Chapter 2
The journey to North Romdale was ridiculously long. I got terrible motion sickness, so I spent almost the whole month throwing up in the carriage.
By the time I reached North Romdale, I was nothing but skin and bones.
I came face to face with Dominik, whose face was hidden behind a mask. He sat astride a towering warhorse, his sword slick with fresh blood.
"Oh, you're just a chick," he said.
That was his assessment of me.
I wasn't about to take that lying down. I was a wolf, and wolves ate chicks.
But I was too weak to even argue with him after being on a bumpy ride for a month—I could barely stand.
Just as I was about to collapse to the ground, Dominik hooked his blood-stained sword under my torso and lifted me up.
Warm, slick blood trickled down my dress as I raised my gaze to meet his.
"Aren't you scared?" Dominik asked.
He let out a soft chuckle, then effortlessly scooped me up with one hand and deposited me in front of him on the saddle.
Before him, I truly felt like nothing more than a chick.
"Aren't you afraid of blood?" Dominik asked again.
I shook my head blankly. I was still eating raw meat three years ago, so why would I be afraid of blood?
"Isn't the Gulisson family's heiress supposed to be delicate and weepy—all fussy and dramatic? You're nothing like that," Dominik remarked.
His curt words sent a chill down my spine.
I curled myself into a ball, desperately trying to avoid any contact with him.
"What are you implying? Are you suspecting that I'm not the real heiress of the Gulisson family?" I asked.
"I can execute you on the spot if you deceive me," Dominik warned.
His fingers slid down my spine, pressing firmly on the most vulnerable spot at the small of my back.
With just a bit more pressure, he could snap me in half—I'd crumple like worthless trash.
"I am. That heiress that everyone talks about was switched with me at birth," I explained while enduring the pain.
Dominik's hand paused for a moment.
"So, I wasn't lying to you," I said.
He pulled my face toward him, forcing me to meet his eyes behind the mask.
Then, he let out a disdainful snort.
"This means your parents sold you off, didn't they?" he commented.
He released his grip on me and nudged the horse forward with his thighs.
As the horse began to move, every bone in my body ached terribly.
Gritting my teeth, I blurted out everything that was on my mind. "Precisely. Everyone says marrying you is a death sentence, so my parents and so-called sister didn't hesitate to throw me here."
Dominik curled his lips into a sneer.
"Are you scared, then?" he asked.
Scared? I was a wolf cub raised in the wilderness.
Honestly, I felt more at ease with a bloodthirsty savage like Dominik. At least his brutality was out in the open—far better than the sinister intentions lurking beneath honeyed words in those aristocratic households.
Hence, I shook my head.
Dominik seemed satisfied with my answer, or maybe I looked so half-dead he couldn't be bothered to scare me anymore.
After sending me to a tent, he summoned two servants who looked nothing like natives of the Plains.
"Bathe her and change her clothes. See that she doesn't die," he ordered.
The two female servants were sturdy, each towering over me by at least half a head.
They yanked me up by my hair, their rough hands pulling painfully at my scalp.
My silken hair, painstakingly nurtured for three years at the Gulisson family, was ruined in an instant. They treated me like nothing but a plaything, roughly dunking and tossing me about in the water.
As I scrubbed the grime from my body in the bone-chilling water, I reckoned if Kimberly were here, she'd probably have died of illness on the very first day.
But not me. This was how I grew up.
The food in North Romdale was a far cry from what I'd known at the Gulisson residence. While it wasn't exactly raw and bloody, it was incredibly crude.
The servants casually flung a sand-baked flatbread right at my face.
I caught it and devoured every last crumb.
Dead tired from the journey, I'd sleep even in a lion's den.
Wrapped in a sheepskin blanket, I curled up in the corner and drifted off to sleep. Half-awake, I distinctly hear Dominik speaking outside.
"She took an ice-cold bath, a stale flatbread, and yet she could fall asleep?" he exclaimed in disbelief.
"Yeah, she doesn't seem like a woman from Bruiville at all," one servant said.
The other servant nodded in agreement. Soon, the tent flap was thrown open, and in strode Dominik, his masked face illuminated by the flickering candlelight.
His towering frame was downright suffocating. Now stripped to the waist, he revealed his strong physique.
I'd never seen a man like him before. He made even our pack's alpha wolf look tame by comparison.
I couldn't help staring, completely mesmerized. But the moment he turned and started walking toward me, I snapped my eyes shut in a panic.
"Why are you sleeping on the ground?" Dominik mused.
He bent down and, with one hand around my waist, effortlessly scooped me up.
He then placed me on the cot. Instantly, I felt much warmer.
Dominik didn't sit by my side. After ensuring I was settled, he rose and retreated to the inner chamber to bathe.
The splashing of water from the inner chamber kept me awake, and I pressed my lips together in frustration.
Before long, he emerged from the bath. Through my lashes, I caught sight of him—he was stark naked.
"Are you awake, chick?" he asked.
I quickly snapped my eyes shut, but he chuckled.
"Stop playing possum," he teased.
I sheepishly opened my eyes and awkwardly pushed myself up into a sitting position.
My eyes roamed over his body. After all, I'd never seen a grown man's physique before.
Men were built so differently from us women, so I blinked at him curiously.
"Don't you have any shame?" Dominik teased.
He tilted my chin up, forcing me to meet his gaze.
Only then did I notice that his mask was gone.
Behind the mask wasn't the fearsome Hades I'd imagined, but rather a strikingly handsome face.
He was even more handsome than any man in the Gulisson family.
"So this is what you look like," I remarked.