Tribute

CHAPTER 6

Ashlyn’s POV

The rest of the night, I couldn’t sleep.

I lay frozen in bed. Trembling and trying to control my sobs while Hunt was passed out beside me.

Was this punishment? To be reborn in a world where my husband hated me? 

Death would be more merciful. 

My suppressed sobs choked me all night, and sometime near dawn, I finally passed out.

The next morning, shouting dragged me awake.  

I rolled over with a groan, pulling the covers over my ears to muffle out the noise.

But it got louder and closer.

What was—

“GET THE FUCK OUT OF MY WAY! NOW!”

A woman’s loud voice pulled me from my sleep. And I barely had a second to open my eyes before my bedroom door burst open.

“HUNTER!”

I scrambled back, clutching the covers to my chest, and froze as the woman’s voice rippled through the room.

Lucinda?

Her dark curls came into view, and my body shuddered with relief.

One more familiar face from my past life. 

Lucinda was Hunt’s childhood best friend, but after my wedding, she had become mine as well. 

Something in my chest lifted, and still holding the sheets to my chest, my lips shifted in a relieved smile.

But then her head turned to me sharply. And the look in her eyes… gods, my smile stuttered then dropped.

Lucinda’s gaze dragged over me with venom. Her eyes burning with anger and disgust, like I was something she’d scraped off her shoe.

Then she turned across the room to where Hunt stood. “Why the fuck is this traitor here?!” 

My heart skipped a beat. 

I hadn’t even noticed he was up. He stood by a desk, almost fully dressed, and adjusted a button on his shirt. At Lucinda’s words, his fingers paused, and then he raised a brow at her.

“I heard the rumors, but don’t tell me you actually did it?!” Lucinda gasped in disbelief, her voice rising in outrage. “You bedded her?!!”

My fingers tightened in the sheets. 

Hunt simply returned to doing his buttons and drawled, coldly. “Who I take to my bed is not your business, Lucy.”

“Don’t give me that!” She shot back hotly. “The bitch is a hybrid! And lest you forget—her father is Elder Aldric, the same Alpha we were at war with just months ago!”

War? 

My breath caught.

Hunt moved past Lucinda without a word. Simply grabbing a document from another table and moving to the room door.

“HUNTER!” Lucinda snapped, following him. “You can’t take Aldric’s daughter as a war bride!”

“Tribute.” He corrected flatly, walking out of the room. “To atone for Iron Fang's sins." 

"And you couldn't take anything else as revenge?!" She screamed at his receding figure. “You had to take a wife?!!”

Hunt didn’t respond; the door simply shut behind him.

“Fucking ridiculous,” She cursed, pushing her hair back in anger.

My head spun between yesterday and now? I could barely wrap my mind around it all.

Tribute? The coldness in Hunt’s eyes… then Lucinda’s fury. My throat was suddenly dry.

The room was utterly silent. Just the two of us. Me on the bed, mostly naked.

Her in the middle of the room, staring at the shut door furiously.

“Lucinda?” I whispered. 

Her head snapped to me instantly, and the look in her eyes sent a chill down my spine.

In three short strides, she crossed the distance between us and grabbed my arm.

“Wait— “ I tried to pull my arm back, but she gripped it hard.

Fury poured from every inch of her as she hissed in a low voice. “I don't know how you learned my name, but scrub it out of your filthy mouth." 

I parted my lips to speak. But face-to-face with my friend. Seeing the murderous anger and something else reflected in her brown irises, I couldn’t make a sound.

Pain shot up my arm as she twisted it harder. But I didn’t move. I was frozen because I’d recognized what that other thing in her eyes was.

Jealousy. 

“And don’t get any ideas about Hunter.” Lucinda sneered possessively. “He’s been known to take lesser breeds to bed.”

The bedroom door opened at that exact moment, breaking the tension.

Lucinda’s grip on my arm loosened.

My heart still pounded, but I let out a breath, slowly looking to the room where some maids had come in.

The girl I saw yesterday and two others.

“Lady Lucinda.” They all curtsied deeply in respect. 

My heart almost stopped for the second time since I woke up. 

Curtsying—a respect reserved for the highest-ranking female in the Lycan’s office. Usually the Luna.

Yesterday, the maid hadn’t even curtsied to me; she’d given a shallow bow.

Now I watched all three of them curtsy deeply, keeping their heads down as Lucinda walked past without a second glance.

Cold laughter almost left my lips.

Now I was absolutely sure. This afterlife was my personal hell. 

I’d been reborn in a world where my best friend might be in love with my husband.

 A world where my best friend was respected as Luna, and I– I was a tribute.

Mere tribute for a war I didn’t understand. 

Yes, death would have been better.

Here, I was utterly alone. I had no one.

“Queen.” Jessica, the maid I’d met yesterday, addressed me stiffly. “Please come with us. The dowager requests your presence.”

Dowager?

In my past life, Hunt’s mother had never been present. So who was this woman?

“The Lycan’s mother?” I asked, confused.

“Yes.” Jessica pursed her lips. “That is what Dowager means. You’ve been summoned, and you’re to appear immediately.”