Chapter 6

-Trynnian-

I glance up at Kit, my brows threaded together in thought. Clearing my throat, I peer into his eyes. “Could you turn around?” He locks eyes with the floor, before doing as I ask. I inhale sharply as I see splotches of red seeping through his shirt.

“Can you take off your shirt?” I ask quietly, scared of what I might see underneath. Silently, Kit complies. Tears prick my eyes as blood-soaked bandages come into view. I press a hand to my mouth, my eyes already spilling droplets down my cheeks.

I squeeze my eyes shut, crumpling onto the floor. He’s hurt. He’s hurt so bad, and I don’t have to guess to know who did that to him. If I’d known, I could have got him out. I jolt my eyes open when I feel warm arms wrap around me.

Kit is crouched in front of me, rubbing my back slowly as he presses me to his chest. I cry into his shoulder, holding his arm instead of hugging him back, just in case I hurt him more.

“I’m so sorry,” I choke out. Kit smooths a hand through my hair, rubbing my neck soothingly as he does. “It’s not your fault. Accidents happen.” It takes me a moment, and then I realise I opened up his wounds, and begin crying again.

I’ve already put him through so much pain. How can I ever think he’d be alright with me?

Kit pulls back, and I immediately miss his touch, until I feel him literally pick me up and place me on the bed. “It’s alright. It doesn’t hurt that much.” I blink up at him as he wipes the tears from my eyes.

“You’re lying, it looks like it hurts so much.” Standing up, I gently take his hand in mine, giving it a squeeze before letting it go. “I’ll get someone to rebandage you. Just wait here.” He nods, and I waste no time in finding a maid to get one of the castle doctors.

When I make it back with said doctor, I don’t miss the way he reluctantly tends to my husband. A werewolf. I always knew everyone in the kingdom hates werewolves, maybe with the exception of my mother, who could never hate a soul, but seeing a doctor reluctant to help a werewolf makes me angry.

I have no right to that anger though - after all, I thought Kit was a savage, a monster. He’s just a guy who likes kittens and blushes when I hold his hand. He doesn’t deserve this. Any of this.

I make myself watch the doctor as he cleans Kit’s wounds and rebandage them, and now that I can see the bare skin, I feel sick. There are hundreds of slashes, some on the surface, some much deeper. They range in the level of healing, but the worst are those which have burns around them.

They look the newest, and the most painful, where the burns intercept other slashes, burning already opened skin. It doesn’t take a genius to figure out he was whipped. A lot. I have no idea what caused the burns, but how he’s been putting up with the pain for the whole afternoon I’ll never know.

Once the doctor is done and leaves, I sit cautiously next to Kit, placing my hand on his leg. “How are you feeling?” He gives a half shrug, before the pain kicks in and he immediately stops. His expression barely changes when the pain gets worse, and I try to ignore the fact that he’s probably gotten used to pain after five years of this.

“Should we go to dinner?” He asks quietly, and I snap out of my thoughts. “Yeah - we’ll go once you put on the shirt.” I had barely even registered that he was sitting shirtless, and if I didn’t feel so awful, I’d definitely be enjoying the view.

Instead, I felt sadness wash over me, tide after tide, as I examine the scars littered over his chest and arms.

—————

-Kit-

I follow Trynnian into a massive room, staring at the floor as I avoid eye contact with the first and second princes. I can feel the disgust in their stares without even looking. The queen is as nice as last time, if not more so now.

“Ah, it’s nice to see you again,” she pauses, looking sheepish. “I’m terribly sorry, but I don’t know your name.” The queen carefully adjusts her black hair, smoothing a strand out of her eyes. I open my mouth to tell her, but the king appears behind her.

“His name does not matter. None of you need to talk to, or address him, any contact with a mutt like him is too much. That goes for you too, Trynnian.”

I flinch back, fear clawing at my stomach. Trynnian places a soothing hand on my lower back, avoiding my injuries. “Father, with all due respect, I’m not going to ignore my husband.” My heart squeezes at him standing up for me, and gratefulness washes over me when the queen speaks up also.

“Sweetheart, he’s part of the family, we must treat him accordingly.” The king went to reply, but before he could, she asked me my name again. “Kit,” I reply, hating how weak my voice sounded. The queen smiles warmly, patting my shoulder gently before leading us to our seats.

The king glowers at me from the end of the table, but was too afraid of offending his wife to say anything. I held a lot of respect for her already. I notice the queen strategically placing me as far away from him as possible, with Trynnian to my right, and the queen opposite me.

Dinner passed with ease, but I could barely eat. I was scared of doing something wrong, and years of barely eating anything made it hard for me to stomach much food at a time. Besides, I’d already eaten some bread that morning, when they let me out of the prison.

I shouldn’t need to eat again for at least a few days, but here I was, faced with warm food, the same day as a previous meal? It’d been years since I had that luxury. I forced another bite down, noticing that everyone else had finished, whilst I was still struggling with the first few bites.

Trynnian places his hand on my leg comfortingly, and out of sight of the others at the table. He gives me a reassuring smile, before engaging his mother in conversation. I can’t stop a small smile from playing on my lips, when he gives my leg a little squeeze and a pat.