Chapter Sixteen

“Welcome to Hollister your Majesties” a girl greets as she bows to Sawyer and King Dante. “Is there anything I could help you with?” She asks. “Could you help us find some comfy clothing for our mate?” Sawyer asks. I hear King Dante scuff at the word mate from beside me. I know he doesn’t like me. I don’t like him either but he could at least pretend that I mean something to him.

The girl who greeted the Kings gives Sawyer a shocked look. She then looks at me up and down then gives me a glare when she reaches my face. “Of course. I could help her find some amazing loungewear” she says while still glaring at me. “Perfect. That’ll take less time which means the sooner we can leave.” King Dante says and leaves the store.

“I’m going to come with. I don’t like having her outside of my sight” Sawyer says. The girl nods and leads us towards the area where the loungewear is. “Do you have anything in mind that you’d like?” She asks. I look up at Sawyer not knowing what to say. He looks down at me and gives me a soft smile.

“We’d like to see anything that you have to offer. Her size is small.”Sawyer tells the girl. I snuggle into Sawyer’s side. My lifesaver.

We walk up to racks of clothes and some that are on white fake people. That’s kind of weird and also creepy. “Preference on color?” She asks. “Anything but for gray and black,” Sawyer tells her while glaring at the store’s entrance. Maybe I should butt in and say yes to those colors because if I’m stuck with King Dante he’ll probably burn everything I got. Actually, never mind. He’ll do that no matter what.

“Okay. Well, this is a popular set. our popular colors are light gray which looks more like an off-white and the other one is ombre mint.” She says as she shows us a hoodie and sweatpants. Sawyer looks down at me with a questioning look. “I like the mint one,” I tell her. I’ll have to ask Leyla what an ombre is the next time I see her.

The girl nods “I’ll have this wait for you at the checkouts. Is there anything else you would like help with?” She asks. “No we should be fine,” Sawyer tells her. The girl looked disappointed by his words but she nods and walks away.

Sawyer takes my hand and we walk around the store. “Everything here looks the same. The same style and the same colors. There’s nothing that stands out from each other. I don’t want my mate going around looking like everyone else. Let’s check out then go to a different store. Is that okay with you?” Sawyer asks. I nod my head, agreeing with him.

“We’ll be paying for everything. You can start heading to your next store. Zeno will let me know where you guys are at” he tells us. Sawyer nods and leaves the store. “Where are your bags? Is King Sawyer too cheap to get you anything?” King Dante asks with a chuckle. “Neither of you are paying. Today is Miss. Amber’s reward so we pay for everything” Zeno explains.

“Can we walk around and see what catches our eyes?” I ask. Sawyer smiles at me and opens his mouth but before he can say anything King Dante beats him. “That’s a terrible idea. I don’t want to be here longer than we have to. Pick 2 more stores than let’s leave” King Dante tells me. “Or you can stay here for two more stores than after that you can leave. But Amber and I are staying here until she’s shopped out,” Sawyer tells him.

“Oh stop the acting. We all know you’re doing all of this sucking up to her so when it’s time to choose who she’ll be with you. You’ll have the most points from being nothing but fake. But when she moves in with you she’ll see the true you. How you were fake this entire time and that you want nothing but the power she’ll give you. You’ll have her sleep in the dungeon and make her work twice as hard as the slaves. You’ll make her have sex with you so she’ll fall pregnant and when she gives birth you’ll throw her out into the cold and let her defend for herself.” King Dante yells at Sawyer.

I shake my hand out of Sawyer’s and step away from him with tears filling my eyes. What is going on? Is King Dante telling the truth? Was Walter telling the truth? Is Sawyer really putting on an act for the council and me? Was this all for me to fall in love with him so he can crush me? Because the falling in love part did work.

“Amber” Sawyer says while stepping over to me. I quickly take a couple of steps back so I’m at a decent distance from him. “Amber baby please don’t listen to him. Everything he said is a lie” Sawyer tells me as his voice cracks a bit. I look over at King Dante to find a proud smirk covering his lips. Did he make up this lie to split us up and give him a chance to win this?

Is this all a competition to him? What’s going on? I look between the two Kings one looks heartbroken but he could be faking it and the other looks proud of the work. But that’s either because he knows everything he said is true and he saved me from him or because he now has a chance to win.

Tears start to leak out of my eyes I can’t take this anymore. I turn away from them and run away. I don’t know where I’m going. I can barely see with my eyes being blurry but at this moment I don’t care. I need to get away from them.

I need to get away from everyone. I just want to be alone. “Miss. Amber!” I hear someone yell. I stop running and turn around to find a man in a guard’s uniform running towards me.

“I’ve been told what happened. I won’t talk about it if you don’t want to but I’m here to ask if you want to carry on shopping or if you’d rather go back to the mansion” he tells me. “Take me back to the mansion” I whisper. He smiles and nods.

He puts his arm on my shoulder and guides me towards the exit. I look around my surroundings. I notice families, couples, and friends walking around the mall. Some have shopping bags while others don’t but they all have in common are cheerful faces. Talking and laughing.

As I was being led to the exit I would notice other guards but before they could see us the guard who’s with me would steer us in a different direction or would hide us and try to distract me. I wasn’t stupid I knew he was trying to hide from the guard but why? Before I had the chance to ask him we made it to the exit. I notice a large black vehicle pull up in front of us. A hand is placed at my back and lightly pushes me towards the large vehicle.

Right now I just want to be in my bed and watching Disney + I’ve been enjoying it a lot. Helps me calm down when I’m feeling overwhelmed. The guard opens the door and pushes me into the vehicle. What the fuck! before I could sit up hands grab me and hold me down while other hands tie me down. I start to thrash around. What the fuck is going on?

“Don’t worry, Princess. We won’t hurt you.” Is the last thing I hear before everything goes black.