The veil

the main door to the outer chambers burst open.

The sight of the people who entered was shocking and surreal. They looked like humans but better. They were carefully dressed and had great posture but they radiated an energy that felt harsh and unwelcome.

It was them. Sylvia's three sisters.

I knew their names suddenly, like Lily’s memories no, Sylvia's memories pushing in. Mira, Jessa, and Kael. All beautiful, all dressed like princesses. And behind them, the woman I had mistakenly called mother earlier. well technically she’s my mother now. Lady Irish.

But this time she looked calm. Too calm. That fake calm that means someone is about to be killed. “Sylvia! You are awake," Mira said, the oldest. Her voice held no relief, only irritation. She was tall, smartly dressed, her face filled with disgust.

Jessa, the second one with tightly bound blonde hair rushed forward towards me. I stepped back trying to avoid her but she grabbed my arm, her fingers digging in painfully. "Are you mad? ! Mothers training did nothing to establish you. You cannot afford this weakness, girl!"

Of course it was my luck that I would wake up in the body of a daughter who was considered a disappointment.

"disappointment?" I managed to croak out, my voice sounding shaky. I remembered falling into water, and waking up as another disappointment .

"Silence!" Lady Irish barked, stepping into the room. Her calm broke. "You were supposed to be ready. You are a disgrace."

I pulled my arm away from Jessa. "What are you talking about? Where am I?"

Kael stared at me as if I had grown a second head. "The Irish Manor, you foolish child! Stop this pretense. We have a crisis. The Choosing Ball is tonight."

"The Ball?"

"Yes, the Choosing Ball!" Lady Irish hissed, leaning closer. "The Alpha's annual scenting. Your sisters are supposed to be presented, along with the other high families. And you will ruin it with your... no scent weakness if you don't stay in your room."

The three sisters giggled. Mira looked at the box on my desk the box I forgot to hide. Mira stopped reaching for the box. She smiled. That mean smile.

"We are tired of seeing you here, Sylvia," she said.

Lady Irish crossed her arms. "Lord Rouph wants to buy you. For pleasure needs. He has been asking."

My blood went cold.

"What?"

Jessa laughed. "Don't act shocked. You are 18, no scent, no use. No wolf wants you as a mate. But Rouph is old, his fated mate died years ago. He will take anything with a pulse."

Lady Irish's voice was flat. Cold.

"He has paid. So just dress to the Ball with your 3 sisters and follow him home after."

He has paid.

The pain with that word hit me like a bullet.

Paid. Like I was cattle. Like I was a chair they were selling. I had died to escape being unwanted in my old world, and now in this world I was being sold to an old wolf for pleasure because my own family was tired of seeing my face.

"Get her Kael's old dress," Lady Irish snapped at Jessa. "The torn one. She doesn't deserve a new one.

I thought I had escape a life of being unwanted. Sylvia was being forced into a situation where she was unwanted and yet expected to risk her life to save her family greed.

"I understand," I whispered, the words tasting bitter. I had no choice.

Tonight, I will attend the damn Choosing Ball.

The next day was a blur of instructions, coupled with the shock of this new world I was pushed into. I honestly still did not understand what was going on. Lady Irish and Mira kept referring to me as Sylvia. I realized that I had to start thinking of myself that way to avoid questions I had no answers to.

As the academic that I was, I knew that I needed to gain more information about this new life if I was going to survive. I lost my life once, I would not give it up again.

I wore the torn dress given to me by Lady Irish, Kael's old dress that smelled like her perfume and she ushered me out of my small, hidden room at the end of the drafty hallway. We walked down a long, dim corridor to the main family wing of the manor. The Irish home was large and expensive but it didn't feel like a home. No personal touches or pictures. Just dark wood panels, thick curtains that swallowed sound, and cold air.

It was really sad.

"She'll wear a thick veil, Mira. She won't speak. She will stand behind you and melt into the crowd. She is simply a required body to satisfy the law. You, my beautiful girl, are the true prize." Lady Irish said it like she was comforting Mira, but she was glaring at me.

Jessa crossed her arms, still glaring at me. Her resentment was serious and I had no idea why it would be that strong. She had been going to the ball for the past 4 years and she wasn't picked. What makes her think this time would be any different? I guess she must hate that this year, it looked like I was threatening her position.

"Just stand still, Sylvia till Lord Rouph sent his men to escort you," Kael whispered, her voice loving, feels like a calculating bitch to me. "Don't attract any attention. If you draw the eye of a wolf especially the King, it's not just you who suffers. They can demand anything. You know this."

I didn't know this but logic lets me understand that it means danger. Here, wolves have all the power.

"Why was I hidden?" I asked, unable to stop the question.

Lord Irish turned on me instantly. "You dare question us? You were so sickly when you were young. You were small. You will obey or I will ensure you spend the rest of your definitely short life as a public slave to Rouph and his men."

The cruelty was shocking, yet familiar. My parents' emotional neglect in my old life had been replaced by this family's open hostility.

And Mira stepped closer, adjusting my thick veil with a hard yank