Chapter 8

I had been standing outside Lady Liora’s room for the past few minutes, spacing out and pacing back and forth mindlessly.

Nervous was an understatement. I was petrified of what would happen the moment I knocked.

“Come in, Elaria.”

I heard Lady Liora call from the other side of the door.

I was honestly surprised. I hadn’t even placed my hand on the door yet.

I entered the room with my hands clasped in front of me, and suddenly, the distance between Lady Liora and me felt as vast as the distance between the Earth and the Sun.

Lady Liora sat at her desk, a ledger open in front of her. Her silver-streaked hair was pinned back, and her posture was as straight as a blade. She didn’t look up immediately.

“You left without a word yesterday.”

At once, I dropped to my knees.

“My lady, I… I’m sorry,” I stammered. “I really didn’t mean to.” I held out the basket containing the broken shards. “I was on my way to your quarters when I accidentally broke a vase. I’m so sorry, my lady.”

She rose from her chair.

“Stand up, Elaria.”

I did, keeping my head bowed.

“It’s fine. I’ll pardon you this once, since you’ve only just started and this is your first mistake. But this must not happen again, understood?”

“Yes, my lady. Thank you so much. I promise it won’t happen again.”

I was about to leave when I remembered something. I turned back and poked my head through the doorway.

“Lady Liora?”

“Yes, Elaria?”

“How did you know I was at the door? I didn’t even knock.”

The corner of her mouth twitched.

“You were pacing right outside my door, Elaria. I heard you.”

“Oh.” Heat flooded my face. I bowed quickly and hurried out before she could say anything else.

The first day after the incident, I scrubbed floors with my head down, always staying close to the other servant so I could blend in.

And  was always on the lookout for HIM. 

I walked around like a thief with my eyes wide open, taking the longest routes, whenever they offered places I could easily hide, even when they cost me extra minutes. By evening, my shoulders ached from how tightly I had been holding them all day.

The second day, nothing happened.

Neither did the third.

By the fourth day, I’d found the quickest route between the laundry and the kitchens, learned which stairs creaked, and discovered how Lady Liora and the other pack members liked their coffee.

It was on the fifth day that the kitchen ran short of hands, and the head cook shoved a wooden spoon at me and said, “You. Can you cook?”

“A little,” I said.

It was the kind of lie I told when I didn’t want to be noticed.

I made something simple: herb-roasted chicken with garlic mashed potatoes, followed by a sweet treat. Oat cakes sweetened with honey, a little trick I’d learned to make them taste better than the usual ones.

 I’d made them a hundred times for the pups back in my old pack, when I’d still had a pack and a place to call home.

Once it was ready, I left the tray of oat cakes cooling on the kitchen’s center table and returned to the laundry.

But when I came back, the tray was empty. 

“Who took them?” the head cook demanded.

A boy around  five  crawled out from beneath the table, crumbs on his chin and a guilty grin showing a missing front tooth. Behind him, three more children peered out from the pantry door, all bright-eyed and sticky-fingered.

“They’re good,” the boy announced. “Can you make more?”

I should have said no. I should have kept my head down, just as I’d promised myself.

But the boy looked up at me with his hopeful little face, and I found myself thinking of my own babies.

A smile tugged at my lips before I could stop it.

“Of course,” I said. “Come back tomorrow.”

They did.

By the end of the week, there were a dozen of them trailing after me through the kitchens like ducklings, asking questions and sneaking little bites whenever they thought I wasn’t looking.

They called me Eliy. One little girl even insisted on braiding my hair with a piece of kitchen twine.

For the first time since I started working in pack houses, I laughed out loud without having to force it.

The children talked, as children do, and their parents began finding reasons to pass through the kitchen. One guard stopped to tell me that his son hadn’t stopped talking about my oat cake. 

I was only a servant, and I expected them to look past me. But they didn’t and I wasn’t used to that kind of attention.

Then, one evening, Lady Liora summoned me.

I had barely stepped into the dining room when she looked up from her plate.

“I hear you’re responsible for the meals everyone’s been talking about.”

I clasped my hands in front of me. “I only helped in the kitchen, my lady.”

She took another bite before setting down her fork.

“Well, whatever you call it, I enjoyed my dinner.”

“Thank you, my lady.”

“Starting tomorrow, I’d like you to oversee dinner. You can work with the head cook to decide on the menu and prepare the meals.”

I blinked, momentarily unsure I’d heard her correctly.

“Every evening, my lady?”

“Unless there’s a change in plans.” She returned her attention to her plate. “Speak with the head cook in the morning. He’ll tell you what provisions are available.”

“Yes, my lady.”

I bowed and left the room, still trying to process what had just happened.

I hadn’t expected to find anything in Blackwood Pack beyond a job.

Yet, somehow, I was beginning to find every little reason to look forward to each day.

For the first time since I started taking odd jobs, I wasn’t counting the hours until I could leave.

And perhaps that was why, later that evening, while folding laundry beside a maid named Tessa, my curiosity finally got the better of me.

I’d heard so much about the Alpha, yet I’d never actually seen him. I hadn’t intended to ask about him, but the question slipped out before I could stop myself.

“Have you seen the Alpha lately?”

Tessa glanced at me. “No, not for a few days. I heard he went to a banquet with Beta Kade and Selene. The banquet usually lasts a week, so I think they’ll be back soon.”