Taming The Alpha’s Curse

Chapter 9

Astrid’s Pov

I sat in my corner of the servants’ quarters with a torn dress across my lap and a needle in my hand, trying to focus on the stitching.

It was not working.

My mind kept jumping ahead to morning, to what it would mean to follow Xavier around all day, to stand beside him, to be seen, to be noticed. The more I tried to push the thoughts down the more they came back up, and before I realized what had happened the needle went straight into my finger.

“Ow.”

“Take it easy.” Mara looked over from her own mat. “You do not have to spiral like this tonight.”

“I know,” I said, pressing my finger to my lips. “But how do I not? Starting tomorrow I am his personal maid, Mara. His personal maid. What does that even mean for me?”

She was quiet for a moment. Then she said, “I will not lie to you and tell you it is nothing. Others who held that position before you, some of them did not last. Small mistakes, a spilled cup, a wrong word at the wrong time. He has a short patience and a shorter mercy.” She paused. “But you have survived this far. That is not nothing. People have broken faster than you in much less time. So I think you will be okay.”

I looked at her. “How do you stay so steady here? After everything?”

She shifted slightly. “Because I have had no choice but to be.”

Mara’s parents had been close to Xavier’s father once, trusted members of the inner circle. Then they betrayed him. The punishment was not death. It was something slower. They gave Mara over as a servant so that they could spend the rest of their lives watching their daughter work on her knees in the castle they had tried to destroy. She had been here since she was young.

She was an omega, without a wolf…yet. She had nothing and no one, just like me.

“Thank you,” I said. “For everything.”

She nodded and said nothing else.

I finished the stitching badly but well enough and set the dress aside. The rest of the evening passed in the usual rhythm of chores. Sweeping, carrying, scrubbing, keeping my head down and my eyes forward and staying as far from Aliyah as the castle would allow.

But even while I worked, part of my attention kept drifting to the gardens.

I had noticed them in passing, small patches of green tucked along the inner walls of the castle grounds. I did not know yet what grew there. Maids did not go to the gardens. That was the gardeners’ territory and I had not spoken to a single one of them long enough to build any kind of trust. But somewhere in those patches there might be something I could use. Something close enough to what my mother used in the potion.

I just needed a way to find out without making it obvious.

I rubbed my arm absently as I walked back to the quarters. The peeling had not spread further today, but it had not gotten better either. I was running out of time and I knew it.

I was exhausted by the time I lay down. My feet ached from hours of walking across stone floors and my back had not fully recovered from the whipping. I stared at the ceiling for a while, listening to the sounds of the other servants settling around me.

Then sleep took me before I was ready for it.

I woke up before sunrise.

The room was still dark and most of the others were still asleep. I got up quietly, washed my face with the small basin of water near the wall, and changed into the cleanest thing I owned. I was not going to give Aliyah any more ammunition than she already had. Not today.

I made my way to Xavier’s chambers and stopped outside the door.

Two warriors stood guard. One was a gamma, broad and still, with eyes that swept over me the moment I appeared. The other was younger but no less intimidating.

“Pretty girl,” the younger one said, his gaze moving over me in a way that made my skin crawl. He reached out and I stepped back quickly.

“I am the Alpha’s new personal maid,” I said, keeping my voice even.

The other one looked me over slowly. “You? You are going to be handling the Alpha?” He shook his head. “You look like he could sneeze and knock you over. God help you when you pour his wine wrong.”

I did not know if I should feel more scared or less. I settled on saying nothing and moved toward the door.

Both of them blocked me immediately.

“Where do you think you are going? Did the Alpha send for you? He is with his Luna right now. You do not just walk in.”

“Oh.” I stepped back. “I am sorry. I did not know.”

So I waited.

I stood outside that door for what felt like hours. The corridor was cold and the stone floor was hard under my feet. Warriors passed occasionally and looked at me with varying degrees of curiosity or contempt. I kept my eyes down and my back straight and waited.

Then the door opened.

Aliyah came out first, laughing at something, her hand already reaching back for Xavier. He followed behind her looking the way he always looked, like the world around him was happening slightly below his level of concern. His face held nothing. No amusement, no warmth, no irritation. Just that flat, unreadable calm.

