The Maid Who Stole My Alpha

Chapter Six

(Daciana POV)

The warning note trembled in my hands while the alarm bells screamed across Blackfang like wounded beasts calling for death.

I read the message again, hoping the words would change, but the ink still promised that Ashina’s second lie would bury me.

The locked door stood behind me like another enemy, and the small window before me showed smoke rising beyond the northern trees.

My wolf clawed inside my chest, wild with fear and fury, because she knew a trap was closing around us.

I pressed my ear against the door and heard servants running through the hallway, their frightened footsteps rushing away from the servant wing.

“Lowell!” I shouted, striking the wood with both fists until pain shot through my knuckles and up my arms.

Nobody answered, but I knew someone had heard me because the hallway suddenly became too quiet for a burning pack house.

Then soft footsteps approached the door, slow and careful, like someone enjoying the sound of my fear before opening the cage.

The key turned once, and my hope rose like a foolish bird before Ashina stepped inside with a lantern in her hand.

Her face wore fear for any watching eyes, but her smile belonged to the darkness that had written the note.

“You received my little warning,” Ashina said, closing the door behind her before the light from the hallway could betray her.

I looked at the paper in my hand, then back at her, and everything inside me became cold and painfully clear.

“You sent it because you wanted me afraid enough to run,” I said, folding the note slowly between my fingers.

Ashina tilted her head, and the lantern light kissed her cheek like even fire had chosen her side tonight.

“You were always clever, Daciana, but clever women still fall when everyone is waiting to see them prove their guilt.”

Her words reached the deepest part of my fear, because running would make me look guilty, and staying might get me killed.

I stepped closer, forcing my shaking hands to stay at my sides when my wolf wanted her throat between our claws.

“What is your second lie?” I asked because knowing the knife was sometimes the only way to survive the wound.

Ashina’s eyes glittered, and for one breath, she looked almost disappointed that I had not begged her for mercy.

“By midnight, Bardolph will believe you helped Northridge attack the border, then tried to poison me before escaping justice.”

I stared at her, unable to understand how one maid could carry so much cruelty behind such a soft face.

“You are destroying the pack just to steal a man who will hate you when he learns the truth,” I said.

Ashina laughed quietly, and the sound was worse than shouting because it had no fear inside it.

“Men do not hate the woman who comforts them when another woman breaks them,” she said, touching the scarf around her neck.

The movement pulled my eyes to the covered skin, and the pain in my bond burned so sharply that I almost staggered.

“You were with him,” I whispered, though part of me had known since the moment she smiled outside the hall.

Ashina’s smile became slow and cruel, and the room seemed to shrink around the sound of my own breathing.

“He came to me broken, angry, and hungry for someone who would not challenge him,” she said with poisonous sweetness.

I wanted to deny it, but the mate bond pulsed with shame, and that shame did not belong to me.

My throat tightened as I remembered Bardolph’s hands on my face beneath the blood moon, promising nobody would ever stand between us.

“You used his pain,” I said, and my voice cracked because betrayal hurt more when love had made the knife.

“I used what you wasted,” Ashina answered, stepping so close that her perfume curled around me like smoke.

Before I could move, she lifted a small silver pin and dragged it across her own wrist with a sharp gasp.

Blood brightened against her skin, and my wolf froze in horror because I knew the trap before Ashina even screamed.

She threw herself backward against the door, knocking the lantern down so hard that firelight danced wildly across the floor.

“Help!” Ashina screamed, pressing her bleeding wrist against her chest while tears burst from her eyes like magic.

The door flew open almost instantly, and two guards rushed in, followed by Lowell, whose face went pale when he saw the blood.

Ashina pointed at me with a shaking hand, and her voice broke in all the places innocent voices were supposed to break.

“She attacked me because I found her escape note,” Ashina cried, showing them the blood I had not spilled.

I opened my mouth to speak, but the note in my hand suddenly felt heavier than any chain ever made.

Lowell looked from Ashina to me, and I saw the terrible battle inside him as fear fought against the truth.

“She cut herself,” I said, holding my hands up so everyone could see there was no blood on my fingers.

Ashina sobbed harder, collapsing against Lowell’s chest, and I hated how quickly pity could blind people to simple facts.

“She has no blood on her hands because she wiped the blade on her robe,” Ashina whispered, pointing weakly at my side.

I looked down and saw a thin red stain across the white cloth, placed there when Ashina stepped close enough to touch me.

The guards drew back from me as if my silence had become a confession, and Lowell’s eyes filled with helpless horror.

“Lock her inside and call the Alpha,” one guard ordered, while the other helped Ashina into the hallway.

I stepped toward Lowell because he was the only one who had almost told me the truth before fear swallowed him.

“You know she is lying,” I said softly, making sure my voice carried the weight of every life I had saved here.

Lowell’s jaw trembled, but then Ashina cried his name, and the young guard turned away from me like a coward.

The door slammed shut again, and this time the key turned twice, sealing me inside with smoke, bells, and betrayal.