Chapter seven

The sun rays flowed through the silk curtains, landing directly on my shut eyes. 

Groaning in annoyance, I rolled over, turning to the other side, when it suddenly hit me.

Pressing my body into the soft texture of the bed, my eyes instantly flew open. I slowly blinked them, trying to adapt to the strange environment. This was definitely not my room. 

Staring into nothingness for a while, it all began to flood back into my head. I had gone to drown myself in a bar…and I had met a man. My eyes rolled down to my uncovered body, which laid fully unclothed.

Right. I had sex with a stranger. Not just any kind of sex. But my first time at that.

I stretched out my wobbly feet on the carpet, going straight to the bathroom. There, I stood motionlessly in front of the large mirror, admiring the hickeys on my neck. 

Although the memories from last night still played hazily in my head, which was a different kind of pain. Especially the man. I could not recall how he looked like. The only thing that stuck were his gentle words and the sounds we made, which rung like a distant echo in my ears.

A smile subconsciously formed on my lips, with my hands caressing the hickeys on my neck. At least, he left something good for me to remember him.

I scrubbed every trace of him on my body, conforming my mind to the reality of my life at present. He was gone already and I did not want to bother with making assumptions for him. 

I easily slipped into my dress which was thankfully, still intact, and left the hotel without looking back even once. The sun had fully come out, so I had no hassle on my way back to the palace. 

On arriving the palace gates, I kept my facial expression as steady as I could, because I already knew what awaited my return. 

None of the guards stopped me for any form of questioning, but their mutterings and muffled laughters did not go past my sharp ears. 

Sure enough, I had barely made it to my room, when my dress was harshly pulled, causing a long tearing by the sides. 

“Where have you been all morning?”, it was one of the maids who occupied an higher rank. 

“I'm sorry, it was the wine from last night”, my head remained lowered to the ground, as I stuttered in fear.

“You weren't spotted at the after party last night Lyra. Where did you go?”, Her hands forced my chin up, while I stubbornly kept my eyes shut, refusing to look her in the face.

“N…nowhere”, I clenched my jaw in pain, forcing out tears from my eyes.

“I do not care anyways”, she released my face, in irritation.

“Change out of this dress immediately. You're working overtime today”, I watched her disappearing back with a crooked smile through my tears. 

It was easy to get past these people. As long as you gave them the satisfaction they so desperately wanted. And that was to soothe their stinking ego. 

I turned my back as well, getting changed to begin my day's chores. 

It wasn't exactly unexpected when I was immediately assigned to clean up the Alpha's quarters. This definitely had to be Athena's doing. I had no choice anyways. 

My tools danced in the air, in rythym with my restless feet which moved from left to right, as I happily hummed to a song in my heart.

Years after coming to the palace to work as a maid, I had realized that sulking didn't change the situation as much as it did anything. 

So, I had resorted to humming a poem I heard once when I was much younger. It still never helped the situation, but I had learnt to remain neutral about everything. Bad, that is.

Athena's bare back was the first thing i laid my eyes on as I walked into the room. Paying her no heed, I quickly got down to business, removing the soaked sheets which reeked of a familiar scent.

“It is the second time this morning. Can you believe it, cousin?”, The spite could be heard clearly in her tone, which did not get to me, at least not anymore.

“Good to see you too cousin”, my dutiful response came out more flatly than I expected. 

“By the way, you seemed to have disappeared last night”, her smirking face stretched into an evil smile.

Maintaining my deadpanned face as I cleaned the room, the clear images reflected played in my memories once again.

“And you were not in your room earlier this morning, huh?”, Her teasing arms wrapped over my shoulders, tightening around them by the second.

“What do you want the people to say when they know that you are a slut”, I could tell she was enjoying this from how her eyes shone into my empty ones.

Relaxing my entire body on hers, without uttering a sound, I refused to give her the satisfaction she wanted. Athena was an exception to my display of foolishness in the palace.

My adamant expression remained stuck to my face without batting an eye. Of course, she saw it too as she reluncantly released me from her grip, shoving me to the wet floor.

“Your life is now in my hands Lyra, the earlier you bow to me, the longer your days of living here”, her annoyed glares gave me immense pleasure as I continued to ignore her, moving my tools around the room. 

“You won't fool me with that stubborn expression of yours. Do not forget I see right through you”,

“Oh and what do you see, cousin”, her whining had now become like a pestering fly in my ears that I was forced to give her a reply.

“You wish you were in my shoes”, her excitement could barely be concealed at my response, making me scoff in return. 

“Why would you think that?”, hitting my hands on my forehead at how twisted her thoughts really were, I continued with my work.

