Predatory Marriage

Leah had a dream.

Someone was chasing her.
She ran as fast as she could, but she came to a huge iron door, wrapped in chains and locked with a lock that had no key.

Desperately, she pounded on it.
She tried to open it, but the solid iron wouldn’t budge.
Her hands were red and swollen as she frantically yanked at the chain.
Then, from the other side of the door, she heard a voice.

—You don’t have the key.

Leah gasped.
That voice sounded like her own.

—You have to find the key, Leah.

The other Leah commanded.
She froze for a moment.

“Where is it?” Leah asked, shocked.

—Hurry! There’s no time.
Hurry, before Cerdina finds out!

“What do you mean? What is it that she can’t find out?”

But there was no answer.
No matter how many times she asked, the other Leah continued,

—If she finds out…

The voice spoke an ominous warning.

—She will kill him.

With a cry, Leah opened her eyes.

“…Ah!”

She woke from the nightmare, but it was not a relief.
Her stomach ached, and she clutched it in her hands.

“Ahh, ah…”

Curling up into a ball, she drew deep breaths, exhaling slowly.
When the stabbing pain finally subsided, her whole body was drenched in cold sweat.

Looking around dizzily, she realized she was in a familiar place.
Her bedroom in her palace, with the dim morning light filtering through the windows.
Lying in bed, she shivered for a moment, and then placed her hands resolutely on her belly again.
Her face was rigid.

“……”

Inside her, something twisted.
It was a faint movement, but it was real.
Then it disappeared as if it had never happened.

What was that?

A shiver ran through her.
For a while, she was paralyzed, but she gathered herself and rose from the bed.
Too much was happening too fast.

At first, she thought of calling a doctor, but something in her mind immediately protested.
She shouldn’t do that.
And she couldn’t help thinking of another man, the first man who sprang to her mind when she wondered who she could talk to about what was happening to her body.

The events of the previous night whirled through her mind.
Baroness Cinael.
That bill of sale for a small farm.
Many moments that had not been at all unpleasant.
The places where that man had bit and sucked were still hot, tingling with sensations she couldn’t erase.
All of it reminded her of last night.

She lifted her hands to her cheeks.
She had done something unimaginable, but strangely, she didn’t feel guilt or regret.
Looking down at her left hand, she saw the engagement ring was back on her finger, and closed her eyes at the urge to rip it off and fling it away.

She should be thinking of her wedding.
But she couldn’t control her fluttering heart.

What was it about him? Why did she feel such a strong attraction to him? It worried her, but remembering how sweet it had been to sleep in his arms made her stumble.
Catching herself on a table, she poured herself a glass of water and sipped it, trying to untangle the conflicts in her mind one at a time.

First, she had to find out what was happening to her body.
It would be best to find Ishakan first, and ask him to get a doctor they could trust.
She also had questions about some of the things that had happened the other day.

She was sure that something was terribly wrong, but she didn’t have enough information to come to any conclusion.

Leah bit her lip.
She had been trying to calm the chaos in her mind, but suddenly the room felt stifling.
She couldn’t stand it, she wanted to run, so badly that she grabbed the doorknob to fly out into the garden.

“……!”

It didn’t open.

Desperately, she yanked at the door, panicking.

“Princess!”

Countess Melissa’s voice came from the other side of the door, and Leah had never been so glad to hear it.

“Countess! Please open the door!”

But the answer was disturbing.

“I’m sorry.
I can’t.”

“…What?”

“His Majesty has ordered that you shall remain locked in your room, starting today,” the Countess said seriously.
“You will not be allowed to leave.”