Chapter 2 – A Dream Read Aloud As a Joke

Cassia swiped her thumb across the cracked glass. The acceptance email was still open right where I had left it. She let out a sharp gasp that sounded entirely fake.

"Listen to this," Cassia announced to the room. She stood up, holding the device high so the candlelight caught the edges.

She read the first lines aloud in a mock ceremony, dragging out the formal language and emphasizing my full name with theatrical disbelief.

"We are exceptionally pleased to offer you, Lyra Ashford, admission to our incoming class."

The parlor erupted. All of Selene's guests began laughing at the idea of the packhouse servant being admitted to one of the city's top academies. The sound hit me like a physical weight, sharp and humiliating.

"An academy?" Rhea asked between fits of laughter. "She barely knows how to pour wine properly."

"Maybe they need someone to scrub their floors," another girl suggested. "I hear city dust is very demanding."

I tried to scramble up from the puddle of champagne and broken crystal. My knee throbbed from striking the marble, a deep ache that made my leg tremble.

"Give it back," I said. My voice shook, betraying the panic I desperately wanted to hide.

Selene held out her hand. She received the phone from Cassia like a queen being offered tribute. She did not even look at me. Her eyes scanned the glowing screen, tracking the words I had memorized in the dark.

She finished the email herself in a smooth, contemptuous voice. She read every word of the scholarship details, the housing assignments, and the start dates. She made my desperate escape plan sound like a pathetic joke. Then she looked up and surveyed her friends.

"Has the academy finally started admitting charity cases for entertainment?" Selene asked the room.

More laughter echoed off the high ceiling. It wrapped around me, suffocating and hot.

I pushed myself up from the floor, ignoring the sharp sting of glass pressing into my palms, to ask for the phone back. I needed that device. It held my ticket out.

"Selene, please," I said. "Just hand it to me."

Maris moved faster than I thought possible. She stepped into my line of sight and slapped me across the face so quickly that my head snapped sideways.

The crack of her hand against my cheek echoed loudly over the laughter. The room went silent just long enough for the shame to burn.

The metallic taste of blood flooded my mouth. My vision blurred for a fraction of a second. My ears rang with a high pitch.

《Kill her,》 Nyra roared.

My wolf surged against the inside of my control with raw, furious pressure. She paced violently in my mind, a phantom of pure rage demanding we stop bowing to people who fed on cruelty. I could feel her teeth, her overwhelming need to tear into Maris's throat and end the humiliation right now.

"Do not move," I ordered her silently.

《She hit us. Let me out. Let me end this right now. They deserve to bleed for this.》

I swallowed the blood and the sting in my cheek. I held perfectly still. I kept my hands open at my sides, proving I was not a threat.

"If we fight back, we die here. I can’t expose you yet," I told my wolf. "Three more days in this house is survivable if it gets us out for good".

Nyra snarled. The sound vibrated against my skull. She stopped throwing herself against my mental walls, but she stayed right at the front of my consciousness, watching them with lethal intent.

Selene rose at last. She crossed the space in soft satin, her heels clicking against the marble. She stepped carefully around the spilled wine and stopped right in front of me. She crouched just enough to be eye-level with me.

She was still holding my phone in one hand. She smiled with that perfect social sweetness she wore when she wanted to hurt someone slowly rather than loudly. It was the smile she used when she knew she had completely won.

"You are so confused, Lyra," Selene whispered. Her voice carried easily in the quiet room.

"I just want my things," I said quietly. I refused to look away from her eyes.

"There is no point pretending at a future that will never fit you," Selene told me. "Some women are born to command, and some are born to clean up after them".

She held the phone out. She did not hand it to me directly. She kept it just out of my immediate reach, making me stretch my arm and reach for it. The transaction was entirely about power. She wanted everyone to see me beg for my own property.

I extended my hand. My fingers brushed the smooth metal casing. I closed my grip and pulled the device tightly against my chest.

Selene stood up smoothly. She smoothed the front of her expensive dress. She deliberately looked around the room and reminded everyone that she herself was already promised to Kael Draven, the future Alpha of the pack.

