"Umm... what? What do you mean you... li-live here?" I stuttered, fidgeting slightly under Eleanor's calculating gaze. My palms grew clammy with sweat. I wasn't afraid of her—not exactly. But I was wary of her scheming mind. And now that I was a maid, which she clearly knew by now, I would be an easy target for her games.
I wasn't in the mood for her drama, not today. I had chaos waiting in the kitchen and couldn't afford another of her ego shows. She was the perfect definition of a proud peacock who pandered to the gallery.
Fixing a neutral smile on my face, I said with forced politeness, "Okay, cousin. It was nice running into you," giving a mock bow that barely passed for a maid's curtsy. I didn't wait for a response before turning on my heel and walking away—quickly.
After scrubbing the kitchen floors until they gleamed, I returned to my room to clean my stained uniform. As I stepped inside, I closed the door gently behind me and leaned against it, exhaling deeply.
"What a day," I muttered, releasing a breath I hadn't realized I was holding.
I shut my eyes, trying to gather myself, when a faint noise by the window snapped them open. I crossed the small room and peered outsid, but no one was there. Just as I reached to close the window, a black hand gripped the windowpane.
My blood turned cold.
"What in the world—"
I rubbed my eyes in disbelief. When I looked again, the hand was gone. Vanished. Just like that.
But on the glass, five claw-like fingerprints pressed into the pane, cracking it slightly where the hand had held.
"Is this place haunted?" I whispered.
I slammed the window shut and backed away, heart pounding. I wasn't waiting to find out if whatever it was would return.
Trying to calm my nerves, I turned to fix my bed. As I lifted the pillow, a folded note lay beneath it.
My breath hitched.
I hadn't put anything there.
Was it from that... thing?
After a long hesitation, I unfolded it. The handwriting was rushed, almost scrawled:
'Meet me at midnight in the training area.
—Alpha Darien'
"What?" I blinked, reading the words again. They didn't change. I flipped it over,... but there was nothing else.
Why would he want to meet me?
He had looked so cold. Detached. I didn't understand why he claimed me… unless it was to save face. Or maybe it was something deeper?
Sighing, I set the note down and changed into the spare maid uniform, making a mental note to wash the other one later. I needed to finish my duties, and think. I also needed to understand what that thing at the window was. Maybe if I studied werewolf and supernatural history, I could find something, anything, that made sense.
I tied my hair back and pulled out the pocket mirror I kept in my jeans. My reflection looked... normal.
Until it didn't.
Right before my eyes, a faint mark began to form on my face—shaped like a "D", with chained links at the center. My skin burned as the ink etched itself into me. I couldn't move. Couldn't scream. It was like I was being held still by some unseen force.
And just like that… it vanished.
What was happening to me?
************
Trying to forget everything that had happened, I stepped out into the corridor of the servant quarters and made my way into the main mansion. My footsteps echoed louder than usual. I'd been assigned to clean the old library halls, mostly abandoned, which I was grateful for. I needed silence.
Also I needed to find out if it has anything to do about that mysterious hand print or ghost maybe.
So much had happened in just one day.
Too many secrets and a shadow lingered around me like a moth to a flame .
Too many signs that something was happening to me or maybe around me.
But what was the the mystery behind everything?
My head throbbed with unanswered questions. The only person who might have answers was my mother... but she'd been exiled, and I didn't know where she was—or if I'd ever see her again.
After nearly twenty minutes of walking, I finally reached the old library. Only now did I realize just how big the pack house really was.
But the moment I stepped inside, my stomach dropped.
There were two girls in the room, one of them was the maid I'd slapped in the kitchen. She smiled at me, showing all her teeth, and it made my skin crawl. Her lips had healed, but faint marks of my slap still remained.
I forced a polite smile and walked past them, pretending to ignore their presence. Of course we were paired together in this room. Typical.
The library smelled of dust and old parchment. Tall racks lined the left and right walls, separated by a long table running through the center. Buckets and rags had already been placed there.
I stepped out briefly to fetch my own tools, then returned and moved to the left side to begin cleaning. As I dusted the shelves, my eyes landed on a book that hadn't been shelved properly. It was hanging halfway off the edge.
I reached to fix it, and a folded piece of paper slipped out.
Coughing from the dust, I picked it up and brushed it clean.
It looked like a note or letter. I hesitated, but curiosity got the better of me. This was a library, after all. What secrets could it possibly hold?
I opened it and read:
'When the shadow wolf appears and leaves its prints,
trouble comes to the one it reveals itself to.
But fear not, chosen one.
Time shall tell and nations shall rise.
But chaos must come first—
to the one the hand of destruction strikes first.'
The rest of the writing was too small to read.
And then—BANG!
The doors of the library slammed shut behind me.
I froze.