Mated To The King’s Gamma By Jessica Hall

Chapter 57

Abbie

Everything was chaotic when we arrived back at the castle. One moment, I was walking through the castle doors. The next, Damian was screaming for help with the King. Gannon had to follow Dustin to the King’s quarter, where they took Azalea, who was still unconscious. It was weird calling her that. Ivy, she had been Ivy to me all our lives, yet I understood her desire to get rid of the name Della or, should I say Marissa, had given her.

Standing in the corridor, I didn’t know what to do with myself as Damian, and another man carried the King to his quarters. The King mumbled, but his words made little sense. I wanted to go to Azalea but knew it was not the time, but now I found myself lost as I stood there watching the flurry of people rushing around crazily.

Did I just go back to my old tasks when I was here? Should I look for Gannon or maybe Clarice? I wasn’t sure what to do with myself, and I found myself walking around blindly until I was suddenly in my old room. I hesitantly knocked in case Beta Damian had got himself a new personal servant. However no one answers, and I push the door open and peer inside. It was getting late, and I assumed I would see Clarice in the morning to ask where she wanted to put me.

Stepping into the room, I find the bed bare, so I walk down the hall to the closet and retrieve some blankets and pillows. The task was made more difficult by my wounds. The stitches pulled so tight that some were cutting through my skin like cheese wire.

Bloodstained nearly every inch of me. It was congealed in my hair and under my fingernails. I quickly made the bed and then decided I couldn’t sleep in this state, so I made my way to the laundry searching for clothes. Finding the uniform for servants, pajamas, and some socks, I grabbed them off the shelf before retrieving a towel and rummaging through the first aid kit for antibacterial soap. Limping to the servants’ bathrooms, my bones ached. Every inch of me did.

Stepping inside, I find it empty. One side of the bathroom held stalls for showering while a half wall divided up the middle to the toilets and basins, long mirrors ran the entire length of the center wall on both sides.

As I passed it to head into one of the shower stalls, I glanced at the state I was in. My normal auburn hair was matted, twigs and leaves tangled in the knots. The clothes I was wearing were torn, and I could still smell his scent all over me. Gannon’s too, but Kade’s was still there. My heart panged at the thought of him.

The way he lay dead in the dirt. My mate, though cruel, was mine, or supposed to be. Looking at what was left of me as I peeled off my clothes, I was disgusted.

My skin marred from years in the orphanage was already horrifying to look at, though my scars were never as deep or jagged as Azaleas. I

always felt terrible for how she hated her appearance and the lashes that marred her.

She had taken so many whippings reserved for me and I had done the same for her. Looking at them, I used to think it was a reminder of what we endured and survived. Though the marks that were left at the hands of Kade, I saw something so much worse.

I never survived at all. Moved from one hell to another. Looking at my ravaged flesh, I wasn’t sure anyone would look at me again and be anything but disgusted by the sight of me. The multiple marks on my neck from him had turned my flesh black like it was rotting away my skin, the skin raised and jagged, same as the scars etched into my heart. The hollow void felt like it would never be filled again and remain bottomless. I pressed my lips together to stop from crying out when I peeled my shirt off, dumping it on the floor.

i hiss as i force my pants down my legs. The blood saturating my pants stuck to my skin and made me feel like I was being skinned alive. Tears blurred my vision, and I bit back the sob as my stitches opened and blood cascaded down my leg in a stream. I tried to step out of my pants when hands fell on my hips, making me jump and hiss as the stitches along my arms and ribs tugged from the movement.

“I was looking for you.” Gannon murmurs. He kneels, peeling them off, and I grip his shoulder, stepping out of them. He kisses my hip bone, which protrudes beneath my skin. The blood rushed to my cheeks, knowing I was now standing naked in front of the man.

“Why are you in the servants’ bathroom?” he asks, standing back up. Keeping my back to him, I covered my breast. Not that there was much point with giant mirrors. I knew he could see every vile inch of me if he glanced at them.

“I didn’t know where else to go. You disappeared, and I didn’t want to bother Clarice to find out where I was stationed. So I went back to my old station,’ I tell him.

gone to our

start the shower. Gannon growls behind me while I examine my arm, which is black and blue, where Kade mauled me, the stitches pinching my skin holding it together. The water sprays out, bursting from the showerhead in a wide spray,

and sigh, stepping under the water, only to cringe away. My

13-44

Chapter 57

front of me

closed behind him, but he was inside the stall. I quickly tried to cover my breasts, though I had no idea why. When I asked him to

didn’t want to turn around. I knew what he would see, and my mutilated skin was anything but pretty. I

to face the back

Pease.” I whisper, though I knew he would hear me with

scrub myself

hurt you, Abbie,” Gannon murmurs next to my ear before his chest presses against

don’t want your pity.” I

at you?” he asks, sweeping my hair over my shoulder. He dips his face into my neck, his nose runs up the

voice

hand holding the bar of soap wraps around my waist, tugging me flush against him.

only looked away because I could tell you were uncomfortable with me staring Abbie, not because I didn’t like what I

I’m broken,” I tell him, my voice cracks at speaking those words aloud. Like suddenly saying them made the realization sit heavier on my shoulders. I was like

will be. Nothing he has done to you changes that.” Gannon says

from me Abbie,” Gannon whispers before gripping my wrist, his thumb rubbing over the back of my hand. I sighed and dropped my arm while his hand holding the soap moved over my torn-up

Despite the sheer size of him and the way he could break me in half, he was

him. I had never seen him without at least a tank top on. Of course, I had seen him with no shirt on when he shifted, but he was covered in fur and never in the light. His skin was as

gasped at the sight of the thick scars branding his skin. My hand reaches to touch the enormous deep scar in the center of his chest. Claw marks raked across his flesh like someone had tried to rip his heart from him. The lines were brutal and ridged, and his chest rose and fell heavily as I traced my fingertips gently over them. Gannon’s hand moves, his fingers move under my chin, and he tilts my face

won’t hide mine,” he whispers, his thumb brushing over my

the wars?” I asked, a little shocked.

are self-inflicted.” Gannon says,

that to yourself?” I ask, horrified. He tilts his head to the side,

“Why?” I blurted.

I touch the scar and swallow.

than my

and Azalea say?” he whispers. I swallow and

life Abbie. You are worth so much more than mine. You hold on, and I

13:44 |