CHAPTER 3

Seraphina's POV

"Pull tighter." Octavia's voice cut through the silence. "The fabric is slipping."

I adjusted my grip and pulled until my arms shook, stretching the burned skin across my shoulders until I felt more blisters pop beneath my dress. She watched me struggle with that satisfied little smile, waiting for me to cry out or beg for mercy, but I kept my face blank and gave her nothing.

The fitting dragged on for another hour, Octavia finding excuse after excuse to make me hold difficult positions while my back screamed and bled. By the time the Luna finally dismissed me, my arms were trembling so badly I could barely open the door, and I made it all the way to my tiny bedroom in the servants' wing before my legs gave out.

I lay there on my thin mattress with my ruined back pressed against the rough sheets, letting myself feel how much I hated them. My mother, who treated me like dirt. My sister, who smiled while I suffered. My father, who looked through me like I wasn't even there. One day, I would be free of all of them, but until then, I had to survive.

The days blurred together after that, and I stayed out of sight like I'd been ordered to. My back was still healing, the burns scabbing over but nowhere close to mended, and the less the Luna saw of me, the less reason she had to hurt me again.

On the morning the Alpha was set to arrive, I woke up with a strange pull in my chest that I couldn't explain. It tugged at something buried so deep inside me that I'd forgotten it existed, and no matter how hard I tried to ignore it, the feeling only grew stronger as the hours passed.

I pushed it aside and got dressed in my plainest grey dress. Today was the welcome feast, and my job was to stay invisible.

I was elbow-deep in bread dough when one of Octavia's personal maids appeared in the kitchen doorway.

"You." The maid pointed at me with barely concealed disgust. "Lady Octavia needs the silver hairpins from the east tower. She says you know which ones."

I stared at her because the east tower was on the other side of the estate and there were dozens of servants closer who could fetch them faster.

"Lady Octavia asked for you specifically." The maid's smile was thin and mean. "She said you'd know exactly where they are because you used to steal them when you were children."

I had never stolen anything in my life. Octavia had taken those pins from our mother's jewelry box and blamed me for it, and I'd been beaten so badly I couldn't walk for a week. This was another one of her traps, but refusing a direct order would give the Luna another reason to punish me, and my back was still raw from the last time.

"Tell her I'll have them within the hour."

The maid smirked like she knew something I didn't and disappeared back into the house.

I moved quickly through the servants' passages, taking the long way around to avoid the main corridors. The east tower was old and mostly unused, full of storage rooms and forgotten furniture, and it took me nearly twenty minutes to find the jewelry box Octavia had described.

The silver hairpins were right where she said they'd be, and I grabbed them and turned to leave.

That's when I heard the horns.

The Alpha had arrived, and I was on the wrong side of the estate with no fast way back to the kitchens. If the Luna caught me anywhere near the welcome ceremony, she would make the soup incident look like a gentle warning.

I ran, but the servants' passage I'd used before was blocked by maids carrying flower arrangements for the great hall. By the time I found another route, I could hear hundreds of voices echoing through the corridors, and I knew the entire pack had gathered for the welcome.

There was only one way back to the kitchens from here, and it cut directly across the back of the great hall.

I pressed myself against the wall and peered around the corner. The crowd was packed tight, all of them facing the massive doors at the far end where the Alpha would enter. If I was fast and quiet, I could slip along the back wall and reach the servants' door before anyone noticed.

I took a breath and moved.

The doors began to open just as I stepped into the hall, and I kept my head down with my steps silent, hugging the shadows along the wall like just another servant going about her duties. I was halfway across when he walked in, and I still don't know why I looked up.

He was tall and broad, with dark hair and a face that could have been carved from stone. He carried himself like he owned every room he walked into, and every wolf around me seemed to shrink just from being near him.

I had no idea who he was, but my heart slammed against my ribs at the sight of him ,and my feet stopped moving like they'd forgotten how to work. In that hollow place where my wolf should have been, something flickered for the first time in my life.

His eyes swept the crowd as he walked forward, cold and assessing, and then they found mine.

My lungs forgot how to breathe.

The feeling hit me everywhere at once, a warmth spreading through my body that I'd never experienced before. That flicker in my chest grew stronger, not enough to fully wake but alive in a way it had never been, straining toward him like it recognized him somehow.

He stopped walking in the middle of the great hall.

His eyes went wide, and his nostrils flared like he'd caught a scent he couldn't place, and he stared at me like I was the only person in a room full of hundreds. For the first time in twenty-one years, someone actually saw me.

My feet carried me one step toward him before I could stop myself.

Then Octavia appeared.

She glided into his line of sight with perfect timing, her red gown catching the light as she stepped directly between us. I watched her place her hand on his arm and tilt her perfect smile up at him, and my stomach dropped as I realized who he was.

This was him. This was the Alpha my sister was supposed to mate.

His attention snapped to her like I'd never existed, and that warmth in my chest went cold and dead.

A hand closed around my arm from behind and yanked me backward before I could make a sound. I stumbled and nearly fell, but the grip held tight and dragged me toward the servants' door without slowing down. The crowd was too focused on the entrance to notice, too busy watching my sister charm the visiting Alpha to spare a glance for the girl being pulled into the shadows.

The door closed behind us, and the hand spun me around.

The Luna's face was twisted with a rage I'd never seen before, her eyes wide and wild.

"What do you think you're doing?" Her voice echoed off the stone walls of the empty corridor. "I told you to stay out of sight. I told you not to show your face, and you walk right into the middle of the welcome ceremony?"

"I got stuck." The words came out shaky as her grip tightened hard enough to bruise. "Octavia sent me to get hairpins from the east tower and the passages were blocked. I was trying to get back before anyone saw me."

"Don't you dare blame your sister for this." She grabbed a fistful of my hair and wrenched my head back so hard that tears sprang to my eyes. "You wanted attention, didn't you? You wanted to embarrass us in front of the most important visitor this pack has ever hosted?"

"No, I swear, I didn't mean to—"

She slammed me against the wall and my burned back hit the stone with a sickening crack. The scabs split open and I screamed as fresh blood soaked through my dress, but she didn't stop. She pressed her forearm against my throat and leaned in close, her breath hot on my face.

"You are nothing. You are a stain on this family, a mistake that should have been drowned at birth. If you ever humiliate me like that again, I will make sure you disappear for good. Do you understand?"

I couldn't breathe with her arm crushing my windpipe, and black spots were spreading across my vision, but I managed to choke out the words she wanted.

"Yes, Luna. I understand."

She released my throat but didn't step back, her eyes still fixed on me with pure hatred.

"Please." I kept my voice low, my head bowed, my body trembling against the cold stone wall. "I'm sorry. I didn't mean to—"

Her hand cracked across my face so hard my vision went white.