They Called Me Heartless So Reborn I Watched Them Self Destruct novel Chapter 10

TO 10–Who Marked You?

Lucien Volkov pov: 1

“It’s her, Lucien!” Zorro growled. “Can’t you feel our mate’s fear through the mate bond?”

Mate bond? Fuck the mate bond.

But Zorro wasn’t wrong. Her pain wasn’t the only thing coming through the bond. I could feel her exhaustion, her humiliation, even the fear she was desperately trying to suppress.

“Don’t you think… this is too much?” Bradley’s voice came from behind me, but I didn’t answer. He walked over and followed my gaze through the window. “She’s chasing a puppy on her knees, Lucien.”

My eyes remained fixed on the garden. Arabella was struggling to keep the umbrella over Sheena while dragging herself across the ground.

“Go down there and stop this,” Zorro demanded. “She’s in pain, Lucien. She’s scared.”

“So, am I supposed to care?” I snapped, trying to ignore the sudden ache I felt as I watched her body fall.

“Lucien,” Bradley spoke again, quieter this time. “As a King, you can stop this.”

Another sharp stab of pain came through the bond, making me wince. “Fine!” I snapped. Both of them finally fell silent. I turned toward Bradley. “Go tell the Queen that Amora called.”

Bradley raised a brow. Amora was my mother’s oldest friend. Once those two started gossiping, Mother would be occupied for hours.

“And the girl?” he asked.

Closed my eyes for a moment. “Send her back to her room… and give her some painkillers.”

When Bradley didn’t respond, I glanced at him. The bastard was trying very hard not to smile. “Your Majesty…”

“Don’t,” I warned him.

He pressed his lips together. “I’ll do it, Your Majesty.” He turned to leave, then seemed to remember something. “By the way, I met her last night.” My gaze shifted back to him.

“In the servants‘ bathroom,” he added casually. “She was holding a bottle of bleach.”

“So?” I asked, already losing my patience. I assumed she’d been assigned bathroom duty.

“She was about to pour it on her face, Lucien.” For a second, I thought I had heard him wrong. Even Zorro went completely silent.

“What?”

Bradley wasn’t smiling anymore. “She thought if she ruined her face badly enough, no warrior would want to touch her. If I had arrived one second later, her face would have been burnt through. Somehow, she believes she would be sent to serve our pack’s warriors despite being marked. I cleared up that misunderstanding, but it certainly makes me wonder where she got that idea from.”

A vicious possessiveness surged through me at the thought of one of my warriors putting his hands on her.

Was she that terrified? Terrified enough to burn her own face?

And of course, I didn’t even have to guess whose idea this was.

A vicious growl tore through my head. “Handle your mother, Lucien,” Zorro snarled. “I’ve had enough of watching her hurt our mate while you stand back and let it happen. She tormented Arabella to the point of destroying her own face. Put an end to this… before I do.”

For once, I didn’t tell him to shut up.

I looked back through the window. Arabella was still crawling after the damn puppy, unaware that we were watching her.

My face remained hard. I wasn’t about to let Bradley see how badly his words had gotten to me.

After he left, I stood there for another few seconds before turning away from the window.

If I wanted her to serve the royals as a slave, she needed to stay healthy. A broken slave was useless to anyone, right?

So why the hell was I still angry about what Bradley had told me?

Arabella Toussaint POV:

By the time I was finally allowed to return to my room, my knees were throbbing so badly that even dragging myself across the floor had become difficult.

When I reached my bed, an Omega stepped inside and held out a glass of water and two pills. “Take these.”

I stared at her hand before looking up at her. “For… me?”

She gave me an odd look. “Who else?”

I hesitantly took them, still confused. Before I could ask anything else, she turned and walked out, closing the door behind her. For several seconds, I sat there with the pills in one hand and the glass of water in the other.

Painkillers?

Since when did anyone in this palace care whether I was in pain? I quickly took them and crawled into bed, thankful that I was finally going to get a night of painless sleep.

***

The next morning, I gasped and shot upright when a bucket of ice–cold water crashed over my body.

“Wake up, you bitch! You’re not a princess anymore, you whore!”

I wiped the water from my face as the insults continued.

“Get moving! Your duty is to serve the royals breakfast.”

I had slept enough, and the painkillers had helped a little, but my entire body still ached. My knees were raw from yesterday, and the thin mattress had done nothing for my aching back.

After being shoved toward the servants‘ bathroom, I managed a quick bath without soap. I changed into my plain black servant’s uniform and tried to ignore my protesting knees.

Come on. You’re used to this.

“Sorry?” Aliya spoke from her seat. “Honestly, we should have asked your brother to serve us. At least he knows how to kneel.”

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