Midnight Blue

23/ Beginning

Rose was in the servant's quarters of the palace. When they arrived, the Beta had dragged her halfway there, forcefully passing her into the iron grip of a sour looking woman. There had been some fuss between them and Rose was surprised that the old woman was allowed to speak to the second-in-command in such a way. In the end, the housekeeper had looked her over with disgust evident on her face, before huffing and dragging her away.

The part of the palace that she had seen was wonderful. Rose had not thought it possible for one place to look so glorious. The hallway had somehow managed to look old and new all at once with wood and carpet running up the stairs and along the floors. It was warmer than she had expected - not in a temperature sense but in the atmosphere. It wasn't as though she had ever given much great thought as to how the King's palace would look but for some reason, it certainly wasn't this. 

There was no one to see to her with everybody occupied by the King's sudden return. And so, she sat by the dwindling fire in a kitchen far bigger than the ones she remembered, wondering how she had managed to find herself so far from home.

Home for Rose had never truly been a place, nor had it ever really been a person. She loved her friends and the people that had helped to raise her but she had found that those things that should have been certain in her life were constantly changing and so home remained a feeling. She captured it and held it close to her heart. As long as she had that feeling - as long as she had herself - she was home. 

But so much had changed so drastically and she suddenly realised that the biggest of those things was that that feeling was lost. 

She felt empty without it. 

Rose didn't miss the foul looks the other staff were throwing her way. The King had not been overstating when he warned her about the palace. She was the only omega present which only heightened her feeling of unease.

In her pack, there were plenty of omegas. Enough so that the others didn't look down on them all that much. It was one thing for the people you serve to hate you but another entirely for your peers to do the same.

Her breath caught in her throat. It was that way in her old pack. For that was not her pack anymore.

Suddenly, Rose was unable to breathe. Too much had happened, too much had changed and she felt as though she were simply a passenger in her own life - just sitting back and watching everything play out with no impact on how or what occurred.

A hand settled on her back and she flinched away form the unexpected contact.

"Hey," a soft female voice said. "You're ok."

Rose turned to see a young woman who looked to be around her age. Her thick, dark hair was pulled back into tight braids and kindness emanated from her concerned eyes.

Another voice sounded from the other side of the kitchen. "Careful, Karly. She might bite."

The girl swatted the air, turning slightly to face whoever had spoken.

"Oh hush. If anyone needs to be careful its us. Last time you were cooking, you gave the whole palace food poisoning."

Rose's lips twitched slightly and, had she not been so concerned with getting her breathing under control, she might have even smiled.

"I'm Karly" the girl said, pulling up a chair and sitting in front of Rose.

"Rose," she replied, glad to see that at least one person was speaking to her with something other than an insulting tone.

"Little overwhelming, huh?"

Rose just smiled, not wanting to admit to how she was feeling. 

"Don't listen to Bethann. I say she's bad at cooking cause she left the wooden spoon up her you know where." Karly whispered the words conspiratorially but most were covered by her laughter which soon died down when she caught Rose's blank expression .The girl had tried to laugh in an effort to be polite. Karly was the only one being kind to her, after all. But despite her effort it wasn't very convincing and her current mood meant that it stopped almost as quickly as it started. "You don't know what I'm talking about." 

"No."

"You know...she has a stick up her ass." 

Rose shrugged her shoulders before jumping out of her chair as a wooden spoon came flying towards the two girls, narrowly missing both Rose and the fire before landing on the small stone surround with a slap. 

"She's saying I get offended easily." The voice from earlier snapped. "And I wouldn't like to tell you where to put that wooden spoon, Karly." 

Karly merely stuck her tongue out in response and Rose couldn't help but laugh at the childishness of it all. The girl smiled softly when she heard the omega laugh. She had hoped to make her feel a little more settled.

"Now get back to work." Rose was beginning to see what Karly had meant. "If that mutt keeps you distracted any longer I'll put a muzzle on her." 

Karly shot Rose a sympathetic smile before mouthing - see you later.  And while a part of Rose was happy that she had managed to make a friend here in such a short time, another wished that she wouldn't see Karly again. If Bethann was anything to go by, she would be a lot better off keeping her head down and sticking to herself.

Perhaps staying with her Alpha didn't sound quite so bad after all.