The cold floor underneath her uncovered feet bit into her skin as the watches dragged Sienna over the sloppy way. Her worker dress was as well lean for the climate, her arms uncovered and bruised from how firmly she had been grasped. The texture clung to her knees as she lurched, her legs still frail from everything that had happened at the ceremony.

She didn’t know where they were taking her. When she attempted to inquire, one of the watches pulled her harder by the arm and mumbled, “You will soon discover before long enough.”

They had not indeed permitted her to alter. Her hair was a mess, her face streaked with tears and soil, and the disgrace of being paraded through the town in her servant's uniform felt like a moment of skin she seemed not to have shed.

It was when she passed through the doorways of the chateau of the Alpha that Sienna realized that the beat of her heart was beating fast. The scene resembled what one would imagine to be a nightmarish setting to be. Tall dark entryways lingered before her, protected by more men with sharp eyes and more honed weapons.

She gulped the protuberance in her throat. "This is where I will be buried," she whispered to herself.

The guards didn’t react. They opened the door with a squeak and pushed her through the side entrance. None of them uttered a word as she was forced down long corridors of all gold-framed mirrors and velvet curtain. The scent of lavender oil was in the air, mixed with another scent, darker, she could not identify. It was all as well idealized, as well noiseless, like a trap wrapped in silk.

The head maid, a tall, wide lady with a strict confront, met her close to the servants’ wing. She looked Sienna up and down like she was a rodent somebody dragged in.

“You’re the rejected one,” the woman said plainly. “You’ll start work today. You belong to Luna Renna now.”

Sienna could not tell why, but her voice was caught in her throat. She went down a little hall instead, and came out in a tiny room under the staircase, where the housekeeper was.

“Here you shall be sleeping henceforth,” the woman said, opening up a little, dark room, which was full of brooms, of old rags and spiderwebs. The only thing on the floor was the ragged blanket.

Sienna didn’t move. She just stared.

“What, you were expecting a bed?” the woman snapped. “Get changed and report to the kitchen. You’re already late.”

The door was slammed behind her and Sienna was alone in the dark. She sank on her knees and the cold sunk into her skin and she gathered the blanket on her shoulders. She did not weep. She just sat there, numb.

Later that day, she was ordered to clean the Alpha’s chambers. The head housekeeper handed her a bucket and an old cloth. “Don’t touch anything that looks expensive. Don’t speak unless spoken to. And if the Alpha comes in, you look down. You are dirty, remember that.”

Sienna nodded once and made her way upstairs. The Alpha’s wing was silent. The doors were thick and had some carvings on them that she could not identify. The smell came first when she moved into his room. It was leather, smoke, there was something more beneath it, like after a storm, the smell of pine that follows it.

Everything was neat. The bed was very straight and the furniture was shining. One of the nightstands had a picture on it, in a silver frame. Ryder, Renna, standing there, side by side, both of them in ceremonial whites. They were royalty-like.

Sienna took the frame in her hand. She trembled trying to look at the picture. Ryder had put his arm round Renna at the waist, and his eyes were… weary. She placed the frame down before her hands dropped it.

She devoted the following couple of hours to cleaning the surfaces, cleaning the bathroom tiles, folding and re-folding of the towels. The room was so silent that she became dizzy. The very sound of the clock telling time and time again served to remind her that she was nothing here, a ghost going about among the influential.

She sat on the floor of the storage closet that night, and gazed at the hypothetical wall. She felt hungry. No one had offered her food. No one even bothered to check and see whether she was still breathing.

Suddenly, there was a gentle knock on the door of the closet. She flinched.

“Psst,” someone whispered. “You got a phone call.”

A junior servant opened the door and handed her an old cell phone. “Some lawyer. Said it was important.”

She took it up shakily. Hello? said she, in a whisper.

There was a low, hurried voice as it spoke inquiringly, “Sienna, It’s Harvey. I’m sorry. I… I am not supposed to call but I had to inform you.”

She clutched at her breast, the beating of her heart sounding like thunder in her ears. “Tell me what it is?”

“The contract you signed, it wasn’t the one we agreed on.”

“What do you mean?” she asked, her voice rising.

“There was a clause, Sienna. One that protected your inheritance unless you willingly forfeited it. But someone switched the final page before you signed it. I only found out after Zane registered the papers.”

Her fingers tightened around the phone. “You’re telling me I gave up everything? My land, my name, everything?”

“Yes. And you signed it in front of witnesses, without pressure, without duress. That’s legally binding. There’s nothing I can do now.”

