A Girl Named Calamity (Alyria 1)

“What the hell are you doing?” I asked as I looked at the needle in her hand.

“You must wear His Highness’s mark.”

He wanted to brand me like cattle? No, a whore was the appropriate word. “I won’t,” I said.

She shook her head reproachfully. “You will make him angry.”

“I don’t care. I’m not wearing his damn brand.”

The women tittered in between themselves and shook their heads at me. They were all brainwashed. Every one of them. Could they not see they were only the prince’s whores? I would rather be paraded through the camp naked than willingly become one.

“You should be honored that he chose to protect you,” a woman scolded.

“I don’t need his protection,” I grumbled. The women reluctantly dropped it. One fixed the black line down my face while another braided red ribbon into my hair, grumbling about how she was supposed to fix up hair that was as short as mine.

“Stand up,” a woman said. I did with the hope they would give me some clothes. I was beginning to wonder

if the prince would have me dine with him naked. But I relaxed as a woman got some cloth out of a chest. It was red and silky, the same as the rest of the women. I imagined it was red so that someone could see them easily if they decided to escape.

The cloth was one long strip, and I looked at it with confusion. A woman put it behind my neck and then crisscrossed it in the front to cover my breasts. She brought it behind my back again, and that was where I got lost. She crisscrossed it a couple more times, and I was wearing almost a dress, except for a triangle of my midriff and hips exposed.

It was a lot more decent than my Sylvian clothes, but I had not a clue how to get the thing off.

I was more worried the prince knew exactly how.

One of the women had taken my dagger earlier, and I didn’t have any place to put it anyway. I shouldn’t have been stabbing the prince either, so maybe it was a good thing.

When I was as polished and clean as I imagined a new toy was, two Untouchables walked on either side of me to escort me to the prince’s tent. I was more than hesitant, being so close to an Untouchable, my history with them too hard to forget.

I shivered as I walked through the camp, many Untouchable eyes on me. The hair on the back of my neck raised as my body became aware of the heavy stares on my skin.

“I heard you refused my brand?” was the first thing the prince said when I entered his tent. He wore loose white pants with at least two daggers that I could see fashioned into them. And a thin white sleeveless shirt that was slim fitted, and I could see his defined abs through it. No wonder the women didn’t want to leave. I’d still choose freedom over a man who was nice to look at any day. Though . . . I might miss it.

“You already have six women in your harem. Do you really need more?” I asked, trying to derail him from the conversation he wanted to have.

“Do I need more? Probably not. But do I want more?” he asked with a smile and a heavy perusal over me, and I knew the answer to that question. I stood in silence, not knowing what to say with a flush on my skin.

“I want you to go back to your tent and let the women brand you.”

Dammit.

“I’m not going to be marked like cattle.”

“You aren’t cattle, but you are mine and will wear my mark,” he said calmly.

“I will not,” I retorted. He might have believed he owned me, but I wouldn’t let him permanently mark me.

He raised a brow. “Shall we strip you down and drag you through the camp, then?”

The flush covering my skin had morphed into an angry heat. Did I let him draw on me or strip me naked? I was assuming he would strip me naked regardless, although it was unknown to me how many eyes would get to see me.

I stood tense while he sat behind his desk, relaxed, watching me. I might have ended up with an Untouchable who could kill me if he touched me. At least with the prince, I didn’t have to worry about that.

“I choose neither,” I tried.

He laughed. “Unfortunately, that is not an option.” A man entered the tent and said something I couldn’t understand. The prince sat up straighter before he looked at me with interest.

I wondered about his reaction, but I was too focused on my current problem to try and understand him.