*Charlotte’s POV*I woke up feeling more well-rested than ever before. I remembered the first day I was forced to work in that bar. I was still in a sleepy state when someone yanked me down from the small bed where I was sleeping. There was a loud thud inside the room when I fell down, and then before I could say a word, a broom and mop were thrown in front of me. It was an obvious sign that I needed to start my first day of work as their maid.But today, as the ray of sunlight crept into my bedroom, no one was there to yank me down from the bed and force me to start the day by cleaning their filthy place, then wearing a uniform to work in a bar surrounded by underground criminals and maniacs. It was now up to me if I wanted to sleep a little longer and let myself enjoy the softness of the mattress. It was a wonder how someone's life could change overnight, whether for good or not.My thoughts were interrupted with a soft knock on the door. I looked at the clock hanging on the wal
*Charlotte’s POV*I can still hear the sound of his angry voice even after an hour had passed since he found out that I had picked all the Purple Irises in the Palace’s garden. While I wasn’t a big fan of flower arrangements, the Purple Iris was my favorite flower, so I decided to use it for my lessons. Unfortunately, this became the reason for Alexander to scream at me as if I had committed the most horrendous crime in all of the world’s history.While I understood that I should have asked his permission before picking any flowers in the Palace’s garden, I still didn’t understand his anger. He could have calmly instructed me on what was allowed and what wasn’t, but instead, he chose to raise his voice. Memories of my previous life in the bar replayed in my mind while I tried to compose my nerves. I was used to shouting and angry voices, but hearing it from Alexander was different—it consumed my thoughts with disappointment and guilt.I was disappointed because I had hoped he would
*Charlotte*My face heated a million degrees as I hooked my arms around his torso unwillingly, hoping to god I didn’t touch anything important, but even as I tried to squint my eyes so I couldn’t see anything, I could still feel his burning hot skin under my fingers.His abdomen muscles clenched as he leaned over me, powerful and heavy, and the towel he had been wearing was now lying on the fucking ground.Dammit, I thought, not sure if I was sweating from the effort of trying to keep us upright or from being so intimately close to a naked man. He groaned, and from where he was half laying on top of me, I could feel the rumble in his chest, my heart pounding in my ears as I struggled to stay on my feet and drag Alexander towards his bedroom at the same time. As badly as I wanted to just throw my hands up and forget this whole situation, I knew I couldn’t. He could barely stand on his own let alone make it back to his bed, but that didn’t stop me from letting out a stri
*Alexander’s POV*I woke up with a throbbing headache and empty memories of what happened last night. I slowly opened my eyes to see the blinding sunlight outside my window, which meant it was already late in the morning. I didn’t usually oversleep, but I guessed the alcohol got the best of me, and now I was late for the day. “What time is it?” I asked myself quietly and looked at my phone. It was already ten in the morning. I was usually a morning person, and getting out of bed at ten o’clock was a big sin. As I got out of bed, I felt a tingling sensation in my arms—a reminder of holding onto something or someone while asleep. But what? And who? I was pretty sure it wasn’t my pillow. I tried recalling every detail of what happened yesterday, but I decided to just give it up, take a quick shower, and start my day. As the future Alpha of Dragon Wing, everyone expected me to prioritize the present and avoid dwelling too much on the past. I needed to let it go. I needed to focus righ
*Charlotte*His hand in mine, my waist caught gently in his grip as he easily held me up like I weighed nothing. The scowl I’d associated with him wasn’t present today, instead, there was a complicated look in his eyes, like words he wanted to say were unable to form. Alexander frowned as he caught me from falling, steadying me back on my feet and my hands landed on his chest as we stood still in the middle of the luxurious ballroom. Would we be this close when dancing at the welcoming party? Would his hands feel so large and warm in mine? Would he hold me as closely as he was now, like I was something precious and delicate?There was an overload of my emotions as I stood there, my heart rapidly beating in my chest and my head empty of all normal thoughts that would usually be racing. Instead, all I could focus on was his blue eyes staring into mine. Like he could see straight past me and straight into the core of my being, exposing even the darkest thoughts I kept hi
*Alexander*She was beautiful. Her hair was braided, looking brighter and healthier than I’d seen her since we’d first met, pulled across one shoulder as she looked up at me with a nervous but hopeful look like she didn’t know she’d stolen the breath from my lungs. Her dress was long, flowing down to the floor-length in a beautiful color that matched the same shade of my eyes. It was modest, with long sleeves but hiding so much depth underneath the layers the longer I looked. It was only a moment, a single moment, but the vision before me was no longer Charlotte standing there - it was a little girl with a soft voice and a sweet scent, brushing her hands gently across my foggy eyes.I had been blinded- only the vague colors of her little blue dress and long braid across her shoulder, her fingers wiping away the dirt around my face with her long sleeves remained, and it was only now that I realized how incredibly similar the two images in my head overlapped- Charlotte
