~Nyla~
"Will you shut the fuck up and sob somewhere in the hallways? Some of us have an early morning shift!" Sadie yelled at me the first night we shared the room.
"Wake up, princess. Would you like some breakfast in your bed?" She threw the leftover water from her water bottle on my sleepy face when I felt tired and slept in.
I was counting down days to the next full moon. Life as a maid sucked, but I wouldn't have minded it so much if they told me where my baby was. My biggest complaint wasn't even the baby.
It was the longing I felt for my nemesis. He never bothered me after strapping me to my seat in the chopper. It was as if he was avoiding me.
I should be glad while perfecting my plan. What was I doing instead? I was thinking about him.
My nights were mostly filled with tears, thinking about my little girl and wondering if she was okay. While my new mate successfully ignored me for days, something about him told me she was being taken care of. If only he told me where she was.
Instead of thinking just about my baby, I was actually thinking about him too, wondering if he was fucking his chosen mate or some other woman.
Damn this stupid mate bond!
All the feelings of attraction and lust I felt for Wyatt were now for this enemy. The only things I still felt for my dead husband were love and pain.
I wanted to see Luke. Working solely in the kitchens had put me in dark about the happenings in the rest of the place. I observed the warriors get trained from afar, saw beautifully dressed women of the pack attend some events, come back at night, also watched some lustful man come and grab a woman, and drag her with him to his room as if they had a dearth of sex slaves.
No man ever bothered me. I guess my mate made sure of that by giving me such dull, loose-fitting clothes that hid my curves. I cut my long wavy hair when I was mourning Wyatt. Covered in sweat and dish soap, I probably looked filthy and undesirable to any man who laid his eyes on me.
Olivia and I became friends, and she often told me stories about her life before as a gamma's wife and before that when she was looking for her mate. I also shared my story with her but replaced Wyatt's name with Vance's everywhere. I think I found myself a new Kylee.
Sadie was a different case. No matter how unnoticeable I looked, she couldn't stand my presence in the shared room or the kitchen. She was mean with her lame sense of humor and was always looking for a way to bully me.
I wasn't used to such back-breaking work and wanted to catch a break now and then. But it was always her or the housekeeper who pushed me back to doing the dishes or mopping the floors.
Olivia came to my rescue, and I remained quiet most of the time, looking as weak and helpless as possible without ever getting into any arguments. Maintaining a low profile was necessary.
With such a big estate and so many chores in the kitchens, I should pass out the minute I hit the bed. But it was no bed. A thin mattress that shifted under my weight. And the exhaustion didn't bring sleep; it brought back memories of good days with loved ones... lost ones.
I missed the home that Wyatt gave me. I missed the home that Maya went back to. But I couldn't leave without getting hold of my baby and testing if she could survive in my world. More importantly, I needed my revenge to sleep peacefully at night.
One morning, Sadie came to me with a smile plastered on her face. I should know she was up to no good but when she said she saw a wet nurse with a baby that looked only weeks old, my heartbeat spiked up and I threw caution to the air.
"Where? Please take me there." I washed my hands and dried them against my baggy pants and followed her.
"Your eyes glow golden when in the sun. They are beautiful." Was this really Sadie? Giving me compliments? Someone must have hit her with a saucepan.
"Thank you. I love your eyes too, especially the subtle blue ring." She did have beautiful greyish blue eyes which tilted upwards in the corner.
I stopped dead in my tracks when I saw her leading me into the forest. She could kill me, and no one would know what happened in the woods.
"I'll get Olivia," I told her and turned back while we were still close to the warriors who were training in the grounds nearby.
"The shack you see in the clearing is her place. Don't blame me if she leaves."
The wood house she pointed to was quite close and I could hear some cries, but they didn't seem like the cries of a baby. There were people in there, so what harm in peeping in and checking if there was indeed a wet nurse with a baby.
I took one look back at the warriors to see if my mate was anywhere around. If he was, he could smell me, but I couldn't.
"Stop ogling at them shirtless men! Where are your priorities, jeez!" Sadie sniggered while I came back to my senses.
What the hell was I doing? Looking for Luke when my baby could be only a few feet away. I followed Sadie and the minute we reached the small wooden structure, she opened the door without knocking and pushed me in.
"Will this one do?" She asked in a mocking tone and shut the door.
I froze at what I saw. A werewolf in heat. Wyatt had told me: regardless of if werewolves had a mate or not, they all go into heat from time to time. It could be once every few months or never for some.
They can produce pups only with their mates; it can be true mates, second chance mates, or chosen mates. But when in heat, many men slept around with several she-wolves until they were satiated.
I remembered Wyatt's words as if he spoke them just yesterday. "It was very difficult when I was looking for you and getting hopeless. Going into heat was terrible then. I killed rogues and trespassers with no control over my temper. It helped me calm down because I wanted to save myself for you."
The important thing he stressed was that I should run when I saw any male wolf in heat. This naked man in front of me had three women, but his eyes clouded with more lust when he saw me. Pushing the girl between his legs away, he got off the bed as I unlocked the door to escape.
He was too fast for me and caged me against the double oak door and touched my nape with a menacing smile on his face. I punched him in the face and kneed him at the same time to buy a few seconds to unlock the door.
He pushed me to the floor and climbed on me, tearing my loose T-shirt and running his filthy hand over my collarbone to push my shirt down. I screamed for help and bit the back of his hand really hard, but he didn't flinch.
Wrapping his palm around my throat while pinning my arms over my head with his other hand, he lowered his face to kiss me.
"LUKE!"
He was taken aback by surprise while the other women gasped. Yes, I called their stupid alpha by his name. That's what came out of my mouth, and I didn't think twice about what they would assume. They should carry on with their sex party without me, but this disgusting man won't let me move.
Thinking that I took their alpha's name just to scare him, he pushed me down again when I tried to sit up. A loud growl erupted from outside the shack. I thought we were experiencing an earthquake before the door went down.
A giant wolf with metallic black fur pounced on the man on top of me and ripped his throat off the next moment. I should be scared of the violence and blood that splashed on my face, but instead, I was mesmerized by the blue hue on that beautiful black fur that appeared when the wolf moved.
The naked she-wolves got up screaming while Luke's wolf seemed mad at me. His eyes were fixated on my torn shirt.
"It's not my fault. I didn't ask him to rip it." I was feeling equally mad at him for showing up only now when I was yearning to see him all these days. And he shows up in his wolf form.
There was something terribly wrong with me. I wanted to stroke his beautiful fur and wrap my arms around him. I'll be damned if he could sense my thoughts.
A few men from the training grounds appeared when they heard the commotion, but they stood back because of my mate's fierce growl. I wasn't naked or something that he was going so crazy with his possessive ass.
As if they all got a mind link from him to scram, they cleared the scene, leaving us alone. I was still sitting on the floor as his wolf strode towards me.
My throat went dry when he came close.
He is my enemy. He killed Wyatt. He has to die.
He is my enemy...