Four

Vanessa 

That night, I lay on my cot, pressed against the stone walls. I couldn’t sleep. My stomach twisted, maybe from the wolf’s bane, or maybe from everything I couldn’t name.

Even with my wolf silenced, Alec’s voice still echoed in my head, louder than any scream.

The door creaked open. In this house, servants didn’t get locks.

I sat up, turning on the lamp. A large figure walked in, and instantly I knew it wasn’t Alec.

I jumped off the bed.

Lucas, Alec’s Beta, stepped inside. Our eyes met. He had green eyes, like a snake’s.

“Don’t scream,” he said casually.

My heart pounded like a war drum. Olga’s wolf’s bane still dulled my body like lead in my veins.

I remembered Lucas whispering to Alec and turning him away earlier. He knew about this bond. He knew I was a threat.

“Please, don’t kill me.” I backed against the wall, fingers crawling along the wooden edge of the cot.

“It would be easier if you didn’t fight, you filthy bitch.”

I went on my knees and started to cry. “Please, please don’t do this. I beg you.”

“No one is coming to help you,” he said, laughing, then moved closer and closer.

My heartbeat skyrocketed. I couldn’t die like this. I couldn’t let a Beta kill me. I was Alpha. I’d been training in secret.

“Alec saw me coming and didn’t even blink. He’s not coming to save you.”

He pulled my braids so hard that it hurt.

“He’s in the arms of another woman, a woman worthier than you are.”

He unsheathed a dagger.

“Let’s make this quick. Say hello to Daddy in hell.”

Knowing that if I didn’t fight, I would die, I used all of my strength and kicked him in the groin. The dagger flew to the other side of the room. I bolted, heading toward the door, pushing a table fast to block his movement.

“You crazy bitch!” Lucas bellowed, stumbling as he pushed off the floor. He got up and chased me at full speed.

He slammed my skull until everything blurred.

Some servants had rushed out of their rooms, watching in horror.

I was losing strength and blood while trying to escape.

Then Alec burst in, rushing forward and punching Lucas right in the face. The Beta slammed into the wall. I spat blood, scrambling to my feet. Alec turned to me. My arms were burning. He lifted me in a bridal style, shocking me.

“What the hell are you doing?” Lucas screamed. “Why are you saving her?”

Alec’s scent engulfed me like smoke.

I could hear the thump of his heartbeat. He ignored Lucas and carried me into the healer’s vault, laying me down on a bed with ripped fabrics. Then he began to clean my wounds. His hands trembled as he did so. I could sense his anger. It was so deep, he didn’t even have to say the words.

“Lucas was doing the right thing,” he muttered. “I don't need you.”

“Then why did you stop him?” I rasped, sounding cracked and raw.

He didn’t answer.

My chest ached with pain and betrayal. My vision blurred.

He stopped cleaning the wounds. I sat up, wiping the blood from my lip.

Heat pulsed between us. He didn’t take his eyes off me.

Then he chuckled.

“You hate me,” he said, almost curious. “Don’t you?”

There was no point in lying. I nodded, throwing him off with my response. He stepped closer.

“Why does your scent say otherwise?”

He sniffed my neck like it was a drug, breathing me in. I sighed and closed my eyes as he wrapped his hands around my waist.

His touch silenced the screaming inside me.

Then he pulled away.

“Next time,” he whispered, “you won’t be lucky.”

And then he left.

And I ached.

_________

The bruises had faded, but the ache stayed buried in a place no healing could reach.

My wolf, Ellie, was still weak from Olga’s wolfsbane. She wasn’t silent, but her voice was barely a whisper.

I felt sorry for poisoning her in the first place. But if I had to poison her again to suppress this bond, I wouldn’t hesitate.

The memory from last night rushed in. Lucas had tried to kill me, and Alec had stopped him, saved me, carried me... then stood over me and said I was a threat.

He kept sending mixed signals. I needed him to choose. Was I his enemy or something more?

Picking a side wouldn’t change the fact that he killed my father.

I got dressed and headed out. The morning gong had rung, but no one came to wake me. They had all witnessed the horrifying event last night.

No high-ranking wolf ever came down to the servants’ quarters. That changed yesterday, when the Alpha struck his trusted Beta for my sake.

As I stepped out, everyone stared at me like I was a spectacle.

I knew they had questions. But no one asked.

I began scrubbing the marble floors of the eastern wing, fully aware I’d made a permanent enemy just by daring to defend myself from Lucas.

The morning passed quietly. But the afternoon came with drama.

I had just finished doing the dishes when a servant told me I was summoned to the Alpha’s quarters.

She said it with a hint of resentment, like she couldn’t understand why the Alpha noticed me at all. I shut my eyes, took a deep breath to calm myself, and wiped my hands with a rag.

Maybe Lucas had been so humiliated he'd demanded punishment.

I assumed the worst as I ascended the stairs, but when I heard Priestess Olga’s voice, I was relieved.

She sat before the Alpha, her hands folded, dressed in a deep blue robe, her salt-and-pepper hair covered with a white veil.

I avoided Alec’s eyes. The room was silent. The kind of silence that coils in your gut and tightens everything.

I wondered what Olga was up to.

Alec glanced at me, then at Olga.

“She’s here,” Olga said, sounding slightly amused.

“I’m not blind,” he replied flatly. “Speak now.”

Olga nodded. “A prophecy came to me last night, through flame and moonlight. You are bound to this servant, not by chance, but by divine will. And such bonds come with a price.”

He didn’t speak.

Only Olga could twist something I told her into a divine revelation.

Alec might have killed her if he knew how deep her hatred for him ran.

She continued, “If you keep her alive, your reign will rise beyond anything your ancestors imagined. You will be a legend. The prophecy says your name will be remembered long after you're gone.”

“And if I don’t?” Alec asked, raising a brow.

Olga’s voice dropped in full.

“If you don’t, it will spell ruin. Despair. Loneliness. The broken bond will slowly destroy you. Your wolf will run mad.”

My stomach turned. Every word was a lie, but I stayed quiet.

His gaze lingered, and my skin prickled as if it remembered his touch.

He looked like he was about to speak, but stopped himself at the last second.

With a flick of his fingers, he dismissed me like I was nothing.

I turned and walked out, forcing my legs to move while everything inside me screamed to stay.