chapter 3

Daisy

'Lie," my inner thoughts screamed at me.

That was the only thought in my head. Lie, and make it good, or everything I'd built for two years would fall apart on this ugly carpet.

"A girl at the academy gave it to me," I said.

Lucien didn't move. He was holding that stupid one-eyed bear like it was made of glass.

"What girl?" he said.

"I don't know her real name. Nobody uses real names at Moonstone. Records are sealed." I shrugged like my heart wasn't trying to punch its way out of my chest.

"She left halfway through the second year. She said she didn't want it anymore."

"Didn't want it," he repeated.

"She said it reminded her of someone she hated." The words were out before I could stop them. He looked up at me, and for one second, he looked like I'd shoved a knife between his ribs.

Then the black swallowed his eyes completely. He dropped the bear on the bed and grabbed my arm, dragging me forward until my chest hit his. Glass crunched under his boots. He smelled like whiskey and blood and pine, and Nyx went absolutely feral inside my head.

'Mate. Mate. MATE.'

'Shut up,' I hissed at her. 'He can't know. Shut up.'

"Where did she go?" he said.

"I told you, I don't know."

"Was she alone? Was there a man with her?" His grip tightened until I knew there would be bruises.

"Was she hurt? Was she thin? Did she look sick? Answer me!"

"I don't know!" I shouted back.

"I saw her twice! Let go of me!" He let go so suddenly I stumbled into the bedframe.

He stared at me for a long, terrible moment. Then he picked the bear back up and tucked it inside his jacket like it belonged to him.

"That's mine now," he said.

"It's not yours..."

"Everything in this house is mine, Rose." He walked to the door and stopped without turning around.

"Including you, for as long as you're under my roof. Remember that." The door slammed behind him.

I sank down onto the floor and pressed my shaking hands against my face. Was she hurt? Was she thin? Did she look sick?

That wasn't a man talking about a plaything. That was a man who'd lost his mind.

So why? Why did he say those things that night? Why did he let me leave? There was a soft knock at the door. I scrambled up and wiped my face just as it opened.

Damien.

He'd always been the nice one. Big and quiet, with kind brown eyes. He used to let me win at cards. He glanced at the broken glass, then at the red marks on my arm, and sighed.

"He got you too, huh," he said.

"I'm fine."

"Look." He rubbed the back of his neck.

"I don't know what you said to him, but if you know anything about that girl, tell me. Not him. Me."

"Why?" Damien looked at the floor.

"Because he's been hunting her for two years," he said quietly.

"He's torn apart every pack from here to the coast. He's put three rogues in the ground just for knowing her name. And every night, he sits in her old bedroom until the sun comes up." He looked at me.

"He's not sane about her, Rose. If he thinks you're lying, I don't know what he'll do." My mouth went dry.

"She's just a girl," I said.

"Why does he care so much?" Damien gave me a strange, sad smile.

"That's not my story to tell," he said. He left. I didn't sleep.

The next morning, I was summoned to breakfast. Not the staff kitchen. The family dining room. The same table where Lucien once told Seraphina to stop feeding the stray.

I walked in with my head high and my stomach in knots. Lucien was at the head of the table. Seraphina sat on his right, scrolling her phone. Damien was on his left. There was one empty chair, right next to Lucien.

"Sit," Lucien said.

I sat.

A maid set a plate down in front of me. My heart dropped straight into my shoes.

Chocolate cake. Thick, dark, with fudge icing. The exact cake he used to sneak into my room at midnight. It was a test. I knew it was a test.

Lucien leaned back in his chair and watched me like a wolf watching a rabbit.

"Eat," he said.

"I don't eat sugar, Alpha," I bit back.

"I didn't ask what you eat," he said. "I said eat."

The whole table went quiet. Seraphina finally looked up from her phone, smirking, ready for the show.

I looked down at the cake. For eight years, that cake meant safe. It meant someone loved me. It meant my brother would always come. Now it just made me want to throw up.

When I first came to this house, I was eight years old and I weighed less than Seraphina's dog. At the children's home, if you didn't fight for your food, you didn't eat. So I hid bread in my pillowcase, and I flinched every time someone reached for my plate.

Lucien was the one who fixed that. Night after night, he sat on the end of my bed with a fork and a slice of cake, and he didn't leave until it was gone.

And in those last four months, when I was moved to the staff quarters, nobody remembered to feed me at all. I got thin again. Thinner than ever.

He noticed. I know he noticed. He just didn't care. I picked up my fork, cut one small piece, and ate it. I didn't let my face move. Not even a little.

"Happy?" I said.

"Do you like it?" he said.

"It's too sweet."

Something in his face cracked. It was there and gone so fast I almost missed it. Disappointment. Like he'd been hoping for something.

"Daisy loved that cake," Seraphina said, bored.

"Lucien still makes the kitchen bake one every single night. It's honestly pathetic."

"Seraphina," Lucien said.

One word. Quiet. She shut her mouth so fast her teeth clicked. Every night. For two years.

I stared down at my plate and blinked back the tears burning behind my eyes. I would not cry in front of him. I would not.

He called me a starved charity case. He said he hoped I'd never come back. He stood at that window and watched me go. He doesn't get to bake me cake now.

"Is that all, Alpha?" I said.

"Your mother needs her morning medicine."

Before he could answer, the dining room doors swung open.

A tall blonde woman swept in, wearing a white dress and a smile like a blade. She walked straight past me, slid onto Lucien's lap like she'd done it a hundred times, and kissed him right on the mouth.

He didn't push her away. My fork hit the plate with a clang.

'Kill her,' Nyx snarled. 'Rip her throat out. He's OURS.'

He's not ours. He was never ours. The blonde turned and finally noticed me. Her eyes slid over me from head to toe, and she smiled wider.

"Oh, is this the new nurse?" she said. "How cute."

Lucien's hand rested on her waist. His black eyes stayed on me the whole time.

"Rose," he said,

"meet Celeste." He paused.

"My future Luna."