DEATH SENTENCE SIGNED

I pulled free and walked out following the boy back toward the Alpha's quarters. With every step, the bond pulled stronger, a golden chain I couldn't break.

My wolf surged with excitement, eager to return to our mate.

Her mate. Not mine.

My heart remained hardened and my hands, I noticed distantly, had finally stopped shaking. The shock was wearing off, replaced by the cold clarity I'd cultivated over four years of surviving.

Let the bond pull. Let my wolf whine and beg. I knew who Adrian was. What he'd done. And no twist of fate, no cruel joke by the Moon Goddess, would change what needed to happen.

I reached his door and knocked twice, the sound echoing in the empty hallway.

"Enter."

I pushed open the door and stepped into the wolf's den.

Adrian stood by the window, his back to me, silhouetted against the fading light. He'd changed from his training clothes into dark pants and a simple shirt, his black hair still damp from washing.

"You asked for me, Alpha?"

He didn't turn. "Close the door."

My hand trembled slightly as I obeyed, the click of the latch impossibly loud.

"Come here."

Every instinct screamed at me to run. But I'd come too far, waited too long. So I crossed the room, stopping a respectful distance away.

"Closer."

I took another step. The bond hummed between us, a living current that made my skin prickle.

Adrian finally turned, and the full force of his attention nearly staggered me. Those sea-blue eyes studied my face with an intensity that felt like being stripped bare.

"Tell me the truth, Isora." His voice was quiet, almost gentle. "Who sent you?"

My heart stopped. "I don't understand—"

"Yes, you do." He moved toward me, predator-slow. "You're no rogue. Your scent… I can't perceive any, like your wolf is broken or suppressed. You carry yourself like someone who's been trained to fight. And when you look at me—" 

He stopped just in front of me. "When you look at me, I see murder in your eyes."

I couldn't breathe. I couldn't think past the roaring in my ears.

"So I'll ask again." He tilted my chin up with one finger, forcing me to meet his gaze.

 "Who. Sent. You?"

The mate bond screamed at the closeness begging me to lean into his touch. My wolf howled with need.

But buried beneath four years of grief and rage and iron-willed survival, something else stirred. Something that had been waiting for exactly this moment.

I smiled. Cold and sharp as an arrow.

"No one sent me, Alpha." My voice dropped to a whisper. "I came here all on my own."

His eyes narrowed. "Why?"

I held his gaze, letting him see past the mask for just one heartbeat. Let him see the truth of what I was.

To watch you die.

"I'm only here to work, Alpha. Surviving," I said instead, the lie bitter on my tongue.

His left brow arched. His jaw twitched—a muscle jumping beneath that sharp line like he was physically restraining himself from calling out my bullshit.

Silence stretched between us, heavy and suffocating. Then—

"Tell the Head Maid that I've assigned you here. Permanently."

The words were casual. Dismissive. Like he'd just commented on the weather.

My brain short-circuited.

"What!" The word exploded from me before I could stop it, loud and graceless and completely, utterly stupid.

Adrian's eyes cut to mine, and the look in them could've stopped my heart. Cold. Lethal. It could only be interpreted as “Do you want to die?”

Shit.

"Alpha, I—" I scrambled for words, for composure, for anything that would fix this. "It's only... one week... Yes. Right away. I'll tell her."

I bowed so fast I nearly gave myself whiplash and spun toward the door.

He wants to die early, I thought viciously as I reached for the handle. There's nothing anyone can tell me. Assigned to his quarters permanently? That's his death sentence signed and delivered.

"I'm not done, Isora."

His voice was low. Quiet. The kind of quiet that made predators pause mid-hunt. He doesn't use energy to talk, as if talking alone is boring.

I froze, my hand hovering over the door. Of course he wasn't done.

"I'm sorry, Alpha."

He didn't even look at me. Now he's just sitting there at his desk like a king on a throne, shuffling through papers like I wasn't worth the effort of his attention.

"You'll be staying here. Permanently." Each word dropped like a stone into still water. "Bring your things. You're not staying in the maids' quarters anymore."

The world tilted sideways.

Yes! We get to stay close to our mate!

Kira's voice rang through my head, high and delighted and so fucking loud I wanted to scream.

I'd prefer if kira just stay mute at this point because —

What the fuck.

"Did you hear me?"

Adrian's voice sliced through my internal crisis. I blinked, and realized I was still standing there like an idiot, staring at the door.

"Yes, Alpha. I heard you."

"Then go."

I didn't need to be told twice.