"Once the formal ritual is completed and the marriage contract advanced, this house will become mine in more than name," Selene announced.

She looked back down at me. The sweetness was gone from her expression, replaced by a cold certainty.

"That means you should get used to serving me forever instead of chasing fantasies," she said.

The girls around her completely ignored me now. They immediately began asking questions about wedding colors, Luna gowns, and how it felt to be chosen by the most powerful heir in the district.

"Are you going with the traditional white silk?" Rhea asked, leaning forward with desperate interest.

"Of course," Selene replied. "Kael appreciates tradition. He knows exactly what a proper Luna should look like."

"I heard the Draven estate is importing hundreds of roses for the ritual banquet," Cassia added. "Is that true?"

"You will all see soon enough," Selene said, soaking in the attention.

I stayed on my knees amid the mess. My fingers tightened around the phone so hard that my knuckles ached. Every time Selene said the word forever, it felt less like a word and more like a sentence being nailed shut.

《We are leaving,》 Nyra promised me. Her voice was cold and hard now, stripped of the earlier rage. 《She can have this rotten house and her arrogant Alpha. We will be gone.》

"We have to be," I thought back. "If we stay until those contracts are signed, the law will bind us to her household permanently."

《She is pathetic,》 Nyra observed. 《She builds her entire worth around a man's rank because she has absolutely nothing of her own. She is hollow.》

I did not answer. I focused on breathing. I focused on the solid weight of the phone in my hand.

Maris did not give me time to process the panic or the pain. She stepped around me, looking at the broken glass with profound disgust.

"Clean this up," Maris ordered. "And then get out of my sight."

She sent me from the parlor down to the kitchen to scrub the roasting pans. The grease was thick and cold. I scrubbed until my fingers pruned and my shoulders ached. As soon as I finished, she found me by the sinks.

"The guests require more wine," Maris said. "Go to the cellar."

She ordered me into the damp wine cellar to fetch three more bottles of the dry vintage. The stairs were steep. My bruised knee protested with every step, sending sharp flares of pain up my leg. I gathered the heavy bottles and carried them back up.

Then she sent me back up the service stairs to the parlor with fresh towels and replacement glasses.

She made sure I stayed in constant motion so I had no chance to breathe. She knew exactly how to use physical exhaustion as a weapon against defiance. Every time I entered the main room, I kept my eyes fixed firmly on the floor. I replaced the damp towels. I gathered the empty plates. I poured more wine.

The voices above the stairs rose and fell in continuous waves of excitement. They talked endlessly about Kael. They talked about the engagement and the Alpha ritual. They discussed the glittering future everyone expected Selene to step into as easily as a gown.

"He is so commanding," one girl sighed.

"The pack will be unstoppable with him as Alpha," another agreed.

I wiped up the last of the spilled champagne. I carried away the broken glass wrapped in thick cloths so it would not cut through the garbage bags. I moved like a ghost through the edges of their celebration. The physical labor was exhausting, but the routine kept me grounded. I knew how to work until my muscles burned. I knew how to disappear into the background while wealthy girls planned their perfect lives.

Hours passed. The celebration finally began to wind down. The guests started calling for their coats and drivers.

I carried the last heavy tray of empty dishes through the dim service passage. The air was cooler here, thick with the smell of old dust and floor wax. I stopped walking for just a second. I leaned back against the wall, letting the weight of the tray rest against my hip.

I pressed my thumb once across the edge of my phone through the thick cloth of my apron. It was a tiny grounding gesture, proving to myself that the device was still there.

Nyra stepped close to me in my mind. Her presence was steady and solid. She softened enough to whisper to me.

《No matter what happened upstairs tonight, the city still exists,》 Nyra told me gently. 《The academy still exists. The email did not disappear just because cruel people laughed at it.》

"I know," I answered her. "I still have it. They didn't delete it."

《They can laugh all they want,》 my wolf continued. 《Let them plan their weddings and their rituals. They are staying here. We are going to live.》

I absorbed her certainty. I let it settle into the hollow space inside my chest, replacing the fear with something much harder. I lifted my head and steadied my breath. I pushed the heavy wooden door open and went back into the light.