★Nuel's Pov★
"You've been unconscious for three days now" the elderly woman said, her gaze unwavering as she studied me.
I ignored her, rubbing my throbbing head, still trapped in the haze of the nightmare I had just awakened from, the mate bond mark on my neck burning against my skin and trying desperately to recall how I had ended up here, what had happened at the crowd during Alpha Noca's ceremony.
All I could remember was his wolf lunging at me. I had thought I was done for, that surely it would kill me and tear me apart. My stomach had knotted in terror, fear consuming me entirely. I had prayed to the moon goddess, to my dead ancestors, to any entity who might look upon me with kindness and spare me from the horror I had been about to face.
All my life, I had suffered. Was scorned and looked down upon. Locked away with my existence hidden from most,by those who were supposed to be my family. Even my father, who had me had kept me secret.
And when I had agreed to help him save our pack, I had discovered the bitter truth, I had been betrayed and sacrificed. Betrayed with lies he spun to save himself, his precious pack and his cherished daughter.
As if that wasn't enough, the death sentence I had narrowly escaped was about to be replaced with something far worse.
Being boiled alive would have been merciful compared to the horror I had been about to face, knowing that each second in the boiling oil would be agonizing but fleeting before death. But being torn apart, piece by piece, by someone's wolf? An alpha's wolf? An alpha who despised me?
I remembered stories from my childhood, Nuella's wolf, even then, had always defeated my father's warriors, despite them being fully grown adults. How could I even begin to compare that to an adult alpha wolf?
I had braced myself for the worst, praying for rebirth. I didn't want revenge, just rebirth. To be loved, to be cherished by a family who would see me as more than a burden.
But everything changed the moment Alpha Noca's wolf bit me. Not to kill but to mark me. To claim me. His mark of possession had burned into my neck, binding me to him.
As he shifted back and the screams and arguments of his pack erupted around me, I could hear nothing. I couldn't focus. I barely managed to stand, clutching the mark on my neck, struggling against the invisible force trying to bring me to my knees. Trying to pull me into a haze I could not name. Stars swirled in my vision, origins unknown. Flashbacks tore through my mind. Voices, so many voices, overlapping and impossible to place or identify who owned them and where they were coming from.
Each struggle was harder than the last. And just when I thought I had some semblance of control, my eyes shot open with unnatural speed, as if the world itself had jolted me awake. And then, before I could stop it, I fell, slipping into unconsciousness despite all my efforts to resist.
"Nuel?"
The elderly woman's voice broke through the chaos, soft yet firm. Only now did I truly look at her. She was the woman who had saved me from being discovered by the venomous Mariah nights ago. The same woman who had sent the servant girl to offer me my last meal before my execution. Well… execution had not come for me thankfully, atleast not yet.
But as I stared at her, the intensity in her eyes, the unwavering gaze she stared at me with, it felt strangely familiar. As if I had known her from somewhere before. As if this wasn't the first time I had seen her stare at me with such penetrating focus.
I shook my head, forcing myself to look away, saying nothing. I had spent all my years in the West Wing of the Western Pack. In all the little freedom I had, I had never encountered anyone like her before. There was no way I could possibly know her from anywhere, no matter how hard I tried to convince myself otherwise.
"The scalding water you were dipped in days ago healed miraculously before I came to apply herbs," she said, though she didn't force me to meet her gaze. She moved around the bed, picking up the herbs that had fallen when I had sprung up, jolted awake by the nightmare still clawing at my mind.
"You were tortured with wolfsbane, yet it healed within days. Even an alpha doesn't recover that fast, no matter the treatment," she continued, her words sending confusion spiraling through me. Instinctively, I stared at my skin and noticed that the wounds were gone from it. Only a few red marks at few places remained.
What was she implying? What was she trying to say? I had no wolf… surely she had noticed that when I arrived here, even if Alpha Noca had marked me.
Weren't they the ones who had healed my wounds?
My stomach growled violently before she could continue, cutting her words short and flushing me with embarrassment. I turned my gaze away, clutching my belly, trying to hold onto whatever shred of dignity I could.
Hollow though I felt, I still had some pride. I was supposed to be executed, yet here I was hungry, my stomach growling uncontrollably inside the same pack that had planned my death. The irony was bitter, almost laughable.
As if she had known what my body would do before I even woke, the door creaked open. A servant entered, balancing a huge tray in her hands. She set it gently by my bedside and I pretended I didn't see it, pretending I wasn't aware that the food was meant for me.
"The food is for you, Nuel. Help yourself," the woman said softly, then returned to the chair she had been seated in before, giving me privacy. Somehow, she had sensed that I would need this before I even reached out for the tray.
I was wary of this kindness, suspicious of their motives, yet the pangs of hunger gnawed at me. Famished. On the brink of death even. If there had ever been anyone who could die from starvation, it would have been me in that moment.
I took a plate from the tray and scooped a spoonful of food, just about to bring it to my mouth, when a loud voice suddenly erupted in my head, rattling me so violently that the spoon slipped, clattering back into the tray along with the plate in my other hand.
"Don't eat it! It's poisoned!"
I froze, startled. The voice seemed to come from inside me, yet at the same time… from somewhere else entirely.
"How would you know that?" I snapped, reaching for the spoon again despite the warning.
"Are you that naive?" the voice chided. "Your enemies suddenly offer you food and you accept it without question? Do you have no sense of how politics unfold in courts?"
The words made my blood boil. Infuriating. How was I supposed to know anything about politics when I had spent most of my life locked away in seclusion?
"Shut up!" I snapped at the voice, my hands trembling as I reached for the spoon again. "How sure are you the food is poisoned? How would you even know that?"
"The food is poisoned?"
Another voice suddenly pierced the air, sharp and panicked, filled with urgency.
I lifted my head and froze. I hadn't known that I was speaking too loudly. The elderly woman stood beside me, her hand holding the spoon firmly, preventing me from taking another scoop. Her eyes locked onto mine, steady and unreadable, as if she had known exactly what I intended.
Before I could react further, the door creaked open.