"So, I heard you did well in the training yesterday..." Piper began.

I hummed, shrugging. "I only did one fight."

"Well... I heard about how you got kicked in the face and still stood up..." She quirked an eyebrow at me, glancing at the bruising I tried to so hard to hide.

Sighing, I glanced down at my empty cup. "I didn't want to fight."

"So why did you?"

I rolled my eyes to look at her. "I... felt like if I said no, everyone would judge me even harder than they already do."

Her lips pulled down into a grimace. "Ailia..."

"Don't say they're not judging me because they are." I snorted. "I am a human in a wolf den. I only wonder how many know of my so-called importance here."

"Not a lot," she shrugged.

Giving her a deadpanned look, I pulled myself to stand. "I'm going to always be judged here, and the Alpha is the leading cause of it."

She rose with me; her face still crinkled with sad confusion. "I won't judge you."

I laughed lightly. "Thank you."

Not the first time I've heard that...

***

The rest of the day I spent being mostly idle.

After speaking to Piper that morning, I made my way back to my room. I lazily lounged around, picking at the room and moving my bed to be next to the window. It didn't take long, moving things around, since I had so little. But I had more than I ever had growing up with my mother, so I appreciated the simplicity. Darius always had too much, and it was always white, but the soft-looking wood soothed me. Pair it with the white bed linen and it looked perfectly cosy.

A knock on the door startled me and I breathed a slight greeting as I smoothed down the top sheet of my bed. Spinning around, expecting Eve, it surprised me when I found it was Mya. She paused in the entryway, taking in my new room layout.

"Get bored?" She grinned lazily.

I shrugged, sitting on my bed as she made herself comfortable in the armchair. "I suppose. There isn't a lot to do around here."

"You can always come back to training," she smirked, eyeing the black bruise on my jaw.

Rolling my eyes, I remembered I had tied my hair up whilst working. Mya didn't seem to judge, so despite my agitation, I left it exposed.

"I don't see why I need to train with wolves when knowing self-defence is fine enough."

"You never really went into detail on your training," she raised an eyebrow. "How did you do it?"

Frowning, I shrugged. "Just runs at night when everyone slept paired with some defence. My village slept early, being so high in the mountains we were up early to catch most of the sunlight."

"What else?" She urged.

Damn, she was a nosey parker.

"Usually cardio... and a lot of stretching and push ups and stuff." I shrugged. "I just wanted to build my cardio abilities, in case I ever had to..."

I fell silent, a frown marring my lips.

"Had to what? Run?" she asked.

I nodded solemnly. "The book I used was good at detail and pictures. I just followed it."

"I bet you're sad you had to leave all your possessions behind, huh?"

Shaking my head, it was my turn to smile. "I had nothing worth the trip."

"Nothing?" She wondered.

"My engagement ring was the only thing of any monetary value, and I haven't seen that since I got here."

"Was it big and shiny?" She teased.

I snorted. "Extremely gaudy. Nothing of my taste at all."

The image of the huge square diamond flashed before my eyes. The band was silver which encased the large square diamond in the centre. It was always too big for my liking, sticking out from my hand too much and covering most of my lower finger. It was heavy too, both mentally and physically. An immense burden.

A life it tied me to.

Now I was free.

Kind of.

"What are you thinking about?" Mya hummed.

Pursing my lips, I found I was staring down at my wedding finger. "Nothing."

"Do you miss your lover boy?" She teased.

The glare I sent her had her pause, and I watched as she swallowed nervously.

"I guess not," she muttered.

I sighed, falling back to lie on the mattress. My head barely skimmed the ledge of the window, the trees in the distance visible if I craned my neck far enough.

"He... he was the son of the family who ran the village." I explained. "He had a lot of money, a lot of status."

"Like Alpha then." She mused.

Shaking my head, I frowned. "Asra is an ass outside and in. This man... he was two different people. The one for the community, and the one reserved just for me."

Her eyebrows crinkled into a frown. "Then why did you say yes to marry him?"

"I had no choice," I muttered.

"There's always a choice, Ailia."

I eyed her from my position on the bed. "I didn't. It was be with him or be dinner to the wolves."

"We don't eat you..."

I raised an eyebrow. "We all believed you did. My dad... wolves killed him."

"I'm sorry he died, but... are you sure it was a wolf? We may not kill humans outside of the hunt..." She frowned. "You hid your village well."

"I never saw, I was only a young girl... But they said it was wolves; that there were claw and teeth marks in the remaining body parts."

Her frown only deepened. "Then I am sorry. It could've most likely been a rogue."

The word rogue sent a shiver down my spine as the warning Asra gave me only days ago still ran fresh in my mind.

"Humans are just a tasty treat."

My poor dad...

I rolled my shoulders, suppressing a shiver. "Let's not go down that rabbit hole."

"Okay, deal." She smiled before jumping to her feet. "I originally came here to drag you down to dinner."

"Is it that time already?" I wondered.

"Sure is. Come on."

Sighing, I heaved myself up from the comfort of my bed to slide on some shoes. As soon as I fastened the last lace, Mya was grabbing me by the elbow and dragging me down the stairs. When we broke into the dining room, she finally came to a stop and I exhaled dramatically.

"Why the rush?"

