Four: Back to Square 0

LUSTRE

My head was still reeling from what just happened or better constructed, from the series of events that was about to happen because of this.

We were not allowed to go to the main house.

We'd get killed if we were caught sneaking into the main house?

I developed an instant headache and before I could help myself, a question left my mouth.

"And why's that? What are we going to be doing in this place if we're not allowed to work in the house?"

Mayla turned to me, brows raised and a curious, almost sinister look in her eyes as she took her time to observe me, from my blue hair that complimented my sky blue eyes, to my impeccably perfect face to my body and even though she tried to hide it, I could see it in her eyes that she had a fleeting thought and it was "what the hell is she doing here when she clearly belongs to his Harem?"

I'm confused too, Mayla but I'm going to assume that your so-called Alpha has a problem with his eyes.

"Young Lady," she replied in a dismissive voice, "you're here as a maid and one of your major job descriptions is never to ask questions and just do as you're told. Let this be the last time you'll ever ask questions."

My wolf snickered within me in annoyance. I guessed we've gotten so used to the position of power that Luca had given us in Silvercrest that the thought of someone as undignified as the woman talking to us in that manner did not sit down well with us at all.

Still, I lowered my head, "I apologize."

She didn't reply to that, she just turned her head away from me and continue to address us.

After an hour, the three of us had freshened up and were now lying on our respective beds. The room was huge enough to be a dormitory and I counted the bunks, they were 10 which meant they were 20 beds in total in the dormitory, and judging from the beds that were laid, the maids here were up to 15, and with the addition of the three of us, that made us 18.

Most of the girls weren't in the room and apart from the girl that took us to where the bathrooms were situated and showed us to our beds, none of the five girls we met in the room had spoken a word to us. Not like I cared anyway, they weren't part of my problem and their existence didn't matter at all to me.

Now in the room, the other two girls had fallen asleep as if they'd been deprived of sleep for centuries. I understand them though, if I and my wolf and weren't so agitated about what was happening, I'd have probably fallen asleep from all the exhaustion of walking all the way from Silvercrest and then spending the night on a cold and hard surface.

This bed was so soft and fluffy that it was capable of lulling someone to sleep but my wolf was restless and so was I so I needed to do something.

Anything and not just lie down on the bed like a fucking retard.

My wolf senses picked up the fact that someone was watching me and I turned swiftly to see a girl who looked like she was my age looking at me. Her eyes widened when she met my eyes and she actually skipped over to stand beside me.

"Wow, you're so pretty," she mussed, staring at me with wide unbelieving eyes as if she couldn't believe that I was possibly this pretty.

Sadly, everyone but the one person I need to really see my beauty was seeing it.

"Is this your natural or do you add color to it?"

I wasn't in the mood to entertain anyone or have any conversation that wasn't going to invariably lead me closer to my mission but then, I still really needed someone that would at least tell me how this Hell's Hall works.

"It's my natural hair."

"Wow," she moved closer, "it's so pretty, can I touch it?"

"Of course."

She massaged my hair, feeling it in between her fingers, "it's so soft and silky and it even compliments your eyes. And you're too pretty, I wish I was this pretty."

She wasn't bad looking and she could be prettier if she put in extra effort to be.

"You're pretty too," I told her and she scoffed before leaning on the upper bunk that I was sitting on.

"I'm not really, if I was pretty, I'd have made it to his Harem because he likes collecting pretty girls and having them warm his bed every night. Which is why I find it difficult to understand what you're doing here. Like you belong to his Harem. I don't think any of the girls there are as pretty as you and he likes pretty girls so why?" She asked with genuine curiosity and I shrugged, believing more and more that Alpha Fleki did not have functioning eyes in his head.

"Or did he not see you?"

"Well, he did," he looked at me and concluded that the position that befits me is that of a lowly maid who doesn't even have access to the main house.

"Wow, that's odd but anyway, I'm Tariba and you're?"

"Lustre," I replied and her eyes widened more.

"Wow, I've never met anyone with a more befitting name. It suits you perfectly."

I smiled at her, "thank you."

She kept staring at me with wild eyes and I used her interest in me to ask her questions.

"So how long have been here?"

"A little over a year," she answered eagerly, "maybe 15 months."

Okay, that's quite a long time to have some great intel about how this place works.

