*Maddy*
I wriggle against the restraints. My wrists are raw and aching from the ropes. I don’t know what time it is or where I’m being taken, but I was carried from the chalet to a vehicle, then onto a train, and now I lay with my face pressed against a hardwood floor thick with the scent of fresh wax.
Two achingly slow days have passed, and I have no idea where I am or why.
Sold. That was what Lousia said. She’d sold me.
It’s no wonder she had money to buy meat and wine and four new dresses for Elodie.
I roll onto my side and curl into a ball. At least it’s warm wherever I am. Chill doesn’t bite my toes or waft through cracked windows.
No, this place is nice. Well-furnished with thick velvet curtains and plush couches. Still, I’m on the floor, hog-tied and filthy after two days of rough travel. I turn to look out a window on the far side of the room. Soft daylight spills across the floor, illuminating obscure sculptures and art collecting dust. Midday, maybe? Afternoon?
My stomach aches as if to tell me whatever time it is, I haven’t eaten since the scraps from dinner before I was carried out of Louisa and Elodie’s house two days ago.
The door opens, but I don’t lift my head to see who is approaching me. Shiny blank boots come to halt just before my face.
“You look like shit.” His accent is thick, but I can understand him as the small man, whose name I now know is Reginald Trauffaut, crouches in front of me and uses a dirty finger to brush my hair away from my face. Two maids hustle into the room, the footsteps tapping across the floorboards. “Get her cleaned up and bring her to my office.” He leans in close, his dark eyes narrowing on mine. “You better be worth the money I paid for you. I have one shot at this, and if you fail me, I’ll slit your throat and dump you in a river. Do you understand me?”
I just stare at him unblinking. Would it be so bad to die at this point? Three years of torture, hunger, and cold at the hands of the woman who was supposed to protect me? Now, whatever he has in mind for me, it can’t be better.
When I say nothing, Reginald stands and runs his hands through his hair, cursing under his breath before walking out.
One of the maids hurries forward with a plastic laundry basket in her hands while the other, much younger than the first, struggles to untie me.
They speak rapidly to each other like they’re arguing, but I can’t understand a word they’re saying. Alarm sends adrenaline coursing through my veins as I’m hauled to my feet, and the maids start bickering over the state of my bruised and blistered wrists.
“Where am I?” I ask, glancing between them. “Where am I?”
Their language is so…so familiar to me in a way that makes me feel a misplaced flicker of excitement, or dread. I’m too tired, weak, and hungry to make sense of it, but I’ve only heard this language once before.
“Crescent Falls?” My voice is strained as I look from maid to maid. The young one has beautiful green eyes that meet mine, her blonde hair tied back in a low bun. She looks to the other maid and presses her lips together.
The older maid, who has dark circles under her dark brown eyes, nods at me. “Crescent Falls,” she repeats, glancing at the other maid.
Silence settles between us.
I am so far from home, I may as well be on the other side of the moon.
“Glenda.” The older maid points at herself, and I nod in understanding. Then she points at the other maid and says, “Clare.” Again, I get it. Names. They have names. I say nothing. They either already know I’m Maddy, or they won’t care anyway.
Glenda, the older maid, ushers me down a narrow hallway in what seems like a townhouse of some kind. We are obviously in some city center, based on the amount of noise coming from outside. Each window we pass has the curtains drawn, so I’m unable to look upon the metropolis I imagine I’m in.
Crescent Falls.
The last time I was here I attended the ball to celebrate the prince’s twenty-first birthday. We’d gone to the capital city for the occasion. I’d never seen anything like it. Louisa spent a year trying to secure an invitation for Elodie, using my father’s death to tug on the heartstrings of the royal court of the Alpha King.
My father, Charles Bardot, had been a merchant for the Alpha King of Celestoria. He and my mother, Adelaide, had been well loved by the Alphas of Crescent Falls, especially their Alpha King. King Maddox, I believe, is his name.
While the maids bathed me–roughly I might add–I try to ask where exactly in the territory we are. They stare at me, lost, and I realize they don’t understand me any better than I understand them.
They get me out and help me dry off, slipping a robe on me, as my mind wanders over what may happen next. The young maid, Clare, brushes and dries my hair with a towel before styling it. I can’t see what she’s doing, so I close my eyes and try to stay calm.
Once they are finished, still dressed in a robe, I’m taken down the hallway again.
I smell the man before I see him and know they’re taking me back to Reginald.
I tighten the robe I’m wearing, my wrists burning with the action. Fresh cuts cover my wrists and ankles and my body is peppered with bruises.
After being doused in oils, scrubbed with fine soap and primed to a fine finish, I can’t help but stop and stare at myself in a mirror we pass before we reach his office. Glenda tugs on my arm but doesn’t sway me. No, I haven’t looked like this in a long time. My hair, brushed out in soft, thick waves over my shoulders, falls down my back in sheets of deep red and chestnut brown. My skin is fair and clear, dusted with pink from the heat of the bath.
I tilt my chin high, steeling my expression.
I’ll escape this place and disappear into the city the first chance I get.
Glenda says something to me, urging me to move. I follow, doing my best to memorize the layout of the townhouse. We descend to the first floor, and I come face to face with a wolf.
