Chapter 4: Caught In The Storm

REINA 

Margaret introduced me to another maid named Lucy. 

From the moment we met, Lucy felt like a breath of fresh air. She had this warm, bubbly personality that made me feel at ease, like I was chatting with an old friend rather than a castle servant. 

“Don’t worry, Reina! I’m here to take care of you,” she beamed, her eyes sparkling with kindness. It was as if she took my every need and want personally, always asking if I needed anything or if I was comfortable in my room.  

In the week that followed, she always made sure the pack nurse came to check on my injuries, twice a day, and fed me five to six times. Before I knew it, I was feeling much better. 

“See? You’re already looking like your old self!” Lucy chirped one morning, her hands on her hips, a proud smile plastered on her face.  

I didn’t quite know how to relate to Lucy at first, but her endless chatter soon filled me in on all the juicy secrets of the castle. I learned everything, even the private life of Alpha Logan and his betrothed, Seraphina. 

“You won’t believe this,” Lucy whispered, leaning in conspiratorially, “but Seraphina wasn’t even chosen by Logan! The council just imposed her on him. Can you imagine?” Her eyes were wide with disbelief, and I couldn’t help but feel a bit of sympathy for Logan.  

Then, one quiet afternoon, as sunlight spilled lazily through my window, I found myself falling asleep, when I sensed a presence in my room. Alert, I jolted awake and turned to the door.

I froze.

I hadn’t seen him since that first day when he saved me from Seraphina’s wrath and gave me back a sliver of dignity. I thought perhaps he had forgotten me already, or moved on as all men do. I found myself leaving my comfortable bed and closing the distance between us.

I was about to welcome him but the surprise in his eyes seemed to mirror mine, and for a second.

"Did you expect me to have run away by now?" I asked, my voice small but steady.

He stepped closer, and the atmosphere shifted. He was towering over me, his presence stirring a delicate flutter. His eyes roamed my face with such intense focus, I thought I might burn beneath it.

“No,” he murmured, voice low and rough. “I just didn’t expect you to be this beautiful.”

Heat crept up my neck like wildfire, and I turned away quickly, pretending to be interested in the window.

But his finger hooked gently beneath my chin, turning me back toward him. “Look at me,” he said firmly, as if the world depended on it.

I didn’t know when or how, but my gaze became tied to his, drawn like a thread pulled tight.

Then he leaned in, and the softest whisper brushed my ear. “Let me show you around.”

He grabbed my wrist, pulling me gently, but I stumbled instead, falling against his chest. His arm went around me instinctively, wrapping around my waist, and slipping downward, slowly. 

I gasped, hiding my embarrassment.

“What are you doing to me?” he murmured, almost to himself.

I had no answer. Because I didn’t know what I was doing to him either. Or what he was doing to me.

After a moment that felt like both an eternity and a blink, he straightened and we continued on. He led me to the first location and we stopped. For the first time since we left my room, his hand left mine and the warmth was replaced with a sudden coldness.

“This is the Hall of Ancestors,” Logan said, his deep voice echoing off the stone walls. “Each tapestry tells a story. This one, my great-grandfather, the first Alpha. He built this castle. They said the moon mirrored the fire in his heart when he claimed these lands.”

I nodded, my fingers twisting nervously. “It’s… magnificent.”

He stepped closer, his presence darkening. “Not "magnificent", but a reminder that what I claim, I keep. And when I want something…” His eyes trailed down me, slow, intense. “I make it mine, Reina. Slowly, and completely.”

My breath caught. My cheeks flushed, and I looked down, uncertain if he meant the castle or me.

He turned without waiting for a reply. “Come.”

We entered a vast chamber. “The Celestial Hall,” he said. “Each star was painted to match the sky the night I was born. A symbol of fate.”

When I glanced up, his eyes weren’t on the ceiling, they were on me. “Beautiful things draw me in,” he said quietly. “And I want to unravel you… slowly, until nothing stands between us.”

My throat tightened. Fear mixed with something warmer, something terrifyingly unfamiliar.

He led me down a corridor of stained glass. “The Gallery of Seasons. My favorite one is autumn, the season of truth with no masks, and no hiding.”

He stepped close enough to make me shiver, grabbing my wrist firmly. “Like you, Reina. I want to see every part of you laid bare. I’ll wait… but not forever.”

My knees buckled slightly, but his grip on my wrist steadied me. It was firm, possessive, and unshakable.

“The Court of the Pack,” he said, stopping beside a marble fountain. “Each wolf represents loyalty, and unity. Just like you're under my protection now. But don’t mistake it for kindness.”

His voice dipped lower. “I want you. Your softness, your strength. And I’ll have it in ways you can’t imagine yet.”

I stood frozen, overwhelmed by the storm in his voice and the pull in my chest I didn’t understand. Could I run? Would it even matter?

As if reading my mind, his hand tightened around my wrist, the message clear. I lowered my gaze.

He studied me, unreadable. Then, quietly, he said, “Come.”

And I followed silently, already falling into something I couldn’t name.

When we returned to the room, I turned to bid him goodbye. “Thanks uh... for the tour, it was–” But before I could finish speaking, he stepped inside with me, closing the door softly behind him.

My pulse quickened. “What... what do you want?” I whispered, suddenly breathless. “I really have nothing to give you.”

His gaze swept over me, slow and lustful. “You have everything I need,” he said.

My breath caught in my throat. Lucy’s voice echoed in my mind, reminding me that he and Seraphina had never consummated anything in three years of being together. And now here he was, standing in front of me like a storm ready to break.

“You have a Luna, Alpha,” I said, the title sticking on my tongue.

He scoffed, stepping closer to me. “True. But I don’t have you. And it’s you that I want.”

I stepped back slowly, my legs trembling beneath me. I hadn’t realized how close the bed was until it caught me off guard and I tumbled into it. 

Before I could even rise, he was on top of me, trapping me in with his arms. His fangs bared, his tongue flicked over them slowly, deliberately.

“I’d like to see you squirm,” he whispered darkly, “when you realize that you’re in my castle… and there’s no escape for you.”

His face hovered above mine, his lips barely inches from my own. I shut my eyes, uncertain whether I was more afraid or aroused. But then… his mouth brushed mine like a feather.

I waited for something more, but it never came. And when I opened my eyes, his golden irises had taken over, glowing like embers.

I couldn’t look away. It was as if he had peeled away every layer of me and was staring at the soul underneath.

“Reina,” he whispered, voice reverent, almost pained. “I’ll take all your pain away.”

And then he kissed me. A deep passionate kiss that make me feel like I was on fire. It felt like a punishment for something I had no idea of.

I shuddered under him, not from fear this time, but from something deeper, something that left me gasping. Because this kiss… this kiss was the kind of punishment I didn’t want to escape from.