CHAPTER 3: The Telephone

SELENE

THE OLD TELEPHONE felt cold and heavy when I gripped it with my hands and brought it near my ear. “Hello?” I mumbled, then waited for a response.

“May I know who this is?” I spoke again, innocently asking who could be calling at this hour. 

I tapped my feet on the floor when there was still no answer as I stared at the golden wall clock right at the center of the mansion’s massive living room. It says 12 AM. 

I had been tired from doing chores all day and couldn’t stop myself from yawning. That’s when I remember I was still holding the telephone near my ears. 

“Oh, pardon me.” I cleared my throat and did my best to fight the urge to cut the call and drag myself to sleep. “What do you need help with?”

My brows burrowed between each other as I started feeling the unease and impatience.

Someone had called our line and decided not to speak? Is this a prank call?

“Alright, the person on the call who hasn’t spoken a word. Maybe you just like my voice a little too much. I swear you’ll hear a slam as I hung up if you do not say anything within the next 30 seconds”

I started counting backwards and growing impatient as I felt a strong stream of anguish flow to my temple. 

“Alright.” I mumbled sternly, rolling my eyes at the back of my back. “Have a lovely evening.

 There was again… nothing.

I sighed then removed the telephone from being tucked in between my ear and shoulder.

But before I could place it again on the holder, I heard a deep grumble from the other line.

It was a male’s voice.

I paused and felt a sudden jolt in my stomach before I slammed the telephone back in its position.

So, there was indeed someone on the other line?

Who could that be?

I couldn’t move for a few seconds but managed to shrug the string if thoughts that began swirling in my head. As soon as a maid left the kitchen room and saw a glimpse of me, I immediately moved away from the telephone like nothing happened.

***

The Alpha’s mansion was a world away from my dusty little house on the edge of the territory.

Our own house a hundred miles away, which turned out to be a fine collateral for the loan who owe to the estate. Each day, I keep

It was sprawling, cold, and full of rules I didn’t understand.

“The silver is polished on Tuesdays,” Beatrice, the head housekeeper, instructed. Her voice was as sharp as the forks I spent hours rubbing.

“Yes, ma’am,” I mumbled.

“Floors are mopped daily. No exceptions.”

“Yes, ma’am.”

“And this,” Beatrice spoke, her finger stopping at a heavy, oak door. “This is the Alpha’s study.”

“Okay.”

“It is not to be touched. DO NOT even think of getting inside. This room isn’t supposed to be looked at for too long.”

“I understand,” I replied.

God, what's in there? A monster?

My first month was a masterclass in mistakes.

I used the wrong polish on a century-old table, leaving a cloudy stain that earned me a lecture long enough to make my ears bleed.

I dropped a stack of freshly laundered sheets directly into a mud puddle.

Fucking fantastic, Selene.

But I learned.

I learned how to serve, how to bow my head just so when a high-ranking pack member passed.

I learned which halls to avoid and which guards had a soft spot for a polite greeting.

The children, the little cubs, were the best part.

One afternoon, a tiny girl with big brown eyes was crying in the garden.

I snuck her a sugar cookie from the kitchen.

She stopped crying and gave me a smile before disappearing, so bright it almost made me forget why I was here.

Almost.

Some of the men in the mansion began noticing me.

A nod in the hallway. A quiet “Good morning, Selene.”

It was… nice. To be seen as something other than the debtor’s girl.

But every evening, the loneliness would crash back down.

I’d lie in my small room, staring at a ceiling that wasn’t mine.

Then, one night, as I was passing through the silent corridors to relieve myself, that telephone in the main grand hall rang again.

I looked side by side if anyone was still awake and heard it.

Beatrice seemed to be asleep so early each night she doesn’t know the clamor that happens when the sun has set.

Several female wolves would sneak out of their bedchamber and get on with some men who would just whistle from the windows that make their presence known. Anya included. I had been invited once, but I just smiled and awkwardly shook my head.

No one seemed to notice the ringing telephone except me.

Without thinking much, I walked toward it and picked it up.

“Has anyone deployed a team to my location already?”

A stern male voice spoke from the other line.

In a split second I couldn’t hear anything else but that voice—the tonality was crisp, the sound so elegant, and when he cleared his throat… it sounded like a rumbling thunder.

“Beatrice?”

He called out.

I couldn’t move. So, the call was supposed to be for the head maid of the mansion.

“I’m sorry…” I began to say, my voice shook a little. From the sound of the man’s voice, the situation that he was referring to seemed serious. “I’m in no position to answer the call. But I can fetch Ms. Beatrice for you.”

The man let out a soft hmm.

            “May I know who this is?”

I was about to say my name when the guy let out a small snicker, I could hear it from the sound of his voice.

“It was you.” The man added.

Oh, was he mocking me?

I remember those were the exact words I said the first time I answered the call and no one spoke.

He laughed but somehow it wasn’t loud, as if he wouldn’t want me to hear it at all.

His voice was still so deep.

“So, you are definitely not a mute.”

“I never said I was,” the man retorted.

I smiled. “I guess.”

Silence.

But none of us seemed to want the call to end.

“So, you are the only one awake at this time of night?”

“Seems to be so,” I said, nodding.

“If you need help, I can notify anyone here. For sure there are guards outside and soldiers—well if they already did their evening chores.”

“Chores?” The man asked, his voice hinted curiosity.

“Well, as they call it, men have needs. But for you, that’s maybe not it. You need real assistance. I can take notes and send a word to the alpha, or his beta… Anyway, are you currently in a battle?”

He let out a snicker, once again. “Have you heard of anything lately?”

“Well… as a wolf on patrol, the voice replied, calm and steady.

The conversation took off from there and I didn’t notice that the man and I had been talking for almost an hour before I tilted my head and let out a yawn.

“Thanks for your service to our pack, you seemed to be a very wonderful person. But I need to sleep—are you sure that you are not in a real danger out there?”

He did not answer but just let out a soft grumble.

After a minute…

“Have a restful sleep then.”

“Alright, thanks,” I mumbled.

Then I dropped the call.

The voice was deep. A quiet rumble in my head.

I went back to bed, my heart hammering.

I was sure I was drowsy earlier, but where did that go?

As I close my eyes, it seemed like I could imagine the man that I was talking to earlier inside my head.