CHAPTER 3

Liana pov

Someone was announcing the crimes. Wow, he was very loud. His voice bounced off the palace walls like balls. The first person was a thief. I wonder what his punishment would be. My knees were still pressed to the marble floor.

When would it even get to my turn? My knees would just give up on me soon.

“Take him to the mines.” A deep voice rang in the grand hall. His voice was deep and authoritative, it left no room for comments.

Was that him? The alpha? My heart was beating so fast.

His voice was so deep it was almost scary.

I remembered Stella telling me that the alpha had no luna yet, even though he had ruled for a while.

Why would such a powerful alpha like him have no luna? He was surrounded by beautiful and powerful women.

Stella told me that Lady Scarlet, a hunter's daughter, was supposed to wed him and become his luna, but he only made her his concubine.

Although he never clarified if she was actually his concubine, that is what people interpreted since she hadn't left the palace ever since.

I wondered how it would be to be from an affluent home.

That would be very nice. How I wished Maa was rich. How I wished I didn't have to suffer so much just to eat bread, how I wished I had my wolf, how I wished I wore fancy clothes and spoke in a rich dialect and had dignitaries as my acquaintances.

But I was only dreaming, a very funny dream.

I amaze myself sometimes.

How am I here daydreaming about living a rich life when I'm literally about to be judged? I mean, I could even be executed, but yet, here I am daydreaming.

I'm so silly.

There was one thing I was curious about, though. Alpha Ryker.

Stella mentioned he was exceptionally handsome. Was it true, or was she exaggerating? I wanted to look at his face.

What did he look like? Did he have black hair? Did he have short or long hair? Were his eyes fierce?

I knew this was a death wish, but I just couldn't help myself.

Wait, it's not my turn, and there are so many people getting judged. No one's attention is on me. Let me just sneak a peek.

It would be very quick, no one would even notice since everyone is occupied. I'll make sure to be quick.

I licked my dry lips helplessly as I blinked rapidly.

Just one look, that's all, I repeated as I began to look up slowly. I couldn't be caught, I'd be killed.

I needed to be careful.

My eyes were still down as I lifted my head slowly. I wasn't going to lift my head up all the way. That would be stupid, and I would be caught.

I just needed to lift my head to a certain angle that would permit me to see the alpha.

And I did just that when my head was up to the perfect angle.

I sucked in a deep breath and looked up slowly.

It started from his feet. My eyes lingered on his expensive-looking leather shoes, I had never seen shoes like that before.

It went over his trousers, then his small chin beard. That's actually a cute beard. Then, I looked up suddenly.

My whole body froze, and a chill ran down my spine.

Although I had been kneeling for so many minutes and my knees were numb, I suddenly started to feel pain again.

My heartbeat became erratic as my fingers trembled slightly.

The alpha… he was already looking at me. Our gazes had met.

We were looking at each other.