NO LONGER DESIRED

MAYA

The next few days were quietly the best days of my life. It was a strange, solitary joy that bloomed deep inside my chest, purely because I had finally unlocked the secret of the book.

Every time I sat at my small desk in the dead of night, opening those faded leather covers and tracing the glowing runes with my fingers, the royal magic rippled through the palace like a ghost wave. And every single time, without fail, Maria would scream until her throat was raw, terrified out of her mind by the invisible presence of Princess Philomena hovering in the shadows of her bedchamber. Knowing that I could dismantle her sanity without ever lifting a sword gave me a sense of power I hadn't felt since my past life.

Yet, despite this silent victory, a cold, unsettling stillness settled over the estate.

Alpha Edward had not spent a single night with me. But what surprised me even more was that he wasn't spending his nights with Maria either. The Alpha’s grand bedchamber sat cold and empty every evening, his heavy oak door locked tight from the inside.

Even Maria’s strange, predatory behavior toward me had completely vanished. In the past, when she wanted to humiliate me or assert her dominance as the senior Luna, she would force me into her private chambers, demanding that I touch her and use my hands to pleasure her while she taunted my helpless maid status. But now? She no longer asked me to touch her or play with her intimate body. She barely looked at me, recoiling into her silk sheets whenever I entered the room to set down her tea.

Silently, I began to wonder why.

Was Edward still holding a grudge? Was Maria so consumed by fear that her lust had completely died?

Determined to break the icy wall between Edward and me, I decided to take matters into my own hands. Late on Thursday night, after the palace guards had completed their midnight rounds, I slipped into Edward’s private study. I had washed my skin with sweet lavender oils and dressed in a sheer, floor-length silk gown that hugged every curve of my body, leaving my shoulders and back bare under the moonlight.

Edward was sitting behind his heavy mahogany desk, staring blankly at a stack of territorial maps. He looked tired, dark shadows hanging beneath his sharp amber eyes.

I stepped softly across the rug, closing the heavy door behind me. "Edward..." I whispered, my voice soft and inviting.

He looked up, his gaze sweeping over my exposed skin and the thin silk clinging to my hips. For a brief second, a flicker of pure, raw desire flared deep within his eyes, making my heart leap. But almost instantly, he looked away, rubbing his temples with a heavy sigh.

I walked closer, straddling his lap gently and wrapping my arms around his broad neck. I leaned down, pressing my lips softly against his jawline, moving down toward the warm column of his neck. "I missed you," I murmured against his skin, running my fingers through his thick hair. "Come to bed with me tonight."

Several times I tried to seduce Edward, pulling his face toward mine, offering him my lips, my body, and my warmth.

But he turned away.

It wasn't harsh. He didn't push me off his lap or yell at me with his Alpha voice. Instead, he gently placed his large, warm hands on my waist and set me back onto my feet, looking down at his desk with a heavy, pained expression.

"Not tonight, Maya," he said softly, his voice thick with a strange, suffocating exhaustion. "I am not in the mood."

Tears of frustration and insecurity instantly sprang to my eyes. The rejection cut deeper than any physical blade.

"Why, Edward?" I cried out, my voice cracking in the quiet room as I wiped a stray tear from my cheek. "Is it because of the lies Maria told you?! I swear to you on my mother's grave, I did not cheat on you! There is no pack boy I mingle with! I have only ever belonged to you!"

I pleaded with him, thinking maybe those foul accusations somehow still had lasting effects on his heart, convincing myself that he secretly viewed me as unfaithful.

But clearly, it doesn't.

Edward looked up at me, his eyes filled with a profound, aching sadness that had nothing to do with anger or jealousy. "I know, Maya," he whispered gently, reaching out to touch my hand for a brief second before pulling back. "I believe you. It's not about the pack boys. I know you were faithful."

If he believed me, then why was he pushing me away? Something else was the problem. A deeper, darker secret was rotting beneath the surface of this house, because Maria herself stayed away from me in the exact same manner.

I hate the fact that Maria used me in the past—I despised every humiliating second she had forced her body onto mine to crush my dignity. But with these constant, unnatural rejections from Edward, a creeping fear began to poison my mind. I feared that maybe I no longer looked sexy and attractive. What if the trauma of my death, my rebirth into a servant's vessel, and the hard labor had ruined my beauty? What if my body was no longer desirable to anyone?

I needed to know the truth. To confirm if my body had lost its allure, I decided I had to try a desperate experiment. I had to try and seduce Maria.

If Maria—a woman who used to crave my body out of twisted dominance—no longer wanted me, then I would know for certain that something was fundamentally wrong with me.

To execute this test, I stopped reading the book for a while so she could heal. For three whole days, I kept the ancient leather journal locked tight inside my wooden chest. Without the ancestral magic vibrating through the palace walls, the terrifying ghost visions faded from Maria’s mind. Her screams stopped, her fever broke, and her broken body began to rest.

On the fourth afternoon, while Edward was away, I walked into Maria’s private sunroom. The curtains were drawn, leaving the room bathed in a warm, amber glow. Maria was sitting on her velvet chaise lounge, sipping warm broth.

I walked toward her, my heart hammering against my ribs. Without saying a word, I reached for the ribbons of my silk nightwear and untied them. The delicate fabric slid down my arms and pooled around my feet, leaving me standing completely bare before her in the warm afternoon light.

In the past, Maria would have smiled, her eyes darkening with lust as she ordered me onto my knees to touch her. Several times in the past she has praised my pussy, calling it beautiful, immaculate, and fit for a royal's pleasure.

I stepped closer to her lounge, holding my breath, waiting for her reaction.

Maria looked up. Her eyes swept over my bare chest, my hips, and my exposed skin.

She gave me a sad, empty look. There was no lust in her eyes. There was no cruelty, no dominance, and no desire. She simply looked tired—infinitely, hopelessly tired.

Without a single word, she turned the other way, staring blankly at the wall, pulling her velvet robe tighter around her shoulders.

She seems not to care.

I stood there in the cold silence of her room, pulling my silk dress back over my body with trembling hands. My mind was spinning in absolute chaos. It wasn't about sex. It wasn't about beauty or physical attraction. Maria wasn't avoiding me because she hated my body; she was avoiding me because she was utterly drained of life. And Edward was turning away from me for the exact same mysterious reason.

I believe something is wrong somewhere. A hidden curse or an unseen spiritual drain was affecting both the Alpha and the Luna of the Nightshade Pack, shutting down their physical desires and drying up their life force.

Confused, terrified, and desperate for answers, I rushed back to my small bedroom, bolted the door shut, and pulled out the book once again.

I sat down at my desk and opened the ancient pages, hoping the glowing runes would reveal why Edward and Maria had both turned into hollow shells of themselves. But the moment my fingers touched the parchment and I began reading the text, a loud, blood-curdling shriek echoed from the east wing.

"SHE'S HERE! PHILOMENA IS STANDING IN THE SUNROOM!" Maria screamed from across the palace, her voice full of raw, unadulterated terror.

I slammed the book shut, burying my face in my hands as my head throbbed with confusion.

Reading the book makes Maria see the ghost and unleashes ancestral terror upon her, but keeping it closed leaves me completely blind to the dark curse hanging over Edward and my home. I am caught between a weapon that destroys my enemy and a secret that is slowly starving the man I love. I am confused, surrounded by answers I cannot yet read, waiting for the moonlight to show me what is truly wrong with the people in this house.