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They Wanted a Maid. I Wanted a Family
They Wanted a Maid. I Wanted a Family
Author: Penelope

Chapter 1

Author: Penelope
Adrian's easy smile disappeared. As Ashbrook's Alpha, he rarely needed to raise his voice. He used the same quiet, commanding tone now.

“What did you say?”

“Dinner is over. Take the food if you want. But you're not staying.”

Caleb, Adrian's Beta, looked from the roast to the containers beside the stove. His tone stayed measured and practical, just as it did when he settled patrol disputes.

“There's no need to pack everything up. We can serve ourselves and put your dinner aside. You can finish the reports without being interrupted.”

He reached for a plate without waiting for my answer.

“Then take her somewhere else,” I said.

Jace, Adrian's Gamma, gave a short laugh and gestured toward the roast. He was still smiling, as though a little teasing could smooth this over.

“After you spent all day making this? Come on. We finally get a night without patrol duty, and you're throwing it away over a chair?”

All day.

Caleb had brought two bottles of sparkling cider. Jace had brought a bag of crisps. Adrian had rinsed six glasses and broken one. Mia had offered conversation and flowers.

I was the one who'd done the cooking.

“There's an inn on the village square,” I said. “They still have tables. I'll pack this up. Nobody needs to be humiliated.”

Adrian caught my wrist before I could reach for the containers. His hold wasn't hard, but I made him release me.

“Rowan.” His voice softened. “I know tonight hasn't gone the way you planned. Mia's had a rough time. I thought you, of all people, would understand.”

“I understand perfectly,” I said. “You decided who gets a place at my table without asking me.”

Mia stepped forward. Her eyes shone. “I can go. I never wanted to cause problems between you two.”

“Then go,” I said. Not cruelly. Simply.

Silence settled over the room.

Adrian's jaw tightened. “We were only trying to make her feel safe.”

“And I was trying to have dinner with my family.”

For a moment he looked as if he might argue. Then he picked up the basket of bread and the food I'd packed, the muscle in his cheek jumping.

“Fine. I'll give you space.”

Caleb collected the bottles. Jace lingered by the door, looking from me to Mia as though hoping I'd laugh and say it had all been a joke.

It wasn't.

They left with Mia tucked safely between them. As Adrian passed, he reached for my hand out of habit. I stepped back.

I shut the door and turned the lock.

On the mantel stood the carved wooden moon Adrian had given me when the council announced I would become Ashbrook's Luna after our bonding ceremony. I had kept it polished for a year.

Tonight I put it in a drawer.

I had been offered something very different six months ago: the final place in the Frosthaven Academy's leadership and healing programme, across the mountain border. I had turned it down because Adrian wanted the ceremony first.

The offer was still open, but only for a few more days.

I took the acceptance letter from the bottom of my desk and read it again.

The deadline was three days away.

Thirty minutes later, a new photograph appeared on the pack's social feed. Adrian, Caleb, Jace and Mia sat around the low table in Adrian's Alpha residence, eating my food. Mia had posted it with the caption: At least some people know how to give a stray wolf a home.

Adrian had reacted with a heart.

I closed the app.

After midnight, his message arrived.

We took the serving dishes. I'll send Caleb over with them tomorrow.

I set my phone face down and went to sleep.
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  • They Wanted a Maid. I Wanted a Family   Chapter 12

    In early summer, Frosthaven offered me a permanent position at the border clinic, beginning after graduation.The contract listed my hours, my salary, and the training I could continue alongside the work. I read it twice, negotiated one weekend off each month, and signed.Then I rented a little house on the eastern road.It had crooked stairs, an apple tree, and a kitchen window that stuck whenever it rained. Mrs Hart would have had strong opinions about the plasterwork.I loved it immediately.My first purchase was a dining table with room for six. The carpenter offered a matching set of chairs, and I tested every one before paying.On moving day, Nessa arrived with bread. Evelyn brought a jar of honey and a warning about the unreliable chimney sweep. Theo carried a toolbox, though he asked before attempting anything with the window.We spent the afternoon unpacking.When I reached for a pan, Nessa caught my elbow.“We've ordered food.”“I could make something.”“I know. Today, you do

