Chapter 9: Stripped Bare for His Beta
SONIA’S POV
Ivy took me to a secluded part of the river, and I shed off my clothes. I didn’t know what she wanted to use the big piece of fabric she carried with her, until she started to form a curtain with it.
I felt tears forming in my eyes at that action. She didn’t need to help me. I had never seen her before. Never done anything to deserve her kindness, but she didn’t withhold it from me. She gave it to me freely.
What she just did was an action I would never forget in my life.
Naked as the day I was born, I walked towards a shallow part of the river she showed me. I felt the water in my hand first. It was super chilled, but I didn’t mind. I had gone so long without having an actual bath, I could bathe with ice if it was presented to me.
"Take your time Sonia! I’ll make sure no wandering eye sees your nakedness," she said to me all the way from the top of a rock which she stood on.
I couldn’t help the chuckle that escaped my throat at her dramatizing a fierce warrior protecting their maiden.
I had known Ivy for less than thirty minutes, and I already thoroughly enjoyed being close to her.
I rolled my hair into a bun, and grabbed the pale she gave me. At the first pour of the water on my skin, I sighed pleasantly.
I needed this. Thanks to the moon goddess for touching Alpha Ramon’s heart, so he could allow me to take my bath. I mean I knew that his motive for getting me to bath in the river was probably to have his soldiers watch my naked body. It seemed the Alpha had a thing for public displays of things that should be kept private.
I should be weary and beaten down after he savagely allowed his beta to take me in the most ruthless way. I was, at least a little bit. But in comparison to the hurt I felt for being alone in my misery, I felt really better now that there was someone like Ivy in my corner.
I scrubbed my body from head to toe with the body sponge Ivy offered me. By the time I was done, I jumped fully into the river to rinse off.
"I didn’t know you could swim." I heard her say as I came up for air.
"Come join me." I beckoned to her.
She looked like she was thinking about it for a while, until she suddenly ran forward, shedding off her clothes. I threw my head back in laughter at the splattering sound her body made when she jumped into the water.
"It’s so cold!" she screamed.
"I know!’ I replied as we played around, laughing , swimming, and losing track of time.
"What next?" I asked Ivy as she handed me fresh clothes, and I began to put them on.
"Well the alpha asked that I bring you to his room after you’re done taking your bath. That’s what is supposed to be next."
"But?" I asked before she could continue.
I only knew her for a short time, but it was long enough to know she always had something up her sleeve.
"I can see your clavicle. My grandma used to say that if the clavicle has pockets with no meat, then they need to keep eating until it’s all covered. In other words, you need some food. A bath is good, but food will also help with your color."
I was getting excited at the thought of food when another thought formed in my head. But I couldn’t frown. Ivy said it was better to smile in the face of trouble. Even though I wasn’t trying to smile, I needed to voice out my concern.
"Have we not taken too long? What if the Alpha gets mad and decides to punish me?" I asked in a panicking voice.
She smiled. "You do understand you’re like a slave to the alpha, right? whatever you do would deserve some sort of punishment or the other. It is better you do things that would give you the strength to face whatever punishment he has in store for you. I’m not claiming I can help you through everything. I’m very much just a servant. But I’ve observed you from afar. I saw the exhaustion in your eyes. Even the fear you tried hard to mask. I told myself that if I ever get the opportunity to get close to you, I’ll help you the only way I can. By being nice. That’s all I can do."
I couldn’t help but smile. My mother had sent me help. I believed her now when she said I would be successful. I just had to endure. With time, I will definitely come out victorious.
After gobbling down the pie Ivy managed to sneak me, she finally left me in front of Alpha Rowan’s door. I was still too fascinated by the grandness of his castle to knock on the door. It was only when I arrived here, I realized I had been in the servants area all along. This building was just as grand, if not even more grand than the pack I knew as home.
I was wondering if the alpha was around to sense my presence when my nipples began to stiffen. It pretty much answered my question.
As I raised my hand to knock, the door opened up, and I was drawn in by a force. It was only when I entered I saw it was Beta Blaine that had drawn me in.
"First you make me wait, and then you finally arrive but spend an eternity in front of my door. I’m asking you again, who do you think you are?"
I lifted my head past Beta Blaine, to the direction the voice came from.
There he sat, majestically in a bronze chair that matched the aura of his room.
It was definitely a room fit for a king. An alpha king.
"I’m so—"
"Save your apology and strip. It is time for you to offer my Beta some satisfaction."
I swallowed back the tears that instantly gathered in my throat. I should have known this was the reason he wanted me to take my bath.
To satisfy his Beta.
"I won’t repeat myself, Sonia. Strip!" he growled in a thunderous voice.
The strength of his orders forced my hands to my shoulders. I pulled down the sleeves, and easily stepped out of the gown. Because Ivy didn’t have any underwear to offer me, I was completely naked in front of both the alpha and his beta.
Reflexively, I wrapped my arms around my body as a form of protection.
Alpha Ramon suddenly laughed. "She’s trying to hide from us? Are we savages not worthy enough for the bratty princess? Blaine, please show her how barbaric we can get when we feel insulted."
He quickly stepped forward as if he had been expecting the orders all day long. I flinched as his cold desperate fingers brushed my side.
My traitorous nipples began to harden. For a second there I panicked, thinking I was responding to Blaine’s touch. Then my eyes found Alpha Ramon, and it made me realize even in a sea of naked men, my body will only ever respond to him.
And by the moon goddess, I hated him more after that realization.