Three nights after meeting the General
The central tower was indeed not much of a prison.
Three days before, Erna had led me towards a spiralling staircase that ended in a hallway.
A grand wooden door marked the entrance of a chamber befitting a royal.
I remembered staring at her in disbelief when we entered the chamber in the central tower.
It held a writing desk made from stained cherrywood.
An empty but clean bathtub. A bed with clean linens and an outrageous amount of pillows.
There was also an oakwood rocking chair and a chamberpot.
The room even had a small window, overlooking the central courtyard.
This place of imprisonment would only make sense if I was a kidnapped princess, or the increasingly demented mother of a king. As it stood, I was just a peasant.
“This is not where I am to stay, is it?” I asked. Erna simply shrugged her shoulders, but her glare was deadly.
“It is what the General commanded,” she said. I walked over to the bed. The pillows were duck-feather. There was even pink silk hanging from the four-poster bed. I sat down and breathed a sigh of relief at the softness of the mattress.
“Why?” I asked. She gazed over at me. She had been courteous enough thus far, but did not spare me many glances that were void of poison.
This was the first time she seemed to be staring at me with something other than just distrust. She was trying to figure out as much as I was why the General would hold me in such lavish chambers.
“I think…” she started, pausing to look me over once again, “General Axel must know something I don’t.”
I thought this over for a bit. If the General thought he knew something, he must have been mistaken. I was not of true importance.
“There will be soldiers guarding the tower,” she interrupted my thoughts. I nodded at her. With a final glance, Erna left me alone in the massive room. The rest of the day went by rather quickly and uneventfully. I slept the day away. I was still weak from my journey.
At some point during the first night, a young brunette girl, flanked by two guards, neither of them alphas, handed me clean linen clothes.
The guards filled the bathtub with hot water.
The girl even left a bowl of porridge and a jug of clean water on the cherrywood desk.
I tried to ask her for her name, but she did not look at me.
She was short, and rather jumpy. Maybe it was scary for her, being close to a prisoner.
When I woke up the next day, I noticed that food was left through a shutter in the middle of the door.
The shutter was almost big enough for me to crawl through, but not quite.
Most of the day I looked out at the courtyard.
There were soldiers training at all times of the day.
I was starting to become restless and worried.
What if I was to be locked up in the tower forever? What if no one came for me ever again?
When night fell, I witnessed the moment a hand shoved a plate of food through the shutter.
“Hello?” I said, to whoever was there. I bent down and looked through the shutter. There was someone there, but all I saw was the blue fabric of their robes.
“Hello,” a man answered. He almost stuttered.
“Who are you?” I asked. There was a moment of silence.
“My name is Espen,” the man said. I picked up a scent from him. It was woody, much like the other werewolves I had met, but there was a hint of sweetness in the air. It was comforting.
“I am Gabriel.” My southern accent had not deterred the stranger.
I all but lay on the floor to see his face.
When he saw me peering up at him through the shutter, he took a step back.
The stranger was rather beautiful. That was the first thing I noticed.
Espen had a brown braid hanging over one of his shoulders and amber almond eyes.
His skin was tan and smooth. I only saw his face, but I saw enough to know this stranger was not like the servant girl I met before.
His hair was clean. There was kohl around his eyes.
His gaze was open and curious, wide eyes taking in what was in front of him.
There was something arrogant about him, but in a way that endeared me.
“You are not a wolf,” Espen concluded.
“And you are not a servant,” I countered. He grinned at me.
“How did you know?” he asked. I smirked back at him.
“Servants aren’t stupid enough to speak to prisoners.”
“Anyone can be stupid, rich or poor.” This made me laugh.
“Fair enough,” I said. “Who are you?” I asked once again.
“I told you who I am,” he said. I lifted one eyebrow. He was still grinning.
“Alright,” I said. “Why are you here then?”
“I’m bringing you food,” he said. I sighed.
“You know what I mean,” I said. We stared at each other. He was not grinning anymore.
“Alain asked me to check on you,” he said. I was glad to hear this. I did have someone looking out for me in this strange land. I was not left in a tower, forgotten. A sound came from the stairway. Espen looked back at the noise.
“I have to go,” Espen said.
“Thank him for me.”
The next day was not much different. The servant girl came in to bring me food and clothes. She even cleaned my chamberpot. I was again left wondering what I had done to warrant such treatment. Two guards came with her, but they waited outside this time. Maybe I was deemed safe enough to visit.
The days passed quietly. Espen would visit at mealtimes sometimes. There was no rhythm to it. Whenever I heard his voice, I got excited. I felt like I was dying of boredom. He never stayed for long though.
One afternoon was made bearable when something new happened.
It was the next time I caught a glimpse of the General.
I was sitting in the rocking chair when I heard his voice.
I normally did not hear it when people spoke in the courtyard, as I was quite far up.
The General, however, was basically shouting.
I got curious. I spotted him the moment I looked out the window.
In the middle of the courtyard, the General stood tall.
His voice reverberated through the courtyard.
The low tones reached me in the tower. I was not quite sure what he was saying, nor did I particularly care, but he spoke louder than when he spoke to me on the steps.
His voice held authority, and the promise of war.
He was not wearing furs. Even from up there, I could see the outline of his shoulders.
An alpha like any other, and yet nothing like the few others I had met.
There was something different about him, something that drew me in.
Something that made me wonder what it would feel like for a werewolf to use his fangs to mar the skin of my neck.
To proclaim me as his. These thoughts left me warm and breathless.
How easily I was affected by the General’s voice.
As his speech continued, my skin grew hot.
From the tip of my toes on the stone-cold floor, to the palms of my hands on the armrests of the rocking chair, I felt as if lit on fire.
And I realised what was happening. I was filled with horror that it was starting in the midst of his speech, that perhaps it was him that affected me so that it came early.
I was going into heat when I really should not be.
There were parts of me I longed to touch, and I longed to be touched by the alpha in the courtyard.
I could no longer deny it, my attraction to him.
I held myself still until I couldn’t, then let out a breathy moan.
It was not a particularly loud sound. Nothing too obscene.
It was soft, and it rang sweeter than was fitting for someone like me.
It was frightening then, that right at that moment, the General paused his speech.
I held my breath for a while. A coincidence, but a frightening one nonetheless.
I rested my head in my hands on the windowsill.
Calming myself, I took deep breaths. Werewolves had superior senses, but nothing so outrageous that they could hear me in that moment.
Yet I could not stop myself from testing it out.
When Axel stopped speaking, when the soldiers dispersed, when they marched off to god knows where, I tested his hearing. I had to be sure.
I let out another moan. I had been holding myself back for a while, resulting in me letting out a sound that was rather indecent.
Bordering on salacious. That was when he looked up.
He stared into my window. His eyes met mine.
The General had most definitely heard me.
It shocked me; it embarrassed me, but it also made me incredibly self-satisfied.
Axel was the only one that heard me, and he rewarded my behaviour with a gaze so intense it made me tremble.
Still, mortification mixed with a healthy dose of regret won over the part of me that wanted his attention.
I stumbled towards my bed. Linen sheets that would be drenched with sweat soon welcomed me.
From the bed I could just see the General marching off with the soldiers, walking right out the castle gates.
That was not long before I lost all sense of self, becoming one with my instincts.
I could only hope that no alpha would find me in that state.
I thanked the General mentally for awarding me no alpha guards or attendants.
I hoped the General himself would steer away from me during this time.
A whole other part of me desperately wished he would come find me in that tower.
I found myself confused, wary and a little uncertain.
Those were my final thoughts before I lost consciousness.