Missandei's POV

The door creaked open sometime near dawn, light spilling into the cell and stinging my eyes after hours in the dark.

"Get up," Ferris said, his voice flat, tired. "You're needed in the kitchen."

I blinked up at him, my body stiff from the cold stone floor, my legs barely able to hold me as I pushed myself upright. "So that's it? I'm just... let out?"

"Seems the item turned up," he said, not quite meeting my eyes. "Wasn't you after all."

Relief should have flooded through me, but it didn't. Just a hollow kind of exhaustion, and a question that sat heavy in my chest. If it wasn't me, then who had it been? And why had no one bothered to apologize for locking a girl in a freezing cell over a mistake?

"You're wanted with the other maids," Ferris continued, stepping aside to let me pass. "Big day today. It's the coronation so get moving."

I nodded, too tired to argue, and made my way up the narrow stairs on legs that still trembled from cold and hunger. I hadn't even tasted water since the previous day.

The morning air outside the lower levels felt really harsh but warm and better than the cold air in the cell.

The kitchen was already packed with workers, it was a storm of noise by the time we arrived, pots clattering, Cook shouting orders, trays being stacked higher than I'd ever seen them stacked before.

The whole pack house had been transformed overnight. Today, Asher Thornwood would be crowned Alpha.

I didn't know much about him. I'd heard the name whispered around the quarters for weeks, the alpha's son, returning after years away, finally ready to take his father's place. To me he was just another privileged wolf of noble blood who had no idea how lucky he was to not be born among the weaker class. Sometimes I wish I could experience such privilege.

The cook told me I would serving in the hall during the coronation, so I changed into my outfit. A plane apron.

The great hall had been transformed since I'd last seen it. Long banners bearing the Silverfang crest hung from the high ceilings, chairs arranged in neat rows facing the raised platform where the throne sat.

I moved along the edges of the room with my tray, offering drinks, careful not to make eye contact. Making eye contact with one of the nobles as a commoner was almost against the rules.

I caught a glimpse of him once, Asher, standing near the front of the hall in formal dark robes, speaking quietly with an older wolf I assumed was his father, the current Alpha. He looked nothing like what I expected. Not cold or distant like most of the pack's higher ranks, and a lot more handsome than I expected. I quickly looked away, averting my eyes from him.

Staring at an Alpha for that long was worse than staring at a noble.

I kept my head down and I planned to stay that way for the rest of the ceremony.

The ceremony began not long after, the Alpha rising to speak. I stood near the back wall with my tray, watching along with everyone else. Then I noticed some commotion from across the room.

A guard came rushing through the side doors, whispering urgently to the Alpha's chief guard, a tall, broad man named Corrin who I'd only ever seen from a distance. Corrin's face went hard almost instantly. He moved to the Alpha, leaning close, murmuring something that made the older man's expression shift instantly.

The ceremony halted. Whispers rippled through the crowd.

Corrin raised his voice, addressing the hall. "The heirloom necklace has gone missing from the throne room. No one leaves until it's found."

The words dropped like stones into the silence. The heirloom, I'd heard the maids whisper about it before, an ancient golden necklace passed down through generations of Silverfang alphas, meant to be presented during the coronation itself. And now it was gone.

"Lock the doors," Corrin ordered. "Everyone stays exactly where they are."

Guards moved quickly, sealing the hall, positioning themselves at every exit. My stomach twisted uncomfortably. I don't know why but I didn't like the way things were going.

"We will search everyone," Corrin announced, his voice hard, echoing off the high ceilings. "Guards. Maids. Every worker in this house. No exceptions."

The search began at the front of the hall and moved back in rows. Most of the noble guests were spared the roughest handling, they were allowed to go after a brief search but It was different for the staff.

I watched as they reached a young maid near the kitchen doors, a girl named Sela who I barely knew. She flinched away when a guard reached for her apron.

"I haven't touched anything," she said, voice shaking. "Please, don't—"

The guard didn't listen. When she tried to pull back again, his hand cracked across her face hard enough that the sound rang out across the hall. She stumbled, pressing a hand to her cheek, tears springing to her eyes, but no one moved to help her.

My chest tightened watching it.

The girl finally accepted for them to search her but after she was sent away from the room.

Then they reached me.

"Arms out," the guard said, already reaching for my apron pockets.

"Fine," I said quietly, lifting my arms, wanting nothing more than to get this over with. "I have nothing to hide."

I had nothing on me but a rag tucked into my apron and the small folded cloth I used to wipe down trays. I stood still, jaw tight, waiting for him to finish and move on to the next person the way he had with everyone else.

Instead, his hand froze against the deep pocket sewn into the side of my uniform.

My stomach dropped before he even pulled his hand back out.

Gold caught the light first, glinting between his fingers as he raised it high enough for the whole hall to see. The heirloom necklace, ancient and unmistakable, dangling from his fist like a trophy.

A loud gasp rippled through the room.

"No." The word left me before I could stop it, my voice cracking. "No, that's not…I didn't put that there."

Every eye in the hall turned toward me. Corrin's expression darkened as he strode forward, the necklace still raised, proof enough for everyone watching.

"I didn't take it," I said again, my voice rising, panic clawing up my throat. "I swear, I didn't touch it! I don't even know how that got there! Someone put it there, I was framed, please, you have to believe me!"