Chapter 49 CHAPTER 049
Stone POV:
Everywhere I looked, the corners and walls were graced with colourful banners. The annual moon festival is around the corner and the atmosphere is nothing short of joyful. Even the maids had big smiles on their faces as they moved around while working.
I stood on my balcony, watching the maids and other palace workers decorate the courtyard below. They were laughing and chatting as they draped banners made of silk over the stone arches. Their hands moved quickly as they worked on garlands of moonflowers and ivy. The scent of roasting meats and spiced wine drifted up from the kitchens, mingling with the crisp winter air.
I raised my head and saw Ari in the field.
She was kneeling by the central fountain, scrubbing at the moss that had grown between the stones. Her sleeves were rolled up past her elbows, revealing the faint scars that crisscrossed her forearms. The sight of them made my jaw tighten.
Her hair was worn up in a tight ponytail, showing the curve of her delicate neckline and her jawline. Despite the puffiness of her uniform and how basic it looked, Ari still had effortless beauty in it. If she wasn't a slave, or a stranger, by heavens, I wouldn't hesitate to make her my Luna.
She worked quietly and fast, her head bowed, while her dark hair left strands sticking to her damp neck.
My fingers curled around the balcony rail as I watched her. Three days had passed since the dream. It had been three days since I'd seen her walking through fire untouched and felt my wolf whimper at her feet. I hadn't told a soul about it. Not even Harry, my beta. But it kept lingering in the back of my mind, making me restless.
I remembered the way she'd looked at me when I'd thrown her in the dungeon. I'd gone to check on her later, when she'd been curled in the corner of the cell, her arms wrapped around her knees.
"You came to punish me?" she'd whispered, trying so hard to be strong. "Whip me? Torture me?"
I hadn't answered. I'd just stood there, staring at her through the bars and wondering why the hell I felt like I was the one locked in that cage.
"Do you always have to make things hard?" I heard her scoff from the dark, and then footsteps shuffling before she came close to the bar where I stood.
"You don't get to tell me how to react after that betrayal, Alpha Stone. You should have let me jump when you found me that night."
"And what will that make me? Selfish."
"What is selfish," she banged at the iron bars. "Is forcing me to live, and when I decided to do that, you lock me up and make me a slave. Just kill me already."
I shook my head. "I can't do that." I kept my voice as low as possible, keeping my emotions in check.
I refused to let Ari know that her tears undid me. "If I let you die, my wolf will..."
"To hell with your wolf!" Then she went back to the dark where she stopped talking to me since then.
I went back on two different occasions, both of which she refused to talk to me.
On the third day, I let her out, but she had been acting mute since then, looking at me like a statue.
"Hey, Beta," I heard her voice for the first time in days, cheerful and loud.
I looked up in time to see her kneel in a polite curtesy. I didn't hear the rest of their conversation, but something Harry said made her smile.
That smile was so rare these days, but seeing it light up her entire face planted dark feelings inside me. Her lips curved until her cheeks dimpled, and for a brief moment, she didn't look like the girl I'd found on the bridge. The hollow-eyed slave she'd become under my watch.
Harry leaned in, murmuring something in a whisper that even my wolf couldn't catch it, and she laughed. It was a laugh so loud that made her press a hand to her mouth.
My grip on the balcony rail tightened until the stone groaned beneath me. She hadn't laughed like that for me in weeks.
"Alpha."
Harry's voice snapped me from my thoughts. He stood at the doorway, his brow furrowed. "You asked for me?"
I schooled my expression into something neutral. "It's about Kannelle. Any word from him?"
Harry shook his head. “None. It's been too long. If he takes this long to return, I can only guess something has happened to him.”
A scoff escaped my lips as I gripped the bar tighter. “I don't want to imagine the security condition of the pack since he left.”
“You should, Alpha.” He pulled out a piece of paper from inside his coat. “The scouts say there's been rogue activity near the borders.”
"Rogues?" I rolled the word around my tongue, drawing my brows together.
Rogues didn't just wander into Lycan territory. Not unless they had a death wish or an invitation.
Harry hesitated. "Yes, Rogues. I wonder what they want from us. Do you think it's connected to what happened with Ari?"
I didn't answer. My gaze drifted back to the courtyard, where Ari was now scrubbing at a stubborn stain on the fountain's edge. Her smile had gone as quickly as it had come. Three weeks of silence from Kannelle gnawed at me. He wasn't the type to vanish without a word.
When morning arrived, it came with a loud knock on the door of my bedroom.
"Alpha, it's me. It's Kanelle.”
I flung the door open before sleep could fade from my eyes. Kanelle staggered against the frame, his cloak soaked through with blood. One of his arms hung above him, the sleeve shredded to reveal uneven claw marks. His left eye was swollen shut and the skin around it purpled with bruising.
"Who did this?" My hands were on him, hauling him inside as he hissed through clamped teeth.
Kanelle collapsed onto the bench by the hearth. He could barely get a breath out.
"I was on my way back from my investigation when I encountered some rogues. Then this organized pack came along," His good eye flicked up, his pupils dilated with pain, or fear. "Their Alpha introduced himself as Ryel before kidnapping me into their pack. I'm sorry, Alpha, but I told them everything they needed to know. They’re hunting her, Alpha. They know she’s here."
Ice slithered down my spine as he slid out his last words.
"Prepare for war, Alpha. They are coming.”