Maximus watched the expression on Rania’s face when she walked into the dining hall, and her eyes found her father. She was stunned, and then fear came into her beautiful eyes before it turned into a rage.
She was visibly trembling, but it happened because she was angry. Yet, Maximus remembered how she trembled beneath him.
“Rania…” Alaric stood up, he called his daughter intimately, as if he really longed for his daughter. “I am glad to see you again.”
He walked towards Rania with long strides, while she took two steps back, as if she wanted to run away from
him.
But, he was faster, and within a second, he already pulled her into his embrace, hugged her tightly, and buried his face against her shoulder.
“I really missed you.” That was the word that Alaric let Maximus to hear, but then he followed with a low voice, which sounded like a threat. “Behave.”
Rania hated it when his words still had a strong effect on her. Her body was stiffened, and she couldn’t even muster the strength to push him away.
This was not the Black Stone pack, and she could deny him. She should be able to tell Maximus about everything. Alaric was here, Maximus would be able to tell whether she was lying or not. She could clear her
name.
‘No one will believe you.‘
That was what her father, Killian, Caden and many other people who had bullied her and made her life in shamble had said.
And somehow, those simple lines would echo in her head whenever she was trying to say something. Like a spell that tied her tongue, rendered her unable to speak what was in her mind.
On the other hand, when Alaric felt Rania wouldn’t make a scene, he released her. Her body had turned rigid, she became even quieter than usual. Something that didn’t go unnoticed by Maximus
The lunch went well, but Maximus saw Rania didn’t say much, she kept staring at her food, and ate whatever her father gave her.
“Here, you like this. This is your favorite.” Alaric put a piece of meat into her plate.
“How do you know that’s her favorite?” Maximus asked, he looked amused with the way Alaric tried to strike a conversation with his daughter.
They were sitting next to each other, while Maximus was sitting on the head of the table.
“She is my daughter, of course, I know.” If it was not the king, who had asked the question, Alaric would have scoffed derisively.
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But the thing that Alaric didn’t know, but Maximus did was the fact that Rania lost her sense of taste since five
years ago.
That meat might be her favorite before, but for five years and Alaric didn’t even know that Rania lost her taste buds, it was something worth to be questioned about.
Yet, Maximus didn’t reveal any of that, and by the end of it, he excused himself to give the two of them some alone time that he had promised Alaric before.
Rania widened her eyes, as if she was asking her father what he was doing, and Alaric’s expression turned very serious, cruel even.
“You don’t need to worry, we have a lot of people around the palace that will help you.” Alaric’s voice then
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turned gentler. He caressed her head, but Rania swatted his hand away. “The Mad King needs to be taken down, before he jeopardized our kingdom.”
“I don’t want to be part of this,” Rania said through her gritted teeth. It was a great deal for her to be able to speak, despite the spell that held her tongue tied. She fought back her fear and the oppressive feelings that she felt whenever she saw her father. “Don’t involve me in this.”
Rania handed over the small bottle, but Alaric curled her fingers around it, and this time he didn’t let her go. The gentleness in his voice had vanished.
“Don’t ruin this, Rania. I can see that he doesn’t even treat you well. Do this and you will find your place with our people. That’s what you always wanted, right? To be acknowledged by other people. This will be your repentance for all you have done to the pack.”
“I had never done anything wrong to the pack.”
“You seduced your stepbrother. You seduced the alpha even though he rejected you. You tried to run away like your mother. How many times you will break my heart?”
Rania wanted to scream at his face, but she was trembling, fighting back all the trauma that rushed back to her mind.
“Killian tried to rape me, and Caden raped me for a year straight, I ran away because you treated me like shit. How much do you hate me to let me go through all of those horrendous things?”
AD
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