Chapter 4

Claudia's POV

I ran all the way back to the basement, my heart still pounding hard. Those green eyes that I inherited from my grandmother were the most striking thing about me, so I have had to cover them with my long hair since I was young.

I used to talk back to my mother about it when I was a kid, "Why do all the other little girls get to show their eyes and pretty foreheads and I have to show up with half my face covered?"

My mother always stonewalled me then, saying that she would tell me all the reasons when I became an adult. Until she and my father were executed, she didn't tell me why I couldn't show my eyes, but just admonished me, "Always hide your eyes."

Since I became a slave, I had been more afraid to show my eyes. To the uninformed common eye, those eyes were also too beautiful, and a beautiful slave would suffer more miserable treatment.

I tried to put myself to work, but that feeling of anxiety and fear was still haunting my mind. What if my secret was found out? One time I overheard my mother talking to my father when I was a child and they mentioned my eyes. Unable to sleep late at night, I tried to seek my mother's company, and I walked to the door of my parent's room to find the sound of arguing coming from inside.

My dad said, "She's just a child, and she deserves to have a child's life, not spend it hiding. And sooner or later this will be discovered."

My mom's reaction was intense, "It's because she's still a child, she's not capable of defending herself yet. Think of my mother. Claudia inherited her eyes and you know how tragic my mother's end was."

I was so young at the time that I couldn't understand a thing they were talking about back there. And my father's wolf sensed me right away and father asked me what I was doing, hiding outside the door. I said, "I was just looking for my mother to come to bed with me, and I heard you two arguing." My father stroked my head dotingly and said he would never argue with my mother, they were just discussing things. Then he told my mother to carry me to my room and that was the end of it.

With my dirty clothes still crumpled up in the basin, I never dared to go to the river again. My stomach churned uncomfortably at the thought of the river experience. And Isaac's inexplicable behavior. Was he trying to poke fun at me? Or... I couldn't believe I was blushing just thinking about it.

God, I was thinking of something inexplicable, he was the next Alpha and Fiona would rip apart any woman who dared to compete with her for Luna. I shook my head, trying to put all the strange thoughts behind me.

It was suddenly raining heavily outside, which was just my chance. I snuck out of the basement with my clothes, then found an unoccupied corner and washed my clothes as cleanly as I could in the rain. It seemed that the downpour wasn't going to stop very soon, so I just had to hang the clothes out in the basement and hope they would get dried out soon. If I went to work the next day in wet clothes, I was sure I would catch a cold. And without a doctor to prescribe me, I would probably die.

The next day, I woke up from my dream and my clothes were really not dry. The basement was dark and damp, and I had to go to work in half-dried clothes. It was nothing really, and my biggest fear was Isaac spreading my secret around. If anyone knew the secret, they would banish me from the pack. Or worse, they would have me executed. God knew what my grandmother's tragic end would have been, but it must be painful.

I walked towards the kitchen with dread, keeping my ears open to hear what was being discussed from the mouths of all the people who passed me by. Luckily, they treated me like they always did, just bullying and hazing as usual. I walked into the kitchen and the maids left all the work to me as they all went off to chat and have breakfast. Luckily, Isaac wasn't one for gossip, or maybe he didn't know the secret of the eyes either. I could only guess in a good direction.

After making everyone's breakfast and cleaning up the dirty dishes left by the maids, I felt dizzy, my eyes were going out of focus and I had to brace myself against the table until I slowly eased up. This was actually an old problem of mine, as I hadn't had many normal meals, and malnutrition brought more than just a thin body, but also came with chronic anemia and hypoglycemia. The scene in front of me slowly returned to normal, while the next moment I saw the last person I wanted to see.

"I saw you slacking off as soon as I walked in, no shame in being a bitch." Fiona walked up to me with her loud voice.

"Dare you not work hard?" She raised her hand and punched me in the face.

Having just woken up from a brief coma, I really didn't have the strength to retort, or dodge her slap. I had to say this fierce she-wolf was really strong. And I got a solid slap to the face from her. Then I lost my balance and the moment I fell I saw the corner of the table in front of me.

Oh no, my head was definitely going to get bumped. But the expected pain hadn't come yet, and instead I was pulled into a warm embrace. The smell of this embrace was familiar to me, which was a mix of ebony and cedar, deep and cold.

