3

“Look at me!” he commanded, one hand tightening around my throat. “Look at me and understand that this means nothing.”

I held his gaze. There was blood on my lips, and my smile was a challenge.

“You will never be my Luna,” he hissed into my ear. “You will never have a place by my side on the throne. You will die as a shadow in these cells.”

“We’ll see who ends up on their knees, Alpha,” I whispered back.

James let out a guttural roar—a mix of desire and hatred. For a second, I thought he would either kiss me or kill me. But he recoiled as if my skin were poison and stormed out of the cell, leaving me shaking with a rage that would soon become my greatest weapon.

The grayish morning light filtered through the slit in my cell, a reminder that I was still alive, though every muscle in my body screamed in protest.

There was no time to process the midnight encounter with James; before the sun had even fully risen, guards were already rattling the bars.

They took me to the washrooms, a massive stone structure where boiling steam mingled with the rancid scent of lye soap. My hands, already scarred from years of servitude in my old pack, burned the moment they touched the first bucket.

“Don’t do it like that, or you’ll be skinless in less than an hour,” a voice whispered beside me.

I turned to find a girl with light brown hair and spirited eyes, though they were sunken with exhaustion. Her hands moved with mechanical agility as she scrubbed a linen sheet.

“I’m Anny,” she said, offering a quick smile that didn't quite reach her eyes. “You’re the new one James brought from the woods. Everyone’s talking about you.”

“Madeline,” I replied, lowering my voice as I saw a guard patrol the upper walkway. “Everyone’s talking about me? I’m nobody.”

Anny let out a bitter laugh. “In the Blackwood Pack, nobody is ‘nobody,’ Madeline. Hierarchy is everything here. You have the Alphas and Betas at the top, living in luxury. Then the warriors, who think they’re gods because they’re allowed to use their fangs. And at the very bottom, there’s us: the rankless Omegas. If James even looked at you—even with hate—you already have a target on your back.”

“He didn't look at me,” I lied, still feeling the phantom heat of his hands on my neck. “He despised me.”

“Here, an Alpha’s scorn is just as dangerous as his desire,” Anny warned. “Survive, Madeline. Keep your head down and don’t look anyone in the eye. Especially the female warriors.”

Not ten minutes later, Anny’s advice was put to the test.

The sound of reinforced leather boots echoed on the stone floor.

A tall woman with her hair pulled into a tight warrior’s braid and the black uniform of the elite guard stopped in front of my tub. It was the redhead from James's room; his scent clung to her like a second skin.

“Well, look at this,” the woman said, raising her voice for everyone to hear. “The ‘little forest jewel’ turned out to be just another washerwoman. James’s tastes are getting lower by the day.”

She stopped in front of me, crossing her arms. Her aura as a dominant she-wolf was a physical weight, forcing me to cringe.

“Do you enjoy cleaning the sweat of others, human?” she asked, kicking my bucket and spilling the scalding water over my feet. “Clean this up. Now.”

I felt a spark of that Black Rage bubble in my chest. I stood up slowly, ignoring the stinging pain in my feet.

“If Alpha James wanted me to scrub the floors, he would have said it himself. I didn't know his warriors were playing laundry-maid supervisors now. Were you demoted because you weren't good enough in the field... or the bedroom?”

The silence was absolute. The steam seemed to freeze in mid-air. The warrior growled, her eyes flashing a predatory yellow as her claws began to peek through.

“You filthy slave!” she shrieked, raising her hand to strike me.

I positioned myself to counter, but Anny lunged forward, grabbing my arm and pulling me down into a forced bow.

“No! Madeline, shut up!” Anny hissed. “If you do this, the Alpha will slaughter you on the spot. He has no mercy for insubordination. Apologize!”

I forced myself to swallow my pride, tasting the bitter dregs of submission as the warrior spat an insult at me before sauntering away with a mocking laugh.

***

Two days later.

The laundry work had become a routine of physical agony, but the real hell began on the third day. I was hanging heavy tunics when the main doors burst open.

The head housekeeper, a woman with a face of ice named Martha, entered flanked by two warriors armed with whips. Her gaze swept the room until it locked onto me.

