Unlikely Alliance; The Alpha’s Spy

Chapter 4: The Turning Point

Ethan watched her.

Not always. Not overtly or obviously, but subtly.

And Selene felt it.

A shift in the air when she entered a room. The weight of his gaze held a second too long. The way his head tilted ever so slightly when she moved past him, as if trying to figure her out.

It was not a case of attraction. At least, not yet.

It was suspicious curiosity, plain and simple.

And that kind of curiosity was perilous.

Quite often, it bothered her that he had her pegged and was just playing along.

There were rules in the Red Moon Pack palace, spoken and unspoken.

Selene had spent her weeks learning all about them.

She knew when to bow, when to speak, and when to disappear. She knew her place, just as she knew that wolves like Nina bottom-lined on hierarchy.

A lesser wolf was supposed to cower. To submit.

Selene seemed to do it all.

She was at her most humbled, one would say, but Nina seemed to come fully installed with a bullshit sensor.

And Nina hated that.

Selene might have had everyone else fooled, and Nina was trying her hardest to make them see they were being fooled.

But then again, it was just typical Nina-; she hated all the female maids.

"Did you wash the floors properly this time?"

Nina's voice was honeyed venom, her arms crossed as she loomed over Selene like a predator sizing up its prey.

"Yes, my Luna," Selene replied, keeping her tone even, her head bowed.

"Are you sure?" Nina stepped closer, heels clicking against the polished marble. Too close. "Because I'd hate for you to have to start over."

Selene clenched her jaw, willing her breathing to remain even.

Nina had been relentless in her malice over the past few days.

She spills food on the floor deliberately. And there was the unnecessary redoing of tasks. She perpetrated an ongoing, growing cruelty aimed at breaking Selene's resolve.

But it was just that Selene had simply not allowed herself to be broken.

"Maybe I should check myself," Nina mused.

Then with a deliberate aim, she kicked the bucket.

Soapy water sloshed over Selene's feet, soaking through her thin dress, drenching the almost dried floor.

Laughter rippled down the corridor, high-pitched laughter from the other maids.

Cruel.

But also stupid of them to laugh when they themselves were victims of Nina's cruelty.

Selene inhaled, slow. Reined in her boiling anger. She would not react. She would not give Nina the satisfaction.

Then—

"Enough."

The corridor froze.

Ethan's voice wasn't loud but cut through the air like a blade.

Selene raised her head.

He stood at the other end of the hallway, arms folded, golden eyes unreadable.

The laughter died instantly.

Nina turned to him, the smile shifting into something sweet, something calculated. "Ethan, I was just—"

"I said enough."

A tense silence stretched between them.

Selene had expected Nina to argue, twist, manipulate, justify her actions the way she always did.

But she did not.

Because this time, Ethan had been watching.

His gaze strayed to Selene a beat longer than it should have before he turned and walked away.

And for the first time since she had arrived, Nina looked shaken.

Nina looked disturbed because Ethan rarely made interventions but with Selene he had been stepping in too regularly.

"Watch your back Lila," Nina said once she knew Ethan was out of earshot. "Accidents happen all the time."

It was not an ordinary threat but did Selene feel scared?

No.

***

The palace halls were filled with ghostly whispers at night.

Selene moved through the shadows, her steps light against the cold stone.

The stronghold had its rhythm—guards patrolling in shifts, warriors retiring to their chambers, servants moving to their quarters.

And Selene knew exactly when to slip past them.

She had learned about something.

A conversation between the warriors. A date. A location.

The Red Moon Pack was planning an attack.

Soon.

But after digging for more information she found that that particular attack had nothing to do with her pack.

Selene's breathing didn't catch as she stepped into Ethan's private study.

The room was large but not showy. Dark oak shelves ran floor to ceiling, lined with leather-bound books, old maps and scrolls aligned with geometric neatness. A huge wooden desk dominated the far end; its surface tidy, too tidy.

Everything had a place. There wasn't room for disarray.

Her fingers brushed the bookcases, searching for something wrong: a button, a catch, a niche in that place that shouldn't be there.

Once, when she saw Ethan step in, he vanished in there. And she wanted to bring him a cup of tea.

She waited outside, and indeed, he had come out of the study, meaning that somewhere was a hidden room in the study.

And Selene needed to find it.

She skimmed her fingers over the spines of books.

Then—a shift.

One singular book tilted back further than the rest.

Selene hesitated, then pushed.

A faint click echoed, and the bookshelf trembled.

Where previously no seam had existed, one appeared. The bookshelf panel swung inward slowly to reveal a narrow, shadowy passageway.

Selene's heart started racing.

Gingerly, she stepped inside.

There was a single wood table at the center, neat stacks of documents arranged on its surface. The walls were lined with maps-detailed, strategic. Some were marked in red ink; others bore coded symbols she did not immediately understand.

But it was the center map that made her blood run cold.

A battlefield.

Lines of movement. Planned troop deployment. And at the bottom—the name of the pack Red Moon intended to strike.

Crescent Moon Pack.

Her home.

Before she could analyze further, she heard it—

The study door opening.

Selene froze.

Footsteps.

Heavy. Measured.

Ethan.

Her pulse thundered in her ears as she pressed herself against the cold stone wall, barely breathing.

The door on the bookshelf was still open. Was it too open? Would he catch it?

She could hear him moving-his deliberate steps taking him deeper into the room, the rustling of papers, the groan of his chair as he sat.

Selene shut her eyes tight.

Don't come any closer.

The air in the hidden room was tighter, closer to strangling. If he stepped near the bookshelf, if he reached for the wrong book-it was over.

The silence stretched.

Then, finally, a sigh. A scrape of a chair against the floor.

Ethan was leaving.

The study door shut.

Selene waited, counting the seconds. Only when she was sure the room was empty did she move, exhaling a shaky breath she had not realized she was holding.

She had come here for information. And she had found more than she expected.

Selene slipped out of the secret room, closing the hidden door behind her.

She needed to get this information to Marcus.