Chapter 2
653 Words
Zayn walked toward me slowly, his eyes devouring every inch of me.
I braced myself for him to call the guards, to threaten me, to humiliate me, or do something but to my surprise, he did… nothing.
He just laughed, and he let me go.
That laugh haunted me for the rest of the day.
By afternoon, I saw them again. Zayn, Kai, and Calix, walking toward me in unison.
My stomach dropped. I didn’t need to guess, judgment hour had arrived. They cornered me in the west hallway, their mischievous smiles enough to make me scared.
The last time they smiled like that was years ago, when they were twelve and I was nine. My first year in this pack.
That day, Kai had decided I didn’t deserve peace, so they plotted together and poured hot sauce into my bathing water. I’d fallen ill for weeks, my skin blistered with burns.
Kai and Calix never apologized. But Zayn, Zayn whispered a sorry one night when he thought I was asleep. I had heard him, but I’d been too afraid to open my eyes.
If any of them had a shred of empathy, it was Zayn. But he was still their leader, the Alpha of the triplet Alphas, as their father proudly called him.
“You want to act bold, Elara?” Kai flipped a silver coin between his fingers. “Then act useful too.”
“Fetch us something for the party,” Calix added, his smirk making my blood boil.
“You have until nightfall,” Zayn said as he stepped forward, slipping a folded paper into my apron.
“Bring it to the Grand Hall before the Moonlight Ceremony begins.”
I unfolded the note, and I couldn't believe my eyes
“The obsidian wolf totem. Silver-framed. Pre-1800s. Located only at the Lunar Relic Museum”
They might as well have told me to bring them the moon itself.
“You’re joking, right? How am I supposed to find this?”
Kai’s smirk deepened. “Do I look like I’m laughing?”
“The location is on the note,” Zayn said flatly.
I swallowed hard. The museum was in Fellsford, the small town beyond the far side of Roxanne. I had no transport, no money, no ticket. And I couldn’t exactly ask anyone for help.
“This is on the other end of the valley,” I protested. “I won’t make it back before the ball tonight.”
“That’s if you waste time,” Kai said. Calix’s chuckle echoed in the hall.
I turned away, refusing to give them the satisfaction of seeing me break.
They thought they could steal my night from me, the night fated mates were revealed, but they were wrong.
Even if the whole world believed I’d never have one, I wasn’t going to miss the Moonlight Ceremony.
Which was how I found myself doing something reckless. I went to Sheila Drayton, the hottest, most popular girl at Moonridge High.
The same girl who once tripped me in the cafeteria just for fun, who never missed a chance to humiliate me in front of the class.
Her eyes swept over me like I was dirt on her boots. “Why would I help you, Rag Girl?”
“Because I can get you into Zayn Alaric’s birthday party.”
Her lip curled. “You’re bluffing.”
I pulled the crest-stamped party invitation from my apron, the one the triplets had given me only to mock me.
“I can make sure you’re on the list,” I said. “And that he sees you.”
Sheila’s eyes gleamed. Behind her, her best friend Clara gasped.
“You’re not just a maid anymore, huh?” Sheila smiled, a wicked plan already sparking behind her eyes.
“Alright, Cinderelly,” Clara said with a grin. “Let’s get you that totem… and a dress.”
- Writer
