THE ALPHA’S FORBIDDEN MATE

CHAPTER 15: "THE MAID"

I didn’t go home.

They didn’t let me.

“Packhouse orders,” Beta Cole said. “For your safety. And ours.”

Translation: Prison.

My room was small. No windows.

Down the hall from the guest rooms.

Down the hall from her room.

Lila’s idea. Of course.

“Since she’s so sick,” she told the elders. “She should be close to medical staff.”

Medical staff = me cleaning toilets.

Day 1:

“Ravendon, the east wing needs dusting.”

Day 2:

“Ravendon, serve tea at the council meeting.”

Day 3:

“Ravendon, do my laundry.”

She never said it with malice.

Always with that sweet, deadly smile.

“Just helping you feel useful, dear.”

I did it.

Because the alternative was the dungeon.

Because Drake told me to.

Stay alive, he’d texted once. Please.

I hadn’t seen him.

Not once in 3 days.

But I felt him.

Every night at 2AM the mark would burn.

When he was alone.

When he was with her.

I didn’t know which was worse.

The blackouts started on Day 4.

I was scrubbing the marble floor when the world went white.

My vision tunneled.

I heard Drake’s voice. Not in my head. In my memory.

Can I?

His thumb on my neck.

Then nothing.

I woke up on the floor with 2 maids staring at me.

“Are you okay?” one asked.

“Fine,” I said. “Low blood sugar.”

It wasn’t.

It was the bond.

Eating me from the inside.

Day 5.

Council dinner.

I was serving wine.

Drake was there.

At the head of the table.

Lila on his right. Laughing. Touching his arm.

He didn’t look at me.

Not once.

Even when I poured his wine and my hand shook.

Even when a drop spilled on the tablecloth.

“Clumsy,” Lila said. Loud. “Maybe the sick girl shouldn’t be serving.”

“Agreed,” Elder Maren said. “Ravendon, you’re dismissed.”

I bowed my head and left.

In the hallway I collapsed again.

This time Drake was there when I woke up.

Sitting on the floor next to me.

No one else.

“How long?” he asked.

“Since what?”

“Since the blackouts started.”

I shrugged. “Few days.”

He cursed. Quiet.

“You’re supposed to be resting.”

“I’m supposed to be dead in 25 days,” I said. “What’s the difference?”

He looked at me. Really looked.

I was pale. Thin. Dark circles.

The cracks on my neck were black now. Not silver.

“I’m trying to find another way,” he said.

“Liar.”

“It’s true.”

“Then why is she wearing your ring?”

He didn’t answer.

Footsteps.

We both stood up fast.

Lila.

“Oh,” she said. Seeing us on the floor. “How... cozy.”

She walked past me and took Drake’s arm.

“Come on, babe. The elders are waiting.”

He let her pull him away.

Didn’t look back.

I sat there alone.

With 24 days left.

And a bond that was killing me one blackout at a time.