5

ELARIAN

Everything about him just doesn’t feel right. The maid from earlier had told me that he had lost someone important and had forbidden anyone from talking about it in the mansion. He had loved once and simply refused to love again. That is normal for someone who has experienced losing a loved one. But what isn’t normal is the fact that he doesn’t want a child.

His rules include one that forbids me from getting pregnant. It forbids me from falling in love with him, and I am to call him "master" at all times. A man like him should want a child and a life, but for some reason, he doesn’t want any of that.

“Dinner is served, Miss,” a much older maid, who had recently been assigned to tend to me after the young maid was taken away by the guards, said.

“Please come with me.” She gestured for me to follow her, and I did. I got up from the chair in front of the mirror and followed her out quietly.

I was eager to see him again, even though he had been a jerk and denied me an orgasm, but I couldn't help myself.

"What happened to the other maid?" I asked the elderly maid as we descended the stairs that led all the way to the dining hall where Aeros would be waiting.

"I don't know, Miss, but she has broken a rule, and the Alpha doesn't take kindly to that," she responded with an oddly calm and nonchalant expression.

"Do you think he would harm her in any way?"

"I don't know, Miss. That is entirely up to him," she replied curtly.

I didn't want to push it any further and get her in trouble, too, so I just let it be. As expected, Aeros was seated at the top of the table, a table long enough to accommodate a whole pack. At the end of the table, very far away from him, a plate and cutlery had been set up for me too.

"Why does he need to make me sit this far away from him if he invited me for dinner?" I grumbled as I walked down to my seat and sat down heavily.

My position was way too far from him, and I couldn't even speak to him if I wanted to, except I wished to yell at the top of my lungs. He didn’t even glance in my direction, keeping himself busy with whatever he was reading on his phone. When dinner was served by the cooks, who lined themselves against the wall, he focused his attention on his meal.

I couldn't eat; I just kept picking at my dinner with no intention whatsoever of eating anything.

"I can't even talk to you from this distance," I called out to him. He didn’t respond, and neither did he look up at me, so I repeated my words again, much louder than before, and he finally raised his head to look at me.

"In case you didn't get it, that's the plan. You're supposed to remain silent, eat, and go back to your room."

"Then what's the reason for making me come down here? I could have just had dinner in my room."

"Do not... just eat and go back to your room before I do something you don't like," he growled. Even though I had many things on my mind to say, I kept quiet and forced the food down my throat.

"I don't like my women skinny, so I suggest you eat up," he suddenly added with a gruff voice. I hadn't realized he had been watching me for a while now.

"How about you make me eat," I shot back, and every hair on my skin stood at attention when he gave me a look.

"When it's time, you'll be eating something else that isn't food," he added with a smirk, and I felt my cheeks heat up at the thought of the mental image he was creating.

He was looking straight at me and didn't even bat an eyelid.

"I would like you to..." I began but didn't get a chance to complete my sentence when he suddenly stood up sharply and walked out of the hall.

It was annoying when he did that. He led me on and then suddenly walked out as if whatever we were doing meant nothing and could be discarded in a very disrespectful manner.

I lost my appetite anyway, so I pushed the food away and headed outside on my own.

Since arriving with Aeros, I hadn't been to any part of the mansion that wasn't my room and the dining hall. So, I decided to take this opportunity and embark on a personal, self-guided tour around the mansion. After all, he had only told me never to go into the red room and his room.

I wondered what he meant by the red room, though, as I thought to myself while heading down the hallway.

The mansion was large enough for me to get lost in, so I stuck to the places closer to the dining hall to make it easier to find my way back to my room.

I couldn't let anyone find out that I was wandering around the mansion unsupervised. The elderly maid had informed me that Aeros gave her specific instructions not to let me out of her sight and out of my room unless she was instructed to.

Most of the rooms I found or stumbled into were filled with antiques that he had gathered over the years from his travels around the globe. I found a room on my left, filled with portraits of all the Alphas that had at one time or another led this pack.

Aeros' portrait wasn't up yet, but his name had already been added to the golden list on the wall in the room, just like the others before him.

Bored by the political charade, I made my way out and strolled even deeper into the mansion. I got lost and couldn't recognize the rooms and hallways I now found myself in, so I tried to find my way back, but that didn't work out either.

I ended up in another hallway out of the dozens available in the mansion, and at the far end was a room. The wood of the door was slightly different from the rest, and for some reason, the room had a strong pull that brought me right to the front of the door.

I turned the doorknob slowly and made my way inside, gently shutting the door behind me. It was surprising to find that the room was covered in pitch-black darkness. I couldn't see a thing, and it didn't seem like the room had a window.

I groped around in the darkness for some sort of light switch, and eventually, I found one. I turned on the light, and the room suddenly filled with a red glow.

