At that moment, I realized something I had not since I came back.
I remembered.
I remembered everything. My previous lives. The evil King. The Moon Goddess and every encounter with her. None of it was lost to me anymore.
The relief barely had time to settle before my hair was yanked without warning.
Pain tore through my scalp as my head snapped backward.
It was Olivia. I had not even noticed her crossing the room.
"My lady, I—" The words barely came out of my mouth before my head got slammed down onto the kitchen table. The impact rattled through my skull, forcing the breath from my lungs.
"Please, My lady," I blurted out as she dragged me up again, "I didn't mean to sleep with him."
"I told you to prepare hot water for my bath to meet my Dukie, and you have been standing here doing nothing," Olivia said sharply.
Then she paused, as though my words had only just reached her.
Her grip did not loosen in my hair. But she twisted my head to the side, forcing my face toward hers until I had no choice but to meet her eyes.
"What did you just say?" she asked.
I opened my mouth to answer, but before a single word could leave me, her palm struck my face. The blow sent my head snapping sideways, and before I could recover, her fingers tangled in my hair again.
"You have been slutting around and wasting my time while I waited for you?" she shouted. "You filthy wench."
She slammed my head down onto the kitchen table once more, harder this time. The rough wood scraped against my skin as pain burst through my skull.
"Olivia, what's going on?" a voice called from the other room.
Olivia paused but her hand still clenched in my hair, just as she was about to drive my head down a third time.
Instead, she yanked me upright and dragged me out of the kitchen. My feet stumbled over the stone floor as she pulled me along, but even through the pain, two things struck me at once.
The Duke had not yet arrived.
Which meant I had not slept with him.
Not yet.
Olivia shoved me forward without warning. I fell hard causing my knees to scrape through the courtyard stones, and the rough gravel bit into my skin.
I hissed out in pain.
I was wolfless in this life. There was no healing strength to dull the pain. It made me wish I had my big wolf again.
"Why are you not dressed?" a voice demanded.
I immediately recognized it as that of my Mistress.
Ignoring the pain burning in my knees, I straightened and lowered myself properly, bowing my head as I knelt. If I truly had returned to the beginning, then I could not afford to repeat what had happened before.
Olivia I could afford to offend, but not my mistress.
Not Luciana.
"Mama," Olivia began.
"I have been waiting for this pig to prepare my bath for hours. When I went to find her, I caught her lying with a random man in our house. In our house, Mama."
I looked up at Olivia sharply.
"That is not true," The words flew out of my mouth without thinking. I immediately realized what I had done wrong in front of my mistress.
I had Interrupted her daughter.
"I am sorry," I tried to say, but the words barely left my mouth before a rod struck my face.
The blow sent me flying into the corner. Pain exploded through my body as I hit the wall and collapsed to the floor.
I forced myself to kneel again, lowering my head until my forehead touched the ground. My body shook, partly from pain and partly from memory. I remembered what Luciana did to me when she was displeased. I remembered how far she was willing to go.
When I heard her footsteps moving toward me, I knew this was it. The moment where she almost sends me to my grave.
But just then, a voice spoke.
"Milady," one of the outdoor workers called from the doorway, breathing hard, as though he had run the length of the estate. "The Duke's carriage has just arrived."
I lifted my eyes just enough to see Luciana standing over me, a rod raised above her head.
I lowered my gaze immediately as hers shifted back to me.
She turned away from me at last.
"Olivia, Go upstairs and change into the gown prepared for you. Quickly." as she said this, she tossed the rod to a nearby corner.
Only then did I realize my chest ached. I had been holding my breath without knowing it, bracing for the blow. My hands trembled where they rested against the stone floor. If not for the Duke's arrival, I would already be bleeding.
"But Mama," Olivia protested, stepping closer. "I have not even bathed yet. I cannot meet him like this."
Luciana's tone did not soften. "You will wear the gown as you are. There is no time left to waste, and we cannot afford delay."
Olivia frowned, looking frustrated. "Then what about her?" She pointed at me. "You are just going to let this go?"
Luciana did not look in my direction. "Leave such matters to me and go dress for the Duke's arrival."
Olivia's mouth twisted. She lingered a moment longer, then turned sharply and marched toward the stairs, muttering under her breath as she went.
After her footsteps faded Luciana spoke again, this time to the man still standing near the doorway.
"Thomas."
"Yes, milady."
