h4Chapter 501: RUMOURS/h4

    The pack was never silent for long. Wolves thrived on noise, on chatter, onughter, on the steady rhythm of lives woven together. But in the days after the burial, the noise turned into whispers.

    Low, hissing words that carried farther than they should have, slipping under doors and through cracks like smoke Jasmine couldn’t escape.

    Wherever she walked, eyes followed. Some lingered with pity, soft and heavy as chains. Others carried something colder, like fear, as if she had be a vessel of misfortune. A cursed thing. A failure.

    "She lost the Alpha’s heir."

    "Maybe the Moon Goddess rejected her."

    "It’s not natural... maybe she’s cursed."

    The words weren’t always said aloud. Sometimes they hung in the air, clear enough in the silence when conversations cut off as she entered a room.

    Jasmine kept her chin high, but inside, grief was a gnawing, hollow beast. Every whisper fed it.

    It was bad enough that she has lost her own child and she no longer had the will to live, but being taunted by the staffs about her misery?

    She couldn’t handle.

    Anna, of course, was the loudest among the quiet.

    She never confronted Jasmine directly, not yet.

    Anna was far too cunning for that. Instead, she dropped her poison where it would spread the fastest.

    Among the younger wolves in training. Among the servants who worked closest to the elders.

    "She’s weak. She couldn’t carry the heir. Tell me, what kind of Luna loses her pup before it even takes its first breath? She brings nothing but bad omens."

    The words slithered through the pack like venom.

    Jasmine tried to ignore it. She told herself not to break, not to give Anna the satisfaction. But her strength was worn thin. In the corridor outside the kitchen, she overheard two she wolves whispering.

    "The Alpha should take a mate. A stronger one."

    "Someone who can give him heirs."

    "What did he even expect?" Thedy sneered. "The daughter of our enemy? She is too useless to even do anything."

    Her chest tightened. The walls seemed to tilt, pressing in. She wanted to scream at them, to w their throats open, but she walked on instead, eyes forward, spine stiff, her nails digging into her palms until she smelled blood.

    She resumed her work and then Fiona came in.

    Jasmine smile lit up.

    Her and Fiona had had a terrible altercation thest time she had seen her before she had left the pack.

    But on returning, they had forgiven each other at once and it was good to know that Fiona didn’t believe the lies Anna had told.

    "Hey you shouldn’t be up working." Fiona said when she saw Jasmine in the kitchen.

    It had been two weeks since she lost her child.

    Jasmine managed a smile.

    "I just didn’t want to sit and be alone in the room and do nothing." Jasmine said.

    "You should still rest." Fiona pointed out. "Loren and Marie said you needed it. For once they both agree on something."

    Jasmine smiled but it was a dead one.

    Fiona sighed and then leaned against the table.

    "I need you girls to please request for more flour." Jasmine said to the girls who had been gossiping about her.

    They did as if they didn’t hear what she had said.

    Fiona’s eyes were widened.

    "Didn’t you just speak to them?" Fiona asked.

    "Girls please go down to the store keeper. We need more flour to make bread." Jasmine said in a more pleading and sympathetic tone.

    One of the girls mumbled. "We don’t work for barren women."

    Jasmine felt like a stone had been hurled at her.

    She just stood.

    Transfixed and shocked.

    "WHAT DID YOU JUST SAY?!" Fiona demanded in outrage her eyes already shifting.

    The girls began to temble in fear.

    Anna walked up to them in heated rage.

    "Anna calm down." Jasmine started to say in a bid to prevent any altercation.

    But Anna gave the girls each one resounding p.

    It was so loud the entire room erupted in silence.

    Their faces were red and their lips were tightly locked.

    "You better pass this on to your other friends. Don’t think I don’t hear the rumors. Because she can’t do anything doesn’t mean I can’t." Fiona warned sternly. "The next time I so much as hear you dirty lowly servants ....

    As she spoke to them she proceeded to walk closer to them and they wisely took steps back in fear.

    "I will rip you from limb to limb." She warned. "Do you understand?"

    They nodded in fear.

    "Get the fuck out of my sight." Fiona spat and the girls ran out of the kitchen.

    By the time Fiona turned back to face Jasmine was already leaning down weakly on the table.

    Fiona hurriedly went to her side and held her.

    "Hey. I’m here." Fiona said holding her.

    Jasmine held her temple as her hands trembled.

    Jasmine unable to deal with the words hurled at her, hurried out of the kitchen.

    As she went running out and hurrying by the courtyard, she bumped into no one other than Anna.

    By the time Anna cornered her, Jasmine was brittle ss ready to shatter.

    Anna stood in the courtyard, voice raised just enough for the crowd to hear.

    Her expression was the picture of mock-sympathy, her words sharpened knives wrapped in silk.

    "Poor Jasmine," she cooed. "But then again... maybe it’s for the best. A weak Luna would only bring ruin. Bad omens don’t belong at the Alpha’s side."

    The air snapped tight. Wolves stilled, listening. Watching. Jasmine’s lips parted, but no sound came. Her grief had stolen her voice.

    She tried to go past Anna but then Anna blocked her way and pushed her back.

    "Anna I don’t have the time for this." She said finally finding her voice.

    Annaughed at her.

    "Why?" Anna asked. "Too scared to fight back?"

    "Stay away from her Anna." Fiona warned.

    Anna’s eyes red and began to change color.

    Her wolf growing furious.

    "Back off Orphaned bitch!" Anna hissed.

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