Chapter 129

Chapter 129
Crystal had once walked through Valtor’s castle gates with her head held high, cloaked in authority and reverence. Now she returned as someone else entirely.

There was no grand entrance this time. She was shoved through the rear gate with a dozen other women, all of them hunched and silent, their eyes lowered in instinctive submission. Somewhere inside the castle, torches flared and laughter echoed, but back here, there was only the scrape of boots and the sharp bark of orders.

“Line up. I’ll check you one by one.”

The command came from an old Rogue woman with iron-gray hair pulled tight against her skull. 

'How dare she speak to her in that tone?' The thought flared hot and instinctive. 

Crystal’s jaw clenched as she stared at the woman, 

And then a violent shove struck her from behind.

She stumbled forward and crashed to the stone floor. Pain shot through her arm as she instinctively braced herself, her elbow scraping hard against the rough surface. 

“Shit.” When she looked up, the Rogue guard who had shoved her stood over her like a wall of stone.

“How dare you…” Crystal muttered under her breath, fury trembling beneath the words. “How dare they treat me like this. I fucking regret coming into this hell pit.”

Crystal had always known the Rogues were a harsh, brutal kind of werewolf. But every encounter she’d ever had with them before had been shielded by her title as a Luna. No Rogue would have dared lay a hand on her. Now, stripped of that protection, she was finally feeling the truth of their world. 

“I heard this one say something.” The old woman stepped closer, her voice sharp with interest. 

Crystal barely had time to react before rough fingers seized her arm and hauled her upright with brutal efficiency.

The woman reached up and tore away the thin veil Freya had insisted she wear.

“Did you have something you’d like to say to me?” the woman asked coolly, her eyes sweeping over Crystal’s face. “Because once I shove you into work, you won’t get another chance.”

Crystal said nothing.

The woman’s lips thinned. “Is this one mute?” she asked the guard.

“As far as I know, there were no defects among those I brought tonight.”

“Hmmm.” The woman studied Crystal more closely, “What's your name?” she demanded. “Answer me unless you want me to make you. And trust me, you won’t like how I do it.”

Crystal believed her. The guard’s presence alone was a warning enough.

“Velda,” Crystal said at last, offering the false name Freya had drilled into her.

“And where are you from?”

“The northern tribes,” Crystal replied evenly. “But I’ve been wandering for five years, moving from house to house. I work where I’m needed.”

The woman’s expression didn’t soften. If anything, her suspicion deepened.

“You’re young,” she said. “Have you only ever worked as a maid?”

Crystal nodded once.

Silence stretched between them.

“You have a lot of potential,” the woman finally said.

Crystal frowned.

Then understanding hit her like ice down her spine.

“You just need a bath and proper clothes.” The woman reached out, grabbing a strand of Crystal’s hair and twisting it. 

Rosentine had cut Crystal’s long, beautiful hair down to a messy shoulder-length tangle. Ash smeared her face, dulling her features and making her look worn and unremarkable. Paired with the ragged clothes she wore, she looked nothing like the Luna she once had been.

“You’re going to sell me?” Crystal asked quietly, dread pooling in her stomach. 

“Not exactly.” The woman shook her head. “The customers pay you directly. You’ll share your earnings with me, of course.”

The meaning was unmistakable.

Nausea surged through Crystal, sharp and overwhelming.

“Besides managing servants for King Valtor’s castle,” the woman continued casually, “I also own a pleasure house-"

“No.” Crystal cut her off at once. “I’d rather stay here work as a maid in this castle and do anything you ask. I can handle any job. But I won’t go to your brothel.”

“What a shame.” The woman scoffed, lips curling. “The money you’d earn just by spreading your legs there for a single night would be many times what you’d make here.”

Crystal already knew that. But the thought alone made her stomach twist.

Imagining herself beneath Rogue males she was certain would be brutal, perhaps more than one at a time, forced to pretend pleasure, to feign desire, to let them do whatever they wished with her body. It sounded no different from hell.