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CHAPTER1
“I hate ye,I hate ye so much,” Keira sobbed, her fury evident in her tone. “I do nae want to marry ye anymore. Do ye listen to me? I will nae marry ye. I wish to return home this instant!”
“What did ye say? Ye wish to return home?” Eric scoffed as if what she had said amused him. Keira could sense he was getting angrier with every passing minute, but she was not going to back down. She was not going to stay quiet any longer. She had never learned to do that, and she would not start now.
“Aye! Break off this betrothal and take me home. I will nae stay with ye in yer miserable castle for another minute,” she shouted again, making sure he could hear the anger in her voice.
“Ye wish to break off our betrothal, Keira?” Eric asked, his tone dangerously low. Keira felt chills run down her spine; at that moment, he looked dangerous. A man who could hurt her. She knew something was not right. In fact, something about this man, the one her father had arranged for her to marry, was extremely wrong, and Keira needed to escape. She knew she needed to return to her castle, to the O’Donelly clan, as soon as possible.
“I do, aye,” she replied, “take me home.”
In the flash of a second, Eric moved towards her, closing the distance between them even though she continued to back away. Before she could understand what was happening or shield herself from the hit, his palm landed right across her cheek, pain shooting through her face and scalp at the touch as she fell back from the force of it, her head hitting the wall. She slumped on the floor, spots dancing in her vision; she was struggling to remain awake.
He had slapped her. The man she had once been ecstatic about marrying had slapped her. This was the last thing Keira could have imagined. In the past two months, she had known him and even though he had slowly broken her, she could have never expected him to hit her.
“Ye will leave me? Ye will go home?” he asked, his tone turning sarcastic as he walked towards her pushing her onto the ground. He sat down in front of her on his knees, and all Keira wanted to do was run away. Every fiber of her body was telling her this man was going to hurt her more, and she did not wish to take the pain. No one in her life had ever raised a hand to her. Tears ran down her cheeks, and she quickly wiped them away, not wanting to show weakness.
“Eric, why are ye doing this to me?” Keira tried to hold her sob, knowing perfectly well that she was at this man’s mercy. She knew nothing could be done.
“Because ye are supposed to be wife very soon, and yet ye wish to break off this betrothal. I do nae like that, Keira. I do nae like a lass raising her voice at me,” he shouted, making her recoil further away. His hand shot out and grasped her long, blonde hair. His touch was harsh and extremely painful, warning Keira there was no escape. She could not physically fight off Eric since he was much stronger than her, and if she tried to run away, he would only catch her and make her suffer even more.
“I will raise my voice at ye whenever I wish to. Do whatever ye can and just leave me be,” she shouted at him furiously, but this time, a sob managed to escape her. Her words did not affect him and his stone-cold heart since he slapped her again, pushing her head toward the wall. She knew it would only make him angrier, but she no longer cared. There was no way she was going to succumb in front of a man who was nothing but a coward.
As her head hit the wall again, she saw black. For a few seconds, the world was spinning, and she felt a sharp pain throbbing through her head. She felt as if she could no longer breathe.
“Ye are my betrothed, and ye will stay here in this castle with me forever. Forget all about going home,” Eric said, his voice returning to normal even though his words were just as cruel. “Do ye understand?”
“I understand,” she sobbed, just wishing to get rid of him.
“If ye even so much as talk about leaving again, I will kill ye, and perhaps then ye can leave the walls of this castle.”
Terror ran through her veins at his words, and she stared at him with widened eyes. “Kill me?” Keira stuttered.
“Aye, first I will kill ye, and then I will kill yer father for raising a daughter so disobedient. Then both of ye can leave my life,” he replied calmly as if he had not just threatened to murder her. Keira did not know how her life had reached this point. She did not know how a man who was once charming to her had turned into a barbaric monster.
He laughed slowly and turned around to leave the bedchamber. Keira heard the latch settling into place, indicating that he had locked her inside, but she waited for his footsteps to disappear entirely before breaking down into tears. Gut-wrenching cries tore out of her as she realized what had just happened.
It had only been two months since she had come here to live with him in the Gilmor Castle. He was the laird’s son and the only heir to the lairdship but had assumed all responsibilities since his father had been sick for a while now. Keira couldn’t help but think about the man she had met at her betrothal; the man had been nothing like the Eric she knew now. The Eric who had just hit her.
“Faither, how could ye do it?” Keira questioned her father.
“Ye have to get married sooner or later, Keira, and if an arranged match can work for Astrid, it can work for ye too.”
“Where is he?” Keira whispered to Aiden and Astrid, her brother and sister, who stood just by her. Although, before anyone could reply, she heard approaching footsteps and turned around.
“Me lady?” a pair of warm brown eyes met her gaze as Keira looked at the man staring at her with a smile on his handsome face. He was young, no more than a couple years older than her, and still youthful, but he was rather tall and quite lean, which made him look older.
“Aye?” she finally replied when she finished appraising him, realizing he must have been doing the same thing.
“I was merely wondering if the legends of yer beauty were true. I think I will nae have to wonder any longer,” he said, and Keira smiled at his flirtatious comment, immensely pleased.
“I think ye are nae allowed to flirt with a woman on her betrothal feast,” she replied, still not certain if this was Eric.
“I think ye are when ye are her betrothed.”
Keira scoffed as she came back to the present, still lying on the floor with blood oozing out of her head. She had been confident that Eric would never keep her at Gilmor castle without her will. He would never be unkind to her because he had simply seemed like a man who did not know anything beyond kindness. He had appeared charming to her and her family, and no one could have suspected the kind of person he had turned out to be.
After he had brought her to his castle, the first few days had been bliss when he had dazzled her with attention. Although suddenly, he started to pull away from her until she needed to beg him to spend time with her. She was extremely lonely. She had never liked his maither, and his faither was sick. He was an only child, and hence Keira had felt abandoned. She had realized that she could not live a life like this. He had turned cold towards her.
