For the next three days, Aurelia left at midnight to swim.
Being at the bottom of the lake with her eyes closed made her feel at peace. Drowning out the sounds of the world also gave her the chance to strategize.
Four days already and she was yet to be approached by any of the warriors.
Did she assume the wrong role? But she didn't exactly have a choice. Whenever she looked at anyone, they were mostly scared straight.
Lowering her head all the time was to serve as a warning to people she didn't look normal.
After thinking long and hard on what to do, she was unable to come up with anything, so she simply gave up and swam to the surface.
The air felt colder than usual, prickling against her skin, but it wasn't the temperature making her shiver.
Someone was watching.
Not wanting to make it obvious she knew there was someone watching her, she lowered her eyes and dragged herself to shore.
But this felt different from four days ago.
Four days ago, she could feel someone's heated eyes on her tbe entire time until she went into the maids' quarters.
But this time…
"I've never seen anyone hold their breath for that long."
Her eyes instantly flickered toward the direction of the voice, quickly exhaling in relief when she saw Gretchen leaning lazily against a tree a few meters away, arms folded across her chest and her dark eyes pinned on her.
Reaching for her clothes, she smiled faintly, "Did you come to swim too?"
Watching her yank the shirt over her head, Gretchen tutted, "You kept leaving every midnight, so I grew worried I'd wake up one morning to see your head on a spike for doing something shady in the Alpha's residence."
Aurelia naturally froze.
That… that really was a thing.
That sick bastard already put a target on her back simply because she was fragile.
If he found her loitering around his residence, it didn't matter what she said, he could easily have her head cut off.
She was being too reckless.
Seeing how she went silent, Gretchen knew she had gotten to her and laughed.
"You're always pale, but you're paler now. Don't worry too much, Alpha Axton may be twisted and all, but be values tne lives of his servants."
"Unless he has proof you're really plotting treason, rest assured your head will remain attached to your body."
The words were yet out of her mouth when Aurelia laughed nervously, pressing a hand against her now throbbing chest.
As someone who was plotting treason, she couldn't feel more threatened!
Forcing on a smile, she walked ahead of Gretchen toward the maids' quarters where she went to sleep almost immediately.
At the first ray of sunshine, they both got up, each going to their assigned places.
Gretchen had the task of cleaning the alpha's residence while Aurelia had the task of taking food to the Luna along with some other maids.
A task which made her relieved.
Ever since Gretchen told her about the Alpha's twisted game, she couldn't help growing wary whenever he was mentioned or worse, around.
However, after what happened with the alpha four days ago, she hadn't gotten any task involving him in anyway.
She didn't need to think too hard to know it was the work of the Luna.
The Luna… she wondered what kind of person she was.
Someone able to bed such a vicious man and actually bear him an heir would no doubt be as bad as him.
Cinder Pack protected information about their own so much that Damien, who seemed to know everything, had no clue what the Alpha and Luna were like until she stepped foot in the pack two months ago.
Was she not stretched, about to be beaten on her first day here simply because she spoke to the Alpha, she would've been fooled into believing the Luna was some nice person who actually cared for the people
"Creep, are you absentminded right now?" The sound of fingers snapping, accompanied by a loud voice, broke through her thought.
She glanced around only to notice the other maids each held a trolley.
Taking hold of the trolley before her, she pressed her lips into a thin line and stuttered questioningly, "Creep? You're… referring to me?"
The maid's lips twitched uncontrollably.
"You look down all the time and creep us out. Why? Don't you like your name?"
"No… I-I like it!" Aurelia gawked, letting fear seep into her voice as she answered.
The maid simply ignored her and took a step backward, then proceeded to address every one of them.
"Go in two seconds after the other. The Luna doesn't like it when you take too long to come in."
"If you take too long, her interest in the food will only dwindle and if it dwindles, she won't eat."
"If she doesn't eat, she'll fall sick and Cinder Pack will have an unhealthy Luna. If other packs learns of it, they'd think the only reason our Luna fell sick is because we've become weak. We don't want them to think that, do we?"
"We understand!" The other maids promptly answered while Aurelia's eyes flashed in disbelief.
What in the name of ridiculousness was this?
She wouldn't eat if one took too long to come in?
Lowering her eyes to the floor, she desperately made a silent prayer to the moon goddess.
Dear moon goddess, give me an unsuspecting man who'd fall head-over-heels for me. The sooner that happens, the sooner I can break-in Damien and the other rogues into this darn pack to liberate these people!
After saying that quick prayer, she followed after her colleagues and headed to the Luna's quarters.
Just like the elder maid said, they all went in two seconds after the last person.
However, the second she stepped into the room, something came flying toward her.
It was already too late to move out of the way nor could she knock it away.
Hence, she stood frozen in place as the porcelain cup struck her face, shattering on impact and sending sharp splinters slicing into her skin.
But no one paid attention to her, too afraid to look away from Carmen, who was fuming.
One of her senior maids knelt before her, diligently filling another porcelain cup with tea as she reported, "I didn't just ask the workers there about this, my lady."
"I went in myself and found the him indulging himself with tons of women. I followed him for three days and all he did was change the women who came into his room..."
Bang!
The senior maid flinched in fear, almost dropping the teapot when Carmen furiously slammed her clenched fist against the table.
"If he craves the touch of a woman so badly, he could always send for me! That stupid man!"
At this, the senior maid found her tongue again, hurriedly consoling her, "You shouldn't let that bother you, my lady. The Alpha doesn't know how to express himself."
"I'm sure he's merely spending time with those women so he could be with you properly."
Hearing this, Carmen sucked in a deep breath.
Right.
She was really getting worked up for nothing. All these years, Axton never touched a woman.
This wasn't the first time he was looking at a woman either, yet he had never touched them.
Exhaling calmly, she picked the porcelain cup, chugging down everything in one gulp.
She was too preoccupied with her thoughts to notice Aurelia was in the room with her and the senior maid, knowing she was recovering from a foul mood, didn't want to upset her again and kept mute about it.
At the same time, Aurelia was biting down hard on her lower lip, trying to stifle the pained groan threatening to escape her lung.
Because she didn't have a wolf, the cuts on her face weren't healing, leaving her to endure the relentless sting spreading across her skin.
Thankfully, the cuts weren't deep enough for the blood to drip to the floor, instead, it merely pooled along the edges of the wounds.
While this was happening, at a motel in the town square, a brooding Axton Wolfe sat at an impeccably decorated corner of the best room, watching his men drown themselves in alcohol and the soft curves of women.
His eyes then drifted over to the women before him, eyes dimming in disappointment.
None of them were pale-skinned.
None had lips as red as blood and the curves on their chest, they weren't as inviting as that of hers…
"M-my lord, I'm ready to bed you whenever you wish!" One of the women suddenly called out to him, eyes bulging in excitement as she stared down at his lower body.
"What?"
Following her excited gaze, his perplexed eyes fell on his pants, the bulge straining against it also catching him by surprise.
A moment later, his jaw ticked in annoyance.
Three days.
He spent three days frequenting motels and having the most beautiful women in the city grovel before him and nothing happened.
But all he did was picture that dirty and lowly servant swimming and he got like this?
Sucking in a deep breath, he proceeded to get on his feet.
Like the shadow he was, Ronan Dreadmoor appeared beside him almost immediately.
Leaving the motel, Axton ordered, "That creepy maid… have her run my bath once we get back."