"So do you see the alpha quite often?"

She chuckled, "Alpha? I've not seen him since that first time he handpicked me to come and work as a maid here."

What? And she has worked here for more than 15 months? How on earth was that even possible? So if I remained as a maid here, then I was not going to see him at all. That means I have to find a way to get myself into that mansion as soon as possible. I was going to have to do anything to anything to get into that house.

"He doesn't come towards this part of the building at all and since we're not allowed to enter the main house, running into him is impossible."

"But I don't understand, how do we work then if we're not allowed to enter the main house? What exactly do we do here?"

"Oh, nothing we do here concerns the main house, we mostly clean and sweep outside the house, wash the soldiers' clothes and whenever there are too many chores to do in the main house, they bring them out here for us to do."

"So you mean no maids work in the main house?" I asked even though it doesn't make sense. The house was too big it'd probably require at least 50 maids to get it running smoothly.

No, of course not," she chuckled slightly, "there are maids in the main house."

Oh. Thank fucking God!

"There are even more maids in the main house than we have here but they are of different breeds than us. They're handpicked after rigorous training and females that fail the test are sent here to work outside the mansion."

Good! If it works that way, then it must work the other way too.

"So there must be a way for a maid here to get promoted to work in the main house?"

"Actually, there is..."

"For a new maid that doesn't even understand how we work here, you seem awfully interested in making your way into the main house."

We both turned towards the new voice that has a sharp and mean edge to it and just like the voice, the owner looked sharp and mean with a face that looked pretty and unbefitting of a maid.

She was standing in front and in the middle of a trio and the three girls had their hands crossed over their chests and meanness written all over their faces like typical mean girls.

What were they? Queens Bees that ruled the maid quarters or what?

"And I don't see how that's any of your business," I retorted. I didn't want to make enemies but I sure as hell wasn't going to allow this bitch-faced maids to walk all over me.

"Don't talk to her that way," Tariba muttered under her breath and she pinched me to keep quiet, making it obvious that this new bitch was really the one that ruled here and no one was allowed to talk to her anyhow they wanted.

I had no time for child's play like indulging her so yeah, I was going to have to ignore her existence till I get out of there.

"I overheard you asking Mayla about getting to work in the main house too and that was even the first thing you inquired from her. You're here asking Tariba the same questions she asked you not to ask so it's obvious that you're trying to get into the main house."

"And like I said, that's none of your business."

"Of course, it's not," she snickered, moving closer to my bunk, "you must think you're pretty and even if you don't get to be part of his harem, then you must think you're qualified to work in the main house but I hate to break it to you but you're really all that, most of the girls here are even prettier than you and if the Alpha thinks you belong here, then you really belong here."

Bitch! So that's what the fuss was all about. Bitch was so jealous of my beauty that she wants to walk all over me to make herself feel better.

"So that's it?" I taunted, "you're jealous and you want to make yourself feel better by talking down to me? Well, I hate to break it to you," I mimicked her tone from earlier, "you can never be this pretty and you can never have this kind of body no matter how much you delude yourself."

Her eyes widened with pain and hurt and my wolf gloated within me. It felt good to put the idiot in her face.

"You have such a feisty tongue," she started, her eyes back to the mean one, "let's see if you'll be able to keep this same energy when I'm done with you."

I didn't understand what she said until she moved back and her minions moved forward. Tariba yelped as she was pushed to a side and I was still trying to make sense of what was happening when I was being yanked with so much force to the floor.

What the fuck?

Kicks and blows came from all angles, making my weak wolf retreat to the furthest part of my mind. I cowered and curved into a frontal position to protect my vital parts but it was no use.

It hurt like hell and whoever the mean girl was was a bastard.

"Make sure you break her face, I want to see if she'll still have the mouth to say she's prettier than me when you're done."

I covered my face immediately but it was too late, blows and kicks hit my face, hurting like hell and I was sure my face was getting broken.

The mean girl was snickering above me, obviously enjoying the torture her minions were inflicting on me and none of the girls in the dorm were doing anything to help. It's either they feared her so much or they didn't give a fuck about me.

My wolf sense picked a presence by the door watching what was going on and I managed to twist around to look at the door but it was bare of any presence.

Someone was there up to a second ago. My wolf might be weak but I was sure someone was watching me from the door.

But who?