Selah’s POV
The walk to my new quarters felt endless.
My boots made soft sounds against the stone floor, and right beside my ankles, a giant shadow moved in step with me.
The beast was so close that its thick fur brushed against my skirt with every stride.
It was weird, really.
A giant, blood-stained wolf was trotting at my heels like a faithful hound, and I wasn’t screaming or running, I wasn’t even terrified.
After everything that had happened in the last hour, having a deadly animal walk me down the hallway felt like the least insane part of my day, so I just let it.
Behind us, Vera’s voice carried down the corridor in a sharp, frantic murmur.
“…did you see the blood, Mira? It was everywhere! Right on the floor! And the way it just sat there looking at her like….”
“Quiet, child.” Mira hushed her softly.
“You talk too much.”
“Well, I’m stating facts! How did it even get into the main house? That thing is supposed to be locked up, and now it’s just…”
I stopped dead in my tracks right in front of the door to my new room and turned around fast, my eyes fixed on the two of them.
Vera stopped mid-sentence, her jaw staying open for a second before she snapped her mouth shut.
She swallowed hard and gave me a hasty, nervous smile, taking a quick step back toward the wall.
“Sorry,” she whispered, looking down at her own shoes.
Mira gave me a look that was far calmer, though her dark eyes were full of questions.
“You should forgive her,” the older woman said quietly, gesturing toward Vera.
“We are simply not used to seeing the beast act so tame. It has never allowed anyone near it without trying to tear them apart.”
She took a step closer, eyeing the animal standing quietly by my hip.
“And besides… how did it even escape its cage on the other side of the mansion compound? That keep is locked with heavy iron bolts. It shouldn’t be possible.”
I lifted my shoulders in a heavy shrug.
I didn’t have a voice to give her an answer, and even if I did, I wouldn’t know what to say. You are reading on g.com, the official source.
I myself had no idea how it had gotten out, or why it had chosen to defend me.
Vera moved forward quickly, eager to make herself useful, and opened the door to the room.
“Here you go, Selah.”
I walked straight inside, and the beast bounded in right behind me, its wide paws making a soft thud against the rug.
I turned back, expecting Vera and Mira to follow me to help me settle in, but they both stayed firmly at the entrance, neither of them willing to cross the threshold with the animal inside.
Mira gave the beast one last suspicious look before meeting my eyes.
“I will give you today off from your sign language lessons,” she said gently.
“You are obviously still shaken from being attacked by Lady Cynthia. Rest today. We can continue tomorrow.”
I nodded, and Vera quickly pulled the heavy door shut, leaving me alone in the space.
The silence in the room was a welcome change, but I couldn’t sit still, I couldn’t relax.
My mind kept going over the attack, the blood on the floor, Cynthia’s sharp claws and Lord Garrick’s cold voice as he shoved her away, and I began pacing back and forth across the floor, my hands opening and closing at my sides as a sharp agitation built up inside me.
When I turned around, the beast walked over to the door, turned around, and sat down on its hind legs, its pale eyes watching every single step I took back and forth across the rug.
I stopped pacing for a moment and stared right back at it, waiting and hoping it would talk to me again, waiting for that low, male voice to whisper inside my head the way it had when it told me to touch its head back in my old room.
But the beast just blinked at me.
It just sat there like a lump of fur.
Useless, I thought to myself, rolling my eyes and turning away.
Completely useless.
I looked around the room, taking in my new surroundings.
It was much larger than my old room, furnished with rugs and silk curtains.
But as I walked around, I realized something pathetic: placed on a table was the charcoal pencil and the notepad I had been using.
Someone had moved them here for me.
That notepad was the only thing I owned in the entire world, except for the plain brown dress currently covering my back.
A wave of intense self-pity hit me all at once.
Almost a week ago, I had a life.
Even though I was poor and at the bottom of the pack hierarchy, I was still Selah.
Selah, the mate of Lord Asher.
I had my own face Nd my own voice, beautiful brown hair.
I could make my own choices, even if those choices were terrible.
Now, I was a mute prisoner trapped in a stranger’s body, living on the charity of a dangerous Alpha lord who bought me like an animal at a market.
I stared at the floor, feeling tears sting the back of my eyes, but almost immediately, a burning anger flared up in my stomach, wiping the pity away.
Stop it, I scolded myself fiercely.
Stop crying like a weak little girl.
Wallowing in self-pity isn’t going to get your voice back, and it isn’t going to keep you alive.
I walked over to the tall mirror standing in the corner of the room and looked at my reflection.
The girl in the mirror looked small and pitiful.
The plain brown dress hung loosely on her frame, looking completely out of place against the luxury of this room.
Nothing about her looked special, nothing about her looked like an “Oracle” who could alter the fate of nations.
She just looked tired.
I raised a trembling hand and touched the long, silvery-white hair falling over my shoulder, running my fingers through the strange strands that still didn’t feel like my own.
But then the click of the door latch shattered the quiet.
I turned around just as the door swung open, and Lord Garrick walked into the room.