THE SLAVE WHO REJECTED THE ALPHA

My fingers tightened around the edge of my apron. I wanted to tell him that Victoria had done this. I wanted to say I had made his breakfast with one good hand because no one else would. But people like me did not explain things to people like him. Dominic pointed at the floor. “Now you made a mess too. Clean it before someone comes in.”I bent down for the broken pieces first. My right hand screamed the moment I forgot and tried to use it, so I tucked it against my chest and worked with my left. The shards were slick with egg, and one cut into my thumb. I watched the blood bead there, small and bright, then wiped it quickly on my dress before Dominic could complain about that too.When the bigger pieces were gone, I took the mop from the corner and dragged it across the tiles. My ribs hurt every time I leaned forward. My legs felt weak, and the kitchen seemed to tilt slightly when I moved too fast. I knew I was not cleaning well. After a while, I was not really using the mop to cle

“Washing clothes,” I answered, because the truth was already humiliating enough and I had no better lie.His eyes narrowed slightly. “In that?”Heat rose to my face. I gripped the basin and tried to stand, but Dominic reached for it before I could move away. I held on by instinct, even though there was nothing in it but dirty fabric and river water. For one ridiculous second, I fought the Alpha’s son for the only clothes I owned.Of course, I lost.He pulled the basin from my hands with almost no effort, and the force sent me backward. I fell hard onto the stones, pain shooting up my spine and through my palms. Before I could recover, a gust of wind swept across the riverbank and blew my hair away from my face.Dominic went still.My whole body turned cold.No. No. No.I raised my hand to cover my face, but it was already too late. His eyes were fixed on mine, and the silence between us changed so sharply that I could barely breathe.He had seen them.I tried to scramble back, but Dom

My face burned. With my left hand, I carefully pulled the fabric away from his side. His skin was warm under my fingers, and the muscles of his stomach tightened when I touched him. I had never been this close to a man like this. Not unless someone was dragging me, hitting me, or throwing me aside. This was different. Too different.“Your face is red,” he said.“It is the candle.”I pressed the crushed herbs against the wound harder than necessary. He sucked in a breath but still laughed softly.“Do not laugh,” I muttered.“I am trying not to.”I wrapped the wound with the cleanest rag I owned, which was not very clean at all, but it was the best I had. Then I treated the claw marks on his shoulder. He watched me the whole time, and that made my hands clumsy.“What is your name?” he asked.I hesitated. “Melany,” I finally said.His silver eyes stayed on mine, or maybe on the curtain of hair I kept over them. “I am Ravok.”I repeated the name silently in my head. Ravok. It sounded li

I had dreamed of it for years. One step beyond Black Moon. Then another. Then another, until the walls, the basement, the kitchen, Victoria’s voice, Dominic’s silence, and Alpha Andre’s sentence all disappeared behind me. I had imagined the forest opening like a door.It did not.The trees stood close together, their branches twisting above my head and blocking most of the sky. Roots caught my ankles. Wet leaves clung to my feet. Every breath pulled pain through my ribs, and after a while, I had to press one hand against my side just to keep moving.The compass stayed in my other hand. Its needle pointed north without hesitation now, and it held steady as if it knew where I had to go, even when I did not.“Please,” I whispered, though I did not know who I was speaking to. My mother, maybe. My father. The Moon Goddess, even though she had given me a mate who let them drag me away. “Please do not lead me into another grave.”The compass did not answer. It only pulled my eyes back to th

Her eyes dropped to the compass in her fist. “Because your mother trusted the wrong people and the right ones. Sometimes they are the same.”I waited, but she said nothing else.Her breathing had changed. It was slower now, uneven. She was fighting to stay awake. I could see it in the way her eyelids lowered and lifted, in the way her fingers kept loosening around the compass before tightening again.I stared at her and she stared back.Then, despite everything, I felt something strange move through my chest. Not hope. Not trust, not yet. But the sharp edge inside me shifted enough to make room for something else.“All right,” I said. “But if Nora sells me, I will come back and haunt you.”“If Nora sells you without my permission, I will haunt her first.”I leaned closer and slid one arm behind her back. She bit down hard on her own breath when I helped her sit. Her body was heavier than it looked, or maybe I was weaker than I thought. We struggled for a while before I got her upright