I Become The Villainess In A Werewolf Romance Novel

I did not go down the front stairs.Amelia Hartwell would have. She would have swept down them in her red dress with her chin high and her heart full of foolish hope. I was not Amelia Hartwell, and I had a lake to reach."My lady?" the servant called through the door. "The Alpha is waiting.""I am dressing," I called back. My voice shook, so I made it sharper. "Give me a moment."Her shoes shuffled away down the hall. I did not trust the quiet. In every book I had ever read, the quiet came right before something went wrong.I pulled the gray cloak over my head, tucked my wet hair inside, and slipped into the corridor. Somewhere far off, a crowd murmured like bees in a hive. I went the opposite way.The castle's layout came back to me in pieces. The book had described it in the chapter where Amelia sneaked out to meet a spy. Kitchen stairs, servants' door, herb garden, stone arch, lake.Left, then right, then down.I counted my steps the way I used to count bus stops. Forty-two to the

The hall did not break into noise until Gideon left.He went out through a side door with Silas, shoulders stiff, jaw tight. Before the door closed, he looked back at me once. It was a short look, but it said very clearly, do not run.Then the whole pack started whispering at once.I stood on the red carpet in my wet boots and gray cloak, with hundreds of eyes burning holes in my skin, and tried to remember how to breathe."Come with me," Tessa said softly. "I will show you somewhere to rest.""I already have a room.""Not a good one." She slipped her arm through mine like we were old friends. "Smile a little. They are watching."I smiled. It felt like a crack running across glass.She led me out through a side door and down a long corridor lined with narrow windows. Ahead, a woman in a pale green dress leaned against the wall with her arms crossed. I recognized her from the hall, the one who had smiled behind her hand. She had golden hair, red lips, and a beauty that looked sharpened

 I did not drink the tea. I set the cup down so slowly that the silver did not click against the table. Then I sat very still and listened to my own heartbeat. Chapter nine. In the book, the woman in the gray dress had taken one sip, smiled, and complimented the honey. Three paragraphs later she was dead on the floor, and the story moved on without her. But chapter nine was supposed to happen weeks from now. And that woman was not supposed to be me. "The script is moving," I whispered. "Someone is moving it." I looked at the tray. Bread. Cheese. Soup. All of it harmless, probably. All of it brought by a girl who would not meet my eyes. I pushed the tray away, walked to the door, and knocked. "My lady?" a guard answered. It was the same deep voice from earlier, but it had lost its swagger. The Alpha's order had reached him.