Ileus: The Dark Prince

Kaia pulled her daughter in her warm embrace and stroked her back gently. "I know it's tough, Olive, but you can do it," she said in a reassuring voice. "You have to do it because at this moment our choices are next to nil." A soft knock on the door disturbed the mother and daughter conversation. "Come in Giles," said Kaia to the maid who was supposed to dress up Olivia for the upcoming meeting. She squeezed Olivia's hand and then with quivering lips got up. 

Giles was Olivia's maid ever since she had known. Slightly older than her, Giles fussed around her a lot and Olivia intended to take her with her to Silver Vales. She would ask her mother about it, and hoped that she agreed. Giles helped her undress and as usual went about fussing over her. She helped her take a bath and once she had wrapped a towel around her, she said, "I wanted to say something to you…" 

"I know," said Olivia, stepping out of the bathtub. "It's about who is going to marry me."

Giles quit fussing with her towel. "You know that they wish to see you married to him."

Olivia didn't answer. Silence stretched between them which unsettled her all the more. 

"I overheard them discussing it. Though the Silver Vales king hasn't demanded, your father wants to give them dowry for you." 

Olivia wasn't surprised. Her mother had been preparing her trousseau for a long time now. She had dreamt of being married to a man she loved, to someone she knew and to someone who would have loved her back. But with the history between two packs, it seemed like the most impossible situation. What an irony? Her father had said a few days back after meeting him. "The man loves to play games and he is playing with us. We are like mice to him and he is that predatory cat who is weakening us and at the same time preparing to strike us to make his next killing." 

Olivia had plucked fresh roses from the garden that day and when she listened to her father, she felt her heart dropping to her stomach as her hands trembled and she crushed those roses, thorns pricking her fingers. She felt helpless then and she felt helpless now. And as their only heir, she knew that whatever little freedom she had, was going to be taken away to end this long war. The enemy she had met last night could have slaughtered her or used her as a weapon against her pack, but he had given her the dagger and even suggested that she should run away for her freedom. But how could she? Her mother wanted to use her as a tool for something greater. She had hinted to her that Olivia should make haste in ensuring that the war ends by giving them a babe. Her body trembled at the thought. She was just a breeder? Would he use her for that? Or did he already have a harem? She was sure that a man like him would be having women at the drop of a hat. "I don't want to marry him, Giles," she said in a low voice. 

Giles took her hand and led her outside. "That is no more a choice left with us, m'lady. If this fails, he will come for us. It is time that we are proactive rather than denying what is imperative. After five years of war, we haven't been able to defeat them. No one in the werewolf realm can. Your father has done the right thing. Marrying you with him will be the most beneficial thing. Also, we don't know how Alpha Murtagh is going to feel about this situation, but you have to be brave. It's your duty." 

Brave. Duty.

Olivia felt dizzy. It just didn't matter whether she wanted it or not or whether she was ready for it or not. She was pretty young, only nineteen. She was younger than most of the females in her pack of which her parents were well aware of. Could she even be a mother at her age? But it was her duty. She chuckled. She should not be in a delusion. Her parents' continuous worry, her purpose… her purpose was stark clear to her. She was going to spend the rest of her life with a man who killed her brother, killed her people and perhaps was forced into marrying her. 

Giles made her wear a peach gown with a silk skirt that had waves and waves of tulle beneath it to make it fluffier. The bodice of the gown had red and gold embroidery and hugged to figure like a second skin. The puffy capped sleeves of the gown shone from the side of her vision. Giles curled her hair. She pinned half of them up and let the other half down. She entwined tiny pearls in them. When Olivia looked at herself in the mirror, she cringed. Giles had applied very little makeup on her but she looked like she was some doll in a museum. 

A servant had come to announce that the councilmen had already gathered in the garden and that people from the Silver Vales pack were already there, even the second-in-command. 

It took all her self-control to keep herself from shaking. When Olivia was ready, she descended the spiral stairs into the main hall. As Giles followed her, the only other sound that came was her dress hissing and swishing at every step she took. They crossed the main hall and halted at the shut doors. The garden had been bedecked with garlands and ribbons and lanterns in various hues of pink and blue and crimson. It was all a very hurried arrangement and she knew that it was half hearted. Nervous, she clenched the sides of her gown so tightly that it crumpled. 

Giles opened the door for her.. "M'lady," she said to coax her to move, when she saw that Olivia had frozen in her place.