As soon as I got over myself, I walked to the windows and opened them, letting air into the room. I sat down on the floor, resting my back against the wall. There was no way I was sitting back down on the bed.
I knew Alexander was crazy, but I’d had no idea the extent he'd go, and now I realized he had no limits. He would do everything within his power to make sure I remained his. A tear rolled out the corner of my eye as I lay down on the cold floor. It wasn't long before sleep overtook me. I was already exhausted from all the day's long work.
The next time my eyes opened, I could hear the loud music that was coming from downstairs.
The party had begun, and the entertainers were at it. I stuck my head outside the window and took in a breath. The only thing I could see from here was the dancing of the trees from the night wind.
I was stuck here for all of the night and the days following. A humorless laugh escaped me; Alexander was crazy, so crazily possessive that I feared even if I did find my mate, he'd rather kill me than let me go with another man.
My eyes scanned the surrounding area outside the window. There was no way I could escape through it, without breaking every single bone in my body because directly under the window was a stone fountain. I wouldn't even escape if I could. Nothing awaited me outside.
Long, boring hours went by before. Finally, I heard silence downstairs, and I prepared myself mentally when I heard the lock turn and saw the doorknob twist. Alexander stepped in.
His eyes quickly went around the room in search of me, and when they landed on me, I saw him take in a breath of relief. “Why are you on the floor?” he asked, locking the door behind him as he made his way deeper into the room.
“No reason,” I answered.
He gave me a comical look before heading towards his closet, where he began to undress. I turned away from him. “The party was amazing. You should have been there.” And he turned to me with a raised brow. “Why weren’t you there?”
I bit my tongue from saying something completely untoward, unleashing all of the harsh responses I’d learned to swallow back over the years. “You asked me not to be,” I said.
“Right, right. Forgive me, dear Sophia. You do realize, don't you, that I can't stand the thought of you with another man, doing to you all of the things I've waited for so long to do to you?” he said, his back to me.
Bile rose in me, and I tried to force it down, swallowing the saliva that suddenly rushed into my mouth.
He continued rummaging through his closet. “You are the reward for all of the things I’ve suffered.”
Suffered? I scoffed. He hadn't suffered a day in his life. He should ask me for details rather than speak about what he had no idea of.
“Shit!” he said as he brought out a dark blue shirt from his closet.
I recognized the shirt instantly and why he was irate about it. It was what he’d been wearing last week when he had physically abused me. I had somehow grabbed onto it and pulled out a button.
He glared at me with the shirt in hand. “This is your fault!” he snapped.
“I apologize,” I said without a hint of apology in my tone.
He flung the shirt at me. “Fix it! I'm wearing it tomorrow,” he ordered as he headed toward the bathroom.
“My sewing kit is in my room,” I said, pulling the cloth away from my head where it had landed.
“Five minutes!” He entered the bathroom, slamming the door behind him.
With the shirt in hand, I hurried off to the door. I had no idea how I was supposed to make it to the servant's quarters and back in five minutes, but sitting down and dwelling on that fact would be an utter waste of the time I didn't have.
My feet were used to running up and down the stairs from how I seemed to always be in haste, and I ran down them, taking the kitchen’s backdoor to the long hallway that held rooms for all the domestic staff. Mine was at the end of it. My slippers slapped hard on the tiled floor as I ran through. I pushed open the door to my room, and luckily for me, the small drawer that held some of my miscellaneous items was by the door. I pulled open the first drawer and grabbed my sewing kit from it, and without bothering to shut my door behind me, I ran out the way I’d come.
“You’re making so much noise!” a voice cried out from one of the rooms.
“Sorry,” I yelled out my apology while still on the move. My steps began to falter as I climbed up the stairs, but I still struggled with it, and just as I landed on the top floor, my body slammed against something hard, and I went flying alongside my sewing kit.
Pain shot through me as my body made contact with the floor, but I knew I had no time to dwell on my discomfort despite the stinging ache. I tried to get up, and it was when I heard a voice.
“Are you okay?” the person asked in a voice that sent shivers through me. The voice was rich in huskiness, causing slight goosebumps to appear on my arms at the baritone. I never knew a person’s voice could sound so sensual.
My eyes slowly went to theirs, and at the same time, I felt it, the feeling I’d never felt before—the stark consciousness of another.
The energy in the room was charged, and I felt my chest tighten as though the air had been sucked out of my lungs. I was instantly aware of the shift in the air, the sudden smell that filled my nostrils—a mix of sandalwood and something else I couldn't place my finger on, the scent foreign and pure. It made my head swim.
The man standing in front of me was the most beautiful person I’d ever set my eyes on, and I knew he felt the same thing I was feeling in his presence from how his jaw tightened and his eyes stayed on mine, unmoving… Every single nerve in my body was in the awareness of him, the hairs at the back of my neck stood, and my heart pounded violently against my chest.
'Mate.' My wolf’s voice resounded within me, the glee in her tone obvious.
I felt my eyes widen at her declaration just as the mug he had been holding fell from his hands, crashing into a thousand tiny pieces.