Desired By The Dark Alpha Brothers

Chapter 7

CHAPTER 7: Questions and Wails

Ivy's POV

Sunlight streamed through the window. It was morning but I felt anything but refreshed. My eyes were gritty like someone had rubbed sand into them and my entire body ached from sitting stiffly against the door all night.

I hadn’t dared to sleep again. Every time my eyelids drooped, I saw them.. those two faint glowing green discs staring from the darkness.

The silence after they’d left had been almost worse, filled with the pounding of my own heart and the door… a door that could only be locked from the outside. The thought made a cold shiver run down my spine even now. I was a prisoner in my own room and something had come to check on its new cellmate..!

A sudden sharp rap on the door made me jump with my heart immediately launching into my throat.

“Miss Ivy? It’s Maya. I’ve come to help you get ready.”

The sound of her voice so familiar and slightly nervous was the only thing that could have convinced me to move. I scrambled up with my stiff limbs protesting and pulled the door open.

Maya stood there with her hands clasped in front of her simple maid’s dress. She took one look at me... my rumpled nightgown, my wild hair and tthe dark circles I knew were under my eyes... and her own eyes widened in sympathy.

“Oh, miss,” she said softly, bustling in. “You look like you’ve seen a ghost.”

“Something like that,” I mumbled, my voice hoarse from fear and lack of use.

As she began to straighten the bedclothes, the words just tumbled out. I couldn’t hold them in.

“Maya, something happened last night. After you left. My door… it opened. I didn’t open it and there were… there were these eyes. Glowing eyes, just staring at me from the dark.”

Maya’s hands stilled on the quilt. She didn’t look at me but I saw the way her shoulders tensed up.

“The old manor makes many sounds at night, miss. It’s easy for a tired mind to play tricks.”

“This wasn’t a trick,” I insisted, hugging my arms around myself. “They were real. And the door has no lock! What kind of room has no lock on the inside?”

“The kind that doesn’t need one,” she said, her voice barely a whisper. She said it like it was a fact.. like the sky is blue. It was not comforting.

Her obvious fear killed my next question but a new one took its place. I had to know what I was dealing with.

“Maya,” I said with my voice low. “What is he like? Alpha Lucian, I mean. Really like.”

She flinched as if I’d shouted something shocking.

“Perhaps you should ask him yourself.”

A deep smooth voice cut through the room from the doorway and we both whipped around.

Lucian Blackthorn stood there, tall and formidable with his arms clasped behind his back. How long had he been listening?

Maya immediately dropped into a low bow.

“Alpha! Good morning.”

He gave her the barest nod, his intense gaze sweeping over the room before landing briefly on me. I felt like a butterfly pinned to a board under that look.

“Have her ready for breakfast in fifteen minutes,” he said to Maya, his tone leaving no room for argument. His eyes flicked to me one last time and then he was gone, his footsteps echoing down the hall.

The moment he left, Maya sprang into action like someone had lit a fire under her.

“Quickly, miss! A bath, now!”

“Maya, wait, what was that about? What’s going...”

“No time, no time!” she chirped, herding me toward the adjoining bathroom. “Mustn’t keep the Alpha waiting!”

The next ten minutes were of rushing water, a hastily pulled-on simple dress and robe and Maya frantically trying to tame my hair into something “presentable” while steadfastly refusing to answer any of my questions. She was back to being a locked box.

Soon enough, she was leading me through the maze of corridors to a dining hall that looked like it was from the pages of a Shakespearean tragedy.

It was enormous with a vaulted ceiling and a long wooden table that could have seated thirty people. At one end, looking small and lonely, sat Lucian and his daughter, Mila.

The clink of their cutlery was the only sound. Maya gave me a little push toward the table, bowed again to Lucian’s back and scurried away. I felt abandoned.

I approached slowly and pulled out a heavy chair, sitting a respectful distance away from them. Lucian ate with a quiet precision, barely looking up. Little Mila peeked at me over her toast, her big eyes curious but shy.

I had to break the silence. It was choking me.

“It’s a beautiful morning,” I tried. Nothing. Just the sound of a knife scraping butter.

Okay, new tactic. Direct, but polite.

“I, um… I noticed the manor is very large. Are… are your brothers joining us?”

Lucian slowly lowered his fork. He raised one dark eyebrow but didn’t answer. He just looked at me, waiting for me to dig my own grave.

I nervously filled the silence.

“It’s just that, yesterday, I met one of them. Elias? And Maya mentioned you had brothers so I just wondered where they all were…”

He interrupted me, his voice cool and flat.

“You are also forbidden from forming relationships of any kind within or outside the manor with none. Even your maid.”

I blinked. That came out of nowhere.

“I… I wasn’t trying to form a relationship. I was just making conversation.”

“Consider this your only warning on the matter.”

So this was more of a prison than a job. The rules were insane, the door didn’t lock and glowing monsters watched you sleep. My frustration must have been plain on my face.

As if he’d read my mind, he spoke again, not even looking up from his plate.

“The door is open for you to leave at any time, Miss Harrington. The cart will take you back to the station.”

And go where? Back to a life of shame? Back to being the poor, naive girl who got scandalously dumped and betrayed? No. I had nowhere else to go. I bit my lip hard and stared down at my plate. The toast tasted like ash but I ate it.

I wanted to tell him about the eyes.. to demand answers.. but the cold final way he had spoken made the words die in my throat. He wouldn’t believe me. Or worse, he would and he’d know I was scared.

After breakfast, Lucian left with a quiet command for me to “see to Mila.” Finally, a chance to do the job I was hired for.

I found the little girl in a small sunroom, drawing quietly with some crayons. She was a beautiful child with dark hair and serious eyes.

I knelt down beside her.

“That’s a lovely drawing, Mila. What is it?”

“A flower,” she whispered, not looking up.

“It’s beautiful. You’re very good.” I smiled. “How old are you, sweetheart?”

“Seven,” she said, holding up her hands with all her fingers splayed.

“Seven! A very big girl. What do you like to do for fun? Do you like to play hide and seek?”

She shrugged, concentrating on coloring her flower purple. It was slow going. She was so quiet and so contained. It made my heart ache. I wondered about the woman who had left her here in this creepy silent manor with a father made of ice.

It slipped out before I could think better of it. A natural question, the kind any new person would ask a child about their family.

“What about your mom, Mila? Is she… around?”

The effect was instant and terrifying. Her little hand froze mid-scribble. The crayon dropped from her fingers and rolled across the floor while she went perfectly and utterly still.

Then she slowly lifted her head. Her eyes were wide but they weren’t looking at me. They were looking through me at something horrible I couldn’t see.

She opened her mouth and a sound came out that I will never forget. It wasn’t a cry. It wasn’t a scream. It was a high, piercing, eerie wail that didn’t sound human at all. It was a sound of pure unending terror and it made every single hair on my arms stand straight up..!