“Attention, everyone!” Martha barked. “A piece of jewelry is missing. A signet ring with the Blackwood family crest has disappeared from the Alpha’s study.”

A murmur of terror rippled through the room. No one dared to breathe.

“It wasn't me,” a trembling voice said from the back.

“Nor me!” others cried.

“I know who did it,” the redhead warrior suddenly announced, appearing from the shadows with a feline smirk. “I saw the human, Madeline, lurking near the Alpha Wing last night after the cleaning shift. She was hiding something in her fist.”

“Liar!” I shouted, stepping forward. “I haven't even left the washrooms since yesterday!”

Martha approached me, her gaze a summary judgment. “Do you have it?” she asked coldly.

“No! I haven't stolen anything! Search me, check my cell, I have nothing!” I denied it desperately, but I knew that in this place, a warrior's word was worth a thousand times more than a slave's.

“Take her to the Alpha,” Martha ordered. “Let him decide whether to cut off her hands or her tongue.”

The warrior didn't hesitate. He seized my arms, dragging me through the corridors before throwing me onto the floor of James’s office.

James’s study was even more imposing than I remembered. The scent of sandalwood, ancient forest, and something purely masculine enveloped me instantly, making my body react in a way I loathed. He sat behind his mahogany desk, the sunset casting harsh shadows across his perfect face.

“My Alpha, here is the thief,” the warrior snapped before leaving me alone with the monster.

James looked up, and for a second, the intensity of his amber gaze burned me. Without my wolf, I couldn't be sure of what I felt, but my soul vibrated with his presence.

“So, you have a taste for what isn't yours, Madeline?” he asked, his voice a dangerous purr that traveled down my spine. “First you steal my sleep with your irritating presence, and now you steal my legacy.”

“I didn't steal anything,” I said, trying to keep my voice steady even though my legs were shaking. “Someone set me up.”

James rose with the lethal slowness of a predator who knows his prey has no escape. He rounded the desk and stopped in front of me. His heat was a wall of fire.

Suddenly, his hand closed around my throat—not to choke me, but to force me to feel his power. He pressed me against the cold wall, his massive, solid body crushing mine.

“Tell me the truth,” he whispered against my lips, his breath scorching me. “Where is the ring?”

“I... don't have it,” I gasped, staring into his eyes. The tension between us was so thick it was painful. I could feel his desire warring with his contempt. “Kill me if you want, but I won't die for a lie.”

James let out a mocking laugh, his nose brushing my cheek as he inhaled my scent of vanilla and fear.

“I’m not going to kill you yet, little thief. That would be far too easy.”

He released me abruptly and returned to his desk, looking at me with renewed arrogance.

“Since you cannot return what you ‘supposedly’ didn't steal, and your life isn't worth the value of that jewel, you will pay for it with absolute servitude,” he decreed. “As of today, you leave the washrooms. You will be my personal maid. You will clean my chambers, serve my food, and be at my beck and call twenty-four hours a day.”

Panic seized my throat. “What? No! I’d rather go to the mines... anything but this.”

“You have no choice,” he said, returning to his papers with a coldness that gave me chills. “Go. Martha will give you your new instructions.”

I left the office with my heart thudding against my ribs. In the service hallway, Anny was waiting for me, hidden behind a pillar.

“What happened? Did he pardon you?” Anny asked with a trembling voice.

“He made me his personal maid,” I whispered, feeling the world fall apart.

Anny covered her mouth with her hands, and for the first time, I saw pure terror in her eyes directed at me.

“Madeline... you don't understand,” she whispered, leaning into my ear. “James doesn't have personal maids. In the last two years, he’s had four.”

“And where are they now?” I asked, though I already knew the answer from the tone of her voice.

Anny swallowed hard, glancing around before responding.

“They all died, Madeline. They were all found dead in their quarters just weeks after starting. They say James loses control of his wolf at night... or that he simply grows bored of them and breaks them.”

I stood there in the shadowy corridor, feeling the weight of the amulet on my chest. James hadn't saved me; he had condemned me to the wolf's den. And this time, not even my royal blood could protect me from what happened behind the Alpha’s closed doors.