SORRY SEER

MAYA

The morning air was thick with tension when the old seer arrived at the estate. He wore dark, embroidered robes, carrying a heavy leather bag filled with ancient iron chains, ritual salts, and carved wooden stakes meant for binding the dead.

Alpha Edward, Maria, the seer, and four royal guards gathered in the main courtyard, preparing the carriage to ride out to the ancestral burial grounds.

"I am coming with you," I declared, stepping out onto the cobblestones, wrapping a dark shawl around my shoulders.

I needed to go. I didn't care about their dark rituals or their fears of the dead, I just desperately wanted to know where my past body had been buried. I needed to see the place where they had hidden Princess Philomena eighteen years ago.

Alpha Edward turned to me immediately, shaking his head. "No, Maya. You stay here."

"Why?" I demanded, taking a step closer to him.

"The graveyard is heavy with old, unstable spirits," Edward insisted, his deep voice firm, though his amber eyes held that familiar softness whenever he looked at me. "The seer warned that dark energy surrounds Philomena's tomb. I will not put the baby in your womb at risk. You remain in the manor."

The old seer stepped forward, his milky white, blind-looking eyes focusing strangely in my direction. "The Alpha speaks the truth, child," the old man rasped, his voice sounding like dry leaves scraping together. "A pregnant woman must not stand near a grave undergoing a binding ritual. The life inside you will draw the angry spirit to it."

Maria, standing by the carriage door, didn't care if I went or not. She didn't glance at me twice. Her whole face was pale, hollowed out by days of sleepless terror, completely consumed by her frantic desire to get to the tomb and chain Philomena into the dirt forever.

"Let's just leave!" Maria shrieked nervously, gripping the wooden frame of the carriage. "Stop wasting time arguing with a maid! Put the chains on her grave so I can finally sleep!"

They turned to step into the carriage. I stood alone on the gravel path, my heart pounding with pure, desperate frustration. They were going to shut me out. They were going to take away my only chance to find my own resting place.

Just as the driver lifted the reins to signal the horses, a sudden memory snapped into my mind.

The other day, when the wedding was postponed, I had stared at the covered picture of Philomena with pure anger, and the frame had shattered the stone wall, shaking the entire building.

I stopped trying to argue with my tongue. I turned around, walked back through the grand double doors of the manor, and stood directly in front of the massive, velvet-draped painting hanging in the hallway.

I tilted my head up. Tears of absolute grief and hot rage began dropping from my eyes, rolling down my cheeks as I stared fixedly at the heavy cloth hiding my old face.

Shake, I commanded in my soul. Destroy them.

Rattle.

The massive gold-leafed frame trembled against the wall.

I didn't break my stare. I poured every ounce of my tears, my pain, and my dormant royal magic straight into the canvas.

The low vibration exploded into a violent roar. The heavy stone floor beneath my feet began to quake. Dust rained down from the high archways. Down the corridor, crystal chandeliers swung violently, crashing against the wooden ceilings, while the glass windows in the grand hall shattered into a thousand glittering pieces.

"What is happening?!" Edward’s voice boomed from the doorway as he and the guards rushed back inside, stumbling over the rolling floor.

The entire building was shaking as if an earthquake had centered itself right underneath the estate.

Maria ran inside right behind Edward, but the moment she heard the deafening, maddening rattle of Philomena's picture, she clutched her head with both hands. "Stop it! Make it stop!" she screamed hysterically. She began spinning her head around in frantic, blind panic, her knees buckling beneath her until her eyes rolled back into her head, and she passed out cold onto the marble floor.

The guards rushed to pick Maria up, while the old seer froze in the middle of the trembling hallway.

He didn't look at the picture. He slowly turned his head away from the rattling wall and stared directly at me.

His milky eyes widened in pure horror. The air around him seemed to thin out as he gave me a long, terrified look—a look that said, without a single doubt, that he knew exactly who I was. He saw right through the illusion of the poor maid Maya. He saw Princess Philomena standing right in front of him.

I didn't care that he knew. I kept my tear-filled eyes locked onto the picture, letting the power roll off my skin in waves.

Because of the chaos, the visit to the grave was instantly canceled.

"The tomb will wait!" Edward shouted over the noise, ordering two guards to carry the unconscious Maria up to her bed. "We cannot leave the manor while it is tearing itself apart!"

