Reborn to Reign

Chapter 6: Crumbs from the Golden Table

Pandora's POV

By four o'clock in the afternoon, the entire packhouse was as loud as a war camp. Loud brass horns blew from the gate towers every twenty minutes as fancy horse carriages rolled over the heavy wooden bridge at the front gates. Rich Alpha lords from the Iron Hills arrived wearing thick, heavy bear furs. High-ranking pack ladies from the southern valleys wore dark velvet dresses pinned with shiny black stones. They had traveled for weeks across the territories for two reasons.

They were here to see Bastian. And they were here to bow down before my twin sister. I carried two heavy iron buckets filled with gray fireplace ash down the narrow, dark servant passage that ran behind the great dining hall. The thick stone walls shook with the loud noise coming from the other side. Loud laughter, clinking silver cups, and the roaring chatter of three hundred rich guests echoed through the wooden wall boards.

I stopped near a small eye hole cut into the dark wood and looked through. Aurelia sat right in the center of the high table on the raised wooden stage. She looked like a shining angel.

She had changed into a long dress made of pure white velvet, trimmed with soft white animal fur around her shoulders. Her long, waist-length white hair was braided in fancy patterns with silver thread, framing her pretty, smiling face. Hanging from her ears were the shiny white drop earrings that Bastian had sent to the gates this morning. I guess f**k the dress I had cleaned then. Behind her wooden chair, twenty tall gold candle stands cast a bright, warm circle of yellow light all around her head.

A tall, rich Alpha lord stood up from the center table, lifting a shiny gold cup high into the air.

"To the Moon Born!" the Alpha shouted, his deep voice filling the entire room. "To the pure, blessed daughter of our pack! May her pure white blood bring good fortune and strong crops to all our lands!"

"To the Moon Born!" three hundred voices shouted back at once.

Aurelia dipped her head down with sweet, quiet modesty. A soft pink blush rose to her cheeks as she touched the silver edge of her cup. She played the game so well.

The sweet, pure girl. The holy blessing. The perfect sister who never did anything wrong. None of those cheering Alpha lords saw the evil look in her green eyes when she was about to hurt me in some way. None of them saw the cruel smile on her face when Silas slapped me into the hard fireplace.

To the whole pack, Aurelia was a living blessing. And I was the dirty, cursed monster scrubbing gray ash in the dark behind her chair. I pulled my face away from the small hole in the wall. I picked up the heavy ash buckets and turned to keep walking down the hall.

"Pandora."

The quiet whisper was smooth, low, and came from the dark shadow behind a giant velvet wall curtain. My breath stopped in my throat.

Before I could take another step, a strong hand shot out of the darkness. Thick, powerful fingers clamped hard around my upper arm. It was not the rough, painful grip of a common guard. It was the heavy, controlling grip I knew all too well. He pulled me hard behind the heavy velvet curtain.

The two iron buckets slipped from my fingers, hitting the floor rug with a dull thump and spilling dirty gray ash across the boards. My back slammed hard against the cold stone wall. Bastian stood right in front of me.

He had washed away the dirt from his long ride. He wore a fine, high-collared shirt made of pure white silk and gold thread, with the bright sun-and-wolf badge of the ruling Lightcore family sewn over his chest. His blond hair was brushed back neatly, shining under the faint light that leaked through the velvet cloth. His scent hit my nose all at once. My stomach twisted into a tight knot.

The mate bond flared up inside my chest like a sudden fire, sending a shock of heat from the back of my neck down to my fingertips. Deep inside me, my weak, sleeping wolf moved, whining softly and wanting to lean toward him like a hungry dog smelling fresh meat. Stop it, I screamed at myself in my head, digging my fingernails into my palms. He is not your protector. He is your jailer.

His clear gray eyes looked down at the rough leather glove on my left hand, then looked back up at my face. His jaw was tight. The dark centers of his eyes were wide and black, showing that his strong Alpha wolf was reacting to my body just as hard as I was fighting his.

"Please let me go, Alpha Bastian," I whispered, keeping my voice totally flat and quiet.

"I told you never to use that fancy title when it is just the two of us," he said. He took a half step closer, leaving no space at all between our bodies. His wide chest pressed right against mine through my rough brown clothes. He raised both of his strong arms, resting his flat hands against the stone wall on both sides of my head, trapping me in the dark.

"Someone will see you back here," I said, looking down at the shiny silver buttons on his shirt. "The Great Hall is packed with rich pack leaders. Your father's top officers are sitting ten feet away on the other side of this curtain."

"Let them look," Bastian whispered, a small, proud smile touching his lips. He tilted his head, his eyes darkening as he looked at the brown cloth wrapped around my head. "They only see what I want them to see. They look at the high table and see my future mate for the pack. They do not look behind the wall curtains."

He lifted one hand from the cold stone wall. His fingers caught the edge of my rough head wrap, slowly pulling the thick cloth back just enough to show my hairline. A few loose strands of hair fell down across my forehead. One side snow-white. One side pitch-black.

Bastian's breath hitched in his throat. A strange, hungry look crossed his handsome face—the look of a man staring at a cup of sweet poison that he knew he should not drink, but could not make himself put down.

"Look at you," he murmured, his thumb brushing against my cheek, tracing down my skin until his finger touched the purple bruise where Silas had hit me. "So small. So hurt. And yet my wolf will not leave me alone about you."

"Your wolf is confused," I said softly, looking straight at his chest.

"The mate bond does not make mistakes, Pandora," he snapped, his fingers suddenly grabbing my chin with a tight, painful grip. He forced my face up, making me look directly into his pale gray eyes. "The Moon Goddess gave you to me. But she gave you to me as a hard test. A test of my strong will and discipline."

A cold, bitter taste filled my mouth. A test of his discipline. That was the lie he told himself so he could sleep at night. He did not see me as an equal partner or a mate to love. He saw me as a dirty spiritual test sent by the Moon Goddess to see if he was strong enough to hide me.

"You should go back to the party, Bastian," I murmured. "Before Silas finds you back here."

"Silas will not touch you while you are in my presence," Bastian said with a quiet laugh, his voice full of pride. "He is only a Beta. He knows his place. Just like your brother Roman knows his."

He leaned in closer to my face. His lips hovered barely an inch from mine, his warm breath smelling of sweet berry wine.

"You belong to me, Pandora. Never forget that. When the Grand Pack Gathering ends in two weeks and my father puts the Alpha mark on my shoulder, you will come with me to the main territory."

"As what?" I asked in a low voice.