Chapter 6

Astrid’s Pov

“You.” Aliyah’s voice cut straight through me like a blade. “Stand up. Now.”

I scrambled to my feet so fast I nearly knocked the chair over. “I’m so sorry, Luna. The Alpha called me here. I swear, I didn’t come on my own. I would never—”

“Relax.” She waved her hand like my words were flies buzzing around her head. Then she turned to Xavier with a smile so sweet it made my stomach turn. “Don’t worry, baby. I’ll take her out myself. She might even know something about this whole vampire chaos.”

Her fingers wrapped around my wrist to drag me out.

“Stop it, woman.”

Xavier’s voice didn’t rise. It didn’t need to. It landed in the room like a stone dropped in still water, and everything went quiet.

Aliyah froze.

I froze too.

Even the air felt like it stopped moving.

Aliyah turned slowly, and for just a second, the shock on her face was almost funny. She released my wrist, but the damage was already done. Even in that short moment of contact, the obvious mark was there. Xavier was still seated, his cup of wine in one hand, his claws still partially extended, resting against the goblet like it was the most natural thing in the world.

“What do you mean, stop?” Aliyah asked carefully. “Everyone has to be checked, Xavier. That is what the Moon Goddess ordered. Everyone.”

My heart was slamming so hard I was sure one of them could hear it.

What was he going to say?

Was he going to hand me over? Was this it? Was he going to tell her to go ahead and drag me down there because I was the one, because I had put my fangs in his neck?

I kept my eyes down and waited.

“Do you think,” Xavier said slowly, “that I would bring someone into my personal chambers who had not already been checked?”

Aliyah blinked.

“And do you think,” he continued, his voice dropping just slightly lower, “that you can walk anyone out of my rooms without my permission?”

Aliyah’s expression shifted. The sweetness fell away. She stepped toward him and placed one hand on his arm, tilting her head like she was speaking to a child. “Xavier, come on. Since when do you sound like this? She is just a servant. A nobody. It would not be the first time I have handled things for you. We are supposed to be one, remember?”

“Not until I say so,” he said simply.

She let out a breath and tried a different angle. “Fine. Fine, I understand you are still shaken from what happened, but trust me, I only went to find a healer.”

Xavier looked at me then.

“Astrid.” His voice was calm. Final. “Go back to the servants’ quarters. When I call for you at dawn, come to my chambers immediately. Do not make me wait.”

“Yes, Alpha.” I dipped my head quickly. “Thank you. Thank you, Luna.”

“Fast. You heard what he said,” Aliyah snapped, already turning back to Xavier, already lowering herself toward him.

I did not need to be told again to leave or to be told what they were about to do.

I slipped out of the room and pulled the heavy door shut behind me. Through the thick wood, I could already hear Aliyah’s voice shifting back to that soft, coaxing tone. I didn’t look back. 

I walked fast. Then faster.

My mind would not settle. Why would the Alpha save me again, he could have handed me over, but he did not.

Was he going to torture me before handing me over? Oh Goodness, just the thought of it alone.

I turned a corner and walked straight into a wall.

Except it wasn’t a wall.

“Ow—”

The person didn’t move. Not even a step back. I stumbled and went down hard, landing on the cold stone floor.

I looked up.

Talon.

The Beta stared down at me with an expression I couldn’t quite read. He was tall and solid, with shorter hair than Xavier, though both of them carried that same quiet, terrifying authority that made the air feel thinner just standing near them. He looked like something carved from stone and left to harden for centuries.

“I’m so sorry.” I pressed my palms to the floor, mortified. “I’m so sorry, I wasn’t watching where I was going, I didn’t mean to—”

Why could I not just be invisible? Why could I not move through this castle like the other servants, silent and unnoticed, blending into the walls? Why was I always the one falling, always the one causing problems?

Talon crouched down and extended his hand.

I shook my head quickly. “There’s no need. I’m fine, truly—”

“Take my hand.”

It wasn’t a request. I took it. He pulled me to my feet with barely any effort and released me just as easily.

“Have you been checked?” he asked. “By the Moon Goddess. I didn’t see you there.”

My heart stopped.

“Yes,” I said, too quickly. “I have. I was called to Alpha Xavier’s chambers and he— I mean, I was already checked before, and then he called me, so I’m going back to the servants’ quarters now because he said to wait there until—”

“I didn’t ask you all of that,” Talon said flatly. “I only asked if you had been checked.”

My mouth stayed open for a second with no words coming out.

Then the corner of his mouth moved. Just slightly.

“I’m kidding,” he said. “You can go.”

Something unknotted in my chest so fast it almost made me dizzy. I let out a breath I had been holding since the moment I ran out of Xavier’s chambers, maybe longer, and managed a shaky nod before I turned and kept walking.

I went to the servants’ quarters without colliding with anyone again. The room was full — beds laid out across the floor, clothes scattered in piles, the low sound of people sleeping or pretending to. I found my spot and sat down, pressing my back against the wall and pulling my knees to my chest.

That was when I looked at my arm.

My skin was peeling.

Not badly. Not yet. But enough. Thin, dry patches along my forearm, curling at the edges like paper left near a flame.

“Oh my goodness,” I breathed.

It had been days. I had been here for days, and I had not taken the potion. Not once. Back home, my mother prepared it herself every week without fail. She kept the ingredients in a small locked chest beneath her bed, and she never missed a single dose. Not in all the years I could remember.

My mother.

The thought landed like a fist to the chest.

She was gone.

I pressed my lips together hard, but it didn’t help. The tears came anyway, quiet and burning. I would never see her again. I would never hear her voice or feel her hands on my face or watch her move around our small home like she owned the whole world. She had kept me alive all these years, and now she was gone, and I was sitting here in a castle full of wolves slowly coming apart at the skin.

I wiped my face with the back of my hand.

A few more days without the potion and it would get worse. The peeling would spread. My scent would shift. My eyes would change. And when that happened, every wolf in this kingdom would know exactly what I was.

How was I supposed to get the ingredients? I couldn’t leave. I didn’t even know if the plants needed grew anywhere near here. I had nothing, no chest and no herbs.

I stared at the peeling skin on my arm.

I was running out of time.

The door swung open.

I looked up, expecting Mara or one of the other servants.

It was Luna Aliyah.

She stepped inside slowly, her eyes sweeping the room until they landed on me. The other servants scrambled up to their feet immediately. I started to follow.

“Are you supposed to kneel before your Luna?” she asked, her voice light and almost amused. “Or are you too comfortable now? Too important?”

But others are standing….

I dropped to my knees.

Her hand shot out and grabbed a fistful of my hair, yanking so hard my neck snapped back and my eyes watered instantly.

“You made my Alpha speak to me like I had no place in this kingdom,” she said, her voice low and shaking with fury. “Because of you. A lowly, worthless nothing like you.” She leaned in close enough that I could feel her breath on my face. “I will make every single day of your life miserable. You won’t  survive this place. Mark your days, because you are going to die by my hands. And when I mean no one… no one is coming to save you.”