Chapter 1-Waking Up a Queen

Hazel’s Pov

I went to sleep in my dorm room.

That much I’m sure of.

My last memory is the soft hum of the radiator, the faint glow of my laptop screen casting blue across the walls, and the quiet chaos of half-finished notes scattered on my desk. I remember setting my alarm, curling under my blanket, and letting exhaustion finally drag me under.

But when I woke up…

It wasn’t my ceiling I stared at.

The air was heavy, thick with the scent of smoke and herbs, something cloying and strange. A chill pressed into my skin, though the surface beneath me was warm—too warm, like I was lying on silk sheets pulled from a fever dream. My eyes fluttered, my chest heaved, and the sound hit me first.

Crying.

Dozens of soft, choked sobs echoing around me, broken only by frantic whispers.

“My Queen—please, please open your eyes—”

“She’s breathing—oh, Moon Goddess, she’s breathing!”

“Call the doctor, now! Hurry!”

My eyes shot open, a gasp tearing through my throat.

The noise stopped instantly.

A cluster of women knelt around me, dressed in maids uniform. Faces blotched with tears, hands pressed together in prayer or desperation. Their eyes, wide and gleaming, fixed on me as if I were some miracle risen from the dead.

“Your Majesty,” one whispered, her voice breaking. “You’re awake.”

I sat up too fast, my head swimming. “What the hell—”

But the voice that came out of my mouth sounded strange.

It was higher. Softer. Wrong.

My hands trembled as I lifted them, staring at pale, delicate fingers tipped with perfectly manicured nails painted blood-red. My gaze slid lower—to the silken dress draped across my body, the neckline dipping scandalously low.

“What the fuck…” The whisper scraped past my lips.

The women surrounding me exchanged alarmed glances, but none corrected me. Instead, they shuffled closer, like moths drawn to a flame.

“Do you need water, my Queen?” one asked, her trembling hands already reaching for a crystal glass from the bedside table.

“My Queen.”

“Your Majesty.”

“Our Queen.”

The words stabbed at me again and again, their reverence so absolute it terrified me.

Queen?

I wasn’t a queen. I was a twenty two year-old college student who had fallen asleep during a N*****x binge and was supposed to have a quiz in English Lit tomorrow morning.

This was insane.

“Okay,” I said, holding up a shaky hand to stop them. “You’ve got the wrong person. I’m not—whatever you think I am. I’m not your queen.”

The room stilled.

For a heartbeat, nobody breathed. Then, as if choreographed, they all dropped their gazes to the floor, pressing their foreheads down toward the polished hardwood like I’d just blasphemed.

One of them whispered, “The mistress will hear…”

My stomach twisted. Mistress?

Before I could ask, the doors at the far end of the room opened—softly, like someone pushing through velvet.

The women flinched. Their bodies shrank toward me instinctively, shielding me as if they knew danger had just entered the room.

I craned my neck and froze.

A tall woman walked in, draped in black silk, her hair a cascade of raven curls that framed a face too sharp, too cruelly beautiful. Her lips curled into a smirk when her eyes landed on me.

“Well,” she purred, her voice like poisoned honey. “The corpse rises.”

The tension in the room thickened until it pressed against my ribs. The women beside me pressed lower to the ground, their fear palpable, their hands trembling as though even their breathing might offend her.

The stranger approached my bed with leisurely steps, her heels clicking against the hardwood. She looked down at me, her eyes glittering with malice, and for the first time I noticed the faint, red-rimmed bruises on my wrists. My wrists.

My gut twisted violently.

Had she—?

“Careful, pet,” she drawled, leaning in so close I caught the sharp bite of her perfume. “Death doesn’t excuse insolence. The Alpha king may tolerate your existence, but I do not.”

Alpha King?

The word struck like a lightning bolt, a piece of a puzzle slamming into place. Alpha king. Queen. Mistress. My skin prickled, and dread seeped into every corner of my mind.

I wasn’t in my room anymore.

I had woken up in someone else’s life.

And judging by the bruises, by the way this woman’s words dripped venom, by the sheer terror etched into the faces of the attendants still kneeling around me…

That life was a nightmare.

“I…” My throat closed around the words. “I don’t know what you’re talking about.”

Her laughter sliced through me like glass. “Oh, how convenient. The Queen forgets. Tell me, will your memory return before tonight, when His Majesty summons you? Or will you shame him with your pathetic excuses again?”

Heat surged into my face. His Majesty? Summons?

The questions clawed at me, but I swallowed them down. Every instinct screamed not to give this woman more ammunition.

She tilted her head, her smile sharpening. “No matter. Whether you remember or not, your place remains the same—beneath me.”

The words landed like a brand against my skin. And though confusion and fear churned in my chest, something else rose with it—anger.

Because whoever this queen was, she had been broken. Bruised. Forced into silence. Surrounded by cruelty disguised as loyalty.

But me?

I wasn’t built to bow.

I met the woman’s gaze, my voice steady despite the tremor in my hands. “We’ll see about that.”

Her eyes narrowed, surprise flickering there before she masked it with another cruel smile.

“We shall,” she whispered, before turning on her heel and storming out, her gown whispering across the floor.

The moment the doors shut, the attendants exhaled in shaky unison. One of them grabbed my hand, tears pooling in her eyes.

“My Queen, please,” she begged. “You mustn’t provoke the Lady. She has His Majesty’s heart. If she—if she tells him—”

Her words cracked.

But I didn’t hear the rest.

Because my heart was pounding too loud, drowning out everything.

His Majesty. The Alpha King. The man whose queen’s body I now inhabited.

And if what I’d just seen was any indication, he wasn’t a savior. He wasn’t a husband.

He was the monster who let his mistress tear his wife apart.

And now, I was trapped in her place.

Holy fuck this must be a nightmare.

I'll soon wake up, yes, I have to wake up.