"I'm hungry," she shrugged.

"You are always hungry," a fresh voice quipped.

Mya rolled her eyes as her sister came to the side of her. Eve gave me a brief smile before shoving a plate into her sister's hand.

"Now go get your food and leave Ailia alone with it." She tutted.

Mya grumbled but didn't waste another moment as she hurried to secure her choice of the variety of foods in the bain-marie's. Eve handed me a plate next before placing her hand on the small of her back. We passed by a few wolves who openly watched me make my way to the food, most of them with blank expressions, but some seemed to frown.

I itched to shield myself so made it my task to look dead ahead at the first batch of food. Pasta dishes. Taking a spoon, I served my portion and Eve joined in after me.

"How's your jaw feel? Need anything for it?" She questioned when I reached the gigantic bowl of cheese.

My eyes lit up with delight at the sight. I really loved cheese.

"It's okay." I shook my head once my dish was complete.

She turned to face me, way too obvious in her attempt to scan my face. One hand rose to brush lightly over my jaw, her fingers feather-light as they hovered over my skin. It was then I realised I had forgotten to take my hair down from its hair tie. Perhaps that was why I was getting so many stares?

"Are you sure? I'm no expert in human injuries compared to your human doctors, but that looks painful."

I knew it spread down my chin and neck, and up to the top of my ear, so it looked rather daunting.

Shaking my head, I gave her a tight smile. "It's fine. Nothing broken. I put ice on it and it's healing fine."

"Okay... If you say so." She muttered. "Perhaps you can teach me what you know and I can update my own records... You know, for future... incidents."

"You think I am going to fight again?" I snorted, taking a seat beside Eliza, who looked rather chirpy.

"Well, after the stunt you pulled, I'm surprised Alpha let you off with today's training." Mya snorted from across me.

Eve clipped her sister's ear with her hand, a scowl on her face. "What she means to say is, in the future, if you have any accidents, I can help you."

I raised an eyebrow, knowing that is exactly not what Mya was implying, but nodded along anyway.

"I didn't realise I got you so bad. I'm sorry." Eliza apologised from beside me.

I nudged her shoulder with mine, smiling. "It's fine honestly... Besides, I got payback by winning."

She blushed, dropping her gaze back to her dinner. I raised my fork to take a mouthful, grinning as the surrounding others laughed along with my teasing.

However, my victory smirk paused when I made direct eye contact with the Alpha across the room. His jaw was hard, the plate in his hand looking like a child's dish compared to his body mass. He narrowed his eyes on my jaw, and if I wasn't so sure I was dreaming, I'd say he actually looked... concerned? With a little mix of anger in there.

His eyes flickered to mine, holding my gaze before flickering away to go back to the hot food counter.

Yeah, that had to be what that look was.

Ha, I am slowly cracking those facial expressions of his.

His shoulders were tense, and he stood large and imposing over the seated wolves. He moved effortlessly through the hoards of tables and people, and I couldn't help but watch how his back muscles shifted beneath his black t-shirt. Mm, damn, what I'd give to have that shirt taken off...

A click in my ear had me blinking out of my daze and snap back to the present situation.

"Earth to Ailia!" Eliza giggled.

"Sorry... Did you want something?" I asked, blushing.

Mya snorted. "The salt would be wonderful."

Nodding, I leaned to the empty seat beside me and passed her the salt grinder. She grinned, thanking me as she placed a not-so-healthy dose on her food.

"So... what kind of wet dream are you having up there?" Mya snickered.

"Mya!" Eve scolded, to which Mya just rolled her eyes.

"What? She may as well be drooling, like damn, just fuck him already." Mya held her hands in the air before shooting me a sly grin.

"There will be no fucking," I shook my head.

"Oh boo, there goes my fun." She laughed. "I give it a week before it happens. The tension between you is incredible."

"I give it five days!" Eliza joined in.

I shot them both a scowl. "I will have you know that the relationship is not like that. Nowhere near."

"Ah, but there is a relationship?" Mya hummed.

Focusing my gaze on her, I shook my head. "I barely tolerate him. He is as egotistical as he is tall."

Eve stiffened at my disrespect for her Alpha, but Mya snorted.

"Oh, I am going to need all the details when it happens."

"It will not happen!" I groaned.

The table fell into a handful of giggling as I tried to hide my embarrassment. I don't know why people were so focused on my lack of relationship with Asra. He was an ass. So far, everything he has said to me has proved that... I was just a pawn in his game, a badge of honour in his charade. Did he think I was going to accept my lack of value because he sent me a bag full of period comforts?

He did not want me. He was just blurring the lines and getting confused at the cross-roads. An Alpha shifter and a human...meant to be? Impossible. We would never get on. He lives to intimidate me, to dominate me. I wasn't sure if the man even had any human emotions. He was more animal and arsehole than anything worthwhile...

But dammit, why did my heart flutter every time he came near?

Why did my stomach clench when I thought of him being with someone else?

Why did his scent make me dizzy?

Why did the thought of his body holding mine make me feel warm?

What was this weird wolf magic making my mind full of images of his dark blue eyes when I slept at night?

Gritting my teeth, I placed my fork down on my empty plate.

I was failing this game.

I needed to step it up a notch.

I had to win.

********