The Crown's Seduction
Chapter 190: Unstable

Chapter 190: Unstable

At Prince Raul Ichor’s Residence

The Coupling Rites were completed, and Niran bit her lip as she traced her newly-acquired mark between her neck and shoulder. It looked like a regular bite mark, one unlike their Queen who had a symbol shaped like a soaring vulture as her mark. Only someone who had the Mark of Eternity could have such a symbol as their mark. Nevertheless, despite it being ordinary, the mark still looked lovely to her.

Niran turned and looked at her open balcony. Raul was mad at her after knowing the truth, but he refused to let her go. Now, she was about to receive his punishment for deceiving him. It didn’t matter though because she wanted to stay with him, hoping that in due time, she could make him no longer hate her anymore.

She closed her eyes as she recalled his hate-filled gaze when she told him the truth.

"I’m sorry, Raul. I understand if you might want to cancel the Coupling Rites now. I’ll also leave if I must..."

"And why would I let you leave, Niran? Do you really think that I would let you go so easily after what you’ve done? You will be stuck with me forever, and you will receive the punishment you deserve for deceiving me!!!"

Niran held her chest as she recalled such a memory. It felt like she was losing her breath just remembering the hatred she saw in his eyes.

Walking towards the balcony, she took a deep breath of the cold air around her. It was currently snowing, and her body was trembling because of the temperature outside. Her eyes darted to the Banquet Pavilion. Already, she could hear how everyone was still celebrating without her.

"He’s still probably there," she weakly murmured as she wiped the tears away from her cheek.

Understandably, he just coldly sent her back to her bedchamber the moment they arrived at his residence. It was what she deserved, but her body froze the moment she saw Raul’s familiar figure surrounded by women. He even had one on his lap currently hugging him.

Niran bit down on her lower lip at the sight of it. She was biting down so hard that she started tasting metal in her mouth. Somewhere along the way, Raul met her gaze, to which she quickly turned around and rushed back inside her bedchamber.

Without a word, Niran went to her bed and sat with her arms hugging her knees as she sobbed. Was this what her punishment meant? Treating her like she never existed?

"Why did he even bother marking me?!" she foolishly hissed even though she already knew the answer. Raul would make her suffer under his wing. Before, Niran didn’t think too well about the consequences because she never thought she would fall for him at all. She was ready to face the consequences of her actions, but now, she was scared... All because of the possibility of her losing Raul.

"I must endure," she grumbled to herself, doing her best to cheer and encourage herself back up. Raul was not a bad man and she experienced how good he was. She just needed to make him see her sincerity since the trust was broken. She quietly lay on the bed and unknowingly dozed off as she sobbed.

***

"All of you get away this instant!!! Scram!!!"

Raul all but barked at everyone around him the moment he saw Niran turn and come back inside her bedroom. His eyes were still fixed on the balcony where she last stood, his emotions still mixed even after all this time about what she told him.

Lies... He hated lies and betrayals the most. Who wouldn’t? He couldn’t believe he fell right into her trap... of how she manipulated him all this time. How could he even be sure that her feelings for him were genuine?

A bitter smile crept up on his face. She said she loved him, and yet she wanted to leave him.

"Cancel the Coupling Rites?" he grunted through gritted teeth. "How dare she even say those words!?"

It was such a ridiculous notion. He was so mad that she even said that he wanted to punish her for all her lies and deception, mostly for even thinking of leaving him after he gave her everything in him. He had never been like this to any woman but to her.... He felt like he was going mad at the thought of her leaving him.

Hell, he didn’t even know if he had enough patience in him not to touch her until they’d completed the Coupling Rites. That was what she wanted, and he did exactly that. It was insane. He had never respected a woman’s request like this before she came into his life! She even messed up his plans of taking what was rightfully his! He thought that... that it wouldn’t matter anymore so long as he had her, and yet...

"Everything is just a lie... What for?" he jeered, letting out a self-mocking laugh. "All to Nikolai’s advantage again. He sure married a capable wife."

’You’re a disappointment right from the start!’

His mother’s familiar voice echoed inside his head as it started haunting him once again. It had been a while since it left him, so how come it was back again?

"No!!! You’re not real!" Raul yelled out. "You’re already dead! Get out of my head!!!"

In a fit of rage, he began destroying everything inside the pavilion. Around him, the servants got scared. It had been a while since their Master acted like this.

"Call for Her Highness," Butler Moller instructed one of the servants. The older man had watched Raul growing up, and he was aware of the Prince’s temperament ever since. "Only she can appease him now."

The servant he instructed quickly left, leaving him to watch as his master continued with his rampage.

"I wonder what had happened then that he went back to the way he was before..." the older man frowned.

It was sad to see Raul like this when he thought that he had already moved on from his mother’s abuse. Eventually, he turned away from what he was seeing. He couldn’t bear to see the Master talking and shouting like this anymore... like he was really talking to his already dead mother, Thea.

It was no secret that Raul was unstable and would always have mood swings, but when Lady Niran came into his life, a lot in him had changed. However, something happened before the Coupling Rites, and he was unsure of what it was. He could only hope that everything would turn back to the way it was, at the very least, from before Lady Niran’s arrival.