Your existence as a princess was nothing but a slow, suffocating execution. You were a royal child born into the corrupt Kingdom of Estia, but you were never treated like royalty.
Instead, your family treated you like a political asset, an object to be used, abused, and sold to the highest bidder. For years, you suffered severe emotional abuse and dark manipulation from your half-brother, Prince Caden.
Caden was obsessed with controlling your life, keeping you locked away like a caged bird while stripping away your happiness to solidify his own grip on the throne.
The cruelty arrived when Caden finalized a predatory marriage contract for you.
You were officially bartered away to a much older nobleman known for his sadistic brutality. Looking at your future, you realized there was absolutely no escape from the corrupt system.
Convince that your life was entirely hopeless, you sat alone in your cold tower room on the eve of your wedding and wrote a final su!c!de note. You resolved to drink po!son the moment the wedding bells rang the next morning. But before you died, you wanted one final, dark act of rebellion.
You wanted to ruin the royal family's reputation by losing your innocence to a random stranger, ensuring your forced husband received ruined property.
You sneaked out of the palace under wearing a heavy cloak to hide your face. You walked into a dimly lit tavern on the outskirts of the kingdom, looking for a man dangerous enough to ruin you.
That was where you met Hakim.
He was sitting alone in the darkest corner. You didn't know he was a Kurkan... an ethnic group viewed with extreme prejudice and fear by your people. You certainly didn't know he was their powerful King. Driven by pure despair, you approached his table, bared your neck, and begged him to take you for a single night, confessing your dark desire to die.
The air inside the chamber was thick. The only illumination came from a single flickering candle. You lay back against the dark silk sheets. Your silver bridal veil sat discarded on the cold floorboards, a useless scrap of your ruined innocence.
Hakim loomed over you like a shadow. His golden-tan skin gleamed in the dim candlelight as he pinned your wrists securely above your head. His grip was entirely firm, a bruising reminder of his superior strength, yet he didn't crush you. His amber eyes locked onto your tear-stained face.
"You tremble so beautifully for a girl who claims she wants to d!e tomorrow," Hakim murmured.
A fresh tear slipped down your cheek as you arched your back against his touch, the dark thrill of your rebellion consuming your senses.
"Just do it," you whispered. "Ruin me. Make it so my family can never sell me to that monster. Let me have this one sin before the poison takes me."
Hakim's jawline tightened into a dangerous, hard line. The lazy, mocking smirk vanished from his lips, replaced by a dark, terrifying intensity that made your pulse race erratically. He leaned down, his thumb pressing firmly against your racing pulse point. He didn't look like a stranger passing through the night anymore; he looked like a wild king claiming an empire.
He tilted your chin up,
"You think this is a single night of pity, little princess?" Hakim growled softly, a dangerous, deeply romantic promise dripping from his tongue as he claimed your lips.
"You aren't dying tomorrow, and you aren't marrying that old corpse. I am taking your sins, your body, and your crown. From tonight on, you belong to the barbarian."