His caged luna

Brenda's POV

"Father, please don't leave me! I'll do better, I promise! Please don't send me to Alpha Aaron. He's a monster!"

My voice kept echoing in my head. I pleaded with my father desperately not to give me away, but it meant nothing to him.

And now, I stand in a bathroom filled with strangers as I get myself prepared for my doom.

The bathroom smelled sweetly of roses and honey. It looked like a place made for a Luna.

The walls were made of white marble streaked with gold; candlelight shone in every corner of the room. Everything was perfect. Too perfect. A cruel kind of beauty for such an ugly night.

I stood there in a long red robe. Two women in silver uniforms stood beside me. Their eyes looked cold and empty, with no emotions, like they had done this so much that it doesn't affect them anymore. Their hands moved gracefully as they took my robe.

I watched it slip off my shoulders down to the floor, leaving me completely naked.

They guided me into the huge bathtub filled with petals, floating around me.

I felt like I was being washed for slaughter.

I wasn't here as a guest. I was here as an offering. A gift. A sacrifice.

I could still see it - Father's hand slipping away from mine as the guards dragged me from the palace gates. His face had no emotion. Not love, not mercy. Just cold determination.

"Forgive me, Brenda," he had whispered. "This is for the kingdom."

But what kingdom needed blood from its own child to survive?

I had screamed and fought until my voice broke, until the night swallowed my cries. But he never turned back. Not even once.

Now, as more women entered the bathroom carrying buckets of crushed ice, my stomach turned. They began pouring it into the tub. The warmth vanished, replaced by biting cold. I gasped as the icy water clawed at my skin.

I looked up at the head maid, a tall woman with silver hair and eyes that looked almost kind.

She saw the question in my eyes before I could ask. "This is necessary, my dear," she whispered. "It will make your body tighter. The Alpha likes his women... tight."

Her tone was gentle, but her words felt like knives.

I wanted to scream. To run. But my body refused to move.

The water was so cold that my bones ached. My lips turned blue. The maids worked silently, their faces blank, though I saw pity flicker in some of their eyes.

Two of them stood in the corner, whispering to each other.

"Oh, poor thing," one said softly. "So young and beautiful... and her father sold her."

"I heard his kingdom was crashing so he sold his daughter to save himself."

"She's just seventeen," the first maid said again with fake concern. "How could her own father offer his daughter to the monster himself... moon goddess, please show her