CHAPTER 34: NO QUIET CORNER

FIA

"You decided," he said slowly, "that you knew better than the mate bond itself. Better than the Moon Goddess. You decided that this omega, my mate, deserved to be put in a room with black mold. A room that could have killed her."

"We didn’t know it was black—" one of them started.

"You didn’t know that mold...especially black mold was dangerous?" Cian’s voice rose slightly. "You didn’t know that damp sheets and poor ventilation could make someone sick? Or did you know exactly what you were doing and simply didn’t care?"

There was silence. The thick kind you could almost cut with a knife.

Doctor Maren cleared her throat. "Alpha, omegas are particularly susceptible to respiratory issues. Prolonged exposure to these conditions could have caused serious illness. Possibly death if left undiscovered or untreated."

Cian’s jaw clenched. Through the bond I felt his rage spike higher.

"You will pack your things," he said to the omegas. "All of you involved in this decision. You’re being reassigned to the lowest duties in this pack. Latrines. Waste disposal. The kennels. For the next six months."

The omegas went even paler.

"And you." He pointed at the one with the bruised face. The ringleader. "You’re banned from the main house entirely. You’ll work in the outer fields. If I see you near these grounds again, you’ll be shamed and banished from the pack."

"Alpha, please—"

"Get out."

They ran. All of them. Stumbling over each other to escape his presence.

Doctor Maren stayed. She gave Cian a small nod. "I’ll make sure she’s moved to appropriate quarters. The Luna suite should be prepared."

"See that it is." Cian finally looked at me. His eyes swept over my arms, the rash, my face. Something flickered in his expression. Something that might have been concern if I didn’t know better.

"You should have told someone," he said.

I blinked. "Who would I tell?"

"Anyone. A servant. A guard. Me."

"You?" I couldn’t help the disbelief in my voice. "You hate me."

"I don’t..." He stopped. Seemingly wrestling with something. "I don’t want you harmed, regardless. We have an arrangement after all."

The mate bond pulsed between us. For a moment I felt what he felt. Confusion. Anger at the situation. Anger at himself for caring. And underneath it all, that pull. That instinct to protect what was his, even if he didn’t want me to be his.

It was disorienting. Even for me.

"Come on," Doctor Maren said gently, breaking the moment. "Let’s get you settled in proper rooms."

Cian turned and left without another word. But I felt him through the bond, moving through the house, his anger slowly cooling into something colder. More controlled.

Doctor Maren led me through hallways I hadn’t seen before. These were cleaner. Brighter. The kind of spaces meant for people who mattered.

We stopped in front of a large door. Doctor Maren pushed it open.

The room beyond was beautiful. Huge. There was a massive bed with clean gold sheets. Windows that actually opened properly. A sitting area with comfortable furniture. A bathroom that sparkled. Everything was pristine. Luxurious. Clearly meant for someone important.

"This was the Luna suite," Doctor Maren said quietly. "Prepared for... well. It doesn’t matter now. It’s yours."

For Hazel. She didn’t say it but I heard it anyway. These rooms were meant for Hazel.

And now I was being moved into them like some kind of replacement. A stand-in for the real Luna. A spot I alledgely stole.

The thought made my stomach turn.

Doctor Maren showed me where everything was. The bathroom. The closet. The small sitting room attached to the bedroom. She left more antihistamine pills on the nightstand and reminded me to apply the cream.

Then she was gone, and I was alone.

I sat on the edge of the enormous bed and looked around. The walls were a soft cream color. The furniture was dark wood, expensive looking. Everything smelled clean and fresh. No mold. No damp. No decay.

It was perfect.

And I hated it.

I pulled out my phone and stared at it. Milo was supposed to come today. He’d promised to set everything right with Cian and I was still hopeful. I hated that I was.

I called him. It rang. And rang. And rang.

There was no answer.

I tried again. Same result.

A cold feeling started spreading through my chest. Something was wrong. Milo should have answered his phone. Right?

I sent a text: Where are you?

The message showed as delivered but not read.

I waited. Five minutes. Ten. Twenty.

Nothing.

I got up and paced the room. Maybe he’d overslept. Maybe his phone died. Maybe he got held up at doing sentinel work. There were a dozen reasonable explanations.

But none of them felt right.

I left the Luna suite and wandered the halls. Found a servant and asked if anyone had come to visit me. She looked at me with barely concealed distrust but answered. "No visitors, Luna Fia."

I asked another servant. It was the same answer.

The hours crawled by. I checked my phone obsessively. Called Milo three more times. Nothing.

And I knew.

Deep in my gut, in that place where instinct lived, I knew something had gone terribly, horribly wrong.

My phone buzzed.

For a second, my heart leaped. Milo. Maybe he’d changed his mind. Maybe he was outside right now, demanding to see Cian, ready to burn everything down with the truth.

But it wasn’t Milo.

The number on the screen was unfamiliar, unrecognizable. Not saved. No name attached.

Still, I opened the message.

Hello sister. Guess who is coming to see you.

My breath caught.

Hazel.

I stared at the text for a long moment, waiting for it to change, for it to disappear, for it to reveal itself as a hallucination born from stress and exhaustion. But it didn’t. It sat there. Blinking. Real.

Hazel was coming to Skollrend.

My thumb hovered over the screen. I reread the message. Once. Twice. Again. My heart was beating too fast, thudding painfully behind my ribs.

Sister. She called me sister.

It was meant to sound sweet. Familiar. Like family. But coming from her, it was venom laced in sugar. Hazel never said anything without purpose. There was no coincidence here. No random act of communication. If she had reached out, it was because she wanted me to know. She wanted me to panic.

And I was panicking.

I locked the phone and tossed it onto the bed, then immediately regretted it. Picked it back up. Opened the message again, like maybe I’d read it wrong the first five times. But no. Same words. Same tone. Same quiet horror spreading through my chest.

Why now?

Why would Hazel come here? To Skollrend?

Unless... unless she knew what Milo was planning.

That thought hit me like a slap. My stomach turned. Hazel always had eyes everywhere. Servants, spies, loyal omegas, and people too scared to say no. Of course she knew. Of course she had been watching him.

And if she was coming here, it meant she wasn’t going to let him tell the truth.

Maybe she planned to intercept him before he reached the gates.

Maybe she already had.