Tholarian’s nose flared in rage as he dismissively said.
"You will do your duty and go with Alpha Dusartine as I had announced."
"I am your daughter. How can you shove me in the arms of a killer?" Cassandra asked, her voice strained, her eyes looking for any mercy on her father’s face. Siroos was expecting such words from his mate after what he had done in the arena.
"You dare ask that after you stole that gem from me. One more word and I will forget you are my daughter. I will punish..." Tholarian’s sentence wasn’t even complete when Siroos threateningly growled.
"No one will lay a hand on her or I will cut it into a million pieces. Don’t disrespect my mate. She may be your daughter, but you will tread with respect."
Tholarian’s colder-than-ice eyes flickered to Siroos and the room shook with his magic. It danced on his fingertips; wisps of it shot out and swirled in the air, charging it.
Siroos’s men instantly covered him too, ready for any skirmish that might break out. Faris took an attacking stance, his yellowish-orange eyes challenged Tholarian.
"Don’t tell me how I need to speak and discipline my daughter," Tholarian grumbled, feeling his magic threatening to let loose. This man and his actions had cost him a long term alliance with Vampire Monarch and now he was dictating on how to speak with his daughter.
Siroos appeared unperturbed, he contemptuously smiled at Tholarian’s hypocrisy.
"She is my mate now. I claimed her, you might be her father but who shoves his daughter into the arena knowing she possesses no magic. You could have refused, informing me that she hadn’t awoken her magic yet. But instead, you turned her into a negotiating tool. She means nothing but a cow’s fodder to you," Siroos disdainfully answered, drumming his fingers on his knee as if taunting Tholarian.
"A mage without magic is a taboo in our kingdom. She wasn’t even supposed to live, my wife was. Just like you she is an abomination of nature, I am forced to call daughter. So yes if I can forge an alliance by handing her to you, I would do it in the blink of an eye. Because you have caused me one with the Vampire Monarch."
Tholarian’s words were like daggers for Cassandra, they stabbed her insides, and they ripped her vulnerable heart open. But she decided at that moment she was done begging these men.
They didn’t care for her decision, they didn’t care for her heart, they certainly didn’t care if she was dead or alive.
"Then it’s fitting for one abomination to have the other one. I want that good for nothing commander of yours and you to sign away all her rights to me. I will be in charge of all her decisions from this day forward. She belongs to me and my loyalties will belong to you. Any brewing wars that might come, you will have my unending support."
Siroos took the opportunity to seal the deal with Tholarian. He wished for Cassandra to have nothing to do with them. He had seen enough to understand that apart from Lotus, no one cared for her.
Razian bristled at being called an ugly name. No way he was good for nothing but he didn’t dare speak in front of his king.
Tholarian wanted to seal this deal quickly.
"I agree to the terms. Let’s sign it and you can claim your mate and take her away." Tholarian clicked his fingers, conjuring a parchment of paper and a quill from thin air.
Cassandra watched as her life was bargained by men, from the hands of one to the other. She felt suffocated, the air had been sucked out of her lungs. Unable to bear it anymore she turned around and pushed the door with both hands. She rushed out, her heart breaking from the betrayal of her family, from people who were supposed to protect her.
Siroos helplessly watched her go, he knew he needed to make an insurmountable amount of effort to win her heart.
Wiping the tears with the back of her hand, her feet carried her to Lotus. She must have heard the news already, for a very frantic Lotus met her, midway.
"Heavens! Cass, my poor Cass." She gathered her younger sister in her arms. Cassandra completely broke down in her arms. Not ever had she felt so vulnerable and so very disposable.
"Father sold me — sold me to a remorseless — killer. He is going to t–take me away and I will n—never see you again," she wailed as Lotus held her. Her own tears were wetting her round face.
"I am so sorry Cass, I will go talk to our father. How can he do this? And why didn’t Commander Razian do anything about it? When is he going to step up as your fiancé?" Lotus was getting angrier by the second as she tried to comfort her little sister. Her heart was breaking over and over again. They all had wronged her and now she was about to be handed over to some Alpha shifter. She very well knew how ruthless and barbaric they were. Cassandra was soft and delicate, she didn’t deserve this.
"My hands are tied, I can’t help Princess Cassandra," Razian spoke up as he had followed Cassandra and heard what Lotus had said. His voice was relatively tender and so were his eyes as they wandered on Lotus’s crying face.
"You are just a coward. I will fight them alone if I have to but I am not letting them take my sister." Lotus’s words were sharp, meant to jab him and they did.
"My princess, please. You need to understand that the treaty has been signed, breaking it will mean war. After what happened in the arena with Prince Kamyn the vampires won’t sit in peace." He tried to speak like the commander he was and saw the situation methodically.
Lotus was more emotional, she didn’t understand his logic or care about any damn treaties. She cared about her sister.
"You are pathetic, Commander Razial," she gave him a loathing dismissive look and walked away with Cassandra, holding her slumped shoulders and still trying to assuage her.
He watched her with guilt flashing in his eyes and his heart in shambles. Every time he tried to get closer to Lotus she would shut him off and after this, she wouldn’t even spare him a glance.
Lotus took Cassandra to her room, shut the doors and stood in front of it.
"I will not let them take you even if it costs me my life," she declared, crossing her arms. In her pink floral gown and jewellery, she seemed like a princess of flowers but for now she had turned into queen bee, ready to protect.
Suddenly, the door was blasted open as the grisly shadows crawled underneath from it and darkened Cassandra’s room.