Word Count: 2197

~Ivara

I sit at the table with my breakfast, feeling eyes on me.

Despite the pack leaders scrutiny, I eat slowly, savouring my apricot pastry and velvety chocolate drink. By tomorrow, I will be back to bland, government provided meals.

I don't want to return yet, but the reprieve from the blackmail will be welcomed.

And Atreus. Although, he still hasn't told Luelle my secret. She didn't wake me this morning in a rage, demanding I show her the brand seared into my skin.

In fact, I don't know where Atreus is. He's not in attendance at breakfast this morning...

Nyra slides into the seat next to me, her shoulder bumping mine.

"I cannot believe you are leaving so soon." She plucks a grape from the ceramic bowl next to my plate, popping it in her mouth.

Nyra has taken to me well. It might just be boredom and a lack of friend real estate here, but I notice her gravitating toward me in public spaces such as this one.

"You must understand that it is Luelle's closest friend who has fallen ill. This is grave news for her indeed," I say over a mouthful of flaky pastry.

We've been instructed not to alert everyone to the King being sick. It puts the Kingdom in a precarious situation, making it vulnerable to the wolves who already circle it with salivating maws.

"I am sorry to hear it, but do you really need to go back with her?" Nyra doesn't appear remotely disheartened to hear of Luelle's perils.

"I am only here for her, I'm afraid." I flick crumbs of pastry from my fingertips. "She will need my companionship also, for the travel back."

A furrow spoils the space between her brows.

I'm undecided on how to feel about Nyra. Her kindness doesn't feel empty, yet I feel as though there are distant threads being occasionally tugged, luring me in the direction of her choosing.

All I know is that Ezra is right—there is more to her than she lets on.

"A shame." Her fingertips drum against the table. "You will be back, won't you?"

"Within the week, ideally."

She nods vacantly, her frown not fading. Why is she so troubled? Does me leaving really bother her that much?

"Travel safely, alright?" She says eventually.

I smile. "Thank you, Nyra."

Once I've finished my breakfast, I make my way through the corridor toward the staircase. There is plenty of packing to do and careful monitoring of Luelle's emotions in the meantime.

Turning a corner, I almost run head first into Viviana.

My stomach drops at the sight of her, and the feeling of her nails sinking into my arm as she pulls me to the side.

"Viviana—"

"You cannot leave today," she hisses lowly.

She looks terribly under-slept. Dark shadows lurk beneath red-veined eyes. She's even focused less on her usually meticulous appearance, as strands of dark hair slip from her up-do and wrinkles on her apron go up unpressed.

"I must," I insist.

"There is much for you to do here." She looks over my shoulder, then back at me. "Tell the Princess you cannot return with her. Convince her of it."

I grimace. I knew this was coming, yet I had hoped it wouldn't. I had hoped that my blackmailer would let me leave if it meant returning by weeks end.

"She will not allow me to stay."

She didn't see Luelle's desperation to get back to her father. She didn't have to lie next to the Princess as she wept into the pillow, clutching the blanket right up to her nose.

"Do what you must," Viviana orders sharply. "It will be incredibly difficult for her to take her father's throne if she is deemed illegitimate."

The hiss of her words makes me shiver. She expresses the command as if the dire consequences reflect on her and not myself and Luelle.

"This is cruel. Tell me who your master is," I demand.

She pulls closer. She smells like laundry soap and bitter coffee.

"You need this union for the Princess, or else your Kingdom will fall and the people will starve." Her nails dig tighter into my arm. "My master wishes to remind you of how crucial it is that you remember your place."

She pulls away from me, pinning me with a long stare before she walks away.

With a wince, I look down at my arm. Bright red crescent shapes have been etched into my skin, a burning reminder of my obligations.

Later, I find Luelle standing in the front courtyard, watching her belongings getting piled into the back trunk of her carriage. She wears a ridiculously dense fur coat, the pale white lengths grazing her ankles.

She acknowledges me with the barest glance over her shoulder.

"We leave in fifteen minutes. The carriage is prepared outside." She folds her arms, red painted nails looking like blood against the ivory coat.

I wring my hands anxiously, knowing I'm about to face her wrath.

"Must I go?"

Her head whips in my direction. "Why would you not?"

"I thought I could stay here...travel makes me so weary." I rub my arm awkwardly.

She stares at me, aghast. I could very well have just told her I threw her favourite garments into the lake and stomped on them, based on her expression.

"You would leave me to travel alone, when I am grieving?" She lays a hand against her chest as if I've personally offended her.

"I only think it would be a better move for me to stay." I edge closer. "I can work on Ezra, also Syre...I can prepare them to court you the moment you are back, so no time has to be wasted."

She pauses at this, giving it a moment of contemplation.

"How?"

"I will have a week to figure it out." I smile weakly. "I am here to help you, Luelle."

Guilt twists and turns in my gut as a terrible sadness settles over her. I'm manipulating her and while it doesn't feel natural, it has to be done. Ultimately, this for her own good, and the good of our people.

Not to mention, I will work on Ezra and Syre while she is gone. One of them has to marry her.

"I don't want to be alone..." She murmurs faintly, glancing anxiously back at the carriage.

"You are stronger than you give yourself credit for," I assure her. "The travel will pass by quicker than you expect."

