Chapter 116

Chapter 116
Samara's POV

I had almost no time to rest since I had committed myself to being George's maid. And when I finally did, I needed to find a way to connect back with Nyla, because I had been busy and always around people. I had not gotten the chance to take off my necklace. I hoped that doing so would stir her up somehow, and she would at least talk to me. I needed her voice in my head. I needed to be sure that she was all right, and there was no one I could ask about what was happening to me.

My mind wandered off to the books Lilian had kept away for us. Maybe those books could provide answers. I had to ask, but first, I needed to take off this necklace.

In the still of the dark, in a very quiet garden a little bit far off from the palace building itself, I took off the necklace, my eyes fixed on the moon up ahead. It was not a full moon, but yet I felt something flutter in my heart when I looked at it. When I took off the necklace, however, I was met with a deafening silence. Nyla was not there. She was not in my head, not in my mind. I could not understand it.

"Samara—"

My heart caught in my throat as I struggled to put the necklace back on quickly, but the clasp would not hold together and it fell from my hands onto the dirt floor. I turned sharply and saw Lilian standing there. Her eyes followed mine to the necklace in the dirt. She walked toward me slowly, bent down, and picked it up, placing it in my hands.

"You dropped this."

"Yes, yes," I said nervously, looking at her to check if she could scent my wolf.

The necklace was meant to suppress my scent and hide the fact that I was a werewolf. But without it, I would be exposed. Something similar had happened between myself and Aeron when he had forcefully almost taken off my necklace, but he had not sensed my wolf. Lilian did not appear to have sensed my wolf either, but I was frightfully nervous still. I hurriedly put the necklace around my neck with a nervous smile.

"You seem very attached to that necklace," she commented as I put it back on.

"Um, I guess?"

"Here, let me help you," she said as I continued to fiddle with the clasp, unable to get it to hook.

I allowed her to put the necklace around my neck as my heart thudded loudly in my chest.

"Does the necklace have a story?" she asked me.

I stared blankly at her, not sure what response I should give her. What would I tell her? That it was a family heirloom? But slaves did not have family heirlooms that were worthy of passing down.

"My grandmother gave it to me." I went with the truth.

She looked at me for a while and then nodded. "Makes sense. It's a beautiful necklace," she said.

"Thank you."

"It looks very much like something I have seen before," she continued.

My eyes widened a little. I tried not to look surprised. "Something you have seen before? I doubt it."

"No, actually, I think I read about... You know what? Never mind.”

But I did mind. I wanted to know what she knew, lest I suddenly get exposed for what I really was. Still, I tried to look unbothered. "What about the books that we took from the library?"

She placed a finger on her lips and shushed me. "Are you crazy? Are you trying to get us caught?" she asked.

I looked around us, but there was no one here.

She sighed. "I guess I'm just paranoid all of a sudden. With the rogue attack and my father suggesting that I marry Alpha George, it's driving me insane."

I swallowed. Lilian was the only friend I had at the moment, and now she might be getting married to my mate. I tried not to look as though it bothered me at all. "Well, you have to do what you need to do."

She looked down, troubled. "I do not wish to get married to Alpha George. In fact, I do not wish to get married at all. I want to be free, adventurous—be able to travel the world, be unstoppable." She looked at me. "You get that, right?"

I shrugged. I had always lived my life in a cage. I had always been a slave. I did not know what it was to be free and adventurous, and when I had the opportunity to escape this life, I had stayed instead. I felt foolish and ashamed of my decision to remain George's personal maid. But what would freedom do to me? I could just as well be captured by something or someone else far deadlier than Alpha George. I shuddered to even think about what life would be like, defenseless against attacks. Maybe it would have helped if I had Nyla, but Nyla... she was lost in the oblivion. I could not reach out to my wolf, and that scared me. I realized that I would live this life a coward if I never found her back.

To Lilian, I suggested, "You could just run away."

She placed her hands in mine. "Right. Let's do it together. Let's leave this place, all the chaos behind. We could travel the world, do something extraordinary with our lives.”

“Extraordinary.” My life had been pretty mediocre all this while. Doing something extraordinary appeared impossible to me.

"Yes, yes. We could do anything. Just imagine our lives completely in our own control. No father trying to marry me off to some old bastard."

"George is not old."

"Well, George may not be, but the man they want me to marry—or the man my father has promised that I would marry—he is a very old man and rather disgusting."

I laughed. I was not sure why, but the tone with which she said it was funny.

"Why do you not wish to get married?" I asked her.

She raised an eyebrow and looked at me like I had asked the most insane question ever. "Get married? Marriage is like a cage, Samara. Why would anyone want to do that?"

That confused me even more. "I don't get it," I said honestly.

When I had run away from my previous pack where I worked as a slave, I had been convinced that getting a mate would solve my problems. Once I was married, I would be happy. And here someone was telling me marriage was a cage.

She smiled and turned her attention to the moon above her head. "Marriage has no benefits for us," she said to me. "The only people who profit from it are men."

That confused me even more. "What do you mean? Marriage can make you happy," I said. I had never seen an example of a happy marriage, but I knew that it existed. It had to.

"If you are with the right person, I guess it can be nice," she considered. "But I would like to live my life free, not tied down by a husband or children. I want to travel the world. I want to see places, meet new people, interesting people, wake up when I like, go to bed when I like—do things because I am in absolute control of my life and not answering to anyone at all.”

If I was being honest, the life she described sounded liberating, but I had never had the luxury to think like that.

"I can take us to read those books tomorrow," she finally said. "But that would involve us leaving the palace. And Samara, those rogues... they were very nasty creatures. I don't know if we will be safe from them."

I could hear the worry in her voice, and I could also tell that if not for the ongoing rogue attacks, she probably would have run away from the palace by now—especially when her father had mentioned she was to get married to someone, or was trying to push her to marry George.

"Is it very far from here?" I asked her.

She looked at me curiously. "You're very determined to read these books, Samara. Is there something more than just literary curiosity?" she asked me.

I laughed nervously. "No, no. I guess I'm just... I'm just looking for something interesting to read to take me out of my head. I would like to escape reality for a while, and I guess the best way to do that is in a book."

She nodded. "Same. Perhaps we can explore the library at the palace."

"I would like that," I said in response, although I doubted very much that I could find the answers I sought there.

We stood side by side in the garden quietly until I asked her, “have you ever tried going past the woods?”

She looked at me, her eyes widening, “no. But it would be fun to do so.”

I was a bit surprised to hear her answer, “you're not scared?”

“Of what?”

“Alpha George says there are vampires living on the other side and no one makes it out alive,” I said to her.

“And Aeron says the same too.”

Lillian laughed. It was a beautiful sound.

“Nonsense,” she chuckled, “it must mean they're hiding something very precious in those woods.”

“What do you say we go explore it tomorrow?” she asked me.