I smiled softly to myself. I must go to the grave, or no one else goes.

The old seer shuffled toward Edward, his pale hands trembling as he pointed a long, bony finger straight at my face. He turned to the Alpha, his jaw working frantically to speak.

"Who... who brought this girl into your house?" the seer gasped out, his voice shaking. "Alpha, you do not understand what stands before you—"

"She is not to be discussed," Edward cut in fiercely, stepping between the seer and me, his Alpha aura flaring to protect me. "Maya is carrying my heir. Leave her out of your spiritual talk. Your only job here was to find a solution and put an end to the picture on the wall moving!"

The seer’s eyes bulged with desperation. He pushed past Edward's shoulder, pointing his trembling finger directly at my forehead again, opening his mouth wide to scream the truth to the Alpha.

"She is Phil—!"

The seer wanted to speak my name. He tried to shout Philomena, but the very second the syllables formed in his throat, his voice completely cut out. He went dumb immediately.

No sound came out of his mouth. He gasped for air, clutching his own throat in sheer panic, his vocal cords completely paralyzed by the ancient royal magic hanging heavy in the room. He couldn't make a single noise. He just stood there, his face turning red, frantically pointing his finger at me over and over again.

Edward looked at the mute, panicking old man in utter confusion. "Enough!" Edward barked. "You are clearly overwhelmed by whatever dark energy is in this hall. Leave the estate! Come back tomorrow when your mind is clear!"

The seer backed away from me in absolute terror, his hands still clutching his useless throat. He scrambled toward the exit, but the moment his boots crossed the threshold of the front doors, the silent curse broke.

"Thank you, Alpha!" the seer squeaked out, his voice suddenly returning the second he stepped outside into the fresh air.

He didn't wait for a response. He looked back at me standing in the hallway with a face full of sheer, unadulterated fear, turned on his heel, and ran down the dirt road as fast as his old legs could carry him, swearing under his breath that he would never step foot inside this haunted house ever again.

With the seer gone and the floor finally coming to a rest, the house fell into a heavy, exhausted silence.

Two maids carried the unconscious Maria up the stairs to her private suite to rest. I turned silently and walked back to my own attic room, closing the door behind me.

I hadn't even taken off my shawl when the iron latch clicked.

Alpha Edward walked into my room. He didn't say a word about the shaking walls, the seer, or his passing-out wife. His amber eyes were dark, burning with a raw, intense heat that made the hair on my arms stand up.

He reached down, gripping the edge of his shirt, and pulled it over his head, tossing it to the floor. Then he unbuckled his heavy leather belt, letting his pants fall away, standing completely naked in the dim afternoon light.

Just the sight of his long, fully erected dick turned me on instantly. My breath hitched in my throat, my core throbbing with a sudden, betraying warmth.

Edward crossed the room in two heavy strides. He didn't take me to the bed. He reached down, grabbing my thighs, and lifted me completely off my feet, slamming my back gently against the heavy oak door.

I wrapped my legs tightly around his waist, my fingers tangling into his dark hair as he unceremoniously pushed my dress up to my waist. He lined his thick shaft against my entrance and drove himself deep inside me in one swift, powerful thrust, making us both gasp out loud.

He held me standing up, his powerful arms supporting my full weight against the wood. He began to make sweet, intense love to me, his hips slamming against mine with a slow, deep rhythm that sent waves of pure pleasure crashing through my spine.

I buried my face in his neck, biting his shoulder softly to keep from screaming out his name, meeting every deep thrust with a desperate arch of my hips. He moved inside me with a fierce, possessive tenderness, holding me as if I were the only fragile thing left in his crumbling world.

After a long, agonizingly sweet build-up, Edward groaned loudly into my collarbone, his entire body shuddering as he climaxed deep inside my womb, filling me with his heat.

He didn't drop me right away. He kept me pinned against the door, holding me tight against his chest while our heavy, panting breaths filled the quiet room.

Slowly, he lifted his head, resting his forehead against mine. A small, faint smile touched his lips, his dark amber eyes looking into mine with a soft, peaceful light I hadn't seen in days.

"Every time I make sweet love to you," Edward whispered softly, his thumb gently tracing my cheek, "Philomena does not appear to me in my dream."

He smiled, leaning down to press a soft kiss against my lips, entirely unaware that the queen he thought he was escaping was the very woman holding him in the dark.