She could very well say no. She could dig her heels into the gravel and demand I return with her or else lose my job. It would put me in an impossible decision, having to choose between appeasing my blackmailer and my employer.

Despite Luelle's flippancy, however, she would never sacrifice this mission. She knows it's important, and if I can help her while she's gone, then it's worth it.

"Fine, you may stay," she says reluctantly. "I better have Ezra half salivating for me when I return."

I grin. "I will ensure it."

Luelle leaves without a hitch. No one comes out to issue her a goodbye, but she doesn't seem perturbed by it. She only sinks into the cabin seat, yanking the small curtain closed over the window before the carriage sets off.

I'm sitting on the front marble steps, watching her carriage fade into the distance through the turquoise stream of the fountain, when a pair of boots appear beside me.

I look up to see Ezra towering above me, his regal form soaking up the midday sunlight.

"One human down, one more to go." He slides his hands into his pockets.

My eyes narrow. "Is that a threat?"

His gaze tilts down to me, a wicked smile making his eyes glisten.

"Only a joke." He eases down to sit next to me on the step.

It's starting to get easier, being near him. He doesn't necessarily put me at ease, but he doesn't inspire fear like Atreus, or make me obsessively cognisant of my appearance as Syre does.

I feel utterly bare to him. The only secret of mine he doesn't know is the one Atreus recently found out.

"You get a week off from tending to her majesty," he remarks, pulling his signet ring off his pinkie. He gives it a little polish against his white cotton shirt.

I exhale all at once. "It will hardly feel like a week off. I already feel overworked."

There are so many strings pulling me in all different directions. Luelle and my obligations to our starving people, my burgeoning friendship with Nyra, the obsessive expectations of my blackmailer, my deal with Ezra and now, my most devastating secret that Atreus knows that I must worry about.

It's all too much.

Ezra cocks his head, reading the turmoil on my face. "Anything I should know about?"

I collapse my head into my hands, chest aching. I know I shouldn't confide everything in Ezra, but we have a deal, and admittedly, I wish to unburden on someone.

"I poisoned Cassian," I admit into my hands.

"You what?"

The shock in his voice makes me raise my head. He's staring at me with wide eyes, stunned. Eyes that are uncannily green from where they are lit by sunlight.

"I was told I must!" I exclaim wildly, screwing my face up. "I feel terribly guilty. He is so young..."

Ezra watches me pityingly, shaking his head slowly. "No wonder he has fallen so ill."

I grimace. "Is it bad?"

"I've been told he has been weakened. He is barely lucid and eating." A shadow pools across his face. "Whoever is instructing you wanted him incapacitated for something."

I shiver, suddenly cold despite my warm coat.

"What though?"

He's silent for a long moment, staring off toward the frost dusted horizon. The only sound is the distant caw of birds and the nearby rush of fountain water as it spills into the basin.

Who could Cassian possibly be a threat to? I know his pack isn't exactly small, but he's just a boy. What is being done is unnecessarily cruel.

"Perhaps we should find out," Ezra says after a while.

"How?"

"We could ask, but if it is sensitive information, he may not be forthcoming." He rubs the strong line of his jaw. "We must check his rooms."

His idea would shock me, if my shock quota hadn't already been met for this week. Everything else in comparison to what I have learned seems so dull now.

"That is difficult when he is in there, very ill," I remind him.

"I can handle that," he says breezily, running a hand through his hair. The sunlight has turned the usually brown lengths almost golden. "Does tonight work for you?"

When I frown, he gives me a long look, as if to say, 'you have plenty of experience breaking into Alpha's rooms. What's one more?'

The last time I tried it, my plot was foiled. That embroiled me in more drama, which I'm trying to avoid right now.

"And if I'm caught?" I ask nervously.

"Tell him you intended to seduce him...it almost worked the first time." He quirks a brow. "Do you wish to uncover who is instructing you or not?"

I sigh raggedly. "Obviously I do."

"Great. Meet me after dinner at the junction between Cassian's quarters and Nyra's. We will finalise the details."

This is really happening...I'm about to risk myself all over again, except this time, we could dig up some real information on who could be blackmailing me. Surely Cassian must have something in his possession that would link him with the blackmailer.

"Fine." I get to my feet, legs stiff and aching.

Ezra stands with me, his height nearly making me flinch. I'm still not used to these Alpha's and their supernatural statures.

"Oh, and Ivara?" He pipes up before I can walk away.

I brace my hands on my hips. "What?"

He takes a long look over me. From my braided hair, to my thick coat, to my woollen leggings and then back up to my eyes.

"You look ravishing today," he murmurs.

"Do not flirt with me. I am not one of your courtesans."

"I cannot help it." He smirks playfully. "I suddenly wish I was not so foolish as to turn down your advances the night we met."

I scowl at him. He is utterly insufferable, even if his words make something deep and forbidden in my stomach twist.

It's been a long time since a male has shown me any interest, or paid me any compliments. I know Ezra is only doing it to rile me, but it feels strangely good.

"They were not real advances, Ezra," I remind him.

His eyes glitter. "They would have been, the moment I got my hands on you."

I roll my eyes. His faux affections might tickle someone else, but I know we need to concentrate. Tonight could give us the answers we need.

"I will see you later," I tell him, ignoring his laugh as I walk away.

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~Midika 🐈‍⬛💜