*Charlotte*On the day of the welcoming party, the whole castle was submerged in an ocean of flowers. Garland strung around columns, beautiful bouquets hanging from delicately constructed decorations. I found Luna Diana waiting for me by my door before breakfast and she proudly took me on a tour of the castle, supervising the last-minute decorations going up and ensuring every petal and leaf was perfect. I accompanied her, as she insisted on telling me every little flower and its meaning in the old language.Each doorway was lined with an arch of safflowers and sunflowers, sweet peas, wisteria, and yellow lilies. “Separate, they mean, ‘Happiness, gratitude, and hospitality,’ but together, they take upon the meaning of ‘We are happy to have you here.’ It is an old custom that each Luna welcomes the guests in their own unique way. Flowers have always held a deep meaning to me which is why Finnley nearly doubled the garden when we first mated,” Luna Diana kindly explained, a
*Charlotte*“I’m sorry.”That’s all Alexander said before he ran out of the party, leaving me alone at the top of the stairs. I stared blankly at the spot he had just been, the utter cold silence all that was left to keep me company in his wake. Everything around me vanished as I stood there, and the memory of him looking at me, her voice echoing in my ears, and the last words he said to me repeating over and over in a matter of what seemed like hours but was only seconds.A chilling cold crept from my heart down to my fingertips. “Announcing Our Future Alpha Alexander and his betrothed, Charlotte Rosewood!” The curtains opened, the spotlight falling upon my still form and I slowly gazed out at the crowd of hundreds staring up at me, but in my deranged mind, they looked only like beasts ready to pounce at the slightest hint of weakness. It was only then and there, feeling numb and empty at the foot of the staircase did I realize that Alexander was not coming ba
*Alexander’s POV*I should've felt bad for rejecting Sylvia in front of everyone, but I found myself indifferent to the physical and emotional pain my rejection might have caused her. It was exhilarating, liberating even, to know that she no longer had power over me. I looked at Sylvia’s face, which was covered with fear and anger, and I could not help but pity the woman who once held my heart. She was terrified.“Take it back, Alexander. Take it all back! It’s not true. We will be together, forever… please take it back.” She was kneeling on the ground, the result of my rejection manifesting into physical torture, and she could not help but wince in pain.I watched her as she crumbled in pain, and all I could feel was pity, guilt, and sadness. But mostly, sadness. Back then, I was so sure of Sylvia. I was so sure that she was my fated love. She was the only woman I wanted to be with for the rest of my life and no one would dare to get her away from me because I would kill for her.
*Alexander*“Come in,” I said firmly, not caring that the door to my office slammed against the wall as I rushed inside, the two girls exchanging a look before heading in after me. Mia shut the door behind her quietly, and I heard the turn of the lock in the door. Her lips were chapped, like she’d bitten them down repeatedly over the last few days, eyes rung with dark shadows as she turned to me with pleading guilty eyes. Jessica stood firm on her other side, holding a simple box of what I didn’t know in her hands that she quickly placed on the coffee table. Mia and Jessica sat down hesitantly when I gestured towards the couch and I leaned against my desk, facing them fully.“Speak,” I commanded.“The night of the banquet, Charlotte asked me to check the food because she suspected something was wrong. When I went to the kitchens to check on it, I saw someone trying to hide the glassware. I didn’t want to believe they were doing something bad at first because this was s
*Alexander*It had always been the plan. Get engaged to Sylvia, become the Alpha and Luna of Dragon Wing, and live happily ever after. That was the dream I’d been chasing for so long. But now that it was coming true, it felt more like a nightmare.I glanced stiffly at Sylvia, who shot me a victorious look. The gleam of greed in her eyes was visible for all to see like she’d finally won a prize she’d been striving to have for so long.And I don’t know why it took me until now to realize that was all she’d seen me as. Her entire act, pretending to be the girl who saved me, befriending Charlotte just to drive her away, was just for this moment. And I’d walked straight into her trap.I clenched my fists at my side, rage boiling under my skin as I realized what an idiot I had been all this time. Sylvia wasn’t the one I loved. She never had been. I’d love the facade she’d put up, the girl she pretended to be but even then, it had always been Charlotte in my heart. Now
