HAZEL
The first girl’s eyes went wide. She dropped to her knees like someone had cut her strings.
"No. Never." Her words tumbled over each other. "A sentinel is currently pursuing her," she then pointed at her friend. "... And we found something he did was funny."
"The truth is, I don’t believe you."
The other girl finally moved. She’d been frozen but now she knelt too. The motion looked stiff. Unwilling.
"Of course not." Her voice shook. "We would never, Ome—"
Her eyes went wide before her mouth snapped shut but the damage was done.
"We would never, Luna Hazel."
Omega.
She’d been about to call me Omega.
Something hot and vicious surged through my veins. I charged at her before rational thought could intervene. My hands found her face. I squeezed. My fingers dug into her cheeks until she made a small sound of pain.
"You will spend the night in the dungeons for that unsightly tongue."
She tried to speak but my grip made the words come out mangled. "It was a slip, Luna Hazel."
A sentinel was walking down the corridor. Young. Probably new to the position based on how fresh and tidy his uniform looked.
"Hey, you. Come here."
He looked behind him. Then he pointed to himself with an expression that asked ’me?’
I looked at him with daggers in my eyes. Only then did he start walking. His steps were measured, careful and incredibly slow. He was taking his sweet ole time.
"Yes?"
"Throw this bitch in the deepest dungeons. Give her no food or water either. I want her to suffer for her insolence."
He hesitated. I saw the moment the hesitation turned into something else. Something that looked almost like pity.
Not for me. That shit could never be for me. I refused to be fucking pitied like a dog without claws or canines.
"I’ll reach out to the Alpha and Luna and will immediately do so once they give permission."
The words didn’t make sense at first. They bounced around in my skull like marbles, refusing to settle into meaning.
"What? What does that mean?"
"I apologize but the path I made, I swore them to the Alphas and Lunas of this pack. No one else aside from them, the Betas and the Gammas of this pack can get me to do something. If any of them do, I require permission."
Understanding came slow. Then all at once.
"Oh, is that right? Why?"
"It is the law."
My hand was already moving. Already pulling back to slap him across his smug face. Someone however caught my wrist at the last second and held it firm.
"Luna Hazel, you shouldn’t be doing this."
I turned and saw Baruch. His face was calm and he was concerned. My eyes softened despite the fury still coursing through me.
"You have no idea what this monster just said to me."
Baruch’s grip on my wrist didn’t loosen. "We should go."
"And let them get away with the disrespect?"
"I know their names. I’ll give them to you and you can report to your parents. If they deserve punishment, then they’ll be punished."
I couldn’t believe what I was hearing. The words kept coming from his mouth but they felt wrong. Backwards even. I was supposed to be able to punish them myself. I was supposed to have authority. I was born with that power. The ability to make people fear me with a single look.
But it seemed now that I didn’t.
I was powerless.
I dropped my hands hearing it directly from Baruch’s mouth and I just started walking.
Baruch fell into step beside me.
"I know how I sounded." His voice was gentle. "But I couldn’t just let you continue to humiliate yourself there."
"Right." The word came out bitter. "Humiliate myself."
We reached my room. I stood in front of the door and felt everything I’d been holding back start to crack through the surface.
"I used to have fucking power. Now I’m just a random girl." I laughed. It sounded broken even to my own ears. "Girl? I’m not even that. I’m the bottom of the fucking food chain. I hate that bitch Fia so much! She did this to me! Haaaaaaaaaaaaaaaa!!! I can only hope she’s dead already. That’s the only way all of this will be alright."
"What does that mean?"
His question cut through the haze.
It made me quicky realized that I’d said too much and given away too much of what Grandmother had planned.
It was stupid of me. But that wasn’t entirely why I backed away from the question. For some reason I didn’t want Baruch to see me as some kind of monster and pull away. He was the only one I seemed to have in my corner right now. And I wanted to keep that. I wanted to keep him.
"I’m just in my head." I lied.
I pushed the door open and then stepped inside. The room was the same as I’d left it but it felt different now. Smaller somehow. Less mine.
"Right now, I need to destress."
My eyes locked on his lips. On the way they parted slightly when he was thinking. On how they’d feel against my skin.
"Lock the door and get rid of your shirt."
"You just went through something traumatic—"
I was already undressing. The hospital gown slipped off my shoulders and pooled at my feet. So did the other modest gown under it that was now grimy.
I then stood there in just my undergarments and met his eyes.
"I know. And I want to get my mind off it using your body." My voice came out steadier now. More certain. "Close the fucking door and lose your shirt."
Baruch looked at me for a long moment. Then he obeyed.
The lock clicked into place. His shirt hit the floor. And for the first time since I’d woken up without my wolf, I felt like I had control over something.
Even if it was just this.
Even if it was just him.
It would have to be enough.