The Alpha Heir’s Candle Game Chapter 04
The Token
The next morning, Clara packed her things. She was leaving with the escort at sundown.
Ethan came to me with instructions. “Clara’s on the pass list tonight. Her duties in the heir’s study fall to you today.”
I gave a small nod. “Yes, Alpha heir.”
He paused. “No fight today?”
Every other time Clara got a pass, her chores landed on me. I always sulked. Always said something sharp so he’d tug me back and stroke it out of me.
I lowered my eyes and kept my voice flat. “Sorting the study is a pack attendant’s job.”
“You’ve grown up.” Ethan reached for me, tipping his chin down against my hair. “You don’t have to be so proper with me in private, love. I like it when you break the rules with me.”
His hand slid under the edge of my shirt.
I turned. Slid out from under him. “My body still hasn’t recovered from last night. I can’t serve you today, Alpha heir.”
Third refusal.
His jaw went hard. “You’re still mad at me? Because I gave the pass to Clara?”
I stared at my shoes and said nothing.
A breath. Then the sweep of his sleeve grazing the hem of my skirt as he turned.
“Suit yourself.”
…
He didn’t call me to lunch. He didn’t send a note.
That was his usual move. Cool me off. Wait for me to come crawling back. Watch me realize I’d been wrong.
Except he’d been wrong first.
I didn’t feel guilty this time, just went back to my room and packed.
Clara passed my door and paused. “Jade?”
“I’m leaving.”
Her eyes ran over my bags. Something moved across her face that I couldn’t quite name. Then she kept walking. She didn’t ask a second question.
By evening, the escort was almost ready at the eastern gate.
Ethan came with Clara at his side.
His gaze locked onto me, cold and disappointed, like I was a pup he’d caught with mud on her paws. “Why did you steal Clara’s pass?”
My stomach dropped. “I didn’t. “
He cut me off. “Search her room.”
His attendants swept past me.
I heard drawers wrenched open. Fabric tearing. The small clay figurine Ethan had given me for my tenth birthday hit the stone floor and cracked in half.
“Be careful with those, please!”
I moved to stop them. Two she-wolves stepped between me and the shelf. I couldn’t get through.
I looked at Ethan.
He didn’t look back. He was watching them break my things the way a wolf watches a hunt.
Bored. Distant. Like none of it belonged to him.
Like the boy who had knelt in the rain for me was already gone.
Something inside me let go.
Fine. Break it. Break all of it.
The attendants finished. Nothing on me. Nothing in the room.
Then Ethan’s eyes came back to mine.
“Strip her. Search her.”
My head snapped up.
He couldn’t be serious. Not in front of a dozen pack members. Not me.
Clara actually flinched. “Alpha heir, with everyone here, maybe this is too far. I only guessed the pass might be with her, I didn’t mean for you to…”
“She won’t remember her place unless she’s taught. Do it.” His voice was flat. “I won’t tell you twice.”
Ten years.
And at the end of it, he wouldn’t give me one breath of trust.
I laughed. Just a little. A dry sound that didn’t feel like mine.
I reached into the inside of my cloak and pulled out the token.
Silver. Marked with the old moon-runes of the Grand Luna’s seat.
Ethan’s face changed.
“How do you have my grandmother, no, the Grand Luna’s token?”