The beast eyes me like I’m his next meal as Glenda ushers me out of the front foyer and into a sitting room.
“About fucking time,” Reginald growls. His black eyes meet mine with so much disdain I can almost taste his hatred. He might have been a handsome man in his younger years, but now he looks like someone whose meals consist of nothing but hard liquor and violence. He pushes up off a worn leather couch and approaches, pinching my cheeks, turning my head from side to side. “Worthless trash.”
I bristle but say nothing. His words I can understand. He speaks my language, and I realize he’s the only person in this house that can understand me in return.
He lets go of my face and shoves me backward, causing me to stumble, before he sits back down on his couch.
I rub my jaw. “Why am I here?”
“Don’t speak unless spoken to!” He stands again, throwing a glass against the far wall. The smell of whiskey fills the air as he stomps toward me. “I never want to hear you speak a fucking word again, you useless whore. Do you know how much money I spent on you? Your mother said you were beautiful and healthy. That you were educated and well bred. Virginal.”
“She isn’t my mother,” I grind out, but my body begins to tremble as he takes slow, predatory steps toward me.
“Now I’m stuck with you.” He shoves a finger into my chest and I stumble backward again, falling on the ground this time. My bottom screams in pain, but I don’t show him that he’s hurt me. “I’ll be better off using you as a whore.”
“Why am I here?” I say again, tears stinging my eyes. I crawl backward away from him until my back hits a wall. He crouches, caging me in. The smell of whiskey and smoke rolls off him, and not in a good way.
A wicked smile spreads across his gaunt face. “You should consider yourself lucky, little wolf, that I was the one who responded to your mother’s ad. I meant to make you a queen.”
What is he talking about? This man is obviously deranged.
I whimper as he leans in closer so we’re nearly nose to nose.
“Maybe you’ll still work as intended.” He places two fingers under my chin, forcing me to look up at him. “Maybe, just maybe, this could work out for the both of us.”
“I don’t know what you’re talking about–”
“This is what’s going to happen.” He drops my chin and rises to his full height, his hands tucked behind his back as he begins to pace. “From this moment on, you’re to call me uncle. You will never utter a single word in the presence of others.” A clock chimes somewhere in the room. He heaves a sigh but continues pacing. “You will look pretty. Be seen, but not heard.”
“I don’t understand–”
I barely register his movement before a vase slams into the wall above my head, and I’m showered in porcelain and water, flower petals floating to the ground around me in sharp contrast to the falling glass. I screech, covering my face with my hands.
“Don’t say a word. If I hear anything coming from your mouth and I haven’t directed you to speak, you will be punished severely, do you understand? I have plenty of men who are so starved of the touch of a female that they will do anything for even a slice of you!”
Terror clouds my mind as I peek through my fingers at him.
“From now on, you are my niece. Your father is an Alpha from a far off land. You will do as I say when I say.”
I can barely hear him through the hammering of blood in my ears, my heart is beating so fast.
“If we are successful,” he breathes, his eyes going wide and unfocused. “Oh, little wolf. Your life will change forever, and all you’ll have to do is open those skinny little thighs of yours.”
The word no is bouncing around my skull with no place to land. My tongue is thick and paralyzed with fear, especially now that three wolves have entered the room.
“Do you have any questions?” Reginald asks expectantly, crossing his arms over his chest.
I can’t think straight. My mind is reeling and my mouth feels dry and useless.
Reginald snorts, eyeing one of the wolves.
“No, Claus. This one isn’t going to the breeder auction just yet. She’s staying right here, for now. If she proves useless I’ll have her sent to the markets right away, after you boys have your share of her, of course.”
The wolves growl and lick their chops. Reginald must be able to mindlink with them, but he chooses to say those words aloud so I can hear them.
Breeder auction? I’ve heard of those. While legal in Celestonia, they were outlawed in the other territories decades ago.
I draw my knees to my chest and try to make myself as small as possible. Somewhere in the recesses of my mind I still believe I’ve been sold as just a maid. Someone to cook and clean and hang laundry.
But I know that’s not the case. A maid isn’t worth four new dresses, meat, and wine.
“Do you have any questions?” Reginald repeats, a bite to his voice. “I don’t want you fucking this up, so if you’re unclear, ask now, bitch.”
“What are you going to do to me?” I sound as broken as the vase, but I can’t help it. I look from Reginald to his pack of wolves now blocking the entrance to the parlor. A pack. Not just a few. Reginald is the Alpha here, in practice if not by law, and I am nothing in comparison.
“That depends on if you prove your worth.” He snaps his thin fingers and Glenda comes rushing back into the room, the wolves parting to allow her to step to my side and haul me to my trembling feet. “Get her dressed. Make sure she wears boots and gloves to hide her injuries. Make her look alive, if that’s even possible. Don’t go light on the blush.” He smirks as he looks me up and down.
“Why?” I finally ask, my voice wobbling over the word I’ve been asking myself for days.
“Why?” he mimics, laughing heartily as he steps toward me. “Because, little wolf, tonight we make a Luna out of you. Tonight, I secure the favor of the Alpha of Alphas. Tonight, I will take you to the King.”