Chapter Five: A New Home

Stacie’s POV

The drive to his house was quiet and quite uncomfortable; I was seated in the back seat of a sleek Porsche car while the middle-aged woman from earlier sat in the front with a driver who was too relaxed to be an employee.

“What’s your name?” The driver asked with an audacity that baffled me.

“Stacie” I whispered, suppressing my anger and ignoring the lopsided grin on the driver’s face.

“I don’t think he’s a driver, his aura is too prominent,” Someone whispered. I looked around but found no one.

“Did you say something?” I asked the middle-aged woman who was beginning to stare at me with a funny expression on her face.

“I did.” The same voice replied, “And stop looking around, you look crazy!” She said with a laugh. In frustration, I closed my eyes and pressed my head against the windscreen close to where I sat. The voice was in my head.

“Who are you?” I whispered almost to myself, I pinched the bridge of my nose as her cheerful laugh rang through my head.

“I’m Ariel, your wolf.” Oh my fucking goodness! My eyes snapped open in shock. I had a wolf! Normally I shouldn’t be this shocked that I had a wolf, but I was because amongst my peers, I was the only one who didn’t get to meet my wolf last year when we all turned seventeen.

“Finally you came!” I replied with relief washing through me. The people of my clan thought I was weak, or a curse because I did not have a wolf.

To make matters worse, a lot of people had taken to my father, to advise him to remarry because they felt my mother had cheated on him with a human to give birth to me- an abomination!

“We’re late bloomers” She said with a laugh. Just as I was about to think of a sarcastic comeback for her statement, the driver said something that I didn’t quite catch.

“Huh?” I asked, looking up to find the both of them looking at me questioningly.

“I was curious as to why you are a slave but smell like royalty” He said making my heart race. I was torn in between telling this people who I was; So I could ask for help and keeping my identity hidden to protect myself. I chose the latter.

“I don’t know why either,” I muttered. I knew my answer was not convincing enough and was glad when they simply let it be.

For the rest of the drive to wherever it was that we were going, the car remained dead silent, even my wolf did not say a word…

*

A few minutes later, the sleek car came to a halt at the driveway of a very beautiful mansion. It was ten times that of my father which I had always taken pride in.

“We’re here!” The middle aged woman whispered, throwing a concerned look my way. For a minute, I felt my eyes tearing up as she reminded me of my mother.

Throwing a sceptical look between the woman and the driver, I took a gingerly step out of the car, and waited.

From a distance I saw my Mate talking to a group of men who looked like warriors; They looked like they were in a heated argument, but I didn’t miss the obvious fear in their eyes as they bowed slightly at him. Who was he?

“What’s this place?” I asked the woman, even though I already knew what it was. I knew it was a pack house but wasn’t sure of the pack that owned this place.

“This is the territory of the Dark Moon pack,” She answered with pride, lacing her tone of voice, the name sounded familiar. It was one of the few packs that my dad feared while he was alive.

He had always talked about their wealth, and the ruthlessness of their Alpha with respect.

“It’s beautiful!” I nearly screamed with a half smile on my face, “more beautiful than my pack!” At the mention of my pack, my face fell, drawing concerned looks from the driver and the middle aged woman beside me; I smiled again. A fake one this time.

“Follow me,” She said, tugging gently on my arm, “I was asked to drop you off at the slaves’ quarters.”

I threw another awed look at the vast expanse of wealth before me before I begrudgingly followed her. The pack house was beautiful. I watched in amusement as healthy children bounced up and down without a care in the world, even some mothers sat in groups, cheering at their children.

A group of young adults like me who were being taught how to combat in an open field caught my attention and held it…what if I learned how to fight too?

With my thoughts jumbled up inside my head, I continued following the woman until she stopped in front of a less pretty building, “we’re here” She said turning to face me; “this is our slaves’ quarters; find Mary when you settle in, she’ll put you through.” She said with a motherly smile, which never wavered from her face even for a millisecond,

“You’ll resume your duties at the palace by 8am tomorrow morning, and close by 6pm.”

“What’re my duties?” I asked confusedly.

“I don’t know, it’s all up to Alpha Antoine to decide” She replied with a dismissive shrug.

“Thank you ma'am, ” I said. Turning to walk away.

“You can call me Amanda, everyone calls me that,” she chirped in quickly, making me smile.

With the smile still plastered across my face, I bowed slightly, turned away from her, and made my way into the dark corridor leading into the slave quarters, and as soon as I was halfway into the corridor I froze.

She just said Alpha Antoine right?

And she also called my mate by the name ‘Antoine’ earlier too…

Was it what I thought?

Is my mate the Alpha of the feared Dark Moon pack?

With curiosity gnawing at my mind, I opened the large doors to meet four curious sets of eyes staring at me. I froze again…