Chapter 18
781 Words
The desk lamp lit the sheet of paper where I slowly wrote the list. I wrote a few items with hands still trembling, daily clothes, lecture notebooks, assignment folder, one thin blanket, two mugs. Then my hand stopped in the middle of the seventh line. I stared at the words for a long time before crossing them out.
Five thirteen. From below I could hear the sounds of servants moving porcelain plates and crystal glasses. I closed the notebook slowly.
I stood and opened the wardrobe. The dark blue dress I once bought for an academic presentation hung inside. Not an expensive dress like the ones owned by the women in elite territory, but neat enough, modest enough, clean enough not to embarrass anyone. I put it on slowly. I tied my hair low, without any accessory.
When I finished, the door was knocked once from outside, it was surely Gabriel. Not to speak, only to make sure I was preparing. One knock. No extra sound. Then the footsteps moved away again.
I took a deep breath and left the room and before reaching the end of the stairs, I paused for a moment.
From up there I could see the dining room, the long table had been polished until it shone, the candles were not lit yet, but the chairs were ready. Elena stood at the end of the room, speaking softly to one of the senior staff, her posture straight and composed as usual.
Gabriel stood near the window, speaking with Valeria, the Beta loyal to him. Valeria listened with her head slightly bowed, not bowed as a woman, but bowed as a subordinate to an Alpha.
I descended the last step. Gabriel turned for a fraction of a second, no smile, no nod, only a look that said stay calm. Elena also looked at me but did not say anything. Her silence was sharper than any sentence.
The staff began lighting the candles.
“The dinner begins exactly at six,” Elena said coldly to everyone in the room.
Gabriel brushed the sleeve of his suit once, then stood at the head of the table.
“We are ready.”
I sat in the seat that had been assigned, two seats from Valeria, not near Gabriel, not near Elena. A position that signaled I was present but not part of the core. A place that was safe, or at least appeared to be safe.
At five fifty-nine, the main door was knocked three times. The servant opened the door.
Alpha Silvermoon did not come alone, there were two guards, a Beta, and a young woman behind them, tall, with a straight posture, wearing a silver-gray dress. She was the one Elena had mentioned, the eldest daughter of Alpha Silvermoon.
She entered like someone used to being received. Her eyes swept the room in a single look, not to admire but to assess. After giving a brief greeting to Gabriel and Elena, her gaze dropped to me and lingered for a fraction longer than courtesy required.
Gabriel invited them to sit. The clock hand moved exactly to six.
The dinner began.
The staff began pouring soup into porcelain bowls. The woman from Silvermoon who sat two seats from Gabriel looked at him with a polite, overly composed expression. From the corner of her eye, I could see her assessing every gesture, including the way I held the spoon.
Elena was the first to open the conversation.
“Was your travel smooth?”
Alpha Silvermoon answered briefly, “Smooth.”
“You welcomed us with a very proper preparation, Gabriel,” the woman said.
Gabriel gave a slight nod. “Guests from Silvermoon must not be welcomed half-heartedly.”
The woman smiled faintly. “So much has changed since the last time I came here. Back then, this house held no woman other than your mother.”
Gabriel lifted his spoon with calm. “This house receives anyone I give permission to enter.”
The Silvermoon daughter smiled again, smaller this time. “I am only curious. Because in Silvermoon, every seat has a meaning.”
“So it does here. Which is why I choose who sits where,” Gabriel said.
“And that girl? What is her role in this house?”
I had not even breathed when Gabriel answered before I needed to open my mouth.
“Her role is determined by me. And it is not to be discussed at the dining table,” Gabriel said.
The Silvermoon daughter looked at me again.
“If there is anything else that needs to be discussed, we will discuss it after the meal is finished,” Gabriel said.
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