The Crown Prince's Courtesan - Chapter 14
2. The Crown Prince’s Courtesan
It all happened like a miracle, too fast to process.
Overnight, the crushing debt that had been suffocating Marie simply vanished. The collectors who had once stalked her steps with threats and sneers disappeared from the capital as if they’d never existed. Even the notoriously difficult Garden of Courtesans gave her up without a fuss. The manager, who had once eyed her like a precious commodity, now acted like an old friend sending her off warmly. It was so easy, so strangely smooth, it left a bitter aftertaste.
Just like that, Marie Alphrose’s circumstances changed.
She didn’t explain much. Just murmured a few vague reassurances to her worried aunt and her trembling little sister. Then she stepped into the ornate carriage that had come to collect her.
‘So this is how easy it is…’
It was almost laughable in a hollow, pitiful way.
So money and power really were everything.
All it had taken was a flick of Russell’s wrist, and the nightmare unraveled like it had never happened. She had chosen this. She knew what she was doing. But still, the bitterness clung to her tongue.
Staring blankly at the scenery blurring past the carriage window, Marie turned the deal over in her mind.
The conversation with the Crown Prince. The contract that followed.
A simple, clear-cut transaction between a wealthy Alpha and a poor Omega.
‘When requested by Party A, Party B shall assist in the fulfillment of Party A’s s-xual urges.’
In plain terms, it meant that whenever the Crown Prince desired it, she had to spread her legs.
‘Party B shall not become pregnant.’
That clause had been added despite the clear understanding that she was a broken Omega.
Perhaps it was a precaution, in case the impossible somehow happened. Or perhaps it was something else — a warning, sharp and deliberate. A reminder not to overstep. Not to dare harbor foolish desires for the Crown Prince.
As if that were ever a danger. Marie let out a cool, humorless laugh.
‘Party A shall pay the agreed sum immediately. Upon termination of the contract, Party A shall grant Party B a mansion, land, and all associated property.’
Russell’s demands were simple.
There were no Omegas in the kingdom capable of properly receiving his ultra-dominant Alpha pheromones. They were too potent, too compressed. His body was at its limit. What he needed was a suitable partner — a dominant Omega who could absorb the overflow.
That was Marie’s purpose.
While he continued sleeping with his courtesan, the Crown Prince would begin his search for a proper highborn Omega lady, one worthy of his name, his title, and his dynasty.
There had been one more demand.
The current king was ill and cripplingly so. Since the queen’s death long ago, no one had been allowed near him. And in that vacuum of power, the Crown Prince had grown strong.
But even so, there were always vultures.
There were three ducal houses in the Kingdom of Crocus. Each one scheming, each one trying to thrust their own Omega daughter into the position of Crown Princess.
So what would happen if the Crown Prince were to actually publicly favor one of them or any highborn Omega for that matter?
“What he wants is a human shield.”
To be the Crown Prince’s courtesan was no mark of glory, not truly.
The others, those who had quietly serviced the prince before her, had no doubt been handled in secret, erased from rumor, forgotten by design. But now?
Now the Crown Prince had chosen to flaunt his mistress. To parade her openly, lavishly, like a prized ornament.
And in doing so, he’d painted a target on her back.
Every insult, every scheme, every knife drawn in the dark — she would take them all. They would mock her, threaten her, and try to pry her away from the prince by any means necessary.
That, it seemed, was exactly what he wanted: a wall to absorb the arrows and a buffer to keep the petty chaos at bay.
And just before their conversation had ended, the Crown Prince had offered her one last warning.
‘Do not grow attached. Remember this, Marie Alphrose. If you overreach — if you mistake s-x for affection — this arrangement ends instantly.’
‘I know my place, Your Highness. I would never dare to desire more. That said… if I may, I’d like to ask one thing.’
Once the deal was over, they would be strangers again. That cold, impersonal, and absolute clarity gave Marie the courage to be selfish just this once.
‘You must agree to it, Your Highness. Otherwise, no matter what you threaten me with, this contract will not proceed.’
‘How bold. Offensively so.’
‘So what are you going to do?’
‘Speak, then.’
What Marie asked for was simple: the safety of her aunt and younger sister.
That they not be driven from their home. That they not live in fear of creditors or wear shame like a second skin. That the debts — those shady, half-legal documents — be destroyed once and for all.
