SHE'LL HAVE THEM EITHER WAY

he kissed her cheek. "or you'll have to pray another lord takes you once im through with you. if they're content with my spoils. or you could make a pretty whore."

the servants rushed to her once he left. her knees gave up.

"if you prove to be a failure, a defective wife, i might have to throw you away."

she felt her tears falling helplessly now. he wiped it clean, still oddly gentle with her.

"you have to pray harder to your gods, that they bring me strong sons."

she nodded, knowing what it means.

"when we're married, you'll have to start trying to get pregnant. and you'll have to do it again, and again, i get to say when to stop. you have a royal womb, you know your duty."

he looks at her, with a serene smile on his face.

her breaths hitched when he closed their distance, his hand holding her face. it was gentle, but she knew better. when the ceremonials are done, he would stop at nothing in taking her again. he wouldn't be gentle either. they wont be husband and wife.

"you'll have to stop with the tea," he murmured

she thought he would ignore her before the wedding. her maidens scurried like rats when he burst into her room as she was changing into her wedding silks.

"you're not allowed to see me yet!"

"i am king, i don't follow your orders."

"it's tradition–"

"fuck tradition"

"you have disgraced her, but marrying her might right this wrong. perhaps the gods will have mercy on us."

/i have no need for your gods/

"it is her womb i require. nothing more."

being married to her assailant is a prison.

"a marriage with her?" the seer asked him again. he remains watching the anger from the skies.

"i have need for a young bride. she came from a line of strong women. her mother has given birth to four sons and three daughters. she will do the same duty."

a prince to my kingdom, and a paramount prince of this place. you'll have to carry more, i refuse to risk the security of my line."

she was rooted in her seat. did she hear it right?

"you'll marry a king." he had a smile that brought her nothing but fear. "that's more than you deserve."

but with the loss of her maidenhead, she might even be sold off to a lesser knight. not even a lower lord.

"i haven't dismissed your betrothal to my son," he began

"thank you, my king." /but he's dead/ she holds her tongue.

"you will marry. you'll have to carry and raise heirs.

come the morning, she finds herself being bathed and dressed by servants.

"you are summoned to join him in his fast, my lady."

she sits there by his table, her heart thundering as he decides her fate. noblewomen like her serve their kingdoms through alliances,

he buries herself deep in her warmth, the words from a seer among his men telling him of how to appease the skies.

"you have disgraced a daughter of the gods. they haven't forgotten her, my king."

he grunts and ruts in her, he turns her face to him. she still refuse to see him.

she hides herself, she no longer has his protection, he had treated her as nothing more than a common whore. she hides from his men, they no longer see her as noble.

the skies were at rage from his conquest. it was an endless rain and storms. he couldn't sail their ships home.

"you only have yourself to blame for all this! the war, my children gone!"

"forgive me! forgive me!"

it was rather bearable, with him now taking her from behind. she wouldn't have to see him, and she could bury her face from her ruin. when he came into her, the last of her innocence was gone

he splits her in half, breaking in her maidenhead, the last remnants of her virtue, her bargaining chip for a marriage that would at least keep her safe and alive and he ignores her pleas as he howls like a beast, his bloodlust unsated even as he sliced men in half just hours ago

she prays for the other ladies, for a merciful fate for them. she should have prayed more for herself.

in the king's solar, on the table, not even on a comfortable bed, she cries as he rips her silks and pins her hands with one hand, her legs forced open around his thick waist as

a cold shiver ran up her spine. there was no comfort to his face, no safety.

"is my....betrothed well, my king?"

"dead. my children are all dead. this war you caused, i've won another kingdom, at the expense of all my heirs buried deep in the ground."

but she's not fit for an escape, she's recognizable, she couldnt even try to disguise herself, and so in hiding, she prays. when the fighting stops, she waits for the door to open, and yet, it was axed down, and she meets eye to eye with the king, the father of her supposed husband