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1876 Words
Erina is quite nervous about what Arden just said. He wants her to join him in bed. She knew that her main goal is to bear her child, but the anxiousness still lingered on her.
She never experienced sleeping with someone else, even though she was already twenty. She couldn’t remember her past self falling in love, because she felt like her life was just as blank as a sheet of paper.
The only thing that’s clear to her is their hatred for the Gunners for wiping out their entire kind and being the only survivors left.
Erina could feel at dinner that Arden’s mother despised her. She knew that what Mrs. Gunner likes is someone who comes from a wealthy family and can expand their lands since that’s how royalties work.
She caught her checking her out with a surreptitious disgust in her eyes as if seeing her eat with them—the royalties by blood—was so cheap.
She’s indeed reminiscent of the deceased daughter of the Remington, Arena Remington, but I could feel their differences. She’s just looked like the deceased mate of my son, which is why Arden is so desperate to choose her. Mrs. Gunner thought to herself as she ate silently, her eyes watching her from time to time.
If there’s one thing Mrs. Gunner likes about her, it’s the way Erina moves with poise. as if she knows well how to blend with the upper class. She knows the etiquette at the table, and she also sits without slouching, as if it’s a manner she’s unconsciously mastered for years.
After the dinner, Erina felt relieved that she would no longer face Arden’s mother, who judged her obviously as if she were the lowest girl she had ever seen in her entire life.
Erina doesn’t fancy having luxurious things. A part of her felt like she wanted to live more peacefully rather than get controlled by the parents, who are fixing them into marriage and choosing the mate for them.
When Erina used the bathroom for a half bath before going into Arden’s room, she immediately performed a spell in the water to talk to her mother.
“Hello, my dear Erina. Do you have good news?” She smiled dearly while she was holding a half-bite apple.
“Arden is requesting that I join him in his room for tonight, mother,” she said in a low voice.
Aurora’s eyes narrowed as they gleamed with excitement.
“Oh? Then he’s probably planning to f**k you by now!” she said without any filter at all.
Erina couldn’t nod or shake her head.
“Well, he gave me a chance to get ready for a week because he knew I’m a virgin.”
“Hmm, maybe he changed her mind, darling! Look at you! Now that you’re dressed in fancy clothes—a thin satin long gown—you probably turned him on, and he wants to take you. Immediately,” she grinned.
Erina is still processing the dirty part that Arden would use her body to bear his child, and it is her mission to run away after getting pregnant by her in order to use the genes of the baby for her mother’s clan.
“Are you hesitating, Erina? Have you forgotten our main goal?” Aurora’s duality was evident just seconds after her grin abruptly turned into a dark, serious expression.
“No, no… mother. Of course. I embodied our main goal, and it’s clear to me,” she said desperately.
Aurora’s expression calmed down as she smiled.
“You have the spell. You can always use it anytime you like to make this work easier, and you could get away from them,” Aurora said, reminding her about the potion to let Arden fall in love with her.
Erina nodded. She’s been raised cunningly, just like her mother, and she has no room for remorse for the Gunners.
Erina believes that the Gunners deserved the wrath of her mother. She wants Arden to taste his own karma and suffer for what he has done to them.
After the conversation, she took a half bath and went to Arden’s room, just as he had requested.
She knocked first and opened the door. She saw him on his bed, leaning against the headrest of the bed, while he was reading a book.
Erina cleared her throat as she remained at the ajar door.
“Close the door,” Arden ordered in his baritone voice.
Erina nodded and closed the door slowly.
“Come here,” Arden said without looking at her.
Erina nodded and started walking towards him.
She doesn’t know what will happen, but she’s prepared for it. Knowing that this is what her mother prepared her for, she doesn’t want to waste her efforts.
“Do you read books?” he asked.
In her entire life, the only thing that Aurora taught her was making potions, witchcraft, and doing rituals. She’s not familiar with books.
Erina slowly shook her head. “We don’t have any books at the house.”
Arden gestured to look at the shelves filled with thick books.
“Then help yourself and choose a book.”
Erina nodded and went to the shelves. She curiously took a book that piqued her interest and opened it.
She knew that it was futile because she didn’t know how to read. She’s never held a book, but holding one felt nostalgic as if it wasn’t the first time at all.
