The Street Rat And The Alpha

9

"Oh look there is your new tutor," Lily said breaking the depressing atmosphere as her eyes fell on a woman.

Maddy felt all the fear in the world as she noticed the prim and proper lady. With hair twisted, pulled, drawn and cemented into a tight high bun that made her her think of a clenched fist. The giant black dress only made Maddy hate her more. She looked so traditional, so fancy and it sickened Maddy to the core.

She preferred Lily. The unconventional princess who wore the uniform of a guard and carried a sword at her side. She wore no make up or fancy jewelry and was as honest as they came. Maddy did not like her but she was better than the woman who was to be her new tutor.

The woman looked at Lily with a clear distaste for her sense of fashion. It was obvious that she believed the princess was better off in a restrictive dress.

Then the woman's eyes fell on Maddy. She looked at her as if she were far far worse than the dirtiest rat.

"Princess Lilth do stop dressing your slaves in your old dresses and wear them yourself. Honestly they don't deserve to even touch such finery. Rip it off the thing right now would you and let the slave take it to be burnt. It's truly unwearable now anyway."

Lily glared at the woman, seething with rage. Maddy could see she was restraining herself from running the woman through with a sword. Maddy however did not hesitate to slap the woman through the face.

"You think you can speak to a princess and a guard like such. I ought to have you punished. Besides she goes by Captain Lily," Maddy said, her arms crossed as she glared at the lady.

"How amusing. You actually let your slave think of you as a guard and speak to me without permission. She should be punished," the woman said raising a hand.

Lily immediately ran forward and took the hit for Maddy.

"Now defending the slave?"

"Lady Victoria this is the new Queen. I would gladly defend her with my life."

"I'm supposed to teach this pathetic little thing. I'd rather die."

"I can handle a little mockery from you but I won't stand for you trying to harm and belittle the King's Mate. You will tutor her or else."

"Me, tutor such a backwards creature. That's the dumbest amd most ridiculous thing I have ever heard. I refuse," she replied getting up and leaving the library.

Maddy stared at the books the woman had left behind. She had few interactions with supernatural despite living so close to them her entire life. Any of them would have enslaved her or killed her after all.

She had never been belittled so cruelly. Maybe it was that she was denied something she wanted, yet again. She had always wanted things but had been unable to get them just because she was a human. The moment the prospect of becoming accomplished, of getting a small sliver of an education, something no humans other than those who served as scribes had, it was yet again ripped away from her.

She knew being a Queen would change nothing. The entire economy of the kingdom, their lives, ran on slavery. Nothing could change.

She was just a human.

"It's okay Maddy, cheer up. There are more options. She was only the first option because she was my teacher and governess-"

"The rest will all be like her! You know as well as I do that I am only a human. The lowest of the low. No one will willingly teach me and if they do they will only discriminate against me. I don't want to be Queen. I really don't. Not when I have to face such people. I was far better off on my own. I wish I could run away, that I could leave but I can't. Not when it physically hurts to," Maddy said, trying her best not to cry.