Unwanted But Mated To Three Alpha Kings

Chapter 10: At Your Disposal

Raven's POV

The pack members stared at us as we walked past. Some didn't bother hiding it.

A woman near the training yard leaned into her friend's ear, her eyes fixed on me the whole time. I kept my chin up and my eyes forward. I had spent a lifetime being stared at for the wrong reasons. I could survive a little more of it.

Ansel didn't seem to notice, or he didn't care. I couldn’t help but notice how different this place was from our pack. The wealth was evident in everything, from the heavenly architecture to the stunning people. Even the maids had a devilishly godlike face.

He walked a half-step ahead of me, with his hands loose at his sides. Even here he was every inch a warrior; I could see the respect they had for him, which I wasn’t too confused about.

He was giving me pieces of history as we went.

"Crescent Silver is one of the oldest packs in existence," he said. "Over fourteen hundred years old."

"That's..." I searched for the word. "A long time."

"Long enough that most of it isn't verified anymore. Just passed-down knowledge." He glanced back at me. "The founder is said to have come from the moon goddess's vanguard."

I blinked. "Her vanguard? As in... personal guards?"

"That's the story. Most of the younger wolves doubt it." A faint smile touched his mouth.

"We don't exactly believe someone as powerful as the goddess herself needs protecting. But Maya confirmed it."

"Maya?" I asked, tilting my head to look at him properly.

He pushed open a heavy oak door and held it for me. "Yes. Maya."

The library opened up in front of us, and for a moment I forgot to be afraid of him.

Shelves rose from floor to ceiling, dark wood packed so tight with books that some had been laid flat on top of the others just to fit. Sunlight fell through tall windows and landed in gold stripes across the floor.

It smelled like old paper and incense mixed with roses. I hadn't realized how much I missed that smell until it hit me. I almost closed my eyes to moan when I remembered I was still a captive.

"Rowan did tell you she's older than any of us," Ansel said, gesturing to a chair by the nearest table. I sat.

"Well, yes." I frowned, trying to piece it together. "But I thought he meant older like... an elder. Not older like..."

"By all of us, he meant all of us." Ansel pulled out the chair across from me and sat down, unhurried, like he had all the time in the world even though his father didn't.

"Including the elders. Including my father. She was here during the founding, Raven. Blessed by the moon goddess herself."

I sat back, my mouth opened like a dying fish. "But that is not possible in any way."

"Maya may have been the only living wolf to ever see her." He said it plainly, the way he said everything, like a fact too old to argue with. "She's the pride of this pack."

I thought of her hands on my face. Her voice, soft as water over stone. Child of the moon, you are far more than anyone presumes.

I wonder what she meant by that. Child of the moon?

Something flickered behind Ansel's amber eyes, there and gone before I could name it. He reached over and set a grounding hand on my shoulder, warm even through the fabric of my dress.

"Whatever it is you're thinking about," he said, "you'll figure it out with time. It's always like that with her. Maya doesn't explain herself. She lets you understand things on your own."

I wanted to push further. But I knew I wasn’t going to get an answer from anyone; it was a small mercy I was even being handed any information at all,

I nodded instead, and looked past him at the shelves stretching up into shadow.

"You like reading, I presume," Ansel said, following my gaze.

"Very much, actually," I said fondly; I couldn’t hide the smile on my face. "I didn't have much time for it. At Shadow Claw."

There hadn't been time for anything that was only mine. Every hour of every day belonged to the pack, or to my parents, or to making sure Cassandra never had a reason to complain.

Reading was the one thing I used to steal in the dark, after the candles were supposed to be out, a book propped against my knees and my ears straining for footsteps in the hall.

Ansel didn't ask about that. He didn't push, and I was grateful for it.

"Then this place is at your disposal," he said. He nodded toward the shelves, toward the whole quiet, golden room. "It will be good for your training anyway. History first. Etiquette after. You'll need both if you're going to stand in that court "

If. There it was again.

I looked around the library, at the books I hadn't touched yet and the ones I already wanted to. It was the first thing in this castle that felt like it might actually be mine.

"Where do we start?" I asked.

Ansel rose from his chair and crossed to the nearest shelf, running two fingers along a row of spines. His smile was warm, but I knew better than anyone not to trust it.

"At the beginning," he said. "Same as everyone else."