*Alexander*The melody that I heard from the voice recorder that Charlotte left for me was the same melody that saved my life. I could still remember the pain that I felt throughout my body when I was attacked by the wild animal when I got lost in the woods.My eyes were scratched by its claws and my eyesight went blind temporarily, and if I hadn’t heard the harmonica playing in the background, I wouldn’t have been able to find my way back home. I wouldn’t be alive today. All this time, I thought it was Sylvia who played the harmonica, but I was mistaken. All along, it was Charlotte. I remembered asking Sylvia before to play it for me again because that tune calmed my nerves, but she told me she forgot how to play it. I did not force her to play it; after all, I was made to believe that she was my savior. I didn’t have any reasons to doubt her before because I owed her my life, but tonight, everything changed. If my assumptions were true, Charlotte was my savior. She was my f
*Alexander*When I was about to confess my true feelings to Sylvia, one of the nurses called me and told me that someone had visited my room and wanted to see me. I hoped it was Charlotte so we could make up, but it turned out to be Alpha Brown with the doctors who tested Sarah's blood sample and the poison from the tableware she used before she fell down the stairs."Good evening, Alexander," Alpha Brown greeted. "I'm sorry for interrupting you tonight, but I thought you should know that the poison injected into you is the same poison that almost killed my daughter."Oh. I had a feeling it was the same poison, but I wanted evidence before concluding. I had been reckless for the past few days, always jumping to conclusions. I promised myself to be smarter this time, especially with criminals lurking around our pack."I see, but we still need to find the culprit, Alpha. Even though it's the same poison, we shouldn't assume anything unless we have a witness and can blame them direc
*Alexander*When I found out that Sarah was poisoned, all I could think of was how I blamed Charlotte for everything. I was blinded by the lies that surrounded us, and that broke not just her heart, but also mine. Sometimes, I wished that I had not been easily swayed by the people around me because it was clouding my mind from learning the truth. And the truth was, Charlotte, while she was vulgar and bold, she was never a liar. Unfortunately, I treated her as such.“She was poisoned,” I told my father over dinner. It was unusually quiet inside the dining room, a clear sign that our ray of sunshine was no longer around. Ever since Charlotte became part of our family, our dinner and lunchtime were always full of laughter and stories. Now that she was no longer around, we were back to quiet evenings“Yes, Daniel told me earlier. What did Brown say when he found out about it?” my father asked. He was not looking at me; instead, he was focused on eating the fried chicken that he reques
*Alexander*It had been a few days since the incident with Sarah happened, and I was honestly tired of dealing with it. I had been busy talking to Alpha Brown and the wolf committee to make sure that Charlotte would not be apprehended for endangering a she-wolf’s life, a crime that I never thought she would commit. All this time, I thought Charlotte and I would finally be having our quiet time with each other, but the unthinkable happened, and now we were at war.When I learned about Alpha Brown’s plea to the committee to apprehend Charlotte for what happened to his daughter, I immediately asked for Charlotte’s freedom in exchange for sending her far away from the pack. While it pained me to let her go, I wouldn’t want to risk her life because of the other pack's decision to end her life.Aside from the endless meetings within the Dragon Wing, I was also dragged into tiring talks with other packs to avoid the impending war that Alpha Brown was threatening in the whole wolf communi
*Charlotte*“Should I stay or should I go?” I asked myself the same question repeatedly until it was tattooed on my mind while I paced back and forth inside my bedroom. When I heard Alexander say that I needed to go for my own sake, I was left with the hanging question of whether staying inside the palace was worth it.When I first arrived at Dragon Wing, I remembered how kind and welcoming Alpha Finnley and Luna Diana were towards me. They gave me new clothes to wear, a clean and comfortable bed to sleep in, and delicious food to eat. All the privileges that were taken from me by my creditor, they brought back to me and gave me more.I was a total mess before I entered Dragon Wing. I was a nobody. But they changed that in an instant when Alpha Finnley chose me to be his son’s bride. All the good things that happened to me after my long suffering at the hands of evil, I owed it all to Alpha Finnley and his wife. While I paced back and forth with the words of Sylvia and Alexander
*Charlotte*I could not believe what Alexander just said straight to my face. Out of all the people I knew inside the pack who would not believe me when I told them the truth, I never expected Alexander to be one of them. I thought we were already past doubts and resentment, but we were back at it again in just a blink of an eye.How could he not trust me when I told him that I did not do anything bad towards Sarah? Yes, I was not a werewolf, but that did not mean that I would do something bad towards their members just because I was different from them. And he knew how much I loved him. I would never hurt the people I loved. I would never betray their trust. I would never betray Alexander.“Seriously, Alexander? I never expected that you would believe them.”“Is there any reason to doubt their words, Charlotte? Wolves do not lie to their fellow wolves. You should know that by now,” he said, raising his voice towards me. His voice was tainted with what I sensed as disappointment.