Chapter 23 : And Enigma

Natalie

I winced as the heavy bucket handle dug into my cracked palm. The walk to fetch water from the well felt longer than usual today, my steps leaden. Strange dreams had chased any true rest from my hours last night.

Ever since that tense encounter in the kitchens, Leo preyed on my thoughts in waking and sleeping. His geniality hid something darker and harder to read than Lucas' outright cruelty.

Leo's games of cat and mouse left me tense as a hunted doe, braced perpetually for the killing stroke. But it never came. His feigned kindnesses served only to confound me further.

I shook myself from troubled thoughts as the well came into view. This endless fretting solved nothing. An Alpha's motives were forever opaque to lowly slaves.

Best accept any small reprieves and not question the causation, lest they be withdrawn as capriciously as granted. The trick was enduring day to day.

I had nearly finished filling the second bucket when approaching footsteps sent prickles of unease do