Inicio / They Wanted a Maid. I Wanted a Family / Capítulo 1 - Capítulo 10

Todos los capítulos de They Wanted a Maid. I Wanted a Family: Capítulo 1 - Capítulo 10

12 Capítulos

Chapter 1

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 cris

Chapter 2

Someone knocked at seven the next morning.Through the window I saw Caleb, still in his patrol jacket, with two crates of dirty plates at his boots.I opened the door but stayed in the doorway.“Morning,” he said, stifling a yawn. “Adrian said you might have time to wash these. We're having a cookout by the watchtower tonight. We'll need the dishes back.”Grease coated the plates. Dried sauce clung to the rims.“Whoever ate off them can wash them.”Caleb sighed. “Rowan, don't make this harder. We spent half the night trying to calm Mia down. She thought she'd ruined the celebration for the border reopening. She was crying for hours.”“Why was she crying?”“Because you frightened her.”I almost laughed.They had asked me to give up my seat in my own home, then taken the dinner I'd cooked somewhere else. Yet Mia was the one everyone was comforting.Caleb pushed the crates an inch closer. “I've got to go.”“Where?”“To help Mia choose meat at the market. She's never shopped in a pack vill

Chapter 3

Mrs Hart called almost immediately.“You've changed your mind? You'd already looked over the new lease.”“My plans have changed.”“What about the Alpha? He said he'd move in with you for a while after the bonding ceremony.”I looked at the spare boots by the door, the jackets in my wardrobe, the books Adrian had left on my shelves. He had never officially lived here. Somehow half my space had become his anyway.“There won't be a bonding ceremony,” I told her.She was quiet for a moment. “Well. I'll find another tenant. You take care of yourself, Rowan.”I began sorting my belongings.Adrian's clothes went into one crate. Caleb's forgotten training gloves and Jace's game console went into another. I kept what was mine.In the afternoon, Mia sent me a photograph of a bright bedroom in the Alpha residence.The bed was covered with the grey quilt I'd chosen with Adrian. Beside it stood the oak lamp I'd given him when we started planning a life together.You have such lovely taste, Rowan, h

Chapter 4

On the morning I left Ashbrook, I had the crates delivered to the village collection office and sent each of them a pickup notice.My own bags stood by the door.Adrian sent a voice message as soon as he heard.“You've left my clothes at the collection office?”“They're folded. Nothing's been thrown away.”“We're coming for dinner tonight. Why haul everything across the village?”I looked at the clear shelves and the empty half of my wardrobe. “I won't be there tonight,” I said.Caleb posted a shopping list in the group chat: herb chicken, mashed potatoes, honey-glazed carrots. Mia's stomach is unsettled, so nothing too rich.Jace added: I'll bring the cider. Keep me away from the stove unless you want the place burned down.Adrian reacted with a laughing wolf emoji.Nobody asked what I wanted to eat. Nobody asked why I wouldn't be home.I left the chat.Seconds later, Adrian messaged privately.Really? Leaving the group? Who do you expect to invite you back?I blocked him.That after

Chapter 5

By the first mountain pass, I had stopped checking the road behind us.Snow lay in the gullies. The woman across the aisle slept with her head against a sack of wool, and the coach heater rattled beneath my feet. Nobody needed anything from me. I should have felt relieved.Instead, I began to cry.Quietly, angrily, with my scarf pressed against my mouth. I had wanted Adrian to knock on that door for years. I had wanted him to arrive carrying dinner and ask whether my day had been difficult.He had finally brought the chicken. He still expected me to cook it.At the next stop, I switched on my phone to find the academy's directions. Forty-three missed calls filled the screen.Mrs Hart had left one message.They've gone. I told them you surrendered the keys properly. Your deposit will reach you tomorrow. Safe travels, love.Then came an email from Adrian.Where are you? The cottage is empty. If this is about Mia, she's agreed to move into the guest wing. Call me.I read it twice. Even no

Chapter 6

The first person to tell me I was wrong at Frosthaven was a trainee healer with freckles and a braid down her back.“You've missed the second fracture,” she said, pointing at the practice diagram.I looked again. She was right.Back in Ashbrook, I had become used to being the reliable one. Here, reliability did not excuse a careless assessment. I corrected my notes and asked her to show me what she had spotted.Her name was Nessa. By lunchtime, we were sharing a table and arguing cheerfully over treatment priorities.For three days, I studied until my eyes ached. I learned where the clean dressings were kept, burnt my tongue on the dining hall's coffee, and discovered that my wolf liked the snowy paths above the academy.Then the registrar's second email arrived.My withdrawal from the ceremony had been recorded. My pack release required confirmation that I held no outstanding duties or debts.Adrian had marked my application incomplete.Attached was a list of responsibilities: border

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

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

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

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

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