"Have the men cease their work. The stables, the yard, the outer grounds."
"Yes, milady."
"And this one," she said, gesturing toward me without looking, "will take on every remaining outdoor task for the day."
My shoulders tightened.
"Is that understood?"
"Yes, milady."
Luciana stepped closer and squatted to my level. She gripped my hair, forcing my face up just enough.
"Do not mistake this interruption for mercy," she said quietly. "When I return, I will deal with you properly."
She struck my head against the stone once before letting go.
My vision swam as she straightened and walked away.
I stayed where I was for a moment, only pushing myself back to my knees once I was sure she had gone farther down the hall. I pressed my palm to my skull and forced myself to stand.
I noticed Thomas still lingering by the door.
"You're lucky," he said under his breath. "Most of the work is already done. Just go to the long table in the yard and get your hands dirty. It will make you look busy."
I managed a small smile. "Thank you, Thomas."
He shrugged and walked off.
Thomas was an Omega like me yet still better off because he wasn't wolfless like I was. Most of the workers had their wolves. And unlike the other workers, Thomas never berated me or saw me as less for not having one.
Once he was gone, I turned toward the door, ready to do as he said. To go to the yard, soil my hands, and look useful enough to avoid notice.
But at the thought of doing that, memories resurfaced of the last time I had gone there in my previous life. That happened to also be the first time I met the Duke.
He had not looked like a duke then.
He wasn't dressed in fine brocade and noble adornment as a duke should be. He had looked more like an errand man weary from long hours.
Even the Duke's guards whom I later saw had carried themselves with more authority.
And yet he had looked striking, although plainly so.
The memory of our encounter was still vivid in my mind.
I had been in the stables, rubbing dust into my skin as Thomas had just instructed now. When one of the sack-feeds for the horses slipped loose. I climbed onto the rickety table, stretching to push it back into place.
"Why are you struggling?"
The sound of his voice startled me, causing my foot to slip, and the sack toppled. Grain burst across the floor in a pale spill at my feet.
I turned sharply, coughing as dust filled my lungs. "I beg your pardon?"
He only watched me, head tilted slightly, as though my irritation amused him.
"Why strain yourself so," he said mildly, "when you could simply use your wolf strength?"
"Not all of us are blessed with wolves," I snapped, waving dust from my face. "Some of us must make do with brittle bones."
"You're wolfless?" His eyes had lit with something close to delight. "I am too."
The excitement in his voice had stunned me. I had never once found joy in my state. I could not understand how he spoke of it as though it were a gift.
When he stepped closer and offered his help, I accepted it.
And more than that, our interaction afterward had led to a stolen moment on the stable table.
It was reckless and foolish, born of fear and defiance and a desperate hunger to feel something before Luciana carried out her promise to deal with me.
An encounter I had not believed I would survive.
He left in a hurry afterward, saying only that he had somewhere to be.
When I returned to the house later with my cheeks flushed from our little moment, I found him seated beside Olivia—dressed in finery. With nobles all around, bowing low as they addressed him as the Duke.
I remembered running away from the estate after that moment.
I shook my head trying to forget the memory of what I had done with the Duke. All I know now is that, I could not afford that mistake again.
I decided not to go near that table or the stable. Instead, I sat back on a stool I found in the room, deciding to wait back here.
Time passed slowly, measured by distant voices and the echo of footsteps through the halls.
When I stopped hearing the voices from different direction and heard the doors closed and voices gathered in one place, I knew they were all inside.
This was my chance.
I slipped quietly down the corridor and out through the back door, making my way into the yard to sit on the porch.
I had barely lowered myself on it when I heard loud footsteps.
It was the march of boots by uniformed Guards.
I rose at once with my heart hammering.
Had the Duke not already gone inside? I wondered, confused.
And at that moment, the main entrance door opened behind me. Luciana stepped out first then Olivia. Then the Duke himself.
I felt dread coil in my gut.
Their gaze landed on me but that was not what made my blood run cold.
If the Duke was already here—
I turned back just as the soldiers parted a way for someone to step forward.
I saw his boots first before I noticed the length of his stride.
Then the fall of his cloak.
And when my eyes finally lifted to his face—
I gasped audibly.
It was him. The same face of the man who had murdered me in my former lives.
The Immortal Alpha King.
Just then, his nostrils flared as he drew in the scents around him. Gradually, his gaze moved towards me.
Without waiting for him to lock eyes with me, I bolted.