Chapter 11
1493 Words
Francine's POV
A man groped my ass as I was serving drinks to the men seated across the table.
My rage boiled instantly.
I had barely managed to calm myself after the mistress had slapped me twice for simply speaking my mind and now a filthy excuse of a man had decided to make himself the highlight of my evening.
“What?” he whispered, grinning smugly as I wiggled his hand off my back. His mate was seated directly opposite him, but the hall’s dim lighting and her obsession with the glittering jewelry on her friend’s wrist kept her blind to what was happening right under her nose.
“Aren’t you the slave sent from the West?” he taunted, his teeth flashing with each word, his breath thick with wine and arrogance.
“Keep your hand to yourself, master,” I managed to say, though the word master nearly choked me. I hated saying it. I hated when disgusting, entitled and cruel men like him had power. I hated how people who didn’t deserve wealth or rank wielded it like a weapon, using it to humiliate those they deemed beneath them.
He chuckled lowly, leaning closer. “You don’t tell me what to do,” he sneered. “If I want to have you here and now, there’s nothing you could do about it. You’re just a slave.”
His words dripped with venom, with the certainty that I was powerless.
For a brief moment, I forgot about Jennifer, who had just been called to the podium where the Alpha sat. Two other men were beside him, the same ones I had seen in her chambers days ago. What they were doing there, I didn’t know, but it wasn’t my concern.
My concern was this man, this revolting pompous fool who thought my silence meant surrender.
“You will never have me,” I said, turning to face him fully. He still sat proudly, his smugness unshaken. “Even if I am nobody… even if I am nothing here in the North… even if you were the last man the Moon Goddess left alive—” I leaned closer, lowering my voice, “—I would rather die than ever let myself be bound to shameless wolves like you, master.”
Before he could respond, I shifted the wine bottle I carried and deliberately tipped it forward, pouring the contents across his fine suit. The deep red soaked into his silver fabric, staining it instantly.
He froze in disbelief for half a heartbeat before his pride caught up with his temper.
“How dare you!” he roared, slamming his hand against the table. His mate snapped her head up, her expression twisting into outrage.
“You slave!” she screeched, her voice sharp but hushed, not wanting to draw too much attention in such a grand hall. Yet the venom in her tone was enough to curdle blood.
“I’m sorry, madam,” I said quickly, lowering my head in mock humility as I began to step away. “I’ll fetch something to help him clean up.”
A lie. I had no intention of returning to that table.
He would reek of wine until the ceremony ended and from the looks of things, the night had only just begun. The guests were seated and only the servants were moving and I well, I planned to disappear before his ego recovered.
Still, the eyes followed me. Whispers trailed behind me like smoke. I ignored them, keeping my gaze forward, my pace steady, pretending not to hear the murmurs or see the judgment in their eyes.
“You foolish girl!” The mistress’s shrill voice echoed from the end of the hall, slicing through the murmurs. She sat like a hawk overseeing her prey, her lips curled in disgust. “Must you cause trouble wherever you go, you clumsy brat?”
I said nothing.
“Don’t move from there,” she snapped again, her tone colder now. “You’ll stand rooted to that spot until Luna Jennifer is mated to the Triplet Alphas. I wouldn’t want you polluting the air with the foul stench of the West.”
Her words stung, but I bit my tongue, lowering my gaze in submission I didn’t feel.
My mind, however, was far from her command. It was on the podium on the Alpha, or rather Alphas.
Triplets.
No one in the West had ever spoken of that. No one had known the Alpha of the North had two brothers, one with a single eye hidden beneath a dark patch and another who sat with his chin tilted arrogantly, pride written into every line of his body.
An elder approached Jennifer, his steps echoing across the grand hall. In his wrinkled hands, he carried the ancient relics necessary for the mating ceremony.
“Blessed Jennifer,” the old man intoned solemnly as he dipped his fingers into a bowl of crushed herbs and oils, then gently anointed her forehead. The West had a similar ritual and it was said to have meant to awaken the wolf’s spirit, to summon the mate bond so the chosen could find their fated partner.
But Jennifer’s face didn’t mirror reverence or peace. She looked irritated, her jaw tight. When the elder’s fingers brushed her skin, she flinched from annoyance, as if she feared he might smudge her perfectly painted makeup.
He reached for the ceremonial band next which was a white, silken cord symbolizing the Moon Goddess' guidance. He was about to tie it around her wrist to link her to her destined mate. But before he could, Jennifer jerked her hand away and snatched the microphone from the stand beside them.
“Before we begin the mate bond process,” she purred, her voice smooth and self-satisfied, “I would like to introduce someone special to the North.”
Her gaze turned sharply to me.
For a moment, I froze. My pulse quickened, confusion twisting in my chest. Why was she looking at me? What was she doing?
Before I could make sense of it, two warriors emerged from the shadows behind me. Their hands clamped around my arms, dragging me forward before I could resist.
“What are you doing? Let me go!” I shouted, struggling, but my protests only made them tighten their grip. The crowd’s murmurs rose, curious and entertained.
Jennifer’s smile widened. “She is the princess from the West,” she announced proudly, her voice carrying across the hall like venom on silk. “Fearing his entire pack would be annihilated, her father offered her to us as appeasement. To do with as we please.”
Laughter rippled through the hall.
“Doesn’t she look lovely?” Jennifer continued, her tone dripping with mockery. “Thrashing beneath the guards’ hands, about to be reminded of her place.”
“Every morning, when I wake, she’s at my feet,” she went on, circling me like a predator with its prey. “Her livelihood lies in my hands. Everything she wears, everything she eats, everything she is, I decide it. I decide when she sleeps, where she works and who she serves.”
By now, the warriors had thrown me to the ground at her feet, right on the podium. The hall went silent except for her voice, every camera now focused on me. My image flickered across the massive screens above, my humiliation displayed for all to see.
None of the Alphas moved to stop her. Not even the elder. They simply watched, as if waiting for the show to end.
Then suddenly, a sharp, searing pull at my wrist made me cry out, my body jerking as a strange warmth spread beneath my skin.
Jennifer’s lips curled, her voice rising again. “She belongs to the North, to do with as we please. Her life and death lie in my—”
She never finished.
The hall erupted with gasps and shouts as a voice from the crowd screamed, “A mate bond!”
Jennifer froze mid-sentence. The laughter died instantly.
I lifted my head, confused, my breath shallow. My gaze darted to her wrist expecting to see the mark of the Goddess glowing there. But there was nothing. Her skin was bare.
Then I looked down and froze.
A silver ring of light circled my wrist, pulsing faintly like living fire. My heart slammed against my ribs. I turned slowly, following the invisible thread tugging at my soul.
And then I saw them.
The Alpha, his eyes wide locked on me. His brothers beside him one with a dark patch over his left eye, the other sitting with his jaw clenched, his expression unreadable.
All three of them had the same glowing silver mark around their wrists.
The breath caught in my throat.
I wasn’t just fated to one of them.
The Moon Goddess had bound me to all three.
- Writer