“You think I didn't see you? Last night?”, her desperate tone made my skin crawl in embarrassment for her.

“So?”, I couldn't help but respond in irritation at how low she was going to stoop.

“I saw the pain in your eyes, Lyra. You can't deny it. You wanted to be in my position but I should have you know that not everyone can handle that kind of pleasure”, 

Her blushing cheeks glowed as she spoke while my eyes ran over her deliberately exposed body, spotting the countless marks all over it. 

My lips suddenly formed into a bright smile, “what makes you think I haven't handled better?”, My squinting eyes revealed a mocking smirk, relishing her shocked expression.

“How dare you, Lyra? No one can compete with the Alpha”, her hands flew to her round shaped lips, hushing countlessly.

“You just haven't expanded your horizon, cousin. But unfortunately, you've been tied down… by the barest minimum”, my sharp tongue continued to spill the words out, finally expressing the hurt from last night.

“Lyra!!!”, Her eyes widened further, threatening to fall out their sockets while I simply enjoyed the changes in her expressions.

“What? You asked for it”, I raised my eyebrows in confusion, switching into an innocent look on my face.

“You can't talk about the Alpha like that!”, her tone rose in an anger I could clearly tell was meant to provoke me, but now, I really cared less.

“Cousin, you should be ashamed. You both infact. Countless rounds throughout the night and you have just a few hickeys to show for it?”, I eyed her up and down, in pure disdain.

“well, you have none”, she instantly retorted back in a screaming tone.

“Just because I do not flaunt it doesn't mean that I don't”, my fierce eyes glared at her, deeply contrasting with the calm look plastered on my face.

We were both playing different games at this point. Just like I knew she was intentionally dragging the issue, which I had already fallen into, I patiently awaited the result of her plans.

She was also a pretty easy target as her face had completely changed by now, and it wasn't going to be long, before she spewed out something.

“So are you saying that you will reject the Alpha of our pack, if you were given a chance”, her provocative gaze rested on me like a hawk on its prey.

She had finally brought out her cards. It was a really smart move from her. If I said yes, it would mean that I was still hurt from the rejection and I was only trying to save some face. 

If I responded negatively, then it only proved everything I had said earlier was merely out of spite, which also meant I would be eating my words. The worst of them all.

“I will never be in your shoes, cousin. I am perfectly contended with where I am”, patting her shoulders, as she peered into my face for any trace of lies, I slowly gathered my things, walking out of the room.

I had not gotten halfway, when I sensed a heavy prescence behind me. Snapping my neck backwards instinctively, his cold blue eyes which potrayed killing instinct met my frightened ones.

His statue like posture almost made him hard to recognize. Without another word or any form of acknowledgement, I quickly masked my fear, bowing slightly, before hastening my steps down the other end of the hallway, constantly looking back.

I only breathed out a sigh of relief when the sunrays finally hit me outside the quarters. 

With no other promising threat till further notice, my chores continued peacefully with no mocking commentaries about any events on the previous day. 

I had also become absorbed in the tedious work, forgetting every inch of last night's events. 

The only thing that constantly haunted my mind, was the frozen image of Alpha Alexander in the hallway. 

The murderous look in his eyes still gave my body shivers when it came to mind. 

He wouldn't really be concerned about a mere maid like me, would he? 

Pushing the assumptions of my likely early death out of my head, after concluding it wouldn't be so bad afterall, I found other things to concentrate on.

The day moved so fast, which would have probably made me happy, but my punishment to work overtime clearly did not. 

While the rest of the maids cleaned up for the day, my feet scurried about, trying to hurry up my long list of undone chores for the night. 

Even with my droopy eyes, I had to clean every spot thoroughly else, “you will work overtime for a whole week”, that was a threat from the chief maid earlier. 

The noisy crickets and I entertained ourselves while I worked tirelessly in the abandoned corners of the palace till I finally stomped the dirty rag to the ground, around the wee hours of the morning as everywhere had grown much darker.

Despite my vivid imaginations of collapsing on my bed, my feet sluggishly moved in a bid to gather up my tools for cleaning before physically retiring. 

With a frustrated groan that could not escape my throat, I lightly moved around the store room where all the cleaning tools were kept, placing them in their position, rushing back to my room.

Out of every place in the palace, my room has been a home to me. Probably because it has been the only room I had ever had, but I had long decided to cherish it's usefulness to me.

The familiar scent of roses, which I always plucked from the garden, flowed into my nostrils, which I greedily inhaled. It was my comfort ritual after each long day I had. 

I carelessly flung my shoes sideways, bringing my vivi

d imaginations to life by collapsing on the thin layer of mattress.

As I retired my eyes to sleep, my body picked up a prescence…a heavy one.