CHAPTER FOUR

CINDER

The slap came too fast to anticipate.

Pain exploded across my cheek, white hot and blistering. 

My head snapped to the side, the force sending me stumbling into the desk behind me. The edge dug into my hip, but I barely felt it—because the second slap came right after, just as sharp, just as merciless.

The room spun. 

Pain bloomed at my hip but it was dull and secondary, drowned out by the sting blazing across my face. 

My ears rang.

The sting burned, but I refused to let the tears fall.

I clenched my fists. Swallowed hard and willed the tears not to fall. Fuck.

I refused to give him that particular satisfaction.

Alpha Romero stood over me, his presence suffocating, golden eyes burning with barely contained fury.

I tried to remember how I'd been stupid enough to follow him into the castle. I should have known better. I shouldn't have followed him away from prying eyes. Away from Elio.

Alpha Romero had household rules. And the first?

Never strike me in front of Elio.

But here, in the privacy of these stone walls, there were no such restraints.

"You think you can humiliate me in front of the entire kingdom?"he said, voice like cold steel.

I forced myself to straighten, my cheek throbbing in tune with my heartbeat. “I only spoke the truth.”

His fingers twitched at his sides. For a second, I thought he’d strike me again.

“You’re sharp-tongued and argumentative,” he said, voice low and lethal. “If all women were like you, the world would be in chaos.”

I swallowed the bitter laugh threatening to rise. He says that like it would be a bad thing.

My father was a misogynistic asshole. I wondered about the rumours about him loving my mother to the moon and back. Seemed like a whole lot of dogshit.

He took a slow step forward, every move beyrayed agression he felt towards me. “Women should adhere to their expected roles and behavior—obedience to their father before marriage, obedience to their husband after marriage.”

My jaw clenched.

“They should also have proper virtue, speech, appearance, and skills.” His gaze flicked over me in quiet disdain. “You have none of those.”

The words struck harder than the slap.

I had known—gods, I had always known—that he saw me as nothing more than a burden. A mistake he never wanted. But hearing it, feeling the weight of it in the cold, detached way he spoke…

It made something deep inside me snap.

He didn't just see me as a burden anymore. Now I was something he could trade at will. 

That marriage alliance was not happening.

“So that’s all I'm good for?” I whispered, my voice shaking. “Being silent and obedient? Popping out heirs like livestock?”

A muscle in his jaw ticked. “That is our way. It has been since the beginning.”

“No,” I shot back. “It’s your way.”

Something dangerous flickered in his gaze.

I should have stopped there. But the rage, the years of suppression, the weight of my insignificance, all of it boiled over.

“You are a coward,” I spat, stepping forward. “You are so afraid of what I could be that you’ve spent my entire life ensuring I would never be anything at all. Now you want to tie me down with someone i couldn’t give two shits about.”

Romero stilled.

A slow, lethal silence filled the space between us.

Then, suddenly—his hand shot out.

Fingers curled around my throat. Not squeezing. Just holding. Claiming. His touch cold as ice.

I stiffened.

The air between us shrank, heavy with unspoken things. My pulse pounded beneath his grip.

“You are nothing, Cinder,” he said softly. “And you never will be. Marry, that's your only use.”

His grip loosened.

And then he turned his back on me.

The dismissal was final.

I should have bit my tongue. Accepted my fate. Should have let it go and just agree to the alliance like a good little girl who craved her daddy's approval. 

But my pride, my anger, my everything screamed inside me.

So I did the one thing no wolf in Vargrheim had ever done before.

I turned my back, on him.

And walked away.

!! !! !! !! !! !!

The cold air outside hit like a slap. I barely made it past the castle gates before my chest caved in, my breath shaking.

I hadn’t expected to win against Father. But gods, I hadn’t expected it to hurt this much either.

I wanted to scream. I wanted to break something.

Instead, I bit my tongue, forced a smile and steadied my hands while passing by people and breaking character immediately away from civilization—pressing a hand to my stinging cheek and walking—anywhere, just away.

The woods were quieter than usual. The festivities were still in full swing, the warriors distracted, the people celebrating.

No one noticed as I stepped beyond the clearing, past the torches and the warmth of the pack.

What am I?

A step above a human. A wolf without a wolf.

The Goddess had forsaken me.

I let out a bitter laugh. “Figures.”

For the short seventeen years of my life I'd seen a lot of forsaking.

I had walked till my mind felt clearer but how far I didn't know.

Just then a branch snapped.

I froze.

The shift in the air was subtle, almost unnoticeable. But something was wrong.

The hairs on the back of my neck rose.

Slowly, I turned and looked into the forest and wished I saw nothing staring back at me but darkness.

By gods...Two glowing red eyes stared back at me.

It wasn't the eyes of a wolf! 

The creature stepped out of the shadows and my soul almost left my body but I had to pull it back.

It was tall. Wrongly shaped. Its limbs too long, its skin an unnatural gray. The stench of decay rolled toward me, thick and cloying.

A sickness churned in my stomach.

This thing was not from our world.

I took a slow and shaky step back and It moved.

Fast.

My body reacted before my mind did. I ran.

It was a talent really.

The earth blurred beneath me, my feet pounding against the dirt, breath coming in sharp, frantic bursts.

I wove through the trees, my lungs burning, my vision tunneling. No matter how many turns I took, how many swerves I made—it kept pace.

When it was clear there was no way losing the thing, I screamed.

"Father."

I had no pack link. No wolf. Nothing. I was completely defenseless and alone. I hadn’t taken a look at the route I had taken and didn't know how far away from everyone I was.

All I could do was scream.

My lungs burned but I kept on pushing.

"Quinn."

"Elio!" My voice cracked. I was desperate.

No one could hear me.

I was going to die.