getting poisoned and all, there was no way I could leave her side," she continued to write pushing it towards him for him to read once she was done, doing her best not to touch her swollen lip where she’d been cut.
Her arm had been reset, but the pain still throbbed faintly with the memory. Even more painfully, her heart began to thump louder again as Lord Drehk continued to close the distance between them.
"I couldn’t leave her side, even if I wanted to," she wrote on a second paper quickly, lowering her gaze to the sheets. She didn’t dare meet his eyes, not with how intensely she could feel them on her.
Lord Drehk stopped moving.
"...So you wanted to?" His deep voice rolled out slowly, causing her to stiffen.
Rymora instantly nodded, too fast. "Who am I to disobey you, my lord? Moreover, I’ve already agreed to serve you... regarding whatever you need from me!" she wrote
The words left her mouth more like a plea than a vow, even as she tried to push away the rising panic inside her.
All she could think about were the rumors she herself had chased down about Lord Drehk—only to confirm they were true. That he didn’t entertain women. That even Lord Lythari, who had pursued him for centuries, had never gotten as much as a glance.
This can’t be sexual... Maybe... just maybe, he has something he wants me to do! she thought wildly, refusing to lift her head.