She was not able to speak. The telephone fell out of her hand and fell on the ground. And the servant boy took up the cellphone and crept away, leaving the close door ajar behind him.

Sienna huddled up, clapping her hands over her ears, and rocked herself back and forth the room as her breath of short gasps came in. Every thought crashed into the next.

Zane had won.

He had taken everything, her body, her title, her home. And now, even her bloodline is gone.

The next morning, the staff was gathered in the main hall. Sienna stood off to the side, still in her stained uniform. Her feet were bare. She had a pale face.

Renna was standing on the marble steps and glow in a gold-embroidery silk robe. She smirked.

“I have an announcement,” Renna said, her voice sweet like poison. “As Luna, I expect full respect from every servant in this house. And that includes Sienna.”

Gasps rose around the hall.

“She will be assigned to me directly,” Renna continued. “Only I will give her orders. She is not to speak to the Alpha. She is not to enter his chambers without permission. She is not to raise her eyes in my presence unless spoken to.”

Zane stood behind her, arms crossed, looking smug.

“Bring her forward,” Renna said.

Two guards grabbed Sienna by the arms and dragged her to the front. She didn’t resist. Her legs barely worked.

“Now,” Renna said, “let her declare herself.”

Sienna looked around. The room spun. The floor felt like ice. The pressure on her chest was unbearable.

“Say it,” Renna whispered, stepping closer. “Say what you are.”

Sienna closed her eyes. Her voice shook.

“I am Sienna,” she said, barely louder than a whisper, “daughter of no one, mate of no one, servant of this house. I have no blood rights. I exist to serve.”

The silence that followed was worse than laughter. It was an agreement. It was final.

Then the door behind her opened. She didn’t need to turn. She knew who had entered.

Ryder. His footsteps were slow, measured. She felt him watching. She hoped foolishly that he would stop it. That he would say something. But he didn’t.

He said nothing.

He had walked past in front of her as though she had not been there, or had never existed.

Just then Sienna, shuddering, with shallow breaths, heard Renna make the last order.

“Tonight, she will serve in my bedroom.”

The guards pulled her back, but just before the door shut, Sienna glanced at Ryder one last time.

He met her eyes. He was burning. But he still didn’t move.

The moon was very big, and shone pale and silver-like, over the long hallways of the Blackstone mansion. Sienna was still scraping the floor of the ceremonial hall when a tall, quiet servant who had closed the door earlier pushed it open again, holding a tray on which was placed a scroll and a decanter of dark wine.

“The Alpha must have this brought to his room” he said, and handed them into her trembling hand.

Her heart sank. She wasn’t ready to face him. Not after watching him mark Renna in front of the entire pack. Not after he, a man whose touch still haunted her skin, allowed her to be publicly reduced to a servant.

But she couldn’t refuse. Refusal was not an option anymore to someone like her.

She went down the dark passages in the wing of the Alpha, with the slippers parting the smooth floors, and the wine sloshing about a bit in the glass decanter. At the door there were two guards who did not say a word, but nodded, and moved away. One of them smirked.

Sienna stepped inside. The chamber was a warm room with a hazy orange glow of a hearth. Ryder was seated in a chair before the fire in his white shirt which had turned up quite at the collar, and before him lay a half-finished glass of wine.

He made no sign. "You came."

Sienna said nothing. Her voice had abandoned her the day she watched him press a mark into another woman’s flesh.

She walked to the table beside him and placed the scroll and wine there carefully, ready to turn and leave. She had made it three steps when he spoke again.

"Sienna." She froze at the sound of her name been called by the very man who couldn't stand for her.

"Stay." He commanded but with a calm voice

Her hands balled into fists at her sides. "I was told only to deliver the wine. Nothing more."

He stood slowly, his movements fluid, almost predatory. "And I told you to stay."

She turned then, meeting his eyes. For the first time since the ceremony, they were alone. And whatever shield Ryder had put up in public was gone now.

"Why?" she asked, her voice quiet, trembling. "So you can watch me bow again? Humiliate me in private, too?"

His gaze didn’t flinch. "I never wanted to humiliate you."

"But you did."

He looked at her for a long moment, then moved to the table, poured a second glass, and held it out to her. "Drink."

She didn’t take it.

"I’m not here to share drinks with you," she said.

"Then what are you here for? To keep your head down and scrub the hallways while they whisper about you? To let Zane win?"

His voice had deepened, and there was something sharp in it. Something personal.

She didn’t answer. Her silence filled the room like smoke.

He stepped closer, the wine still in his hand. "I saw your face during the marking. I saw the way it has affected you, I saw everything.

