27

But the door slammed open, and both our heads snapped toward it.

Romeo stood in the doorway, one hand still on the handle. His eyes swept the scene and his jaw tightened. “Forgot the way to your own room, Saulo?”

Saulo straightened. “Just checking on the king’s new pet.”

When Saulo adjusted himself and stepped back, even if only slightly, I realized I was standing on the tips of my toes, my breath locked tight in my chest. The moment I saw Romeo in the doorway, my heels sank back to the floor and I finally exhaled. 

Not because I believed Romeo was a good wolf, but because I knew he still had some sense of morality.

Romeo’s gaze darkened as he stepped inside. “We do not touch the king’s property without permission,” he said evenly. “Or did you forget how things work in this castle?”

“You think I need your lectures, Beta?”

Romeo tilted his head slightly. “Try that tone again, and I’ll make sure you are limping back to your quarters tonight. This isn’t the first time you’ve crossed lines, Saulo. Maybe the king should hear about it.”

But before Saulo could snap back...

“What should the king hear about?” Ravok’s voice came from the hallway, and the moment I heard it, the temperature around me seemed to drop. 

For a second, I did not move. I just stared at the doorway, confused about why he was here at all... why he had come?

And then I looked down at my leg.

There, just above my ankle, a thin trail of red had begun to rise, the reddish skin where I must have scraped it against the sharp edge of the dresser. I hadn’t noticed the pain until now, but the skin was definitely scratched.

And somehow, I knew that he’d felt it, just like before. The realization sent a chill through me, not because it scared me, but because it did not. Deep down, beneath the instinct to keep pushing him away, I was relieved he came.

Not because I trusted him, but because I knew if he was in the room, no one else would dare touch me.

The Alpha stopped at the door, so massive he filled the entire doorway.

Saulo shrugged. “Your guest and I were just getting along, that’s all.” 

Romeo’s gaze hardened. “She doesn’t look too happy sharing the room with you.”

“She should be. I am a councilman. That’s more than a filthy little human like her deserves.”

Ravok’s eyes shifted to me, his expression unreadable, the kind of cold that did not need to raise its voice to be felt. “The human will not cause any more trouble,” he said, almost disinterested.

He turned slightly, his gaze sliding to Romeo. “Take her to the North Wing.”

**

The guards shoved me into a room in the North Wing and locked the door without a word.

At first glance, it looked almost beautiful, the kind of place someone might mistake for comfort if they did not know better. But I did. The canopy bed with its sheer curtains, the polished tray with fresh fruit... I were no longer a prisoner, but a offering.

I remember my quarters in Black Moon. They were nothing close to comfortable, not even a proper room, really. But there, I wasn’t desired by anyone. I could sleep in peace, knowing no alpha would try to pull me into his bed.

But here… the girls existed only to warm the king’s sheets, and from what I’d heard, they did not survive to see the next day.

I moved slowly toward the pitcher of water on the table, then smashed it against the floor. The shards flew across the marble and I crouched down without hesitation, choosing the longest piece and wrapping it carefully in a corner of the bedsheet before slipping it under the pillow.

No one would hurt me again.

I did not sleep much that night.

And when I finally drifted off, it was the scent of roses and bath salts that woke me.

I opened my eyes to find a woman standing by the window, pulling open the curtains as if we were in a sunlit villa and not in the part of the castle where girls were chosen to die. The light flooded in too quickly.

“Good morning,” she said, her voice soft and pleasant. “I’ve prepared your bath.”

I sat up slowly, blinking at her. “Good morning...” I said back, but the words felt strange in my mouth. I did not know who she was, and I did not like not knowing.

She turned to me with a smile. “I am Rose. I look after the girls who come to the North Wing.”

Something about the way she said “girls” made my stomach turn.

Before I could respond, I heard voices outside. Faint at first, but growing clearer as footsteps echoed down the hallway. 

I shifted toward the door, and through the narrow gap it left open, I caught a glimpse of movement: long dresses, bare shoulders, painted lips. 

Girls being led like sheep and guards giving orders: 

“To the first room.”

“You, last door on the left.”

“Who are they?” I asked aloud, the question spilling out before I could filter it.

Rose did not answer right away. She was folding a robe near the foot of the bed, smoothing out invisible creases. “They’re the others,” she said, eyes still lowered. “Guests of the king.”

“Guests?” I asked. “You mean... for dinner or something?”

That’s when she looked at me.

Her eyes were wide, and there was something behind them, something like grief. But it passed quickly, fading into something softer.

Pity.

“No, girl,” her hands stilling on the cloth. “It’s another kind of guests.”

**

Ravok's POV

I stood on the balcony, a glass of cognac in one hand, watching the night stretch endlessly over the hills. 

Behind me, I could hear the soft rustle of fabric, the scrape of metal trays, and the hushed voices of the maids as they stripped the bed again.

Another one was dead.

The scent of blood and sex still clung to the room, no matter how hard they tried to scrub it clean.

“Good,” Sorvane murmured inside me. “But not even close to enough. I do not want midnight snacks anymore. I want the feast.”

I did not respond, just took another drink, letting the burn settle low in my chest, but when I reached to set the glass on the railing, I noticed the tremble in my hands... and the thin tendrils of red smoke curling from between my fingers.

He wasn’t hiding it anymore. Sorvane wanted out.

The energy leaking from my skin was drawn to her, and I did not have to say her name. We both knew.

Melany.

It hadn’t been me who sent her to the North Wing, the farthest part of the castle. I could’ve kept her in the East Wing or locked her in the dungeons. But I did not, cause that decision belonged to Ragnar.

Sorvane had been tormenting my sleep since the moment she stepped into the castle, knowing she was in the hallway next door, so close I could smell her if I breathed deep enough. 

And now, with another corpse still warm in my bed, I felt his hunger growing desperate.

“What if I never give you her energy?” I said aloud, almost to myself.

There was no answer.

I turned back toward the room, my fingers still damp with cognac, when a blinding pain sliced through the center of my skull. My breath hitched and I stumbled forward.

The glass slipped from my hand, then hit the floor with a sharp crack, shattering into uneven pieces, one of which sliced into the side of my palm as I collapsed to my knees.

The sting of the cut registered dimly, overshadowed by the throbbing in my head, like Sorvane himself was trying to force his way out through skin.

I gritted my teeth and doubled over, one hand clutching the edge of the table to keep from collapsing completely, the other pressed to my temple.

"Fuck!" My jaw clenched so tightly it felt like my teeth might crack.