Chapter 4

Kaida’s POV

“Why do you all call him Alpha?” I asked as I was escorted up the stairs. “Is he some kind of leader or something? And is he always this bossy?”

"I don't even know how I got here, and now, I am being forced to stay in some dark and scary room until the issue with some veil I also have no idea of gets sorted. Can you imagine…"

“Kaida,” she began softly, walking ahead of me and turning around so I was facing her. “You are Kaida, right?”

I nodded slowly, suddenly enamoured by her looks. It was the first time I was taking a good look at her since we left the grand hall.

I had seen all sorts of beauties from models that lined the walls of my room to actresses that graced my screens. But never had I seen someone like the lady in front of me.

She made me look like a sack of potatoes standing next to her, in her wavy obsidian-black hair, tumbling down her waist, and her porcelain skin, not one blemish in place.

"Alpha Kellan isn't the person you want to joke with," she continued, her voice low and sultry, almost lulling me to sleep. "Tell him what you know about the veil."

“Who exactly is he?”

Her eyes darted towards the warriors lining the hallway, and then back at me.

“Follow me.”

I fell into step behind her, not saying a word until we were in the room right before the last door in the hallway.

My jaw dropped as I stepped into the room. I’d been mentally bracing myself for a cell, similar to the one I’d found myself in. Instead, I was in a freaking castle bedroom with a green canopy on the bed, looking like something from a fairy tale.

It made no sense.

The room was huge. Three times the size of the one I had back at home. The green luxurious rug melted around my feet with each step I took, revealing thick green curtains hanging on the windows.

There were two doors at opposite ends of the room. A walk-in closet and an adjoining bathroom. This was no jail, but I wasn't sure what it was.

“Come,” Selene called, patting the space next to her on the bed. “Tell me how you got here. I’ll listen.”

I sighed and joined her on the white sheets. Since I got here, I haven't had the time or privilege to talk. Everyone wanted to know how I got in here, but when I tried answering, they didn't believe me.

I had no clue what they wanted to hear.

“What’s so important about how I got here?” I asked, folding my legs up. “I mean, people get lost all the time.”

“You heard Alpha Kellan talk about the veil, right?”

I nodded.

“Over a century ago, a veil was put around the pack to keep outsiders from coming in. There were attacks from rival packs and rogues, sometimes witches, that we had to protect ourselves from inside.”

My head was reeling. Witches? Rival packs? Was I in some fantasy movie?

“Anyone who tries to get through the veil without express permission from the Alpha dies. No one has been able to come in on their own since then. But you…”

“I walked right in like I owned the place,” I murmured, nodding. “But I still don’t get it.”

“You’re human, right?” she questioned like she was anything different.

"With your curiosity, you must have read the history of shape shifters? I find it a bit cringeworthy and not exactly the truth, but…"

“The one about werewolves!”

She snapped her fingers. “Yes. That.” And then, angled her head, watching me.

"So… you are a werewolf?"

She was different.

It came out as a question because I didn't know what to believe. Not yet. It still sounded strange, like an out-of-body experience. A huge part of me expected to wake up from this dream soon.

“I am the Beta’s mate, and the man you met a few minutes ago is the…”

“Alpha.” My voice had dropped to a whisper. “It’s the reason you all are scared of him.”

"And for good reasons, too," she added pointedly. "Alpha Kellan has been the most ruthless and powerful Alpha this pack has ever seen. No one dares cross him. Not even me."

I raised a brow. I was reeling with too much information to catch any more, but still, I did. It was the way she said the last bit, like she expected to be treated differently.

“Not even you?”

Something flashed in her eyes. Something that felt deeper than mere familiarity, but it was gone so fast that I would have missed it if I hadn’t been staring at her.

A sudden rage erupted within me, so similar to the fire that I’d had to live with all my life. But there was something different about this.

It made me fold my hands in fists by my side, as one person’s face came into my mind.

Alpha Kellan.

The rage gave way to confusion as I halted at once, trying to understand where that had come from. I had no claim to Kellan, and I didn't want to.

What the hell was wrong with me?

She got on her feet abruptly. “I have to leave you now, but I’m positive you would be fine.”

“How? Kellan might kill me or something before tomorrow.”

She laughed. “He won’t do that.”

"You said he was the most ruthless and powerful Alpha this…pack has ever had." It felt so weird verbally admitting that the world of werewolves really existed, that those fantasy novels I busied myself with back in high school during a boring chemistry class were real.

“I know Alpha Kellan, Kaida. If he wanted to harm you, he wouldn’t have put you in the room next to his. Nobody has occupied this room since…”

An awkward chuckle slipped from her lips. “I should really leave.”

The door opened noiselessly under her slender fingers, closing behind her.

“I never even asked her for her name,” I whispered in my head, feeling all alone.

“Selene.”

Everything in me halted abruptly, just as my eyes scanned the walls of the room, and then looked towards the door. It was still shut, just the way it was when she left.

Did I just hear her voice in my head?