Revengeful Aria
ARIA
Even when I am kilometers away from the village, I knew something was amiss. Something is just not right and I soon realized that my instincts were right when I smelled the flesh burning.
My heart skipped a beat as I ran faster to my home. The burnt flesh drowned my nostrils as a small smoke coming from the houses became visible in my eyes.
“No…” I reached the village in a few minutes and I could only do nothing but stare at it in utter shock.
The bags of plastic fell off from my hands while my tears streamed down my face.
I just went to the market in Roan to buy our supplies and this is what I’ll be coming home to? Our village was practically on ashes now and our people… our people were murdered and burned!
“Aria! Aria!” Lola called my name while wailing on the corner mourning her own brothers that were burned, holding the hot skulls in her hands.
I went up to her and cupped her face. “Who did this, Lola?! Tell me!”
“The alpha prince and his guards! They killed all the adult men and took the women and the kids to be their slaves! I was just lucky that I was able to hide but I saw everything Aria! I saw how they burned our men and destroyed our village!”
I swallowed the lump in my throat as I surveyed the place that has been my home. The embers from the houses and the bodies on the ground send something dangerous and pulsating in my mind.
The alpha prince took everything from me today and I will not die without taking the only thing that I can get from him.
“If you see Zuleik, tell him I will not be coming home to him in a few weeks,” I said while putting the bag of groceries on her side. “Give them proper burial, Lola. Escape the town and look for the lycan prince. After that, you can both reunite with me.”
My attendant raised her head at me in wonder. “Where are you going, Aria? What are you going to do? Please don’t do anything drastic because you and Zuleik are the only hope that we have for the pack to get the palace back! The lycans cannot afford to lose you too.”
“Don’t worry,” I said while patting her head, “That is actually what I am going to do.”
She clung onto my hands as both of us tried to stop crying. The lycans have been crying since forever. I have to be strong! I have to be the strongest for the sake of them!
“Tell me what are you going to do? Please, tell me, Aria.”
I remembered the previous conversation I had with the owner of a brothel in Roan when I was delivering drinks to her store.
“You are a very beautiful and attractive woman, Aria. You don’t deserve to be poor in your godforsaken village. Come to my brothel and sign up under me and I will make you the wealthiest woman in the history of Roan.”
I can only smile at her shyly. She’s joking, right? Even though she doesn’t know that I am a lycan, she should know that I already have a fiancé. “How can you do that, Stella? What kind of work in the kitchen will I do for me to get rich?”
She caressed my face down to the mark of ownership on my neck. “The alpha king and queen luna are looking for a woman to tame the alpha prince’s heart. You are exactly the woman in my mind, Aria. You have the face and the vibes of the famous Princess Athena that even the current alpha king wasn’t able to resist back then. I will do the same thing to you and I will present you to the alpha prince.”
I met the eyes of Lola and answered with my shaking voice.
“I am going to kill and burn the alpha prince just like what he did today to our pack, Lola,” I announced with all the fury in me.
I went back to downtown Roan to see Stella who seemed to know that I am coming back based on the anticipation in her eyes.
“Aria, what makes you change your mind?” she asked while puffing out loads of smokes in the air.
I wiped off the tears on my face and said in a firm voice. “I need to get rich, Stella. Please, make me rich!”
She can only drop her cigar and grin at me. “You will not regret coming to me, Aria. This is the start of your lucky fate.”
She did not waste any more time and took me to the bathhouse where women bathed me with scents that smelled so familiar but cannot give a name to.
Why would I even be familiar with them when I am sure that I never, for once, was able to use them?
They braided my hair, put some makeup on me, especially hiding the mark on my neck, and made me wear a silky dress that seemed to melt by a single touch and put a mesh veil on top of my head to hide my face.
After that, Stella held my hand and took me to the biggest and most lavish room in the brothel where the alpha prince is staying.
“The alpha prince can’t resist you,” she said while looking admiringly at my face. “You will drive him mad, Aria. I am sure of it.”
And I will kill him, I promise myself.
Stella knocked on the door and pushed it open.
The room is dark but I can still see the silhouette of the man on top of the bed from the moonlight that comes from the open window.
He must have come here to celebrate his killing of my pack. The thought brought tears in my swollen eyes that have been successfully hidden by make-up.
“I told you, I don’t need a woman, Stella. Take her away from my room now!”
I jerked when I heard his voice for the first time. Even when I don’t want to, I can’t help my heart when it skips a beat.
“Alpha prince, please just try this woman I brought here. I am sure you will like her.”
Stella swiftly left the room after tapping my back as if saying good luck.
The alpha prince sat on his bed and despite the darkness, I could feel his eyes poring all over me.
“You, come here.”
I slowly walked towards him, trembling and forcing myself not to cry because of my wrath.
“Take that off,” he commanded and motioned at the piece of cloth covering my face.
I lifted my hand to remove the veil as I slowly raised my eyes to meet his.