Four

Vanessa

Sleep wouldn't come. I was in my tiny cubicle in the servants' quarters, a room that was little more than a closet with a thin mattress.

It was well past midnight. I kept tossing and turning on the lumpy bed, the rough blanket scratching my skin.

I wondered if poisoning myself with wolfsbane had been a smart idea after all.

My body felt heavy and weak, a strange coldness spreading through my veins where my wolf’s fire used to be. Ellie was silent. But even with her gone, Alec’s face appeared in my thoughts, louder and clearer than ever.

His golden-brown eyes, filled first with shock, then rage, then that confusing, tortured pain. The memory was a constant ache.

Creeeeak.

The sound was soft, but in the dead quiet of the servants' wing, it was as loud as a scream. My door was opening. Someone was sneaking in.

I sat bolt upright. I reached out and flicked on the small lamp sitting on the crate I used as a nightstand. The yellow light filled the room. Servants' doors didn’t have locks. We weren’t considered important enough to need privacy or security.

A large figure stepped inside, ducking under the doorframe. My breath caught in my throat. It was Lucas, Alec's Beta.

He closed the door behind him, sealing me inside.

My werewolf vision, one of the few things the wolfsbane hadn't dulled, allowed me to see his eyes clearly even in the dim light. They were green, the color of a snake, and they held a predatory warmth that made my skin crawl.

My heart pounded so hard I was sure he could hear it. I hated that I had taken the poison. Without it, my own Alpha blood would have given me the strength to take him on.

My wolf was stronger than his. I would have had no problem tackling a mere Beta to the ground. But now? Now I was just a weak, human-feeling girl trapped in a box with a predator.

I jumped off the bed.

"You shouldn't scream," Lucas said. His voice was so casual, so light, as if he were joking with a friend. It was the calmest, most terrifying thing I had ever heard. I knew, right then, that something terrible was about to happen.

Did he know? Did Alec tell him about the bond?

Of course, he knew. Why else would the Beta be sneaking into my room in the middle of the night?

The words spilled out of my mouth in a choked whisper. "Please… don't kill me."

I backed away until my back hit the wall. There was nowhere else to go.

A slow, cruel smile spread across Lucas’s face. "Oh, you filthy bitch," he said, his voice losing its casual tone and filling with venom. "If you make a single sound, I promise I will make this much, much more gruesome than it needs to be."

Tears started to well in my eyes. This time, they were real. They weren’t tears of fear. I wasn’t afraid of death. I had faced the idea of my own death every day for the past six years.

No, these were tears of exhaustion. I was overwhelmed. This was it. This was the beginning of the rest of my life, constantly looking over my shoulder, fighting off assassins sent by the man who was supposed to protect me above all others.

Lucas found my tears amusing. "No one is coming to help you, girl," he said, taking a slow step forward. "No one cares about a traitor's daughter."

He kept moving closer, his large frame seeming to suck all the air from the tiny room. My heartbeat skyrocketed.

He could be carrying a silver dagger or something coated in a poison that would finish what the wolfsbane started.

If I remained in my human form, he could just choke the life out of me with his bare hands. I couldn’t let him kill me. Not a mere Beta. Not after everything I had survived. I was an Alpha. I had trained in secret for this. But my body felt so weak.

Then he delivered the final blow. "Don't bother hoping for your mate to save you," he sneered, his green eyes glittering with malice. "Alec saw me coming here. He knows what I'm about to do. And he's not coming."

A sharp pain, completely separate from fear, shot through my chest.

So Alec really had abandoned me. He had sent his dog to put me down.

Lucas closed the last bit of distance between us. He grabbed a fistful of my hair, yanking my head back so hard that my neck cracked. The pain was sharp and blinding. He leaned in close, his hot, foul breath whispering harshly into my ear.

"Right now, he's in the arms of another woman. A woman who is worthy of him."

My eyes darted to his side. I saw the handle of a dagger tucked into his belt. As his hand moved toward it, my survival instincts took over. With a desperate cry, I shoved him with all my might.

He stumbled back, surprised by my sudden strength. I used the moment to scramble away to the other side of the room.

He growled, unsheathing the dagger. The blade gleamed in the lamplight. "Fine," he hissed. "Let's make this quick. Say hello to your daddy in hell."

The dagger flew through the air, a silver blur aimed straight at my heart. I dropped to the side. The blade missed my chest, but I felt a searing hot line of pain on my ear. It had grazed me, cutting deep. It flew past my head and embedded itself in the wall behind me with a sickening thud.

Lucas was furious. He rushed toward me, ready to use his size and weight to crush me. But as he lunged, I kicked out, my foot connecting squarely with his groin. He roared in pain and surprise, doubling over.

"Crazy bitch!" he choked out, his face twisted in rage.

He recovered quickly. He got up and began to chase me around the room, a sick, terrifying game of cat and mouse. I needed to get to the door, but he kept blocking my path.

My desperate cries and his angry growls had to be waking the other servants.

Someone please come, I prayed silently. Please help me. But no one came.

Somehow, in the chaos, Lucas managed to grab me. He slammed me against the wall, his hands pinning my arms. I tried to shift. I called on Ellie, on my Alpha power, on anything. But there was nothing. Just a hollow emptiness where my strength used to be.

The wolfsbane had done its job too well. I was losing strength, and the cut on my ear was bleeding freely now, warm blood running down my neck.

This was it. I was going to die here.

Suddenly, the door to my room exploded inward, ripped from its hinges.

A dark figure filled the doorway.

Alec.

He rushed forward and punched Lucas squarely in the face. The sound of the impact was like a crack of thunder. Lucas was thrown backward, slamming hard into the wall and sliding to the floor in a daze.

"What the hell do you think you're doing?" Lucas sputtered from the floor, wiping blood from his lip. He looked outraged. "Why are you saving her? This was the plan!"

Alec didn’t look at him. His eyes were locked on me, on the blood dripping from my ear, on the terror I knew was plain on my face. Without a word, he moved forward and scooped me up into his arms, bridal style.

"Go to bed, Lucas," Alec said, his voice a low, dangerous growl.

He carried me out of the room, stepping over the broken door. His scent engulfed me like smoke. It should have felt threatening, but instead, it felt like the safest place in the world. I could hear the frantic thump of his heartbeat against my ear.

He carried me down the hallway to the pack’s healing chamber. He laid me gently on one of the beds. Then he turned away and began to search through the cabinets, grabbing bandages, antiseptic wipes, and clean cloths.

I watched him, completely stunned. His hands were trembling from a suffocating rage. He didn’t have to say a word. I could feel it.

He came back to the bed and began to clean the gash on my ear.

"Lucas was doing the right thing. I don’t need you."

His words were like a slap. "Then why did you stop him?" I choked out.

He didn’t answer. His touch was surprisingly gentle. My chest ached. He made sure the cut was clean and then applied a bandage. His fingers lingered on my skin for a moment longer than necessary.

When he was done, I didn’t wait. I slid off the bed, my weak legs protesting. I had to get away from him, away from this painful bubble. I started to walk, heading for the door.

I was just at the doorway when I heard his hard voice behind me.

"Next time, you won't be lucky."

I walked out, leaving him there, my heart aching with a pain far worse than any cut from a dagger.