Sienna turned away, and he took her chin, returned her whole face to his. His fingers were so warm against her, his hand hot. She should’ve pulled away. She didn’t.

"You felt it too, didn’t you? The bond. It didn’t break."

Her voice came out in a whisper. "It hurt."

He was leaning so that his lips were an inch from hers. “ You know it, don't deny it. You felt the pull, that you were supposed to be my mate.”

Something in her chest twisted violently. Her breath hitched. The firelight danced in his eyes, and for a second, she forgot everything, Renna, Zane, the ceremony. There was not a single thing except Ryder and the warmth coiling up between them.

He was caressing her face, doing it with his hand as he first touched her chin and then her neck, below her jawline. Her skin tingled when he touched it.

"Ryder..." she whispered.

But the half door flew open. Zane was standing in the doorway and his featureless face was turned towards her. His glance moved quickly to the hand of Ryder upon the throat of Sienna, to the expression of her eye.

“I hope I am not intruding myself.”

Ryder stepped back immediately. That instant was broken up.

Sienna turned her face in shame and bent her head. She could feel Zane's eyes burning into her.

Zane entered the room, and shut the door with a sharp snap. “I just came here to talk about the border patrols but this is so much more fun.”

Ryder’s jaw tensed. "Leave, Zane."

Zane chuckled, eyes still on Sienna. "You really think you can hide it? I saw everything. The Alpha and his servant girl. How noble."

He turned to Sienna, voice low and cruel. "Don’t get too comfortable. You may warm his room, but it won’t change your status. You remain the rejected." Then, softer, more dangerous: "Touch him again, and I’ll make sure you regret it."

Sienna said nothing. She didn’t trust her voice not to crack. She turned and walked past Zane without meeting his eyes.

Behind her, Ryder said nothing.

---

She barely made it back to the servants' wing before the tears came. She felt the cold stone wall at her back as she pressed her back on it, her heart beating fast.

Ryder had touched her. He had almost kissed her. He hadn’t rejected her. But he hadn’t stopped Zane either.

She huddled on the little cot at the side of the room to which she was allotted, and held the blanket across her chest in an attempt to repel what had scarcely occurred. She could still hear the voice of Ryder, she could still feel his touch and his eyes focused on her.

There deep-down in her mind, something dangerous awakening. Hope.

---

In another part of the mansion, Zane stood at Renna’s door.

"He touched her," he said flatly.

Renna’s smile faded.

"In his chambers. Alone. It’s starting."

Renna clenched her jaw. "He marked me. She means nothing."

Zane leaned in. "Let’s make sure it stays that way. Let her stay in the Luna’s wing. Let her serve you closely. He’ll have to see her every day. If she has even a flicker of hope left, we’ll burn it out."

Renna hesitated, then nodded. "She won’t survive this."

Zane smiled. "That’s the plan."

The crowd outside the Luna Court Hall buzzed with whispers and judgment. It wasn’t a celebration today. It was purifying, that is what they dubbed it.

Sienna was standing at the side entrance, and her shoulders were shaking in that thin gray dress which showed itself on her like a kind of disgrace. She was sleepy-eyed and her lips were parched, and her feet were bare on the waxed floor.

A guard behind her nudged her forward. “Move, disgrace.”

She lost her footing, and fell forward, collapsing but caught herself up just in time. Within the hall, Alphas, Betas, she-wolves of stature, were in their places, ranging in rows. They turned to look as the doors opened and Sienna entered.

Gasps filled the room. Some people looked away. Others didn’t bother hiding their smirks.

“She’s the one who tried to steal the Alpha,” someone whispered.

“Look at her. Doesn’t even look like a wolf anymore.”

Sienna flushed. She closed her eyes, and wished she might: or that the earth might open, and sink her down among its rocks.

On the opposite side of the hall, in his ceremonial chair, sat Alpha Ryder, dignified in his black with silver embroidery. His wife, Renna, was beside him in white. Her lips curled in victory.

The elder council sat behind them, watching. Judging.

“Bring her forward,” one of them said.

Two guards stepped up, dragging Sienna toward the center of the hall. She didn’t resist. There was no point.

She was standing near the silver chandelier and she could be seen by everyone. Her gaze was on Ryder, seeking something, anything in his face.

However, he did not look at her. He wouldn’t even meet her eyes.

“Let the Luna speak,” the elder declared.

Ronnie advanced forthwith, a palm poised delicately over her chest. Her voice was shaking, it was false and sweet, but was loud enough for all to hear.

