Chapter 1
/KAYLA/
My head felt like I had hit it a couple of times on a hard surface.
I groaned, squeezing my eyes shut against the blinding sunlight piercing through the curtains.
I rolled over, expecting to hit the lumpy mattress of my cot in the pack house's basement. Instead, my hand brushed against soft cotton sheets.
My eyes snapped open.
This wasn’t my room. The room was massive and it smelled intensely of air fresheners and expensive cologne.
Then, the memories of last night hit came flooding back.
*Oh, goddess. What did I do?*
I sat up too fast, a sharp ache between my thighs making me gasp. I pulled the heavy duvet to my chest, my heart hammering against my ribs as I scanned the empty luxury hotel suite. The other side of the bed was empty, but the dip in the pillow and the lingering heat proved I hadn't imagined him.
He was gone. The golden-eyed stranger who had completely wrecked my world last night had vanished into thin air.
I buried my face in my hands, a breathless laugh escaping me. I had actually done it. I, Kayla—the pack slave, the girl everyone trampled on—had walked into a rogue bar outside our territory and given away my virginity to a man whose name I didn't even know.
But looking at my clothes scattered on the floor, I couldn’t even bring myself to regret it. Last night, I had solely wanted to forget my plight and even if this ended up spiraling out of control, I didn't regret stepping outside our territory.
Yesterday was Lily’s twenty-second birthday, and as usual, my step-siblings turned it into a personal hell for me. But the breaking point wasn't Josh forcing me to scrub the grand hall until my hands bled, or Beauty intentionally spilling red wine on my only decent shirt. It was the announcement.
Lily had stood on the stage, wrapped in the arms of the guy I had been secretly crushing on for two years, and announced to the entire pack that they were fated mates and getting married. The smug, malicious look she threw me from across the room told me everything. She didn’t even want him; she just wanted to strip away the one tiny piece of hope I had left.
They all blamed me for the car accident that killed our parents and my sister, Ashley, five years ago. I was just a kid, but to Josh, Lily, and Beauty, I was the resident scapegoat. A slave in my own home.
"Get it together, Kayla," I muttered to myself, shaking off the memory. Panic finally overrode my hangover.
If I didn't get back to the pack house before the morning shift started, Josh would literally skin me alive.
I scrambled out of bed, my legs a little shaky. I grabbed my underwear and my bra, wincing at my shirt—the front was completely ripped open.
*Yeah, he definitely wasn't gentle.* I found a discarded, oversized black button-up shirt on a chair. It smelled exactly like him. With no other choice, I threw it on and hurried out of the room.
The morning air was freezing, but I ran the two miles back to the pack territory, taking the overgrown dirt paths to avoid the main guards. My heart didn't stop racing until I successfully slipped through the creaking servants' entrance at the back of the kitchen.
The house was dead silent. I let out a massive breath of relief, leaning my head against the cold tiled wall of the scullery. I had somehow made it in time.
I walked over to the sink, turning the tap on high. I just needed to wash this scent off me. If any of the pack Alphas caught a whiff of a stranger on me, I’d be interrogated until I snapped.
I leaned over, splashing the freezing water onto my face, trying to forget how he'd held me in his arms.
"Well, look what the stray dragged in."
I froze. Water dripped down my chin as I slowly turned around.
Josh was leaning against the kitchen doorway, his arms crossed over his chest.
His dark eyes narrowed as he looked me up and down, taking in my messy hair, bare legs, and the obviously male shirt swallowing my frame.
"Care to explain why you're sneaking in at six in the morning looking like a cheap hooker, Kayla?" he sneered, walking into the kitchen. His voice was dripping with pure disgust. "Please tell me you didn't embarrass this family more than you already have."
"I went for a walk," I said, keeping my voice flat and casual. Over the years, I'd learned that showing fear or anger only fed his ego. "I didn't know I needed your permission to breathe outside."
Josh crossed the distance between us in a second, gripping my chin tightly in his fingers. I winced but refused to look away. "Watch your mouth. You don't have rights in this house, remember? You killed our parents. You're lucky I haven't thrown you to the rogues yourself."
He pushed my face away, making me stumble back against the sink. He grabbed a kitchen towel, wiping his hand as if touching me had dirtied him.
"Anyway, clean yourself up. You look like absolute trash, and we have a situation," Josh said, his tone suddenly shifting to something resembling pride. "The Lycan King is arriving in an hour."
My stomach churned. "The Lycan King? Klaus?"
"Yes. He’s a close friend of mine from my time at the Alpha assembly, and he's visiting our pack for a few days to inspect our borders," Josh boasted, straightening his tie. "Everything has to be perfect. And since you clearly have nothing better to do than run around looking like a mess, I’m putting you to use."
He pointed a finger at me, a nasty grin spreading across his face.
"You are going to be King Klaus's personal maid for the duration of his stay. Every room he walks into, you clean. Every drink he wants, you pour. If he wants to use you as a footstool, you lay on the floor. Got it?"
My breath hitched. The Lycan King was notorious for being bloodthirsty and completely ruthless. Being his personal servant was basically a death sentence if I made one wrong move.
"Josh, please," I whispered, the stoic mask cracking for a fraction of a second. "Let Beauty or Lily do it. I'll stay in the kitchen—"
"Lily is a lady, and Beauty doesn't do manual labor," Josh snapped, cutting me off coldly. "You do what you're told, or I'll make sure you don't eat for a week. Now go scrub that disgusting scent off your skin and put on a uniform. The King doesn't like to be kept waiting."
He turned on his heel and walked out, leaving me standing alone in the quiet kitchen.
I looked down at the oversized black shirt I was wearing, clutching the fabric tightly in my hands. A terrible dread settled deep in my gut. I had survived five years of my step-siblings' cruelty, but serving a bloodthirsty king while still exhausted from what I'd done with a complete stranger last night?
I had a feeling my life was about to get a whole lot worse.
