“Hey, Ella, wake up, we are here.” Hazel’s soft voice drifted through the quiet cabin of the car, followed by a gentle shake on my shoulder.
I blinked my eyes open, completely disoriented.
I hadn’t even realized when I fell asleep, but as I sat up and stretched my arms, a wave of relief washed over me.
My body felt incredibly well-rested.
I looked out the window.
The car was parked in a driveway in front of what I assumed was the main Blood Moon pack house.
It was very late at night, the dark sky filled with stars.
Outside, the members of the pack were quietly moving around the car, their shoulders slouched.
Everyone was just tired from the grueling, non-stop drive across the mountain passes.
“Come on,” Hazel whispered, opening her side door and letting a blast of freezing air into the backseat.
“Let’s get you inside before you freeze.”
I clutched my tiny bag tightly against my chest and stepped out into the dark.
Hazel immediately wrapped her arm around my waist to steady my tired body, escorting me past the pillars of the front porch and straight through the front entrance.
The hallways were dark and completely empty, the rest of the pack already asleep.
Instead of heading upstairs like everyone else was, Hazel took a sharp left turn down a tiled corridor.
“Are we going to the cells?” I whispered, I didn’t know where that came from, but I waited to catch her response as the old fear tightened my throat.
“Cells?
Are you crazy?” Hazel scoffed gently, pulling me along.
“We are going straight to the kitchen.
I don’t know about you, but my stomach is actively eating itself.
Let’s look for something to eat.”
Of course she wasn’t taking me there.
The Blood Moon kitchen was three times the size of the one at Silver Ridge, lined with stainless steel counters and industrial refrigerators.
Hazel immediately walked over to one of the large units, swinging the door open.
“Alright, let’s see what they left for us, to eat” Hazel murmured, pulling out a large covered ceramic dish.
She popped the lid, revealing a mountain of roasted chicken, sliced ham, and fresh bread.
“Jackpot.
Sit down, Ella.”
I sat on a stool by the island, watching her place two large plates between us.
“Is it really okay for me to eat this?” I asked, my voice cracking slightly.
“At Silver Ridge, if I touched or ate anything before everybody had eaten, Alpha Richard would…”
“Ella, stop,” Hazel interrupted firmly, handing me a fork.
“I told you before, Richard’s rules died the moment you stepped out of that pack and he went to prison.
You are a guest.
You eat when you are hungry.
Now, take a piece of chicken.”
I hesitated for a second before reaching out.
We ate in a comfortable silence the night making the food taste even better.
Gosh I could get used to this life, eating how and whenever I want to.
Hazel chewed quickly, her body metabolism clearly demanding the fuel.
“I am so tired I can barely keep my eyes straight,” Hazel said, wiping her fingers with a napkin.
“I promise to show you around the entire grounds tomorrow after we get some sunlight, okay?
There is a lot to see, you are going to love it trust me.”
“Okay,” I said, swallowing a piece of bread.
“Thank you, Hazel, for everything you have done for me even though it’s been only a while since we met.
You have treated me more humanly than anyone I had ever known.
Thank you.” I said genuinely, it felt nice to be considered as a person and not a thing.
“No problem,” she smiled, standing up and stacking the empty plates in the sink.
“Come on, let’s get you upstairs to your new room.
You need to sleep.”
“What about the plate?
You know I can wash it.
That’s the least I can do for everything this pack has done for me so far.”
“Don’t worry about the plate, someone will do that tomorrow, all you need to be thinking right now is how to get better and sleep can do a lot for you.”
“Okay you are right, let’s go.” I said.
I followed her up three flights of wide, carpeted stairs, listening to the quiet thuds of our footsteps.
The upper corridors were lined with dark wood panels and soft glowing wall sconces.
Hazel stopped in front of a mahogany door at the very end of the hall, turning the brass handle and pushing it open.
“Go on inside,” Hazel said, gesturing for me to enter.
I stepped across the room and my breath instantly caught in my throat.
I stood frozen on the thick, cream-colored carpet, my eyes widening in shock as I took in the space.
It was a very big and spacious room, easily four times the size of my storage unit.
In the center of the far wall sat a king-size bed, piled high with plush white duvets and silk pillows that looked softer than clouds.
The contrast to my old room was completely devastating.
Unlike my old room and the plain walls with all the handed down stuff I had in there, this room had intricate cream-and-gold interior design on the wallpaper, elegant crown molding, and polished mahogany furniture that gleamed under the soft lights.
To the left, an open archway revealed a private bathroom, my very own bathroom lined with white marble tiles, featuring a deep porcelain tub and a sparkling vanity mirror.
Right next to it was a walk-in closet, completely empty but spacious enough to house another room if they ever wanted to.
“Do you like it?” Hazel asked, walking into the room and leaning against the bedpost.
“It’s…
it’s too big,” I whispered, my fingers trembling against my canvas bag.
“I don’t have anything to put in that closet.
I don’t belong in a place like this, Hazel.”
“Hey, none of that talk,” Hazel said, her tone softening as she stepped closer and took my bag from my hands, setting it gently on the nightstand.
“We can go shopping tomorrow afternoon to get you completely new clothes, shoes, coats, everything.
We are going to fill that walk-in closet up until the doors won’t shut.”
I looked down at the plush carpet beneath my feet, my jaw slightly slack.
“Why are you doing all this for me?”
“Well isn’t it obvious?
It is because you deserve it, Ella,” Hazel said thoroughly, her big blue eyes holding my gaze and I couldn’t look away.
She reached out, gently squeezing my shoulder.
“I really hope you would learn to love this pack, you know?
And I really hope you learn to love living in it as one of us.
No one here is going to treat you like a curse.”
“I don’t know how to be one of you,” I admitted, my voice dropping into a raspy murmur.
“I am just human.
I am wolf-less.”
“That doesn’t mean a damn thing to me, and it doesn’t mean a damn thing to Alpha Alexander,” Hazel said with a small, reassuring smile.
She walked back toward the mahogany door, turning the handle.
“Get some sleep, Ella.
Tomorrow is a whole new day.
I’ll knock on your door around eight.”
“Goodnight, Hazel,” I said.
“Goodnight, little one,” she replied softly, stepping out into the corridor and pulling the door shut until it clicked securely into the frame.
The silence in the room settled over my shoulders like a heavy weight.
I stood perfectly still for five minutes, my left ear straining against the quiet, completely unable to process the everything surrounding me.
There was no smell of stale whiskey.
There was no freezing wind whistling through concrete cracks.
There was no fear of a door being violently kicked off its hinges in the middle of the night.
I felt safe which was weird because this was my first night here.
I walked over to the king-size bed, my knees shaking, and sank down onto the edge of the mattress.
The silk sheets felt incredibly smooth against my palms.
A sudden, sharp tightness gripped the center of my chest, and before I could even try to hold it back, I broke down crying.
I pulled my knees up to my chest, burying my face into the plush duvet as the hot, bitter tears rushed down my cheeks in a silent torrent.
I sobbed until my shoulders shook and my breath came in ragged, broken gasps.
This was the very first time in my entire life that I had ever had something nice.
To be given a warm bed, clean clothes, and a safe room felt like a beautiful, terrifying dream that I was bound to wake up from.
I clutched the silk sheets tightly in my fists, crying out all the years of hidden agony into the dark, completely shattered by the simple realization that I was finally allowed to breathe.
Thank Goodness she is out of that hellhole.
Can’t wait to see what happens as the story progresses.