“I never wanted to do this. I only want peace in our pack. But I must speak the truth. This… girl has tried to come between me and my mate. She used her scent, her body, to tempt him before our bonding. She knew he belonged to me, and still—”

“That’s not true!” Sienna shouted, her voice cracking.

But the gasps drowned her out. One elder banged a staff to the floor.

“Silence, girl!”

Renna's eyes shimmered with crocodile tears. “I begged her to stop. I warned her. But she wouldn’t listen. And now, the pack is divided, ashamed. I ask only for justice.”

From the back, a few she-wolves began to clap.

Ryder still didn’t speak.

Then Zane stood up. “I confirm her story,” he said coldly. “This girl has brought nothing but shame since the day she entered our territory.”

Sienna felt her knees go weak. The room swam around her. She turned, slowly, to look at Ryder again.

Please, say something. Defend me. But Ryder’s eyes were cold. Distant. His hands clenched on the armrests, but his lips stayed shut.

The elder council whispered among themselves.

“She’s already been rejected,” one said.

“Her wolf hasn’t returned. She’s unstable.”

“She should be cast out,” another muttered.

Renna stepped forward again. “No,” she said sweetly. “Let her stay. Let her live under my roof… as a servant. Let her remember what she tried to take from me.”

A twisted kind of silence fell over the room. One elder raised an eyebrow.

“You’re willing to let her serve in your home?”

Renna smiled. “The sign of a good Luna is to forgive.”

The words were unbelievable to Sienna.

One guard yelled, “on your knees.”

She made no movement. The very next one, a boot smashed her on the hind leg and she went down. Her palms hit the marble floor. Her head bowed low.

And still, Ryder said nothing.

The council agreed to the punishment. She would remain in the Alpha’s mansion not as a guest, not as a warrior but as a maid.

A servant to the very couple who had broken her.

---

But that same night in the servant quarters there was no ceasing of the whispers.

“Do you believe that she made a serious attempt to sleep with him?”

“Of course. That’s what rogues do.”

“Don’t look her in the eye. Might curse you.”

Someone tossed a pile of laundry onto her lap. “Make sure you scrub the Luna’s underthings well,” a she-wolf sneered. “She wouldn’t want any of your scent lingering on them.”

Sienna said nothing. Her hands shook. She attempted but she could not fold the clothes neatly because her fingers were weak.

Her cheek was slapped, smack! “You’re too slow,” the same maid hissed. “You’re lucky the Luna even lets you breathe.”

Sienna held her face and stayed still. She wouldn’t cry. Not tonight and definitely not again.

---

She turned a corner later, as she was going up with towels to the private chamber of Ryder above, and stood motionless.

At the other end of the hall was Ryder, shirtless. Just coming back from running with dark hair wet that curls at his temples. His chest glistening with perspiration.

He saw her. They both froze.

For a moment, the hallway felt too narrow. Too hot. She turned to walk away, but his voice stopped her.

“Sienna.”

Her name in his voice still made her knees tremble. She turned slowly.

He stepped closer. “You hate me now?” he asked quietly.

She didn’t answer.

He was now only some inches away. He held his hand out, and wiped a lock of hair off hers. She did not move.

“I told myself I had no choice,” he whispered. “But maybe I did.”

Her breath caught in her throat. His fingers lingered at her jawline.

For one second, just one, she thought he might kiss her. She leaned in, barely. Then he dropped his hand and stepped back.

“You should hate me,” he said. “It’ll make it easier.”

And then he walked away, leaving her standing alone, holding towels that suddenly felt too heavy.

---

The next morning, Renna summoned all the servants to the main hall.

Sienna arrived last, still wearing the gray uniform, her head low.

Renna stood in front of everyone, holding her Luna ring in her palm.

“This,” she said, “is a symbol of my title. My power. My place beside the Alpha.”

She dropped it on the floor. It landed with a soft clink.

Renna smiled. “Sienna, be useful. Fetch it for me.”

Sienna didn’t move.

Renna’s voice turned sharp. “With your teeth.”

Gasps echoed through the room. Sienna looked up, her lips parting.

“You heard me. On all fours. Like the little mutt you are.”

The crowd waited. From the corner of her eye, Sienna saw Ryder walk in. Their eyes met.

“Please,” she begged silently. “Please stop this.”

He looked at her. Then he looked away. The silence broke her more than a thousand screams ever could.

Sienna’s heart cracked again. But her legs moved. She sank to her knees and crept on. And with an instant of stinging her lips, she opened her mouth and bit on the ring, picking it up. The metal was cold and bitter.

She raised herself up with a laborious effort, and clenched her teeth. And in that breathing space, there was a voice in her saying, “You will not lie long.”