Chapter 8

By the time Iris was returned to the throne room wearing a sheer dress that showed every inch of her body she might as well have been wearing nothing, the throne room was already filled with important people and royalties from the neighboring Kingdoms.
King Evander choked on his sip of wine at the sight of her, feeling his groin hardening a bit.
The Guard that was accompanying Iris and the two slave girls released the chain from his wrist cuff and gave it to King Evander.
“Why are your cheeks so red?” King Evander asked, clipping the chain to his cuff.
Iris just kept her eyes on the ground, feeling everyone’s eyes on her like heat burning her skin.
Everyone in the throne room was whispering loudly about Iris and got silenced when King Evander spoke up, “you all know Princess Cerena Valentine?”
A few confirmations filled the air that got silenced again by King Evander speaking, “what is her value?”
A deadly silence fell, everyone not so sure if they understand the question.
“She is the last of her royal bloodline and I am looking to trade her along with a desirable treaty. It is my understanding that her parents kept this beautiful rich land for themselves, refusing to go into partnership with their neighboring kingdoms. So, I ask again, what is her worth?” King Evander explained himself.
“Rumours have it that she is ruined,” one prince spoke up.
“It could be true, but what if it is not?” King Evander challenged.
“I am need of a new bed-slave,” one King said, walking over to Iris.
“May I?” He asked King Evander for permission to touch her.
“By all means,” King Evander said, showing his hand for him to go ahead even though inside his mind he wanted to rip his head off and feed it to the wild.
The King reached out and lifts Iris’s chin up to look into her eyes, “are the rumors true?”
Iris bites her lip as she is not sure but at the same time, she knew that saying the rumors are not true is her ticket out of here. Before she could answer, the king grabbed her breast through the sheer fabric and squeezes them, laughing while proceeding to pinch her nipples, “she is not even flinching, she must like it.”
Iris looked at King Evander whose attention is on Marchelle, thinking, ‘he truly does not care.’
A few more men came closer, grabbing at her body and Iris tried to slap their hands away.
“Don’t pretend you don’t like this,” one said grabbing her womanhood through the sheer fabric.
“The rumors are not true!” Iris screamed out, drawing King Evander’s attention to her.
“This meeting is over. My sister will handle and discuss the treaties. It is simple, you read them, you like it, you sign; or you don’t like it and you leave. If you don’t like it, I will just come for your Kingdom next,” King Evander said, walking out of the throne room, yanking Iris along.
In King Evander’s room, he wasted no time to rip her dress off, “if you are lying you will regret it.”
“Please, I didn’t mean to, I was scared,” Iris said, tears running down her face.
King Evander looked at her tears and wraps one hand around her neck bringing her face to his before rubbing the tears on her right cheek away with his thumb and licking the tears off her left cheek, breathing deeply against her skin.
“I am so going to enjoy keeping my promise to you,” King Evander said, pushing her onto his bed before taking his clothes off. Iris does not fight him off, hoping that she will be better off here than one of the other Kingdoms, conflicted within as she really does not know.
King Evander entered her forcefully making Iris flinch and gasp in pain.
King Evander had no mercy and thrusts into her again, his eyes on her teary eyes, “cry for me, whore.”
Iris started to sob at the pain between her legs, thinking, ‘I have never felt anything like it, the rumors are false.’
King Evander thrust, again and again, Iris’s sobs added to his pleasure. When he reached his climax and released deep inside of her, he looked at her face that seemed broken, “now that I had you, body and soul you are ready to be sold in a treaty. You can choose to whom.”
“What?” Iris asked, her voice shaking, shocked to the core.
“Don’t bother putting on clothes. Meet me in the throne room,” King Evander said slipping out of her and unchaining the chain from his cuff. King Evander is left with a shocked expression on his face, looking at the blood on him, his bedsheets and on Iris womanhood, “no!”
Iris scooted away from him, her whole body shaking.
