Breaking point

Serafina Pov.

The last time I knelt before anyone, I was nineteen and dumb and in love and too stupid to think attention is love

Now I have grown into a woman.

“Move.” The escort’s hand landed on my shoulder, pressing me down.

I moved slowly. My eyes were cold, and he looked away. The chains between my wrists hurt so bad as I walked the length of the throne room and the sound of it echoed off the marble floors like I was giving a show.

“The weak omega”.

“The one so full of trouble”. Their whispering is more than just a whisper.

There were more than twenty of them, their eyes piercing into me but still I kept moving.

I stopped, I stood in front of the dials, kneeling before him, not because the guards would eventually force me to kneel but because the law doesn't permit any form of disrespect, I had ridden from a distant land to die in my pack because I intentionally chose to err the throne of my ancestors.

My eyes caught a familiar foot. Slowly, I raised my gaze to meet his eyes, his gaze on me.

My body turned cold.

I had practiced perfect composure all this while, I had promised myself not to break in front of him…

What is with this strange feeling?.

I thought five years was more than enough to kill every form of feeling I had for him but then I knew it was a lie and a bitter pill I had refused to swallow.

He was already looking at me.

Daxton Cole

He had grown into his throne the way a club grows into the king of the jungle. He was finally the king, the Alpha Wolf he had been groomed for all his life. He wasn't the nineteen-year-old lover I was always hanging around with, his face bearing a scar.

Dark eyes. Triangular jaw. A crown that sat on his head fitting his head like it was made for him.

“Serafina Voss.” He called out coldly, his voice filled with so much power, the whole court silent.

“You owe a huge debt”.

“Yes..yes I do,” I answered.

The guard nearest to me took a step backward.

Daxton’s jaw shifted slightly. He composed himself.

“Forty gold crowns against the Crown’s ledger,” he said. “Your brother’s default.”

“I know the amount.”

“Then you understand the terms.”

“I’d like to hear them stated clearly,” I said again like I didn't hear him the first time. “Given that I’m the one paying for a debt my family owes.”

The hall fell quiet and I could hear them breathe.

Daxton looked at me for a long moment. Not the way someone looks at someone he wants to have mercy on. His eyes were cold and calculated. I saw a piece of him he hid from the world, his eyes shifted then back.

“Family debt owed to the throne,” he said. “Two-year term. You answer directly to the Crown and the Crown alone. In some cases a debt-clause condition.” A pause that lasted exactly one beat too long. “Unless you prefer to work in the kitchens.”

“I’d prefer to be in Calwen,” I answered before he could finish. “You know the rule.”

Behind me, someone coughed.

Daxton’s eyes turn cold.

“Take her to her quarters,” he ordered.

The guards pulled me up by the elbow in one grip As I turned, Lord Cassian the gold-haired wolf standing solidly at Daxton’s right, wearing an evil smile leaned toward the King.

“I told you she was going to come,” Cassian murmured. She had no choice.”

My throat tightened, but still I dared not speak.

My wolf pressed forward against my ribs.

Be still, I warned.

She stirred for a minute then settled.

The room they gave me was small. Cracked walls. One narrow window barely enough to look through. A cit that cannot survive the trail of the cold wind, I sigh.

A beta servant removed my chains without looking at me and disappeared before I could ask for water.

I sat on the edge of the cot and pressed my thumb hard into the red marks the iron had left on my wrists.

Two years.

Two whole years.

I had survived the worst-case scenarios in those past two years, I'd survive here in Ironveil, I had to survive, there was no other way around it, it's either I survive or I die a survivor.

I had run away from this same place, thinking staying anywhere around the wolves that betrayed me would kill me, who would have thought?

Fate has a way of making you humble before the people you hate the most.

I had spent days in the court of the healer in Roth’e’s chamber in a place where I found warmth in Calwen.

I know the names of dried herbs and how to burn wood to ashes to form ointment, I had been bathed with knowledge and been seen as a healer but then here I am in a place I was supposed to be happy locked up in the Alpha’s quarter as a slave for the sins of my family.

I ran my fingers around the stone room, my wrist still hurting from the tightness of the cabin, I could barely feel my fingers still I bent them, allowing the pain to run through me.

I rubbed it in slowly, if inky they didn't collect my sack, I could squeeze it together to ease the pain.

I heard footsteps approaching the room I was locked up in, I sat up instantly covering my legs with the torn gown I wore, the person’s voice echoed.

I could swear I knew who it was.

The door opened.

“Seraphine”.

“Mira”.

I ran into her embrace, she held me tight like I was going to vanish the next minute, her grey uniform smelled of coal, I held her close, my body melting into hers.

“You've changed so much”. She ran her hand through my face rubbing on it like she wanted to pull it open, I pulled back.

“Mira”. My voice was barely above a whisper.

She turns slowly like she was being monitored, my brows narrowed.

“Sera. You talked back to the king. On your knees. In front of the whole court. Are you on a death wish?”.

“Mira I asked a question”.

“The entire east wing is calling you a weak omega with a death sentence hanging over her head”. She looked at me hard.

I panicked.

“I did nothing wrong”.

“Sera”. She held my hand.

“Mira”. I heaved slowly.

“This isn’t Calwen. You can’t talk back to the king.

You have to be careful around here. He is not who you remember. Whatever version of him you’ve been carrying around for five years, put it down. It won’t help you.”

I looked at her coldly. “I’m not carrying anything.”

She held my gaze with the patience of someone who loved me enough not to argue with me.

“I had to come here to provide some information to you, there's more to what you know”. She lewbee in.

I bent forward.