LOGINChapter Two
Hazel’s POV I was still sleeping when a sharp pain exploded across my face. My eyes flew open in shock. Before I could understand what was happening, another slap landed on my cheek, making my ears ring. “You shameless omega!” Violet’s furious voice echoed through the room. I stared at her, my mind still foggy from sleep. My heart pounded as I looked around the room, trying to understand where I was. With him under the blanket? Then the memory of last night slowly returned. Alan had wandered into the room after drinking too much. I had tried to help him when he nearly collapsed, and somehow we had both fallen asleep there. My face turned pale. Why hadn’t I left? Before I could think any further, Violet grabbed a fistful of my hair and yanked me off the bed. I cried out as I crashed onto the floor. “You disgusting thief!” she shouted. “How dare you lock yourself in a room with my boyfriend!” “I didn’t!” I cried, struggling to free myself. “Please listen to me. It’s not what you think.” “It’s exactly what I think.” The shouting stirred Alan from his sleep, he slowly opened his eyes and frowned, clearly confused, he looked around the room before his gaze settled on me kneeling on the floor. “What happened?” he asked, pressing a hand against his aching head. Violet immediately ran to him with tears streaming down her face. “Alan, thank goodness you’re awake.” She pointed at me with trembling fingers. “I’ve always treated her like a sister, but look what she did. She took advantage of the fact that you were drunk and stayed in this room with you all night.” Alan’s brows knitted together as he tried to remember the night before. “I…” he murmured. “I only remember leaving the party.” He looked at me. “Hey!… why were you here?” “I was resting after work,” I answered, my voice shaking. “You came into the room by mistake. I tried to send you back downstairs, but you nearly collapsed.” “She’s lying!” Violet cried before I could say another word. “She’s trying to make excuses.” “I am not lying.” Violet tightened her grip on my hair. “Stop pretending to be innocent.” Alan remained silent for a long moment. When he finally spoke, his voice was cold. “I don’t know everything that happened last night.” My heart filled with hope. Maybe… Maybe he would believe me. “But I do know this,” he continued. “The moment I lost control of myself, you should have called the guards or instead, leave the room” His jaw tightened. “Instead, you stayed.” I shook my head desperately. “I didn’t know what to do. I was trying to help you.” “Help me?” he repeated with a bitter laugh. “Is that what you’re calling this?” I stared at him in disbelief. “So you decided to betray your own sister by taking advantage of the fact that I was drunk?” “No!” I cried, tears filling my eyes. “That’s not what happened.” Violet smiled behind his back. “I’ll take her to Father,” she said. “He deserves to know what she has done.” She dragged me toward the door while I begged her to let go. Not once did Alan stop her.Chapter TwentyThe Woman in the PortraitHazel's POVThe final fitting took longer than the first, mostly because the seamstress had decided the bodice needed adjusting twice more than she'd originally promised. I stood on the small platform while she circled me, pins between her teeth, muttering about seams I couldn't see anything wrong with."Almost finished," Mabel said from her chair near the window, offering me a small, encouraging smile.I nodded, though my arms had begun to ache from holding still, and let my eyes wander around the room instead of thinking too hard about the dress itself. That was how I noticed the portrait hanging above the mantle, one I hadn't paid attention to during my last visit.It showed a group of women from an older generation, dressed in the formal style the household still used for important gatherings. I recognized a much younger version of the current Alpha's late wife near the center, and beside her, slightly turned toward the artist, a woman I di
Chapter NineteenThe Name That Didn't ExistAlan's POVCorbin lived at the edge of the pack lands, in a cottage surrounded by a garden he clearly spent most of his retirement tending. He was an older man, his back slightly bent from decades of service, and when he opened the door and saw me standing behind Desmond, he went pale enough that I thought he might refuse to let us in at all."Young Alpha." He bowed low. "I didn't expect you to come yourself.""Desmond said you wanted to speak to me directly," I said. "So I came."He hesitated, glancing between us, then stepped back to let us inside. His cottage was small and tidy, a fire already burning low in the hearth. He didn't offer us seats right away. He stood near the window instead, wringing his hands like a man trying to decide how much of himself he was willing to spend on the truth."I've kept quiet about that night for two years," he said finally. "I told myself it wasn't my place to question what happens among the family. A st
Chapter EighteenThe Keeper of the Guest WingAlan's POVI hadn't slept well since Desmond told me about the ring. I kept turning the same details over until they wore smooth in my mind and stopped meaning anything at all. A soft voice. A silver ring with a pale stone. A hand on my shoulder I'd spent two years assuming belonged to the woman I loved.Desmond found me in the study before I'd finished my first cup of coffee."There's something you should see," he said, closing the door behind him.He set a ledger on my desk, one of the household inventories kept by the steward's office. "This tracks who requested private deliveries to guest rooms during large gatherings. Wine, food, anything outside the standard service.""And the Hunter's Moon gathering is in here?""It is." He turned to a marked page. "Someone requested a bottle sent up separately that night, listed under 'special reserve, guest wing, east corridor.' No name attached to the request. Just a steward's initials confirming
Chapter SeventeenThe Ring in the DrawerHazel's POVMabel found me in the small sitting room off my bedroom, folding linens I didn't actually need to fold, the kind of task I gave my hands when my mind wouldn't settle."You don't have to do that," she said, setting down a tray of tea. "That's what I'm here for.""I don't mind." I set the last cloth aside. "It gives me something to do besides think."She poured two cups without asking, then sat across from me instead of leaving the way she usually did. "You've had a lot thrown at you these past weeks. It's no wonder your hands need something to hold on to.""Did you know my mother?" The question came out before I'd fully decided to ask it. "You've been here a long time."Something softened in her face. "I knew her a little. She used to bring you into the kitchen when you were small, before your father put a stop to it. Said a Gamma's daughter shouldn't be underfoot with the help." She smiled faintly. "You never seemed to mind the kitch
Chapter SixteenThe Wine That Wasn't HisDesmond's POVThe servant records were kept in a small room off the west archive, ledgers dating back further than I had patience for. I found the guest list for the Hunter's Moon gathering within the hour, along with the staff assignments for that night.A young man named Teo had been listed among those serving the guest wing. I didn't recognize the name, which meant nothing on its own, but when I asked one of the senior stewards where he'd gone, the man frowned like he was trying to remember something he'd deliberately let himself forget."Teo," he said slowly. "He left not long after that gathering. A few weeks, maybe less.""Left on his own?""That's the odd part. He never said goodbye to anyone. One day he was carrying trays through the east hall, and the next his room was empty. Someone said he'd taken a position with a pack up north." He shook his head. "No one saw him pack. No one saw him go."That was enough to make me uneasy. People w
Chapter FifteenThe Woman Who Warned HerDesmond's POVRuth's hands had gone still in her lap, but her eyes stayed fixed on the window, as though she expected someone to be standing there."Tell me about her," I said gently. "Anything you remember. Even small things."She was quiet for a moment, gathering herself. "Her voice was soft. Educated. Not the kind of voice that belongs to a servant or a warrior's wife." She paused. "She wore something that smelled of jasmine. Strong enough that I noticed it before I noticed her face.""Did you see her face clearly?""It was dark. She stood just outside my door and never stepped into the light." Ruth shook her head. "But I remember her hands. She wore a ring on her right hand, silver, with a small stone I couldn't name in that light. Blue, maybe. Or gray."I kept my voice even, though something in my chest had gone tight. "When did she come to you?""Four days after the gathering. Before anyone outside the family knew what had happened betwee







