CHAPTER 10: THE ONES WHO HURT HER

I pressed my back flat against the cold, damp wallpaper of the service corridor, my right hand planted firmly against the dark wood paneling to steady my shaking legs.

Heavy boot steps and the sharp, static crackle of a guard's radio rounded the far corner of the subterranean passage. I stopped breathing entirely, locking my lungs.

Don't move. Don't be big. Just blend into the wall.

I hated that the humiliating thought even existed in my mind, but years of deep muscle memory under Victor's roof took over instantly. I pulled my arms tight over my stomach, trying desperately to make my heavy, plus-sized frame as small and invisible as humanly possible in the narrow, shadowed hallway.

"Keep walking," I whispered fiercely to the dark floorboards beneath my feet. "Please, just keep walking past me."

"Nothing on four," a guard muttered into his handheld radio, his dull voice heavy with boredom as his heavy boots clicked past my hiding spot without a sideways glance. "Tristan can look for the girl himself if he's so obsessed with her little vanishing act."

I flinched hard at the sound of the name like I had been struck across the face with a whip. I squeezed myself deeper into a shallow laundry alcove, the hem of the stranger's damp white shirt sticking uncomfortably to my wet thighs. I counted the guard's fading boot steps in a desperate whisper until the sound finally vanished altogether into the distance.

If they find me like this... wandering the halls in a man's shirt, barefoot, carrying the scent of an unfamiliar Alpha...

A sudden, sharp burst of breathless laughter echoed out from a half-open door further down the hall, shattering the quiet.

I froze instantly. I knew that cruel, melodic laugh anywhere in the world. Victoria.

I crept closer down the hall, my bare feet making no sound against the thick runner rug, drawn by a morbid, terrifying curiosity that demanded I know the full extent of their betrayal.

Inside the dimly lit room, breathless giggles mixed with heavy, ragged panting. A wet, muffled thud hit the wall, followed instantly by Victoria's high-pitched, affected moans. The sharp, violent crack of an open hand striking bare skin echoed out into the corridor, followed closely by Tristan's heavy gasps and Victoria's hysterical, triumphant laughter as they finished their grotesque display.

A massive wave of intense nausea hit me like a physical blow to the stomach. My hand flew to my mouth, my stomach turning violently as I pressed myself flat against the cold wall outside, fighting the urge to vomit.

"Did you see the elders' foolish faces?" Victoria wheezed out, drunk on her own dark excitement and malice. "The broken lamp, the blood on the floor..."

"Her scent, smeared all over a male wolf's room," Tristan sneered out, his arrogant tone dripping with satisfaction. "They genuinely think some filthy rogue broke in and got to her first."

Victoria laughed loudly, the sound echoing through the gap in the door like glass shards. "And Father just handed you the key card without a second thought! He didn't even bother to ask what you needed it for."

"He was halfway out the front door on pack business," Tristan barked back with a short, ugly chuckle. "He just said 'fine, take it' and tossed it to me."

"He'd have an absolute fit if he knew the truth," Victoria giggled slyly. "He'd lock her in her basement room for an entire month without food."

"Then he'd better not find out, hadn't he?" Tristan replied flatly.

"Dorn marked her up good," Victoria said smugly, her voice full of spite. "Hickeys everywhere, probably, to sell the lie. That's why the fat little coward ran away crying. She's hiding from the entire pack in shame."

"She'll be far too ashamed to ever show her face in public again," Tristan said, his tone devoid of an ounce of human empathy or decency. "The pack elders won't force me to bond with a completely ruined, tainted girl."

"And then it's me," Victoria purred happily, pressing her advantage. "Your rightful Luna."

"The sacred blood oath gets officially called off by the council," Tristan declared proudly. "No mate bond. No Aurora to weigh me down."

"Whether she likes it or not," Victoria whispered softly, "our plan worked out better than we dreamed."

They think Dorn marked me.

My fingers dug into the wooden doorframe until my fingernails bled against the grain.

The key card. Father gave it to him without even looking up from his papers.

Hot tears spilled silently down my cold cheeks, burning my skin like acid. My weak knees buckled under the crushing weight of the revelation, and I caught myself on the frame just before I hit the carpet floor.

I wanted the oath broken too, I thought bitterly, my hand pressed flat over my hammering chest. They just wanted me completely destroyed first.

I wiped my wet face on the sleeve of the white shirt, straightened my spine with sudden, quiet resolve, and walked away quietly into the dark corridor. I wasn't going to cower in a basement anymore.

Ten minutes later, I slipped quietly through the manor’s creaking back kitchen entrance, leaving the nightmare behind me.

The night air was damp and freezing as I crept down the narrow service passage leading toward the basement. I avoided the grand marble staircases entirely, keeping strictly to the dark shadows as I headed for the cramped room tucked away in the far corner of the lower level.

Halfway down the stone steps, low voices echoed up from the passage below. I pressed myself hard against the damp wall of the stairwell, holding the wooden rail so tight my knuckles turned white.

"Did you hear?" a maid whispered quietly from the passage. "The pack elders are coming at dawn today."

"For Miss Aurora?" another asked, her voice sounding entirely bored.

"To collect her," the first replied quickly. "Lady Victoria sent word to them herself behind everyone's backs. They want to inspect her before the ceremony."

"And the Beta?"

"Not a single word to him," the maid answered softly. "He wouldn't let her out of his sight if he knew, that's for true."

"So we keep it quiet until they're at the front gate," the second maid murmured nervously.

"Poor thing," the first maid sighed softly after a brief pause. "If she's not even home by now..."

"Not our worry. Just have the washing basin ready at first light for her inspection."

Their fading footsteps moved down the hall into the silence.

I stood in the freezing dark of the basement stairs, my heart pounding violently against my ribs.

Victoria invited the elders herself. Father doesn't know a thing.

I reached the bottom of the stone steps and pushed open my heavy door, finding my narrow room exactly as I had left it hours ago before my world shattered.

I sat down slowly on the edge of my thin mattress, staring out into the pitch-black quiet as the very first pale light of dawn threatened the distant horizon.

"Dawn," I whispered to the empty, quiet room, ready for whatever came next.