She opened the front page and eyed the first paragraph. She was stunned when her mind knew the words written. She understood each word, and it shocked her because she understood its passage exactly.
Arden noticed how she looked at the book with pure ignorance and amusement. Arden closed his book and stood. He walked to her and stopped behind her as he looked at the book she had chosen to read.
“A tragic book. I see,” Arden said, which made Erina’s shoulder jump.
She didn’t realize that she was too distracted reading the book to notice him at all.
Erina glanced at him. She’s a bit curious why the harshness he showed on the first day, the rumors about him being cruel, didn’t match his gentleness in her.
Knowing that she’s pretending to be the innocent girl who’s afraid of him, when in fact she’s not at all, made her want to just provoke him and seduce him right there and then.
And just like she’d been thinking, the thin strap of her satin nightgown fell on the side of her arm. Arden’s eyes drifted onto her exposed shoulder. His hand went to the strap as he slowly pulled it up and fixed it correctly.
“There’s going to be a big party tomorrow. Let the servants know about the theme you want and choose your dress for the night,” he said.
What? I didn’t come here to attend fancy parties. I am here for a reason, which is to bear his child.
“Did you tell this to your mother? And… I don’t know how parties work because I’ve never been given one,” she explained.
It was true. Erina can’t remember if she has been to luxurious parties when the only thing that’s clear to her is what Aurora has taught her.
“Then I’ll give you one. And you don’t need to worry about my mother,” Arden said.
Erina nodded and smiled a little. “Thank you.”
Erina doesn’t want parties at all. Her expectation when he went into the Gunner’s mansion was to brace herself for Arden’s cruelty, for physical torture while he’s abusing her during their mating, and for the worst treatment from the Gunner family.
But she didn’t get anything at all. Just a pinch, but no punch, from Arden or anyone else, came.
Arden told her to get her book and read it in her own room as she waited for the servants to make her decisions about tomorrow’s party.
That’s the cruel Arden Gunner, right? The one who wiped out our entire clan? The one who started a war that killed hundreds of witches? Then where’s his cruelty? He didn’t touch me or show violence.
Relax, Erina. Maybe you’re going to get it one of these days. Just don’t let your boundary go down, because, just like what your mother said, he’s probably putting up a front to hide his real identity.
Erina remembered clearly what her mother told her.
“The Gunners are cunning, evil, and manipulative. Beware of their son Arden. He might have looked just like his father—brooding, menacing, and handsome—but the two shared the same antics. They’re cruel, Erina. If you let your guard down, you will not just ruin our mission, but you will also let him break your heart. Avoid falling in love with Arden Gunner,” Aurora said in a serious voice as she combed Erina’s hair while they were both looking at each other in the mirror.
“If there’s a heart that’s going to be broken, it must be Arden’s. Not yours. Do you understand?”
Erina nodded. “Yes, mother.”
Right, Erina. This is just a front to probably make you believe that he’s not how the people viewed him. And you witnessed it with your own two eyes how he almost killed the king who opposed him on the other day.
The servants who’d been told to ask for Erina’s choices in the big party celebration went to her room that night. She answered them sincerely and chose the theme she wanted—which is the Renaissance period.
“Really, Arden? You’re throwing a party?” His mother leered at her when tomorrow came and the party planner started decorating the house.
“What’s wrong with it, Mama?” Arden said boredly, and his eyes looked at her with less emotion.
“I told you to consider the other girls! You must choose another woman. I don’t like this girl. There’s something about her that’s weird!” his mother argued.
“Because she doesn’t come from a wealthy family, Mama? Is that why you’re judging her?”
His mother froze a bit, but she cleared her throat even though she looked guilty.
“We are expanding our territory at the same time! You must choose another girl! Someone who came from a wealthy family, and not just anybody who’s sold by his father! This is a disgrace to our family, son!”
Arden sighed. “She’s just gonna bear my child. I don’t have any plans at all.”
“Then f**k her as soon as possible and stop exposing her to the public! We could just hide her somewhere while you’re choosing another girl to marry!”
Arden didn’t say anything while he lazily picked up his coat and wore it.
“I know the reason why you chose her, Arden. Yes. She looked just like Arina, your dead girl—“
“I said don’t f*****g mention her, Mama!” Arden’s voice thundered.
“Because that’s the truth! That’s why you chose that low girl because she looked exactly like her!”
- Writer