King Evander looked from the blood on his sheets to Iris, “where are you going?”
“The throne room, your majesty,” Iris said, running towards the door, ready to choose the first King she saw to get away from King Evander
“Wait,” King Evander shouted after her but Iris was in such a state that she did not hear him.
Iris got to the throne room, “I belong to you now, treaty gift from King Evander.” Iris kneels to the only King left in the throne room, busy signing a scroll. He looked at Iris, holding the end of her chain out to him.
Marchelle noticed the blood running down Iris’s legs, thinking, ‘what the hell did he do to, that is way too much blood.’
“Guess the rumors were false, my lost at plucking your flower but I will still take you,” the King said, happily taking the chain from Iris and swinging it around his hand to get a proper hold on it before looking at Marchelle, “tell King Evander I say thank you for his generous gift.”
“Why don’t you tell him yourself,” Marchelle said, looking past the king at King Evander, smiling.
“She is delirious,” King Evander said, taking Iris by her arm and pulling her to her feet.
“You said I can choose, I choose him,” Iris said, stepping behind the King she chose.
“The treaty has been signed and I already put the princess in it,” Marchelle said, lying as she is eager to be rid of her.
King Evander walked over to the scroll and tears it up, “what treaty?”
“Is this really how you are going to run your treaties?” the king asked.
“No, this is how,” King Evander said, taking his sword from his side and slashing the king's throat open before the king’s personal guards could step in.
The king fell to the ground and drags Iris with him as he is still holding onto her chain.
“I would put those away unless you want to be executed for treason,” King Evander warns of the guards.
The guards looked confused at each other.
“Your former king signed a treaty that states if he dies his Kingdom belongs to me and not his Heirs,” King Evander said, bending down and taking the chain out of the dead king’s hand.
“But you tore the scroll,” one guard said.
“Actually, it was the wrong one,” Marchelle lies again.
“Your majesty, forgive us,” the guards blunders to one knee.
“All forgiven. Now clean up this mess and enjoy the bed slaves that will be waiting in a room for all of you,” King Evander said before forcing Iris to walk with him.
“You are a monster!” Iris chokes through tears.
King Evander pulls the chain bringing Iris against his body before wrapping it around her body, her back against his chest, talking against the back of her head, his breath hitting her, “I am your monster.”
Fresh tears started to run down Iris’s face, her will to be strong, broken, and gone with the body she is trapped in virtue.
“Get a bath with soothing oils ready for the princess, only the best,” King Evander orders the servants that were busy cleaning up his bed. They bowed before rushing off.
King Evander took one of the clean bedsheets and wrapped it around Iris’s shaking body, thinking, ‘I wanted to punish her for giving her virtue to someone else, sharing her body with someone else but it was all a lie. I broke her. All I ever wanted was her, but her parents never agreed. They made me a monster.’
King Evander took the choker of the princess's neck before picking her up and putting her on the bed to wait for the bath to get warm.
“The water is ready,” the servants said, standing aside.
King Evander picked Iris’s shaking body up and put her into the bathtub. He wanted to plead for her forgiveness but cannot find the words. He is disgusted with himself, ‘I should have never believed the rumors about her.’
King Evander reached for the cloth and was about to put it to her body when she flinched making him stop in his tracts.
“Here,” King Evander puts the washcloth in a servant’s hand before leaving.
After Iris was bathed by the servants, she stood naked, waiting for the King’s next order, hoping it is not more punishment.
“Put a sheet over her and take her to her room and I want all three to stay with her in her room,” King Evander orders.
Iris breathed out the air that she was holding, relieved.
After Iris and the servants left King Evander’s room, Marchelle invited herself in, trying to seduce him.
“Not tonight,” King Evander said, taking her hands off him.
“Not ever again. I will arrange a suitable marriage for you,” King Evander stated when Marchelle was halfway out of his room, stopping her in her tracks. She opened her mouth to object but then swallowed her words, thinking, ‘I have to get rid of the princess.’