4. Chapter

Corin

My room—if that damp, unfurnished hole at the end of the servant wing could even be called a room—was dark and suffocating. After fleeing the training field, I didn’t dare go to my mother. I didn’t want her to see my face, because she would have known immediately that something had happened. Mason’s touch still burned on my skin, a strange, tingling imprint I couldn’t wash away.

My back was on fire. I tried to peel the blood soaked shirt off myself, but the fabric had fused to the lash wounds. Every tug drew a sharp hiss from my throat, tears streaming down my face.

“Let this whole pack rot,” I whispered into the darkness. “Let all of them rot.”

Then I heard scratching at the window. It was deliberate. Three short taps. My heart jumped hard.

Glacier.

With painful effort, I got up, draped a thin blanket over myself to hide my bloody back, and climbed out the window. He was waiting in the back garden, beneath the shadows of the old willow trees. When I saw his shape, his blond hair glowing even in the moonlight, all my pain faded for a moment.

He was my salvation.

“Corin,” he stepped out of the shadows and pulled me into an embrace.

I hissed as his hand touched my back. Glacier released me instantly, genuine concern on his face.

“What happened? Did they hurt you again?” he asked, his voice full of smooth sympathy.

“Martha… and the whip. I slipped in the kitchen,” I lowered my head. I felt ashamed in front of him. A future Alpha should have a strong mate, not a wreck like me.

Glacier sighed deeply and slid his fingers under my chin, lifting my face. “Sweet gods, Corin… I wish I had been there. This is the last time, I promise. Once you turn eighteen and I mark you at the ball, no one will ever touch you again. Lumi and Martha will be on their knees begging you for forgiveness.”

“You really will?” I asked in a trembling voice. “You’ll really take me away from here? And my mother too?”

Glacier’s eyes flickered for a split second, so fast I thought it was just the moonlight. “Of course, my love. But until then… you have to stay strong. Don’t cause any more trouble in the kitchen, all right? Don’t give them reasons to punish you. You know how closely my father watches your every move. If he doesn’t see that you’re worthy of the pack, it’ll be hard to convince him.”

His words, though gentle, hit me like a slap.

Don’t cause trouble.

As if it had been my fault that Martha had me whipped, or that Lumi targeted me. But I wanted his love so badly that I only nodded.

“I heard that today at training Mason, the Alpha of Brown Stone, went up to you,” Glacier said suddenly, his voice sharpening just slightly. “What did that animal want from you?”

“Nothing… he just… saw that my back was bleeding. He sent me away to rest,” I replied quietly.

Glacier laughed, but there was no warmth in it. “Mason didn’t do that out of mercy, Corin. He’s a predator. He probably just smelled your weakness. Stay away from him, do you understand? He’s dangerous. Don’t even look at him.”

“I understand,” I whispered, though Mason’s gaze that afternoon hadn’t felt animalistic. It had felt like he was the only one who actually saw me.

Glacier pulled me close again, more carefully this time, and pressed a soft kiss to my forehead. “Go back and rest. Tomorrow will be a hard day. You’ll have to help with the preparations for the ball. I love you, Corin.”

“I love you too,” I said, watching him disappear into the night.

I climbed back into my room, but before closing the window, a shiver ran through me. For some reason, I felt like we weren’t alone. I glanced toward the dark edge of the forest, and between the trees, far beyond the pack’s territory, I thought I saw two glowing, ember bright eyes. Like a wolf’s—but much larger, much darker.

Mason? No. That was impossible. What would he be doing here in the middle of the night?

I closed my eyes and tried to sleep, but the throbbing in my back and the memory of those watching eyes wouldn’t let me rest. I clung to Glacier’s promises, yet deep in my heart a small, icy voice whispered that something was wrong.

The next morning, the pain hadn’t eased. If anything, my back was completely stiff. But there was no stopping. The final round of cleaning and decorating before the ball awaited me. The entire pack buzzed with excitement, and Lumi strutted around as if she were already queen.

On my way to the kitchen, I ran into my mother in the corridor. She was pale, dark circles under her eyes.

“Corin, my little girl…” she whispered, gripping my hand for a moment. “I heard what happened yesterday. I’m so sorry.”

“I’m fine, Mom. Really,” I lied, though every breath hurt.

“Don’t believe Glacier,” she said suddenly, so quietly I almost didn’t hear it. Her voice trembled with fear. “I know these wolves. I know his father. They won’t accept you. We have to leave, Corin. Now. Before it’s too late.”

“Mom, don’t be ridiculous. Glacier promised—” I started, but she only shook her head and hurried away as Martha’s voice rang out from the kitchen.

A heavy stone settled in my stomach. My mother had never spoken like that before. She was always the one telling me to endure. What had changed? What did she know that I didn’t?

That afternoon, as I cleaned the great hall’s windows from a tall ladder, the Brown Stone pack appeared again. This time not for training, but for diplomatic talks. Mason walked at the front, dressed in a black leather jacket, his gaze locking onto me instantly, like a magnet.

I slipped on the ladder in surprise and nearly fell, barely catching myself at the last second. Mason stopped, and for a moment it looked like he was about to come over, but Glacier’s father, the Alpha, blocked his way with a friendly shoulder pat.

Mason’s face remained stone hard, but his eyes never left me. There was no mockery in them, no pity. Only that raw, suffocating attention that both terrified me and filled me with a strange, unfamiliar sense of safety.

Then something happened.

Mason’s nostrils flared. He scented the air. His gaze dropped to my back, to the place where the smell of my wounds must still have leaked through my thin shirt. His hand clenched into a fist, and a low, deep growl escaped his throat, so quiet that the entire hall fell silent.

“Is something wrong, Mason?” Glacier’s father asked suspiciously.

Mason slowly turned back to the Alpha, his voice like sharpened stone.

“Nothing. I just don’t like the smell of rot in a house that pretends to be clean.”