Happy Valentine's day. Love yourself. That's all you need to do.

~

"I don't want to be here," I groan as Archander leads me through dark corridors. After showing me to the council, Arles commanded Archander to 'take her there'. I am still wondering where 'there' is. It could be anywhere ranging from hell to heaven but the latter seems the last place Arles would likely send me.

As we walk through the dark and deserted corridors, I couldn't help but notice that this place is so eerie and has an uncomfortable silence that's creeping under my skin and bothering me. Archander is silent as he walks in front of me.

Several doors line the walls on both sides of the corridors. Some doors look warm and inviting while some doors have a haunting air to it, daring anyone to open it and find what's on its other side. Blazing torches hang on the walls, providing some light in the darkness.

After several turns, we finally reach a huge room. This is different than other rooms. A huge door sits on the other end of the room while the dead and decaying vines cover the walls. There's a colorful dome above the room which is projecting colorful patterns on the floor.

Archander heads to the huge door on the other end of the room while I look around this eerily beautiful place. If the vine trees were alive then this place would have looked more beautiful, bringing out the green and warmth in the room.

Why's everything dead here? Is it because of winter? It can't be possible. Not everything is dead in winter. There are some plants which could sustain winter. This place seems so gloomy. It feels as if happiness never existed here. Everything seems dead inside out.

I surface the pool of my thoughts and near Archander who is arranging some symbols on the door. After having a closer look, I find that there are golden symbols inscribed on the door which are movable. It looks like a language. After aligning the symbols in a circular formation, he steps aside.

Next, he takes my hand and puts it in the center of the circle. Suddenly the symbols start to glow, making me gasp. With a loud creak, the door clicks open. Archander lets my hand drop to my side before pushing the door open and leading me inside.

My mouth hangs open as soon as I step on the other side of the door. This place is so huge. Bigger than the courtroom. It's a circular room with a fountain at its center. The fountain is dry. It's covered with an odd black crust while the dirty white marble peeks from beneath it at several places. There's again a big dome instead of the ceiling, made of tinted glass that's projecting colorful patterns on the floor.

There are three doors at the other end of the room. I follow Archander to the middle door before he opens it and leads me inside to a dark corridor. We start walking and are stopped by a door at the end of the corridor. The door looks huge and there are some things inscribed in gold on it. It has a regal air to it.

But Archander doesn't open that door. Instead, he opens another door which went unnoticed by me. It's on the left wall, slightly smaller in size. It looks warm and is a shade lighter than the other door.

He gently opens the door and leads me in. My jaw drops to the floor as I take in my surrounding. This room is unlike the whole palace. Its walls are light in colour, gentle to the eyes. There are even flowers and other things drawn on the walls.

There's a regal couch at one corner with a tea table, accompanied by a small book shelf. A full size painting of a young woman I don't recognize, hangs on the opposite wall. Her face is grim. She is holding a dead flower in one hand while a red cloth in the other. Her eyes look eerily familiar. I have seen them before; I just can't quite place it. I look around the room. It looks like a sitting room. There is couple of vases lined by the corner and some more seats. Another door sits at the end of the room and he leads me to it.

As I step through the door, I find myself in a bedroom. There's a huge window sitting at the end of the room. I am instantly drawn to it. As I look outside it, I am surprised. It looks different outside from here. The sky is clear and there are leaves on the trees outside. Some birds fly by the window as the sun shines lazily in the sky. The snow is glistering in the sunlight. The whole scenery looks different. It looks like a different place than what I have actually seen outside.

"That window is charmed." Archander speaks behind me, answering my doubts. I nod before turning around and studying the rest of the room. The walls are light colored and the bed is four postered with some cravings at its head and wood.

There is a huge dresser by its side and other furniture as well.

"You'll be staying here," Archander speaks, snapping me out of my daze. This place looks more beautiful and welcoming than the rest of the palace. He shows me the bathroom and gives me instructions before leaving.

As soon as I hear him close the door outside, I collapse on the bed like a dead plank.

What am I going to do next? I have no idea. But I have already sorted out what I am not going to do. I am not going to mate with Arles or be his queen. I'd rather die. I think that I was lucky before. Now I regret not getting killed by the basilisk that night. Everything might have ended that day. I would have been free, maybe incarnated somewhere else with a more loving and caring family.

Suddenly, a light knock on the door claims my attention. I get up and head towards the door. As soon as I open the door and see him standing outside, I shut the door on his face with extra force, internally wishing that the impact would break his nose.

Instead of the door being closed, I feel it get stuck midway before the door flings open to reveal him. I stumble back a little but gain my balance and glare at him. He steps inside the room, his eyes fixed heatedly on me.

"What do you want?" I growl, looking him straight in the eyes. I am so mad at him. I want revenge. I can't stand the sight of him. Despite all the loathing that I have for him, Vesta is still happy to see him. We seem to be on completely different pages.

Most of the time Vesta supports me, but now, her behaviour surprises me. She is going against me. I think it has everything to do with the fact that he has marked her.

"We need to talk," He says taking a step forward. I am watching him like a hawk, despising him and his very presence in this room. I keep quiet and watch him.

"My people need a queen-"

"I won't be the queen! And your council probably hates me!" I growl but he shrugs at me.

"You don't have choice, mate..." He trails off, stressing on the word 'mate'. It sends shiver down my spine. The way he looked at me and said the word made my toes curl. He observes me like a predator as he speaks further, "They hate me as a king. They'll hate you for being my mate. Deal with it."

His words confuse me. Being the king himself, his council hates him? His own council? How is that possible? How do they even function? I won't be surprised if Arles did something grave to upset them but there's no sense in them hating me. Yes of course they could hate me for being his mate but I am not going to accept him.

He opens his mouth to speak but I turn round and walk away before he could begin. I hear him growl behind me before he leaves, shutting the door with more force than needed. By now, I realize that under the thick warm cloak, I am wearing the dress from yesterday in the Annual Alpha Meet. The dress is soaking wet because someone decided to drop me in a hole that had water at its bottom.

I head to the bedroom and open the door which I suppose is the closet. I walk inside with the intention to find some spare clothes but what I find surprises me. There are racks and racks of dresses lined on either sides of the closet. There's everything. Ranging from simple dresses to heavily embroiled ones and the ones loaded with stones and jewels. Behind the line of dresses, there's a whole line of cloaks and coats. They look heavy and warm. There are shoes of every kind, ranging from flip-flops to boots.

At the back of the closet there are drawers and cases filled with jewelleries. There's so many, I haven't seen so many altogether in my whole life. This is too much. I can't find normal pajama pants so I settle with a black cotton dress with golden embroidery around the neck.

I walk out of the closet and look at the dress. It looks simplest compared to the rest of the heavy ones hanging inside the closet. Surprisingly they fit me perfectly.

My eyes are drawn to the hickeys on my neck and all the events flash in front of my eyes. I squint my eyes close and clutch my head.

I hate him so much.

Why did he do that? What was the reason behind it? He is so twisted. He's so evil. I don't know what he plans for the future. There must be many twisted and dark things in his head. I don't know. He terrifies me. He scares me.

The fact that he put the third task for me to be his queen disgusts me. How could he do that? Mate or not, love takes effort and trust. I can't trust him. I can't love him. The idea of loving him seems so bizarre to me. It seems impossible. All efforts would fail and to start with, I'll never give into the bond. Ever.

No one can love a man like him.

I feel a piercing pain in my chest. I can't believe I got paired with him. It feels like a punishment. A curse. I feel suffocated.

I want a way out already.