  • They Wanted a Maid. I Wanted a Family   Chapter 11

    Adrian's letter was three pages long.I braced myself for another request to come home. There wasn't one.He wrote about the dinner first. Not the chair, but the decision behind it: that my comfort could be postponed because he trusted me to keep loving him anyway.Then the dishes. The camping equipment. The bedroom.He remembered things I had never raised with him, including the fever after the border skirmish.I was proud of you for being strong because it excused me from helping, he wrote. That is difficult to admit. It must have been worse to live with.I put the letter down for a while.Outside my window, the snow had begun to thaw along the gutter.He had asked the council to separate the Luna's proposed duties from the unpaid work pack members had gradually been expected to absorb. Future appointments would have written responsibilities, shared cover, and a stipend.I hoped they followed through. A good policy could help someone, even if it arrived too late to help me.The last

  • They Wanted a Maid. I Wanted a Family   Chapter 10

    The storm arrived in the middle of our winter rescue assessment.By noon, the practice exercise had become a real call-out. A supply cart had overturned near the western pass, leaving two drivers and a patrol escort stranded above the tree line.Theo took the rescue team. Evelyn assigned me to organise the receiving room at the border clinic.My first instinct was to do everything.I reached for dressings, hot water, clean blankets, and the admissions ledger, all at once. Then I stopped.“Nessa, prepare the warming beds. Ellis, check the oxygen and tell me if we're short. Mara, I need someone recording arrivals.”They moved. The room began to work.The first patient arrived conscious and furious. The second had a broken leg. The third was a young patrol wolf whose shivering had stopped during the descent.That frightened me more than the blood.I called the senior healer over, gave my assessment, and followed her instructions while Nessa cut away the frozen clothing. When the patient t

  • They Wanted a Maid. I Wanted a Family   Chapter 9

    I left Mia's email unopened until after breakfast.There had been a time when those words would have kept me awake all night. Now I had a practical assessment at nine, and no desire to fail it because someone in Ashbrook wanted my attention.I passed. Barely. Theo told me my bandaging was excellent and my delegation needed work.“You can't treat everyone yourself,” he said. “Give your team something to do.”I was still thinking about that when I opened the email.Mia had attached a screenshot from a local gossip page. Someone claimed I had abandoned my duties after becoming jealous of a vulnerable newcomer. The post suggested Frosthaven had offered me a place because Adrian had arranged it.Below the attachment, Mia had written that she had never asked anyone to post it.Then she asked me to tell Adrian that none of this was her fault.I sat very still.My academy offer was dated six months before I left. I had earned it through an assessment, an interview, and references from the sout

  • They Wanted a Maid. I Wanted a Family   Chapter 8

    My release arrived the following Thursday.There was no thunderclap. The old pack bond loosened behind my ribs, a familiar background warmth fading until I could no longer feel the distant pulse of Ashbrook.I sat on the edge of my bed and waited for panic.It came. So did relief.Both could fit inside me, apparently.Frosthaven offered academy residents temporary protection while we decided where to settle. I signed that agreement after reading every page. Evelyn waited without telling me it was a formality.Two weeks later, Jace appeared at the academy gates with a large cardboard box.Reception asked whether I wanted it delivered. I said I would collect it myself.He looked thinner, though perhaps he had simply lost the grin I associated with him.“Your dishes,” he said. “Clean.”I lifted the lid. Everything was wrapped in newspaper. The blue serving bowl had been repaired along one edge.“I broke that,” he admitted. “Got it fixed. If you'd rather I replaced it—”“The repair is fine

  • They Wanted a Maid. I Wanted a Family   Chapter 7

    I stood beneath the pines until the cold reached my fingers.Then I typed: Tell him I will meet him tomorrow at ten, in the visitors' room. Headmistress Frost will attend.Nessa waited while I sent it.“You don't owe him a meeting,” she said.“I know. I want him to hear me once when he can't hang up.”Adrian arrived wearing the coat I had chosen for him last winter. Snow melted along his shoulders. In his hands was the carved wooden moon.“Mrs Hart found it in the drawer,” he said.I had forgotten it. That hurt more than I expected.Evelyn sat beside the window with a notebook. Adrian glanced at her, then back at me.“Could we have a moment alone?”“No.”His fingers tightened around the carving.“All right. I deserve that.” He set it on the table. “Mia's moving into proper accommodation. Caleb is arranging it. I've cancelled the gathering this weekend. Come home, and we'll take a few days for ourselves.”He spoke gently. Once, that would have been enough to make me doubt everything.“H

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