Free Web NovelChapter 33: The Alpha Is Asking For You
She woke up alone.
Sebastian’s side of the bed was cold. He’d been gone a while then. Long enough for the warmth to leave completely.
Lilith sat up slowly and looked around the room. His shirt still on the chair where he’d dropped it last night. The fire burned down to embers. Grey morning light pushing through the curtains.
She found her clothes on the floor. Dressed quickly. Quietly. Like she was doing something wrong even though nobody was watching.
The corridor outside was empty.
She exhaled and started walking.
She made it exactly halfway back to the south wing before she ran into anyone.
Three pack members. Warriors by the look of them. They were deep in conversation coming around the corner and pulled up short when they saw her.
Silence.
Their eyes moved over her. Taking in where she’d come from. The Alpha wing. Sebastian’s end of the corridor specifically.
She kept walking.
Kept her chin up and her eyes forward and her expression completely blank.
Behind her she heard one of them say something low. Then quiet laughter.
She didn’t stop.
Didn’t react.
Just kept walking until she got to the the south wing and her own door and got inside, the door closed behind her.
Then she stood in the middle of her room and breathed, then she turned and stared at the seven marks on the wall.
She was still staring at them when someone knocked.
Sera was younger than Lilith had initially thought. Maybe nineteen. Twenty at most. She had the build of someone who’d trained hard since childhood and the eyes of someone who’d seen more than her age suggested.
She stood in the doorway with two cups of tea.
"Mrs. Hallowell sent me," she said. "Tea."
"Thank you." Lilith took one of the cups.
Sera didn’t leave.
Lilith raised an eyebrow. "Was there something else?"
"The warriors you passed this morning," Sera said. "In the north corridor. I heard what they said."
"It doesn’t matter." freeweɓnøvel.com
"It matters to me." Sera’s jaw was set. "I’ve been at this estate three years. I know how this pack talks. And I know that whatever you are here, whatever arrangement brought you to this house....you don’t deserve to be laughed at in corridors."
Lilith looked at her for a moment.
"You’re going to get yourself in trouble saying things like that," she said.
"Probably." Sera shrugged. "Can I sit down?"
Lilith gestured to the chair. ƒreewebɳovel.com
Sera sat on the chair beside the bed, Wrapped both hands around her own cup.
"How are you actually doing?" she asked.
"I’m fine."
"That’s not what I asked."
Lilith was quiet for a moment.
"I’m surviving," Lilith said finally. "That’s the most honest answer I have."
Sera nodded like that was enough.
"The full moon is in six days," Sera said.
Lilith looked at her sharply.
"The whole pack knows something is different about this moon," Sera continued, her voice dropping slightly. "The Alphas have been different for weeks. Unsettled. We’ve all felt it. And now there’s talk of locking down certain areas of the estate during the moon. Extra security. Restrictions on movement."
"What kind of restrictions?"
"South wing goes on lockdown from sundown to sunrise." Sera met her eyes. "Which means you’ll be in your room. Alone.
"Is that unusual?" she asked carefully. "The lockdown."
"I’ve never seen it in three years," Sera said. "Mrs. Hallowell has apparently seen it before. She won’t talk about it." She paused. "Whatever is happening with the Alphas during this moon....it’s serious. And people are scared."
"Why are you telling me this?" Lilith asked.
Sera looked at her steadily. "Because you’re the only person in this estate who doesn’t seem to have all the information. And that doesn’t seem fair." She stood, smoothing her uniform. "Also because Mrs. Hallowell is fond of you. And her judgment is better than anyone’s in this house."
She moved to the door.
"Sera," Lilith said.
The girl looked back.
"Thank you."
Something softened in Sera’s expression. Just briefly, then she nodded and the door closed behind her.
***
The knock came before dawn.
Lilith was already awake, had been staring at the ceiling for the past hour, watching the grey light slowly push away the darkness. She’d learned not to fight wakefulness at this estate. Fighting just made the waiting harder. Harder to control her breathing, harder to keep her mind from spiraling into what came next.
It was always the same these days. Eyes open in the grey before sunrise. Heart already racing. Body already anticipating.
Mrs. Hallowell stood in the doorway with her usual composed expression, a cup of tea in her hands.
"The Alpha is asking for you," she said quietly. "His office. Now."
Not "one of the Alphas." Not "they’re calling for you." Specifically Nicholas. Specifically his office.
Lilith sat up slowly, her body aching in ways she was becoming intimately familiar with. The housekeeper set the tea on the side table beside the bed.
"You may want to dress," Mrs. Hallowell added, and there was something almost kind in her tone. "Something presentable."
That was different. Usually they wanted her in the omega rags. Usually the point was degradation from the first glance.
Lilith dressed quickly in the clothes left for her....simple grey pants and a dark sweater. Practical. Real. Nothing like the thin nightgowns they usually left. Nothing designed to fall away at the slightest touch.
The walk through the corridors felt longer at this hour. The estate was quiet in that particular way mornings are always quiet, not peaceful, just empty. Like the building itself was still asleep and didn’t want to be disturbed. Her footsteps echoed on the marble floor, each one a countdown to something she couldn’t quite name.
The guards outside Nicholas’s office nodded her through without comment.
When she knocked, his voice came immediately.
"Enter."
His office was exactly as she remembered from the first time. Dark wood paneling, leather chairs, the massive desk dominating the space like a throne. But this morning the sun was just starting to break through the windows, casting the room in shades of grey and gold that made everything look almost elegant.
Almost civilized.
Nicholas sat behind his desk with his hands folded in front of him. Those silver eyes tracked her every movement as she crossed the room.
"Close the door," he said.
