The Realm's Fright

Chapter Thirteen

The stone floors are numb cold as she stands bare feet. Alysanne, now stripped of her clothes and left only in her chemise, wraps her arms around the woman who has taken care of her since she was younger. She can feel the woman's stomach, heavy with child, and her heart shatters, knowing she will have the same fate in a couple of months. Hence, if the Gods were truly good, they would make her barren.

"Blessed be the fruit, Princess." Willa told her in encouragement, holding onto the princess's belongings.

Alysanne watches the Northern woman walk down the corridor and disappear around the corner, never turning back around. She takes her time, knowing he waits at the other side of the door.

It's not too late to run away, the voice of her younger self echoed in her mind. She hears the roar of the waves, clear as day, even from a far distance. What are you waiting for? A better life awaits in Essos.

I promised my family I will do my duty, she responded to her younger self. She pushes the heavy door open and enters her chambers. He had wanted to take her maidenhead in her maiden bed, for he deemed it the most appropriate for such an act.

She had fond memories of these chambers and those shall forever be tarnished with what was about to happen.

Aemond sat at the edge of her maiden bed, with his legs wide apart and his chin perched on his hand. He seems to have been in deep thought for it took him long to notice her, and when he did, his eye travelled up and down her body.

"You come to me like the Mother herself." He murmured, enthralled.

So this is his weakness, Alysanne thought.

He raises to his feet, never breaking his intense gaze. The chemise was almost translucent but thick enough to keep him curious.

Alysanne couldn't help but feel she was the one in power. Her mother told her once, how a woman has no need for a sword, for she already has her wits and wiles. The only reason Alysanne is holding back these womanly abilities is her fear of shame. Confidence has been hard to come by ever since she has been betrothed to her cruel uncle.

Aemond holds her waists firm. He leans in and dives straight for her lips, his disrespectful tongue assaulting her own as it invades her mouth like a thief in the night. She has known how to do the act of kissing since she could read, having owned a lot of texts where there always seemed to be illustrations of a lady and a knight connecting their lips. Once, she showed Jacaerys one of the illustrations he immediately threw it out of the window.

He spins her around and his lips trail down from her neck to her shoulders, cold like cubes of ice. And in one swift motion, his hands grip the collar of her chemise and rips it apart, exposing her breasts. His teeth gnaws on her flesh, his

"A-Aemond, wait." She squeaked. Her voice sounded that of the frightened little girl she once was, and the way his hands roam her body made her feel as that. "I said wait!" She growled, pushing him away.

"You are simply delaying the inevitable here!" The infuriated One-Eyed Prince shouted.

"Well, you're not the woman! I am! I am the one who is feeling as if she is being devoured by some monster and is soon to be stabbed by his sword!" The princess was not to be unchallenged. Tears spring from her eyes and it burns the along the lines. "Because of you, I have been crying for the rest of my life." She weeped. "Because of you, I never wanted to be born at all!"

He holds his chin high, refusing to pity her as he ignores her pleading gaze.

Alysanne sighs heavily. "I rather you just stab me in the chest and end the misery you put me through, if there is any mercy left in you!"