Lorelei POV

"I think my wolf is finally waking up."

It might not be fully awake yet, but the raw strength I had felt when dealing with Chelsea was proof enough that something inside me was changing.

The beast tilted its head, sniffed my knuckles, and let out a soft chuff.

That simple gesture made something in my chest loosen, and despite everything that had happened today, a genuine smile found its way onto my face.

"See? Even you think so," I whispered as I scratched behind one of its ears. "I bet he had you locked up in here too, that scary old bastard."

The beast huffed again as if agreeing with me. Its ears twitched slightly before it suddenly leaned its massive head against my shoulder.

I wasn’t prepared for the weight.

A startled gasp escaped me as my balance vanished instantly, and before I knew what was happening, we both toppled sideways onto the concrete floor.

My back hit the ground with a dull thud.

Before panic could even settle in, the enormous wolf shifted and draped one of its thick forelegs across my waist, pinning me beneath him.

He wasn’t hurting me.

If anything, he seemed oddly careful.

Despite his size, he wasn’t crushing me or putting his full weight on me. Even so, he was so massive that moving was completely out of the question.

"Hey," I said with a breathless laugh, staring up at the ceiling. "You’re heavy, you giant brute. Get off me."

The beast ignored me completely.

A deep rumble rolled from his chest instead, the vibration traveling straight through my body.

Then he buried his massive snout into the crook of my neck and inhaled deeply.

I let out an involuntary squeak as his hot breath brushed against my skin, tickling my neck and sending a strange shiver down my spine.

It was probably the weirdest situation I had ever found myself in.

Nothing about this made any sense.

I was trapped inside a prison cell with a giant wolf that could tear me apart whenever it wanted, yet somehow I felt safer lying here with him than I had around most people my entire life.

For the first time since arriving at this place, I wasn’t thinking about Chelsea, the other maids, or even the Alpha King.

I wasn’t thinking about what would happen to me tomorrow.

I wasn’t thinking about anything at all.

I just lay there, listening to the steady sound of his breathing while his warmth surrounded me.

The exhaustion I had been pushing aside all day finally started catching up to me.

Between the fear, the confusion, the fight with Chelsea, and everything else that had happened since I arrived here, my body had reached its limit.

My eyelids grew heavier with every passing second, and before I realized it, sleep was already pulling me under, and the last thing I felt was the steady warmth of the beast pressed against my side.

I didn’t know how much time had passed when I felt movement around me. At first, it barely registered through the haze of sleep, but eventually my eyes fluttered open.

For a moment, I just lay there, confused and disoriented, until I realized the warmth from last night was gone.

The weight was gone too.

I was alone, lying on the cold, hard concrete floor.

Had it all been a dream?

The thought crossed my mind as I sat up and looked around, searching for any sign of the beast.

But there was nothing.

The room was empty.

My gaze swept over every corner, but all I saw were the same concrete walls and flickering lights.

The memory of last night flashed through my mind, followed by the guards’ words when they had shoved me into this place.

So it definitely hadn’t been a dream.

Then where the hell had the beast gone?

More importantly, how had it even escaped?

There was no other exit. The only door was the massive steel one in front of me, and it was still firmly shut.

I was still sitting there trying to make sense of everything when a soft click echoed through the room.

My head immediately snapped toward the sound, and the massive steel door began to open.

A flood of light poured into the room, blinding me after spending so long in the darkness. I quickly raised a hand to shield my eyes and blinked against the sudden brightness.

"She really is still alive," one of the guards said.

I squinted through the light and found several of them staring at me with wide-eyed expressions.

Ah.

So the plan really had been for me to die in here.

"Quick, get over here," another guard urged.

Two of them entered the room and grabbed my arms before hauling me to my feet.

My legs were still weak from everything that had happened, and they nearly buckled beneath me, but the guards didn’t seem to care.

"I can’t believe she survived that," one of them muttered.

The others exchanged uneasy looks as they dragged me out of the cell and into the corridor.

I stumbled along beside them, still trying to process everything.

We passed through dark hallways lined with flickering lights before gradually reaching more familiar parts of the estate.

Soon I recognized the cold concrete walls, the dim lighting, and the sharp scent of bleach lingering in the air.

As we got closer to the servant quarters, the guards finally stopped. They released my arms and stepped back.

"Get back to work," one of them said gruffly.

Then they simply turned around and walked away.

I remained standing there, staring after them in complete disbelief.

What the hell was going on?

Wasn’t I supposed to be executed? Had I somehow been pardoned? Or maybe I was being paranoid about all of this.

Maybe the Alpha King hadn’t actually figured out who I was.

The thought made me straighten slightly.

Yeah. That had to be it.

I let out a slow breath as relief washed through me.

The other maids were staring at me with stunned expressions, probably never expecting to see me walk back here alive, let alone in one piece.

That thought made a small, smug smile tug at my lips.

I couldn’t wait to rub it in Chelsea’s face.

But just as I was about to take a step forward, my eyes landed on Skye.

She was carrying a stack of linens, probably on her way to the laundry room. The moment she spotted me, her eyes widened.

The linens slipped from her hands and scattered across the floor.

Then she ran straight toward me.

Before I could even react, her arms wrapped tightly around me.

"I thought you were dead!" Skye sobbed into my shoulder, her whole body shaking.