Page 1 of Married to the Beast

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ALEENA

Aleena stood outside the richly carvedbeezlewood door and tried to compose herself. She had been dreading this visit for months, but it could no longer be put off. The payment for her mother’s medical care was past due and she would be unable to receive any more treatment until the balance was paid.

Aleena hated to come to this vast house—which had been her childhood home—to beg for help, but there was nowhere left to turn and she couldn’t let her mother die. They had already sold or pawned everything of value they owned—her mother had parted with the last piece of jewelry Aleena’s father had given her long ago. Aleena had even sold the beautiful party dress she had worn to her sixteenth nameday celebration, though she had shed bitter tears before taking it to the pawn shop. It represented a happier time in her life—a time of abundance and prosperity she was certain was never going to return.

And it wasn’t just payment for the medical treatment she and her mother needed—their cupboard was bare and the tiny refrigeration unit in the corner of their kitchen held nothing but chilled water. Her mother needed to eat something to keep up her strength—she was already a faint shadow of the smiling, healthy woman she used to be—and Aleena had nothing to giveher. Her own stomach growled as well, but she did her best to ignore it. She was young and strong and could go without for a long time—it was her mother she worried about.

In desperation, she had gone out looking for a job. But females weren’t supposed to work outside the home on Karpsian Sigma and the very few jobs that were open to women—mostly serving at a tea house or waiting on female customers as a shop girl—were given to the wives and daughters of the males who owned those businesses. There was no room for an outsider—even one willing to work for less than half of what such jobs usually paid. Aleena knew, because she had been out begging for work for the past two weeks.

The only other job open for a young female was to sell herself as a woman of the night—to let a stranger change the color of her eyes and turn them black as soot. But that was a last resort—Aleena honestly thought her mother would die of shame if she had to procure money in that way.

And so she was reduced to this—begging at the house which had once been her home. She hated it so much she could taste bile at the back of her throat, but she swallowed it down and knocked on the bluebeezlewood door, praying a servant would answer.

Her prayers went unheeded by the Goddess of Mercy, however—instead of one of the parlor maids, it was Faleesha, Aleena’s younger half-sister, who answered the door. Her brows drew low over her gorgeous pale blue eyes as she stared down her aristocratic nose at Aleena.

“What areyoudoing here? I thought my mother made it clear you’re not welcome in this house,” she exclaimed, crossing her arms over her breasts, which were covered in a fine-link silver net, set with semi-precious stones.

Allena’s own breast net was made of a very poor alloy which was rusted and patched in places. It barely covered her too-largebreasts, leaving the sides of her curving, creamy mounds bare. To her shame, her nipples stuck out as well through the large, crudely made links, which made her a target for men passing on the street.

The men whistled rudely and called to her, asking the price to change the color of her eyes, making Allena blush helplessly. She wished often that she could cover herself, but only married females on Karpsian Sigma were allowed a modicum of privacy. Unmarried ones must show themselves so that males might appraise them and see if they were worthy to become wives.

Of course, none of the men who whistled and called to her was thinking of marrying her and even if they were, Aleena had no dowry. It had been taken from her when her father had disavowed her mother and they had both been thrown out of the house.

The reason her father had given for the disavowment was the fact that Aleena’s mother had been unable to bear him any sons. And yet, the woman he took as his next wife—Faleesha’s mother—hadn’t born any either. She had only given him Faleesha, who he doted on as he had once used to dote on Aleena.

But once out of a man’s house and far from his eyes, a woman is also far from his heart, as the old saying goes. Aleena’s father had given her mother a generous settlement to start with, and even an allowance she could live on and raise her daughter on. But in the past several years he had seemed to forget all about his cast-off wife and daughter. The credit stopped coming and they had to start selling valuables. For the past three years, he hadn’t even sent Aleena a name-day present.

Aleena had a suspicion that this neglect had much to do with the influence of her stepmother. Grindelia wanted all of her husband’s time, attention, and money directed at herself and her daughter and she did her best to keep Aleena from ever seeing her father. She also let her scorn for Aleena be known and herdaughter had picked it up early on—which was probably why she was looking at her half sister as though Aleena was scum she’d scraped off the bottom of her dainty silver slipper.

Well, I knew this wasn’t going to be easy,Aleena told herself. She lifted her chin and frowned at her half-sister.

“I must see my father at once—it’s an urgent matter,” she said.

“I don’t think so.” Faleesha sniffed loudly, as though she smelled something bad. “We don’t let commoners like you in our home—mother says not to and the man of the house agrees with her.”

“I don’t care what your mother says, the man of the house isstillmy father and Iwillsee him.”

Brushing past her half-sister, Aleena stepped across the threshold and went straight up the curving staircase to where her father’s study was located on the second floor. He was almost always there and she hoped to catch him before her stepmother intervened.

Behind her she could hear Faleesha draw in a shocked and aggrieved gasp. Her half-sister had a flair for the dramatic—no doubt she would act as though Aleena had assaulted her and forced her way into the house.

All the more reason to get to Father quickly!she told herself as she raced up the curving staircase.

Her father’s study door was in sight and she was just about to breathe a sigh of relief when an imposing figure came into view, blocking her path.

“And justwhatdo you think you’re doing?” a familiar voice demanded.

It was Grindelia, her stepmother, resplendent in a long crimson split skirt and a breast net made of golden links so fine they didn’t show even ahintof flesh beneath.

The price of that one item of clothing alone could pay her own mother’s entire medical debt, Aleena thought bitterly as she came to a halt, just a few steps from the top landing. Yet her stepmother wore it as part of her everyday outfit, casually flaunting the wealth she demanded from Aleena’s father as her wifely due.

Her stepmother’s brows were drawn down, her normally lovely face twisted into an ugly sneer as she stared contemptuously at Aleena.

“I said,whatdo you think you’re doing?” she demanded again. “You know you’re not allowed in this house! You and your ragged beggar of a mother have both been disavowed—we can’t be seen letting your kind in here. The man of the house is a Statesman now—he’s been inducted into the Ruling Council.”

This was news to Aleena—but she didn’t really care one way or another. She only knew that shehadto speak to her father.

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