Lilia’s POV
Five million dollars.
“Rest well.”
The door closed behind him.
I sat in the dark, staring at the closed door.
Nathan knew my situation better than anyone.
When he’d said the number, that unshakable calm in his eyes told me everything,he was certain I could never pay it.
He had locked me inside this house with his own hands.
I lay down, pulled the blanket over my head, and kept my eyes open in the dark.
If brute force wouldn’t work, then I’d find another way.
The next morning, three strangers stood in the living room when I came downstairs.
Identical dark-gray uniforms, backs straight, hands folded in front of them,stamped out of the same mold.
They bowed in unison the moment I appeared at the stairs.
“Good morning, Miss Lilia!”
The chorus was so loud I nearly missed the last step.
I gripped the rail, my heart sinking as I looked from one unfamiliar face to the next.
“Who are you?” My voice came out tight.
“Where’s Grace?”
The woman at the front stepped forward with a smile polished to perfection.
“I’m Helen, the new housekeeper. Grace, Thomas, and Margaret,the Alpha felt their care fell short, since it led to thoughts of leaving. They were dismissed last night.”
I stood on the bottom step, hand still on the rail.
The three of them had worked here for years.
They’d never liked me, but they’d never mistreated me either.
They’d done nothing wrong,all because I’d mentioned moving out?
“Where did they go?” I asked.
Helen’s smile didn’t waver.
“I couldn’t say, Miss Lilia. The Alpha only said a new team would be caring for you now. He hopes you’ll settle in comfortably and stop thinking about leaving.”
I lowered my eyes, drew a breath, and pushed the anger down as deep as it would go.
When I looked up, my face was docile.
“I understand. I won’t leave again.”
Helen blinked, then stepped aside.
“Breakfast is ready, Miss Lilia.”
After breakfast, Nathan came down in a charcoal coat, his tie knotted flawlessly.
He paused when he saw me on the sofa, then came over and sat beside me.
I leaned toward him the way I had as a child, shoulder resting against his arm.
“Don’t go out today,” he said.
“I have Pack business.
I won’t be back until evening.
Stay in the Pack House.”
”Okay.” I nodded.
“I won’t go anywhere.”
He glanced down at me, surprise flickering in his eyes.
“Not angry with me anymore?”
I didn’t look away.
Instead I curved my lips into a small, harmless smile.
“I was wrong yesterday,” I said. The source of this chapter is novelping.com.
“I shouldn’t have fought with you.”
He was quiet a few seconds, then reached out and tucked a loose strand of hair behind my ear, fingertips grazing the edge.
“Good girl.” He stood and left.
I held that docile pose until the sound of his car faded beyond the courtyard wall.
Then I sank back and pulled my knees up to my chest.
I would find a way.
I wouldn’t be trapped here forever.
I paced my room.
Opened drawers and shut them again.
Tried to read and absorbed none of it.
Outside, snow fell on and off, burying the courtyard in dead white silence.
I still needed the tavern job.
It was the only way I had to earn anything.
By evening I was drifting off,I’d barely slept the night before.
I curled up on the sofa under a blanket, my eyelids heavier and heavier.
Sometime deep in the night I surfaced halfway out of sleep.
The room was dark; the fire had burned down to embers.
I was about to roll over and sink back under when my body went rigid.
Someone was sitting beside me.
I kept my eyes shut and slowed my breathing, feigning sleep.
The scent was familiar.
Nathan.
He hadn’t switched on a light.
I felt his fingers settle at my temple, slide slowly along my brow bone, trace the line of my nose, and come to rest at the edge of my lips.
“Lilia,” he murmured.
His fingers kept moving,past my jaw, down the side of my neck, tracing the outline of something he treasured.
“You were always mine,” he said, his breath landing above my collarbone.
“Once I’ve used Tina to clear away every obstacle and this whole territory is in my hands,everything you want, I’ll give you.”
He paused.
His finger pressed lightly into the hollow of my collarbone.
“Alpha.”
A low male voice.
It sounded like Evan, the Beta Nathan kept closest.
Nathan told him to keep his voice down. Enjoying the story? Read on at novelping.com.
Evan bent to his ear and whispered.
When the man straightened, Nathan gave a short hum.
“Cleaned up?”
”Clean.
The bodies went into the northern swamp.
Every trace is gone.
No one will find them.”
”And the parents?”
”Paid off.
Told them their daughter was killed by Rogues at the border, already buried.
They didn’t question it.”
Then footsteps,Evan leaving.
I pieced together what fragments I could catch.
Ordinary Pack business, probably.
Evan was Nathan’s most trusted Beta; reporting at all hours was normal.
“Why aren’t you obedient like you used to be?”
Nathan’s voice came suddenly, very quiet.
“Grace. Thomas. Margaret.” He said the three names slowly.
“They died because of you.”
My blood went still in my veins.
…What?
Grace.
Last night she had stood in that doorway and heard too much of what she shouldn’t have.
Then Nathan had gently told her to “go and rest.”
So that was what rest meant.
I squeezed my eyes shut and fought to keep my breathing level.
My head was full of the night before,the spilled milk, Grace’s white face, Nathan’s hand steadying her shoulder, and “it can wait until morning.”
There was no morning for her.
Thomas and Margaret too.
All three of them,dealt with, somewhere beyond my knowing.
“I picked you up,” he went on, voice drifting from far away.
“From the day I lifted you out of the snow, you were mine. I won’t let anyone take you, and I won’t allow any accidents.”
His fingers returned to my face, the pad of his thumb stroking my cheekbone, tender as a hand smoothing over a prize.
“So be good, Lilia. Don’t think about leaving. Otherwise,”
I knew what he hadn’t said.
Much later he drew his hand back, carried me from the sofa to my bed, pressed a kiss to my forehead, and left.
My eyes flew open.
I lay gasping, cold sweat soaking through the back of my pajamas.
Because of me.
Because I’d mentioned moving out in front of Nathan, because he’d come to confront me, because I’d asked those questions in that room.
If I had said nothing,the three of them would still be alive.
I should have felt safe, wrapped in his care and that kiss on my forehead.
Instead, every inch of my skin prickled.
For the first time I understood, with perfect clarity, that Nathan was far darker,and far more of a stranger,than I had ever imagined.