جميع فصول : الفصل -الفصل 10

Stacy POVSix years of scrubbing this floor, and my knees still hadn't learned to stop shaking.I knelt there, rag soaked through, wringing out water that had long gone cold, while across the room Giselle admired herself in a hand mirror, dabbing powder onto a face that had never once known a callus. She'd been "getting ready" for over half an hour. Getting ready for what, I couldn't say. Nothing about this pack house required her to lift a finger, least of all today.The doorbell rang, and something in my chest seized before I even understood why.I answered it anyway. Servants didn't get to ignore doors, even when their hands were raw and their pride was rawer."Post wolf, here on royal business," the man said, straightening a stack of envelopes bound in gold thread. "Every royal pup of age gets one of these once a year, if the Academy deems them worth the ink. Shawls Academy invitations. I need Miss Stacy, daughter of the Alpha."I froze on the threshold, waiting for him to look pa

Stacy POV "Trust me, honey. This is the safest option. You can't go back there." Grandpa's voice was low, deliberate — gentle in a way that made it impossible not to believe him. I hadn't known him long. A handful of days, maybe. But one thing I already knew: he wouldn't lie to me. He wasn't like Dad. He wasn't like Pearl. "Don't worry. I trust this person completely." I nodded, swallowing hard enough that I was sure he heard it. "Welcome, old friend. This is my granddaughter, Stacy. Stacy, meet Nigel — a colleague from years back." I bowed my head, and when I lifted it, Nigel was already staring at me like he'd seen a ghost. "Aren't you the Alpha's daughter?" His smile was warm. Too warm. "What brings you here?" Something clicked into place. This was it — my one window before the world caught up to me. If Dad knew where I was, he'd drag me home before I could blink, to do nothing but work as his new maidservant. I didn't have my invitation letter. That wasn't going t

Leslie POV"Oh, feisty," she said, watching me stumble backward as I fought to hold the rage curling beneath my skin. "Does anyone know who the hell this person even is?"I clenched my teeth so hard my jaw ached, every sleepless night she and her mother had cost me rising up my throat like bile."You know what, Giselle, let's leave her alone. I'm sure she's a nobody." One of her minions flicked a hand at me and shoved past, and Giselle swept by after her, elegant and untouchable, like I wasn't even worth the effort of a second glance.That was almost worse than the insult. A nobody. As if the six years I'd spent clawing my way out from under my mother's shadow meant nothing the second I stepped through these gates. As if Stacy had never existed at all — which, technically, here, she didn't. Only I knew how much effort it took to keep it that way."Let's go, Leslie, it's time for assembly." Risel appeared at my side like she hadn't just vanished on me for ten minutes. "It's where every

Leslie POV"Why the long face, Leslie? You should be happy, or—" Risel met me at the door of the detention room, arms already crossed in mock scolding, though her eyes were bright with real curiosity."I have to ask." I fell into step beside her, grateful for the ordinary rhythm of walking, of not being watched. "How long have you actually been at this school? Isn't this your first day too?""It is, sweetie." She laughed, easy and warm. "I came for orientation last week, though. You didn't.""That explains a lot." I exhaled, some of the tightness in my chest finally loosening. "Would you mind showing me around campus? I feel like I've been dropped into the deep end without a map.""Well, let's start with our room, shall we?"Sylvester passed us just then, unhurried, hands in his pockets like he had all the time in the world. He caught my eye and let one corner of his mouth curl up — a smirk, a wink, gone again before Risel so much as glanced over. My pulse betrayed me instantly, jumpi

Leslie POVThe sound was too loud, too close. Too intimidating."What's going on?" My voice cracked as I looked up at the masculine figure gripping my hands."Nerissa. Giselle. Care to explain." His tone was firm, clipped, edged with something dangerous. His cold touch left my skin the instant I felt sand beneath me — like he'd been waiting for an excuse to let go.He turned toward the blurred shape on the ground, the same Siren I'd trampled in the earlier today."Don't touch her — get me help, now," I gasped, my fingers closing around his wrist before I even decided to move.His skin was ice under my hand, and it sent a wave of fear crawling up my arm. Somewhere across the field, a voice cut through the ringing in my ears."I can help her. I need to get her to the shore first."The last thing I remembered was being dragged, the cold of his grip the only thing anchoring me to the world — before everything dissolved into black.***"Where — where am I?" My voice barely sounded like min