Oh Christmas Eve Why Me

chapter 3

Chapter 3: The Celebration Hall

Alex

The celebration hall roared with intense heat, loud laughter, and the heavy, sweet smell of mulled wine. Huge chandeliers, which were shaped like frozen starlight, hung high above the room, dripping silver light over the long tables.

These tables were completely covered with huge roasted boar, piles of sugared pears, and tall cakes that were leaking thick red jam. Musicians worked hard, dragging their bows across violins while the wolves, dressed in fine silk, spun wildly across the floor, already drunk and loud.

Their joyful howls easily passed for singing. Every person here was celebrating Kaelan’s perfect mark and the arrival of the coming winter holiday.

I was not supposed to be anywhere near this room.

I slipped quietly through the narrow servant door, balancing a high stack of empty platters on my shoulder. I kept my head deliberately down, praying with everything I had that the deep shadows would somehow manage to hide me from view.

A girl dressed in pale blue silk stepped instantly and directly into my path, causing wine to spill slightly over the edge of her fragile goblet. This was Lady Cressa. She was seventeen, and pretty in a sharp, dangerous way that made you look twice.

“Well, well, look who we found,” she said, her voice rising in volume, sounding like a purr. “Why exactly is the Shadow Wolf w***e in the celebration hall? Did someone forget to chain the dogs tonight, Marta?”

Loud snickers and titters spread quickly through the immediate crowd that surrounded us. I kept my eyes rigidly fixed on the marble floor beneath my bare feet, refusing to look up.

“Marta sent me for the dirty plates,” I stated quietly, trying to make myself seem small and uninteresting.

“Oh, that explains it,” she replied with mock understanding. She began to move slowly around me, examining me as if she were inspecting a sick animal in a cage. “But proper servants use the side corridor, bastard. Or did your enemy blood make you too stupid to read simple signs?”

I lifted the stack of platters slightly higher on my shoulder, careful not to drop them. “I forgot the path,” I said. “I am leaving now.”

I turned my body, preparing to walk away, but her hand instantly clamped around my wrist. Her long, sharp nails dug painfully into my already chilled skin.

“Don’t rush off so quickly,” she said, her tone sweetly venomous, though her smile was completely cruel. “It’s almost Christmas Eve. That’s a day of blessings for the good. So why don’t you do all of us a huge favor and crawl back to whatever gutter you came from before you totally ruin the holiday for the rest of the pack?”

I stared hard at her perfect, sneering face and felt the black mark on my chest throb with enough power to cause real pain. It was reacting to the public humiliation, flaring hot beneath the thin fabric of my dress.

“I have work that I need to do,” I managed to say.

I tried to pull my arm free from her tight grip. She squeezed down harder immediately, her sharp nails digging even deeper into my flesh.

“Let go of me,” I said, my voice barely above a whisper.

“Make me, mongrel,” she replied, her voice filled with mocking laughter.

“What exactly is going on here?”

The celebratory music did not stop, but the circle of wolves around us opened quickly and immediately. Kaelan stood three steps away. He was still wearing the silver ceremonial coat from the marking ceremony earlier that night. The frost crown glinted brightly in his dark black hair, catching the chandelier light. His eyes, the color of ice, moved slowly from Cressa’s hand gripping my wrist, up to my strained face, and then finally back to her.

“Lady Cressa,” he said. His voice was completely calm, yet cold and sharply commanding. “Aren’t you supposed to be attending to our esteemed guests from the northern packs right now?”

Cressa immediately dropped my wrist as if my skin had suddenly burned her hand, and she quickly dipped into a perfect, deep curtsy. “Of course, Your Highness,” she said rapidly. “I was only teaching the help her proper place in the household.”

She flashed me one last, powerfully hateful smile before quickly slipping back into the crowd of celebrants.

I adjusted the heavy stack of platters and started to leave the area again, but Kaelan’s strong fingers closed gently, yet firmly, around my forearm. His grip was surprisingly gentle, but it felt impossible to break free from.

“Is that how you thank me for stepping in?” he asked, his voice low and carefully controlled, pitched just low enough that only I could possibly hear him over the music.

A weak, involuntary laugh escaped my throat—it was sharp and cracked with pain. “I didn’t ask you to step in and save me,” I said, looking away from him.

His hand tightened slightly on my arm. “You should be incredibly grateful that Father didn’t simply throw you out into the terrible storm,” he said, his tone still cool and remote. “Most bastards with your specific mark would already be frozen corpses feeding the circling crows outside the walls.”

Tears instantly burned behind my eyes, stinging badly. I forced them back, refusing to let them fall in front of him, and leaned closer. My whispered words brushed lightly against his ear, meant only for him.

“Keeping me alive is worse than death, Kaelan,” I whispered fiercely. “And you know that true statement.”

Something small and fast flickered across his icy face, a shadow of an old feeling, but I didn’t wait to try and see what it was. I pulled my arm free from his grasp and immediately walked away before he could say another single word to me.

My chest ached fiercely, the black wolf mark throbbing hot beneath my skin like it was trying to break open and escape. My throat tightened with unshed tears and humiliation as I pushed quickly through the dense crowd, actively ignoring the many judging eyes that were following my every move. Behind me, the loud music rose again, instantly mixing with the fresh cheers and loud, drunken shouting. The celebration hall quickly went back to its bright, cruel celebration, acting as if nothing unusual had happened in the center of the room.

I didn’t look back at him.

I kept walking, focusing only on the distant servant door.

I walked away in pain.