CHAPTER 2
1170 Words
Whispers in the Dark
CLARA POV
Why did you marry Clara Moreau and not Seraphine?”
The question froze me in place. My hand was halfway to the doorframe, my throat was still burning from the cough that had pulled me out of bed. The voice was rough, a stranger’s, A hunter, I realized, though I had never heard one up close before.
And then I heard Adrian’s answer.
“Because Clara is an omega. She is weak; she is an easy target.”
The words hit me so hard that I forgot how to breathe properly.
Easy target, weak, and an omega?.
It felt like the floor gave way beneath me. My chest tightened, and my hand shook against the cold wall as I pressed myself closer to the door, desperate to hear more, even though every word already hurt worse than the last.
The hunter laughed low. “You surprise me, Alpha. Everyone expected you to choose Seraphine. She’s the jewel of the Moreau family, isn’t she? She is strong, beautiful, and powerful. Why take the lesser one?”
I shut my eyes, wishing I could block out the answer, but Adrian’s voice came, steady and sharp.
“Seraphine is untouchable, too many eyes watch her, and too many guards protect her. But Clara? Clara was abandoned once before. She was taken in out of pity, raised like one of them, but never truly theirs. They don’t guard her the way they guard Seraphine, also she is desperate for love and desperate for approval. That makes her blind, and that makes her more useful.”
My chest hurt badly.
Useful?. Not loved?. Not chosen?.
The hunter chuckled again. “So she is the hole in their armor.”
“Yes,” Adrian replied. “Through Clara, we can break them. She carries their name, their trust, but not their strength. With her tied to me, the Moreau lands are open. She gives me everything I need without even knowing it.”
I pressed both hands over my mouth to stop a sound from escaping. My body trembled all over. I wanted to scream, to burst into that room and demand why, but my legs wouldn’t move. My heart was beating too fast, too hard, like it might break free from my chest.
The hunter’s tone shifted, curious. “And what of her? Does she suspect?”
“No.” Adrian’s voice cut like ice. “She believes every word I told her before the wedding and after the wedding, she clings to me like a shadow, she thinks I care for her, and she is too busy hoping I will continue to love her to see the truth.”
I thought my heart couldn’t break any more. I was wrong.
I remembered that day in the garden, the way his hand brushed mine, the way he promised to protect me, the way I had whispered my fears, and how he had said I would stand beside him. I had held on to those words like a lifeline. I had believed him.
And now, in one night, he had ripped it all away.
The hunter sounded doubtful. “Still, it is risky. What if she finds out?”
Adrian was silent for a long moment. Then his voice came again, lower, colder, and final.
“She won’t, she can’t. No one can ever know.”
I bit down on my lip so hard it split. Blood filled my mouth, but it didn’t matter. Nothing mattered anymore.
The man grunted. “And if someone tells her?”
Adrian’s voice was sharp. “Then they won’t live to tell it twice.”
I staggered back a step, my heel scraped against the stone floor. The sound was small, but it felt deafening in the silence that followed.
Inside, both voices stopped.
I stopped. Did they hear me?, What will happen to me now?
“Did you hear that?” the hunter asked.
Every muscle in my body felt locked. I pressed myself flat against the wall, holding my breath so tightly that it felt like I might suffocate.
After a pause, Adrian answered, calm but stern. “It’s nothing. Probably a servant passing through.”
The hunter didn’t sound convinced. “Be careful. Secrets have a way of spilling.”
“They won’t,” Adrian said. “I control what happens here.”
Their voices dropped lower after that, too soft to make out. My legs finally moved, trembling as I slipped down the passageway; each step was shaky and unsteady. I wanted to run, but fear kept me slow, careful. My lungs burned from holding back sobs, from forcing myself silent.
When I reached my room, I closed the door quickly but quietly, then pressed my back against it. My knees gave out, and I slid down until I was sitting on the floor, my arms wrapped around myself.
And then the tears came.
They came hard, messy, and unstoppable. My chest heaved, and my throat ached with the force of holding them back, but I couldn’t. The sobs tore through me like I had been ripped open.
He didn’t love me.
He never loved me.
Everything had been a lie.
The wedding, the promises, the words that had made me believe I might finally belong—none of it was real. I had walked into his arms thinking I was chosen, thinking I was lucky. But I was never a bride. I was bait.
I thought of Alpha Moreau, of the way he had looked at me on my wedding day, proud and relieved that his adopted daughter had finally found her place. I thought of Luna Moreau, who had smiled faintly, maybe even hopefully, as if she believed Adrian could give me a future. And I thought of Seraphine, glowing as always, adored and protected, never doubting.
If they knew the truth… if they knew what Adrian was planning, it would destroy them. And I was the weapon he would use to do it.
My tears soaked the fabric of my robe as I curled tighter against the door. Rage began to burn beneath the grief, hot and bitter.
How could he? How could he stand in front of me and promise protection while plotting to betray not just me but everyone I loved? How could he kiss my hand, smile at the pack, and then speak so easily of using me?
The man I had married wasn’t my mate. He was a stranger wearing a mask, and I had been too blind and too desperate to see it.
I pressed my hand against my mouth, the taste of blood still lingering from where I had bitten my lip. My sobs turned into silent cries, and my body was still shaking with every breath.
No one can ever know. His words repeated in my head, again and again, until they were all I could hear.
But I knew.
And I could never look at him the same again.
- Writer