I fell into step behind them.

Aliyah stopped almost immediately.

She turned around slowly, eyes landing on me with that particular look she reserved just for moments like this. “Do you not know that you smell? Why are you breathing down our necks?”

I lowered my head. “I am sorry, Luna. I was not sure of the distance I should keep.”

She rolled her eyes so hard it looked like it hurt. “Keep a distance. Or do you think just because you are his personal maid you can walk beside him? Are you trying to take him from me?”

I raised my head just enough to meet her eyes. “No. Not at all, Luna.”

She held my gaze for one more second, then turned back around and looped her arm through Xavier’s in a way that looked less like affection and more like ownership. Xavier let her, but he did not lean into it. He just kept walking.

I followed at a distance.

The dining hall was already set when we arrived. Talon was there, seated and relaxed. Beside him was another man who was maybe friends with Talon and Xavier me, broad-shouldered and easy in the way he carried himself, like someone who had never had reason to be tense. His name was Caden. He had a quick mouth and sharp eyes and seemed to be one of the few people in this castle who smiled without it meaning something dangerous.

Aliyah’s friend was also there. Her name was Sera, beautiful in a cold, deliberate way, the kind of woman who calculated every word before she let it out. The two of them together made the air feel thinner.

I served quietly. I moved around the table filling cups and setting plates, keeping my hands steady and my face blank. Aliyah watched me the whole time.

“Make yourself useful,” she said at one point, gesturing at Xavier’s cup.

I moved to him and filled it without a word.

After that Xavier did not speak to me directly. He never did in front of others. If he wanted something he simply tapped the cup or shifted his plate slightly and somehow I understood. It surprised me, how quickly I learned to read those small signals. I just watched him and I knew.

The conversation around the table moved through things I mostly could not follow. Territory disputes, rogue activity near the eastern borders, something about a pack in the northern region that had gone quiet in a way that concerned Talon. Xavier listened more than he spoke. When he did speak, everyone else stopped.

After a while Aliyah pushed her chair back and touched Xavier’s arm lightly. “I am going out with Sera for a few hours. I will be back before evening.”

Xavier nodded.

Talon stood shortly after, exchanging a word with Caden before both of them headed off in separate directions.

And then it was just me and Xavier.

He stood up slowly and I was reminded all over again of how tall he was. I barely reached his chest. Standing close to him made me feel like I had been built to a smaller scale than everyone else in this kingdom, like the whole world here was made for people his size and I was simply passing through it.

He walked out of the dining hall without a word.

I followed.

He led the way back to his chambers. One of the girls stationed outside pulled the door open immediately. I moved to follow him in and she stepped sideways, blocking me.

“Where do you think you are going?”

“Let her in,” Xavier said without turning around.

The girl looked at her partner. They both looked at me. Then they stepped aside.

I walked in and the door closed behind me.

Xavier sat down at the table near the window. There were papers spread across it, rough and covered in markings, maps maybe, or records of some kind. He picked up the feathered pen and began writing without acknowledging me.

I stood near the door and waited.

Should I ask if there was something to clean? Should I just start? What if he wanted quiet and I interrupted it? What if I stood here doing nothing and that was its own kind of wrong?

“Astrid.”

“Yes, Alpha.”

He did not look up from the paper. “Come do my hair.”

I looked around the room. I had cleaned in here before and I remembered seeing the small drawer near the mirror, the dark glass bottle of oil he used. I moved toward it.

“The oil is in the drawer,” he said.

“Yes, Alpha.”

I found it, along with a wide-toothed brush. I carried both over and stood behind him, looking at his hair. It fell past his shoulders in dark, heavy waves. I had never touched anyone’s hair like this before. My hands hovered just above his head.

I reached forward slowly.

His hand shot up and caught both of mine.

I stopped breathing.

I waited for the anger, for the growl, for whatever I had done wrong this time.

But he turned and looked up at me, and his hazel eyes were not angry.

They were sharp and steady and looking directly at my hands.

“Who did this to you?” he asked. “What happened to your hand?”