Rejected by the Alpha of Fire

Impending Doom

Cindra’s POV

“I can’t thank you enough, Scar,” I said with a sigh, leaning against her as we walked arm and arm down the corridor. She smelled like lavender and honey from her time in the kitchens that morning, and I breathed in the sweet scent, enjoying the way it cleared my muddled mind. “Honestly, you’re the best.”

I thought back to Jack’s question from last night. If there was one person in the whole palace, in the whole Ember Moon kingdom, who was on my side, it was Scarlett.

A dark-haired, dark-eyed beauty with a face full of freckles and a heart full of fire, she was the only person I had ever been able to call a friend. She was also the only servant who ever bothered to check on me. Scarlett had been a source of comfort and support my whole life. The thought of leaving her in Ember Moon on the very slim chance that I ended up in Erupting Eclipse set an ache through my chest.

I’d take the burning red “R” on my forehead over being isolated in Erupting Eclipse any day.

“All in a day’s work,” she said. “Give it until tomorrow for the dress to dry. And maybe, just maybe, think twice about doing anything so reckless again?”

“I will. It’s just gotten me into more trouble.”

“I bet. You know no one’s allowed to go in there. You might get some leniency, but not much.”

“I know, I just… I needed something to wear, and I didn’t have any other options. Can you imagine if I showed up in this?” I gestured down at my plain beige clothes, layers of functional fabric with no joy or color to them at all, courtesy of Queen Bridget. “I needed the dress, and if anyone had a right to take it, it’s me. Right?” I searched my friend’s face for approval, but didn’t get it.

Scarlet clicked her tongue at me. “A maid who had been serving in the castle longer than either of us have been alive got fired for stepping foot in there. And the Queen tends to treat you lesser than the castle staff. You really think it was worth it?”

I sighed. Everyone knew the rule. For the past twenty years, it was basically asking to be exiled to go in my mother’s room, but I still thought it was a dumb rule. She was my mother. Why couldn’t I go into her old room? The room where I was born?

“Looking back? No, but they can’t fire me from the family.”

Scarlett scoffed. “That’s the funny thing, Cindra. They don’t have to.” I raised an eyebrow. She shrugged. “They already have.”

I winced at the thought. Scarlett also had a way of never beating around the bush.

“I’ll be more careful.”

“I don’t even see what all the hype is about. Moon Goddess Ball,” she said, waving her hand through the air in a dismissive gesture. “Only people with too much money, too much time, and too many people doing their work for them would think, ‘Hey, let’s throw a party and make all the little people scramble around just to accomplish the same thing everyone else does just walking around.’”

I grinned. My heart felt lighter. Being with Scarlett always had a way of making me feel better.

“Anyway, just promise me no more trips into forbidden territories? Or over banquet tables?” Scarlet held out her pinky finger for me to shake.

Still grinning, I extended my hand, but our fingers never intertwined because I spotted a blur of red and gold out of the corner of my eye. I knew it was him before my eyes locked with Helio’s. I gulped and Scarlett and I both let our hands fall to our sides. His expression was far from friendly, and I could tell he was irritated about something as his eyes darted back and forth suspiciously between Scarlett and me. Beside him, his best friend Cole nudged him in the ribs to try to move him along, but Helio just shoved his hand away.

Helio had never physically harmed me, not since we were little kids anyway, but part of me might have almost preferred it if he had. His taunts and mocking had left their own painful scars. At least with physical injuries, they’d heal.

When we were much younger, he used to pull my hair or bump me into walls, though his brothers were more likely to resort to physical aggression. Still, Helio’s words stung more than any physical pain. Every word felt a million times worse than getting punched by Brenton, Aiden, and Conley.

As the prince approached, I couldn’t help but brace myself. The only attention he ever showed me was to ridicule me for something. What would it be now?

Given that the Ball had been last night, it was probably about the spectacle I’d made of myself. Did he know who my mate was and just wanted to rub my impending doom in my face? That felt like something he would do. I wish I knew for sure who his mate was.

Jack’s words came back to me and floated around my skull. If I could trade verbal blows with Helio just once, maybe I would feel a bit better, but even the thought of it made my heart cower.

I certainly wasn’t going to punch him in the face, though, like Jack had suggested. I’d break my hand.

Before Helio could reach me or even utter a word, I heard his mother’s voice as she came sweeping down the hall.

“There you are, you wretch!” she screeched. Her heels clacked on the stone floor of the hallway a she flew at me. Any sense of grace was gone as she stormed forward. Cole’s eyes widened, and he stepped back into another hallway. Scarlett let out a murmur of greeting and bow to both Helio and Queen Bridget as I braced myself for the worst. My heart raced as Scarlett, ever watchful, took a step back but didn’t abandon me to face the queen’s wrath alone.

“How did you get your hands on that dress?” she hissed, closing in on me and using her height to intimidate me. Like always, I retreated, and she lifted her chin with a cruelly gleeful smile as she backed me against the stone wall. Her eyes bored into mine, and her voice dripped with anger. “Answer me! I know it was Asha’s. You went in her room, didn’t you?”

Say something, I thought. Anything.

But the words had turned hard and sharp in my throat, like barbs.

“Your Majesty,” Scarlett started, her voice trembling as she tried to speak up for me, “it wasn’t her, it was m—”

“Mother,” Helio said, moving gracefully to the queen’s side. He grabbed my arm and pulled me from between Bridget and the wall. The queen’s eyes never left mine.

His hand was warm and distracting. It was almost as if he was pouring his fire into me to push back the cold in my veins.

“A queen shouldn’t have to take care of such things,” he said politely with that charming smile that made so many women, young and old, swoon. “ I’ll take care of it.”

She lifted her head almost proudly before casting a dirty look at me. I thought she wouldn’t leave, but then, with a humph, she turned and glided down the hall. She paused at the end and looked over her shoulder. “Asha looked better in that dress than you ever could, girl,” she spat.

Helio’s grip on my arm tightened, and I let his touch ground me, leaning in to the warmth to stop myself from crying. Scarlet cast me a sympathetic, worried look that made me feel weak and small, so I looked down at my feet. The queen snapped her fingers and barked for Scarlett to follow. Moments later, the queen and my best friend were gone.

“Cole, I’ll catch up with you later.” Helio’s voice shot through me, the calculated grin on his face making every pore of my body begin to sweat.

“Of course.” Cole offered me a slight smile.

Soon enough, it was just Helio and me in the hallway.

Goddess help me.