Chapter Seven: The Wolf

I couldn’t stop the soft gasp that escaped through my lips as I leaned closer reflexively. Silver gleamed beautifully inside the box. Any brighter and the glare would have blinded me. Holy shit.

The maid reverently courtesied and stepped back.

It was a necklace. No, not just any necklace.

A thick dark chain cradled a beautifully crafted wolf’s head forged entirely from silver. The craftsmanship was exquisite. The wolf’s eyes were made from deep amber stones that caught the firelight almost too realistically. Its jaws were slightly parted, revealing sharp silver fangs. Pandora would be jealous.

The thing looked expensive enough to pay off my student loans five times over.

“What the—Holy shit. This is for the wedding? I might just have to guard my neck throughout the ceremony!” I could feel my eyes bugging out of my head.

I almost reached for my phone to take a photo for Eva until I remembered—right. No phones here.

“No need to do that yer highness. That’s what de guards are for,” Rita said with that same nervous chuckle she addressed me with earlier.

I glanced up briefly to find the other ladies in the room looking at me funny like I’d said something weird.

“Yer highness is speaking strangely, Rita,” I heard Conny whisper to Rita just about the same time I heard one of the other maids whisper, “What is a ‘holy shit’?”

Wow.

I blinked and refocused my attention on the open box in front of me. After staring at it for a few more seconds, I shook my head and pushed it gently to the side.

“Nah, I’ll pass. Maybe let’s stick to something more…modest for the wedding. That necklace looks like it weighs a ton. And it’s definitely a security risk. I wouldn’t want my neck to be guillotined by a jewelry robber, thank you very much—“

I stopped because the room had gone strangely quiet. It was then that I noticed that the other two maids had exited the room. Rita had probably dismissed them.

For some reason, I felt so much at ease with having just Conny and Rita around. It was as though I’d known them for years. I frowned, taking in the strangely familiar faces of the women who were inexplicably staring at me with varying degrees of fear.

“Why are you both looking at me like I’m about to be publicly executed?”

Rita eyed me cautiously. “It’s de claiming necklace, Yer Highness. You must wear it,” she said slowly.

“The…what necklace?”

“The Alpha’s intended must wear it for de wedding,” Rita explained cautiously. “From this day forward. It is a gift from Varul himself. Rejecting it isna good.”

I frowned deeper and picked it up carefully. It was even heavier than I’d initially thought—seriously, who needed dumbbells? I could build some serious biceps with that thing.

“Okay…” I said slowly. “And?”

Rita sighed the sigh of an exhausted woman who had clearly suffered enough for one lifetime. “Ye know all this yer highness. Isna just jewelry.”

My eyes narrowed suspiciously. “Okay…”

“The claiming necklace,” she continued carefully, “is a declaration ta de pack that ye belong ta de Alpha.”

Belong? The word scraped unpleasantly across my spine. It didn’t sound romantic at all.

I forced out a laugh. “Wow. Feminism would absolutely hate this place,” I muttered under my breath.

“Once ye wear it,” Conny added, “ye may not remove it without de Alpha’s permission.”

I stared at her.

“…Excuse me?”

Rita stepped in nervously. “Pack law sees removing de necklace as a challenge ta de Alpha’s authority.”

I laughed once in disbelief. Wow. This was some crazy ass shit. I must have died and reincarnated in the Dark Ages—but one where werewolves seemed to be a thing, of course. Still holding eyes with the two maids in front of me, I secretly pinched myself on the back of my wrist. Wake up from this nightmare, Sig. Come on, babe. Anytime now would be great.

Still, I remained stubbornly asleep and present in this weird alternate universe. I gave up.

I looked back down at the necklace resting in my hands. The silver wolf stared back at me with cold amber eyes. I had a feeling that I was staring into the face of my supposed betrothed.

Varul. What sort of name was that, even? Spanish? Not that I would know, since I flunked every foreign language subject in high school.

My fingers tightened unconsciously around the necklace.

A declaration of ownership. The words echoed unpleasantly in my head.

The more time I spent here, the more I felt some sort of kinship with the princess who had apparently been so terrified of getting married to this man that she had actually run away.

Conny and Rita remained silent as I stared at the necklace. Fuck it. Let’s see how this all plays out. Worst-case scenario, I get my head guillotined and wake up screaming in my Brooklyn apartment.

I swept my hair over one shoulder and clasped the necklace around my throat myself before either of them could offer.

The silver settled against my skin heavily.

It was warm. Much warmer than metal should have been.

For one strange, horrifying second, it almost felt…right.

Like the weight of it belonged there.

Like it recognized me.

My hand flew to the pendant.

The wolf’s silver head rested against my pulse like something alive.

I swallowed hard and looked back at my reflection in the mirror.

A pale girl with long platinum hair stared back at me.

Only now there was a wolf at her throat.

Marking her.

Claiming her.

Somewhere out there was a man I had never properly met, and according to apparently very unhinged pack law, I now belonged to him.