Is this... am I... 

“Fuck!! I just broke his rule. I'm in the red room?" I said to myself. I wasn't entirely sure if this was indeed the red room, but the red light and the lack of specificity in Aeros' description made me nervous.

As I turned to leave, my eyes caught sight of pictures that had just been cleaned and hung up to dry. Slowly, I got closer for a better look.

"It's... it's a woman," I mumbled to myself as I approached the pictures. I had never seen someone so beautiful, with such a radiant smile. She had dark hair and a petite frame.

"Is she... is she the woman the maid was talking about?" I wondered. Although most of the pictures were of her alone, in a few of them, she was with Aeros, and for a man as gruff and rude as he was, he looked genuinely happy.

From the look of things, they were a perfect couple that loved each other. He loved her deeply; the fact that he kept a whole room filled with pictures of her in his mansion spoke volumes about his feelings for her.

Her beautiful face peered back at me as I examined the pictures. One after the other, I took a closer look at all the pictures.

If only she knew what had become of Aeros after she died, she probably would have fought harder to stay.

What happened to her? I wondered.

I paused and stared intensely at a picture of him and her. He had his arms wrapped around her, and she was laughing heartily, her head thrown back. Her hair fluttered in the wind, and he seemed possessive of her even in the picture.

 

The look in his eyes was filled with raw passion and love.

Would he ever look at me in that way? Would he ever see me as he saw her? Even in death, she still held such a powerful influence over him.

I reached out to touch the picture but froze midair when the door suddenly flew open, revealing Aero's deep, cold eyes, which were void of any emotion, staring right back at me.

This time, there was an emotion in his eyes, and the rage sent a shiver down my spine.

"The rule is to stay out of the room, not in it," he yelled angrily as he gripped my arm and dragged me out. His hold on me was so tight that I yelped in pain, but it didn't make him let go; instead, he tightened his grip even more.

"Please... I can explain... I didn't mean to..." I tried to apologize for what happened, but he didn't listen.

My heart skipped a beat at what he might do to me because he looked so angry that even I could sense his rage. His eyes had darkened, and the veins on his arms and neck were now so visible that it frightened me.

"I'm sorry, please..."

We were now in a familiar hallway, and the elderly maid appeared from a corner with a worried expression on her face.

"I've been searching for you, miss. Where have you..." She paused when she caught sight of Aeros and the deadly look on his face. She stepped away from his path, and he dragged me past her. The worried expression on her face soon morphed into fear.

She followed behind us but at a safe distance.

"You had one job, keep her in the room, but you couldn't even do that," Aeros snapped at the maid trailing behind us.

"I'm so sorry, Alpha Aeros. One minute she was in the dining hall, and the next minute, she wasn't," the maid apologized, but Aeros ignored her.

I didn't want him to do to her whatever he had done to the other maid; I couldn't help but feel that he had hurt the other one. So I took it upon myself to protect this one. If I didn't, then the maids would probably hate me more than they already did.

"It isn't her fault; it's mine," I announced sadly. "I just wanted to look around a bit before I headed back to my room, but I got lost and couldn't find my way back. I accidentally stumbled into the red room. I didn't mean to go in there, so please don't take it out on her."

"You should be more worried about yourself," he growled as he suddenly came to a halt. I took the opportunity to look around and realized that we were now in front of my room.

He flung the door open and tossed me inside roughly, causing me to land on my rear end. The pain shot through me, but that didn't bother me as much as worrying about what the angry Alpha might do next.

"Please... no... please..." I cried out as I hurriedly got back on my feet and began banging on the door he had slammed shut after tossing me inside.

No one responded to my pleas, but I heard the unmistakable sound of the lock turning, and I knew I had been locked inside this room until further notice.

I sighed deeply as I stepped backwards and collapsed heavily onto my bed.

"I never should have gone into that room. I should have just gone straight to my room after dinner," I thought aloud, but it was of no use now. The deed had already been done.

"He's overreacting. They're just pictures, and it doesn't make any difference if I see them or not," I said out loud to myself, but the only response I got was silence.

I was all alone, but for how long?

No one came that night, except for the maid who brought my breakfast the next morning, and she didn't even smile at me.

"Great job, Elarian, they all hate you now for sure," I mumbled to myself.

Aeros must have done the same thing to the elderly maid as he did to the young one because she didn't show up the next morning.

"What happened to the other maid?" I asked the current maid, despite the heavy frown on her face.

She didn't respond until she opened the door. "The same thing that happens to anyone who doesn't meet the Alpha's requirements," she replied coldly, just before she stepped out and slammed the door shut.

What happens to those that don’t meet the Alpha’s requirements? 

I swallowed hard, my imagination conjuring gruesome images in response to her answer.