The Werewolf King's Bride

"Um... Lemongrass," I replied.

My shoulders felt stiff and my head was killing me, but I still felt a bit relaxed. Perhaps it was because of the hot water.

"Your Highness, should I massage your shoulder?" Ruby asked.

"Oh, yes," I said quickly.

She massaged my stiff shoulders and neck. "You really are a saint," I said. "Gosh, my shoulders were hurting a lot. Now it feels better."

"What are you saying, Your Highness? A saint and me? If anyone has to be that, it must be you."

"Haha, stop joking," I laughed.

"No, I\'m not joking, Your Highness. I\'m telling the truth," she said. Even though I could not see her as she was behind me, I could tell she was giving puppy eyes.

The thoughts came back to me again. Demetrius had been giving me a potion that prevented pregnancy. It was like pregnancy pills. I would ask for it eventually, but he gave it to me first the next day after our wedding. He had taken my desires into account. I was lucky, yet I felt uneasy.

What exactly did he want? Was he just caring about my desires only? That would be unfair. No matter how much I wanted to be happy, I wanted him to be happy as well. Could we not be honest with each other about everything and be happy together? Was it that hard?

"Your Highness, you have beautiful skin," she said while scrubbing my back.

Of course, I had good skin and that was because Demetrius healed all my wounds the moment I came here. I wondered what she would think if she saw my previous skin that was full of scars and bruises.

"If you don\'t mind, Your Highness, can I ask you about something?" she asked.

"Yes, sure," I said. Ruby was the only maid who took care of me most of the time. Demetrius did not let any other maid come to our room. He was being careful about traitors and as he seemed to trust Ruby the most among the maids, he made her my personal maid.

"Your Highness, can you tell me how your life was in the other world?"

I almost gasped. I trusted Ruby. More importantly, Demetrius trusted him. He never kept any person near him who was not trustworthy. That was why I never doubted her. And she was fun to be around as well.

It would not be a bad thing to share a bit of my past with her.

"Well, it was not a good life compared to now. I used to live with my father, mother, and two brothers and I went to a high school there."

"High school?"

"It\'s where you study. I could not graduate from there. Well, I came to this world and got married, you see."

"Your Highness, what kind of family did you have?" she asked. I wondered why she was so interested in my family all of a sudden. Perhaps she was just curious.

"Um, as I said before, we were not financially perfect. My father was not a good person actually, neither was my mother. They neglected me since childhood and used to beat me up. Especially my father and Draven. Draven and Maxen are my elder brothers. My father never wanted daughters.

He thought that girls are useless. So after I was born, he hated me. And besides, I did not look like him at all. I heard my mother had an affair with someone and then I was born. That\'s one of the reasons he hated me even more. Draven, Father, and Mother- all of them were alcoholics and drug addicts."

"What is a drug, Your Highness?"

I told her what drug was and why it was used. Ruby listened intently. She was curious too, so it was good to talk to her. Besides, I liked telling people things that I knew. It made me feel a little less useless. Even if for a moment, I wanted to feel better than I was.

"It causes mental havoc. It\'s a lot riskier than drinking. It\'s simply hazardous. In other words, you lose your ability to think clearly."

"Then it must be bad for health," she said.

"Of course, it\'s bad for health!"

"Then why do they take it?"

"Isn\'t smoking bad for health? But they still smoke, right? Just like that, even if it\'s bad for health, they still take it. It\'s a dangerous addiction after all."

"Your family used to take drugs too then?"

"Yes," I said. "I\'ve seen the effects myself. My father and Draven used to beat me up with anything they got. If there was nothing near, they would use their hand. I had to bring them alcohol and cigarettes. If I did not, then it would be hell for me," I chuckled.

"Yeah, that\'s how life was."

"Oh, Your Highness, I\'m so sorry. I did not know," she said, almost sobbing.

\'This girl sure can cry any time.\'

"No, it\'s alright. I\'m not there anymore, right?"

"But how can someone\'s family be like that? I can\'t believe this..."

"Well, they were not good people after all. But Maxen was good among them. He never hit me. He actually loved me a lot. But he was a coward. That\'s why I don\'t forgive him.

But perhaps, someday if we meet again, I might like to see his face," I said.

"Didn\'t His Highness do anything about it? He loves you a lot."

\'Love?\'

I ignored the word that kept ringing in my ears. "He did. Actually, he bought me from my family?"

"What?"

"Yes. He did that so he could marry me. When I came here for the first time, that was the day when I met him for the first time as well. I thought he bought me as a slave and so I was planning on running away. Now that I think about it, it\'s kinda funny."