Rebecca’s POV
For three long days, I rotted in that cell.
I didn’t bathe, and I hardly ate what they gave me.
No one came to see me.
Not my father.
Not Enzo.
And not even my friends, or my best friend Sonia.
I was utterly alone.
The heavy sound of footsteps echoed down the hall, and two guards walked toward my cell.
Without a word, they threw a familiar, plain maid’s uniform through the bars.
”Dress up,” one of them said coldly.
“Your time here is over.”
I didn’t argue.
I just watched them walk away to wait down the hall.
Slowly, I stood up on my shaky legs.
My wolf howled inside me, a painful, lonely sound, but I ignored her.
I pulled off the torn wedding dress, letting the ruined lace drop to the stone floor.
I changed into the scratchy, gray maid uniform.
As I tied the apron around my waist, the truth finally hit me.
I had moved from grace to grass in just a few days.
When I was done, the guards pulled me outside.
They led me straight to the pack mansion’s kitchen, where the staff was busy rushing around.
The head maiden stepped forward.
She was a woman who used to bow to me, but now, she looked at me with total disgust.
She threw a dirty rag right at my chest.
”You are no longer a princess, Rebecca,” she snapped, her voice loud and mean.
“You are a servant now.
Get to work.”
The other maids stopped what they were doing and stared at me.
Some of their eyes were filled with pity.
I might have been many things to this pack, but I was never rude or wicked to the servants when I was at the top.
Seeing them pity me now made a fresh wave of shame burn in my throat.
The head maiden pointed toward the stairs.
“Your first task is cleaning Alpha Enzo’s room.
Make it spotless.
Move!”
I swallowed hard, the lump in my throat feeling like a stone.
I turned and walked out of the kitchen.
My eyes filled with tears, but I blinked them away, refusing to be weak.
I wouldn’t let them see me cry.
I walked up the grand stairs and reached Enzo’s bedroom door.
Because of my old habit from when we were together, I didn’t think to knock.
I just pushed the heavy wooden door open.
My breath caught, and I froze.
Enzo was sitting on the edge of the large bed, and my sister, Clara, was sitting right on his lap.
Her arms were looped around his neck, looking perfectly at home.
When I saw it, my heart broke into a million pieces.
Deep inside my mind, my wolf whined in agonizing pain.
Enzo wasn’t our fated mate, but my wolf had taken a huge liking to him over the years.
Seeing him touch another woman felt like a physical blow to my chest.
Clara turned her head, her eyes narrowing when she saw me.
“Don’t you knock anymore?” she spat, her voice sharp.
I completely ignored her.
I forced my eyes away from her perfect face and looked straight at Enzo.
My heart was sinking into a dark, empty hole, but I kept my voice flat and cold.
”I’m here to clean,” I said.
Enzo didn’t say a single word.
He just stared at me, his face totally blank.
Since he didn’t stop me, I ignored them both.
I walked over to the far side of the room, dipped my rag into the bucket, and started cleaning.
Every movement hurt my aching body, but I forced myself to move.
The silence in the room was suffocating.
After a long, tense moment, I heard Enzo’s deep voice cut through the quiet.
”Leave, Clara,” he ordered.
Clara groaned out loud, clearly annoyed, but she slid off his lap.
She walked past me, deliberately bumping her shoulder against mine before she left the room, slamming the door behind her.
Then, it was just the two of us.
He didn’t speak for a long time.
The only sound in the bedroom was the wet slap of my mop against the tiled floor.
I kept my eyes glued to the ground, mopping the floor over and over, trying to ignore the heavy, overpowering scent of mint and pure alpha energy that belonged completely to him.
The scent curled in the back of my throat, making my lower body ache with a hot, pulsing heat that I didn’t want to feel.
Out of the corner of my eye, I saw him move.
He stood up from the bed and slowly unbuttoned his shirt, popping each button very slowly on purpose.
He pulled the fabric down his thick, heavy muscles and threw it away.
My eyes moved up on their own, helpless as I tracked the smooth skin of his body.
I stared at the dark, detailed tattoos winding across his broad chest and the sharp, clear lines of his abs that moved with every breath.
Fuck.
This man was breathtaking.
It made me so mad how easily my body answered to him.
He looked so huge, so intensely manly, that every other guy in the pack looked like a boy next to him.
A tight, heavy pull centered between my thighs, making me wet beneath my scratchy uniform.
”See something you like?”
Enzo’s deep, rough voice broke the silence, vibrating straight through the floorboards and into the soles of my feet.
I snapped my eyes back to the wet floor, my cheeks burning with a hot blush that showed my true feelings.
I forced a cold, careless shrug to hide how my hands were shaking.
”Don’t flatter yourself, Enzo,” I said, squeezing the handle of the mop.
“You’re just average.”
It was a total lie.
Enzo was a perfect picture of raw, manly power.
But I would rather die than let him know he still made my knees feel like water.
A low growl came from deep inside his chest—a sound that sent a sharp shock of heat straight down my spine.
Before I could even blink, he moved across the room with scary alpha speed.
His hand wrapped around my arm like a tight iron ring, and he slammed me back against the hard wall.
The bucket hit the floor with a loud noise, water splashing everywhere, as my heart beat wildly against my ribs.
”What do you think you’re doing?” I gasped, my chest moving up and down, pushing my breasts right against his bare, hard chest.
The rubbing of his hot skin through my thin uniform made my nipples turn hard instantly.
He leaned in close, the burning heat coming from his body completely trapping me.
His dark eyes burned with a wild, hunting fire that looked way too much like hunger.
“Say that again,” he ordered, his voice a low, rough threat that felt like a touch against my skin.
I refused to back down.
I thought about the shame of the past three days, the painful sight of Clara sitting on his lap, and the total ruin of my life.
My anger turned into pure, reckless boldness.
I lifted my chin, staring right into his dark, scary eyes.
”I said, Alpha Enzo, you are average,” I snapped, looking down his body on purpose, letting my eyes stay on his torso to make fun of him.
“Now that I think about it, you really aren’t anything special.
Especially with your little six-inch cock.”
I was lying completely.
I had seen Enzo fully naked before during pack shifts.
The man was built like a stallion in every way.
He easily carried a thick, heavy nine inches—the exact size I had secretly rubbed myself about during long, lonely nights, imagining it stretching me open.
Enzo went perfectly still.
The air in the room changed, turning thick, heavy, and hot.
A dark, wicked smile showed at the corner of his lips.
”Really?” he murmured, his voice dropping into a smooth, dark purr.
He leaned down until his lips brushed against the side of my ear, his hot breath sending a sharp jolt of electricity straight down to my thighs.
“But you’ve been following me around like a lovesick child for years, Rebecca.
Begging for my attention.”
Fuck.
I rolled my eyes, trying hard to stop the shivering across my skin as my body betrayed me.
“My taste was trash back then.
I grew up.
I look at you now and I regret every single second I wasted on you.”
Enzo’s jaw tightened, the heavy muscles of his neck squeezing hard.
I couldn’t tell if he was amused by my boldness or ready to break my neck from pure rage, but the heat coming off him was choking me.
His hand slid down to my throat, not squeezing, just holding me there.
”Why don’t I show you?” he whispered, his eyes locking onto my mouth with a sudden, wild hunger that made my lips open on their own.
“You can judge for yourself whether I’m six inches… or way fucking more.”
He stepped back slightly, one hand already dropping to his belt.
My eyes widened as the sound of his zipper filled the room.
Oh shit…