CHAPTER 25: RED DAY

CHAPTER 25: RED DAY

Florence  POV

The rest was a blur. Within the next day, my room had been filled with so much. Don’t get me wrong—I found it slightly flattering—but there was hardly any walking space for all the new clothes and other items. The laptop, phone, and tablet, however, left much to be desired. In fact, Alpha brought in a technician to show me how they worked.  

“I’m sorry,” the technician said—a young man with a slightly protruding jaw. He had spectacles perched on his nose, which struck me as odd. He wasn’t a werewolf, so why did he need spectacles?  

“It’s because of the light,” he explained. “You notice it doesn’t exactly do much for my eyes.” He chuckled nervously.  

“Sorry,” I mumbled, tucking my chin into my chest.  

“Oh, it’s fine,” he waved me off. “I get it all the time. In fact, when people don’t notice, I think maybe they have a problem.” He widened his eyes dramatically, then turned to the laptop.  

It was a sleek device, barely a centimeter in height when closed.  

“This is how it works,” he said as he opened it and began touching the screen, proving it was the latest technology.  

He babbled to me for several moments, asking questions and ensuring I understood. It wasn’t that hard, but perhaps it was my nervousness that caused me to stutter several times. Still, he proved to be polite.  

“And we’re done,” he said after about an hour, after showing me not just the laptop but the tablet and phone too. “The Alpha had me get you a SIM card. I also had it registered and all that, you know, back-end stuff. So, you can call anybody.” He handed me a small card.  

“This has most of the emergency lines for the Pack if you need them. Although I doubt you’ll need it,” he added, rolling his eyes. “But anyway,” he chuckled nervously, “I guess I’ll see you around. By the way, I attend the Academy too. I’ve seen you a few times, though I guess you haven’t exactly noticed me.”  

“Really?” I smiled. “What’s your name?”  

I felt my entire being perk up at the thought of having something in common with him.  

“Todd,” he said. “My name is Todd.”  

Todd left after spending an extra hour telling me about the Academy. He seemed to be a sucker for history and leaned heavily into the stereotypical nerd persona. It was cute but a little overwhelming for me. After all, too many things had happened in one day.  

In the end, I was glad when it was time to sleep. I fell asleep as soon as my head hit the pillow.  

The next day, I went to the Academy as usual, mildly surprised to see I had received an email. I wanted to ask Alpha about it, but I felt I had inconvenienced him enough the previous day.  

Unfortunately—or perhaps fortunately for me—a message from him was waiting just as I stepped out of my room.  

“My Lady.”  

The oldest maid in the Alpha’s mansion stood outside my door and inclined her head in greeting. Instinctively, I did the same and stepped back slightly. Her eyes squinted, as though she was trying to read me like an open book.  

“There’s no need for that,” she said. “The Alpha wanted to send you a message. He said to be ready to be picked up from the Academy later today. After all, there’s supposed to be an event that you’ll attend together, yes?”  

My mouth opened as my mind searched for an answer. I finally settled on saying, “All right then.”  

“He said the car will be coming to pick you up by three o’clock. The dinner starts at seven, and you’ll want to be perfectly prepared before then.”  

She inclined her head again and soon left me alone in the hallway. I let out a breath of relief.  

“Why was I that nervous?” I asked myself, watching her small retreating figure.  

I shrugged and decided to head straight to the Academy.  

Just as I had thought, there was nothing but whispers and subtle looks jabbed in my direction once I arrived. All eyes were on me. Some whispers sounded like my name; others sounded like “Alpha.” Of course, they were talking about me.  

“Oh, thank the goddess! There you are!”  

I felt an arm around my shoulder, pulling me harshly towards the familiar scent of Annabelle. I was glad she was there.  

I let out a sigh of relief and leaned into her hug.  

“You’re okay,” she said. “You know, I have this strange idea...” She placed her hand on my cheek. “I think you’re going to be the one person to miss the Academy and still graduate with flying colors. Nobody’s been able to set tests because you’re not around. Everyone feels like if they do well, the Alpha might come after them.”  

“Talk about having absolute power at home?” She nudged me gently.  

Somehow, I found myself chuckling.  

The reason I had been absent the day before was none other than—well, if I told her, she might not be able to keep her composure—but it was shopping. I bit my lip, deciding not to tell her.  

“But you’re okay now, right?”  

“Yeah, I’m fine,” I said, allowing her to lead me away from the entrance of the Academy and towards the major academic building.  

A few classes later, I felt like my brain had been forcefully opened and filled with text upon text.  

“My goodness, I can’t believe we have a test in two weeks,” Annabelle complained beside me.  

I, however, simply stared in a daze at the board filled with endless notes.  

“Where’s Sylvester?” I asked suddenly, turning toward her.  

“Oh, he had a family emergency,” she waved me off. “He had to take a note and all that. Here’s me hoping that at least no one does something crazy and we don’t have another Red Day on our hands.”  

“Red Day?” I looked at her.  

“Yeah,” she mumbled. “You can’t expect to know everything about our history. Red Day is one of the worst days I can think of. I think it takes the cake,” she said.  

“Somebody, smart as they thought they were, decided it would be a good idea to kill off everyone standing in their way to ultimate power. It was one of the noble families, too. You know, way back when everyone could do whatever they wanted. Every now and then, they’d start a civil war.  

“Yeah, the Red Day was one of those. And the person—Gustav, apparently,” she continued. “Honestly, his name sounds stupid. But Gustav thought it was a bright idea because he wanted to be lord of his region. He killed his uncle, all his cousins, all his nieces—because he wanted the title to fall to him only. Of course, in the end, after everyone died, the Alpha still executed him because, you know, you can’t do that.”  

I felt a stabbing in my chest after her depiction. Of course, it was shocking, but even more so than that, I could somehow relate to it. I had the feeling I had seen something similar.  

That was right.  

My father.  
My uncle.  
My mother.