Why him? Isaac held me so tightly in his arms that all I could do was lean on his chest. Apparently, I wasn't the only one shocked. Fiona's pretty face was contorted with jealousy when she saw Isaac holding me in his arms.

She questioned Isaac, "Why are you helping her?"

Isaac pushed me away and I was surprised that I lost thought because of his action. He told Fiona, "Caesar has a keen sense of smell and he hates the smell of women's blood."

Fiona wasn't quite convinced by Isaac's explanation, still, she wrapped her arms around him like she was showing off. To say "wrapped around" might be a bit of an understatement, as she pressed her breasts against Isaac's arm and whispered petulantly in Isaac's ear. "Let's go watch the game." Then Fiona dragged Isaac out of the way.

Isaac's POV

I could hear Fiona shouting from a distance on my way to the kitchen. The funny thing was that she always looked meek in my presence. I knew exactly what kind of person she was as we grew up together, but all those years of friendship made me always indulge her. Listening to the noise in the room, it must have been Fiona abusing the maid.

I was so surprised to panic when I saw the traitor girl's head was about to hit the corner of the table. Due to panic, my mind went blank and my body reacted subconsciously. I took the girl in my arms as soon as I could, and my hanging heart dropped when I felt the weight in my arms. Her whole body was leaning on my arms, and it was only then that I clearly felt that she was so thin and weak. Clearly, she was just a slave, a traitor's daughter. Why did I feel pity for her?

Fiona's questioning snapped me out of my thoughts. I hurriedly pushed her away, to be seen with the son of an Alpha hugging the traitor's daughter. The majesty of my father and I would be nonexistent. Besides, I looked at Fiona in front of me, and she was so angry. It was as if the veins on her forehead were bursting out. All the girls who had pursued me from before had been cleaned up badly by her. All I could do was cajole Fiona into trying to make less trouble for the traitor's daughter. But my wordplay caused Caesar's displeasure.

"Will you stop using me as an excuse when it's obvious you don't want to see the girl get hurt?"

"It's none of my business if she's hurt or not, I'm just born an athlete and subconsciously pick up people who were about to fall."

"I didn't see you pick up Alex when he broke his leg in front of you earlier."

"That's what he deserved." Alex had always been so stupid, and he'd broken his leg only after jumping from a tree to please Fiona.

"So this girl still means a lot to you."

"See, it's like when you see a cup that's about to roll off the table and onto the floor, you're going to catch it too, right?" Caesar looked like he was used to it and wasn't going to continue arguing with me.

I was arguing with my wolf in my head so much that I completely ignored Fiona, who was too immersed in her own world, hugging my hand and complaining about the minutiae of her life all the time. Fiona was considered the most beautiful girl in the pack and it seemed everyone wanted me to marry Fiona just because her father was our Beta. For the stability of the pack, there was indeed a real possibility that I would marry Fiona, so every time she got close to me, I prayed to the Moon Goddess for me to meet my mate as soon as possible.

Claudia's POV

Everything just happened so fast and it was so shocking to me. Not until Fiona had pulled Isaac away did I realize what Isaac had just helped me, which I could call a "hug". Since I was a slave at the age of six, I'd never been hugged by anyone, and the hug that was offered by the first one would help me, namely Isaac.

I wrapped my arms around myself, trying to get a little warmth back from the hug I'd just received. Isaac's embrace had a feeling unique to me, not like the comforting feeling of my mother holding me when I was a child. Instead, it was a warm and secure feeling.

Help! I couldn't believe I was craving the warmth of Isaac's arms. Did I forget that he's the Alpha's son? And he used to bully me all the time. Warmth was the last thing someone like me could expect. I woke myself from my daydreams.

Every time I washed my hair I would avoid everyone's eyes and sneak off to a small lake at the edge of the territory. Here, I could enjoy a moment of peace and quiet. Watching my hair float amid the clear water, I would put it all on the back of my head, slowly wait for it to dry before covering my eyes again, and then return to the wolf pack, as I usually always did.

But today I saw a woman by the lake, and she was in a coma. Even with her eyes tightly closed, it could be seen how beautiful she was with her long dark hair scattered behind her like the feathers of a raven. Although her face was pale from the loss of blood, she was still beautiful without a single flaw.

Considering that she was already so badly injured, even if she was a bad person, she couldn't attack the wolf pack, so I picked some herbs around the area to bring her back. It didn't take long for the woman to wake up.