Cinders [Completed]

Chapter 6: Dishwasher

I wake up in a cold sweat. It's only 4 in the morning, and the sky is still so dark that I can see the stars.

It's been a few days since the ball. I haven't seen Elia at all. I worry about her strange behavior, her panicked eyes and racing heartbeat. A mounting anxiety intermingles with my worry, leaving me jumpy and nervous.

I'm supposed to start at the palace tomorrow. I have one day left. The very thought is so ridiculous I almost laugh.

Working at the palace?

How am I supposed to get away with working on the palace? Any wolf would be able to smell their mate out in a city block, let alone in the same house. Even a giant house.

Panic thrums through my veins again. I try to swallow it as smoothly as I can. I push a hand through my hair, trying to kickstart my brain into producing at least half of a plan.

Is there a perfume strong enough to cover me? Maybe it would be enough if I just wore Mom's clothes. What if I did both, and wore gloves so that my hands never touched anything?

I climb down from the ladder on the bunk bed as silently as I can. Lucy is still fast asleep on the bottom bunk, her crutches on the floor nearby. In order to satiate Lucy's questions, I told her about the palace, and how beautiful it is in the ballroom. I didn't tell her anything else.

She doesn't need my heartbreak.

I can't take that job at the Palace. It's too impossible. The Alpha Protum is too powerful.

But that would mean giving up on Lucy. I'd already ruined her chances with Dr. Huntley. When I was so close, so close to securing a surgery that could change everything, this stupid mate issue had to get in the way. I didn't even have a phone number to call, and I didn't have a hope of finding one. That pathway has been thoroughly destroyed.

If I gave up this job, who knew if Dad would ever let me take on another one? I could say goodbye to saving for her future. It would be destroying the only other pathway we have.

Suddenly, I think about my seventh grade year, and how no one would touch me because of the acidic cloud of lye that seemed to roll of my skin. That would certainly be strong enough to neutralize my scent.

I would be in the kitchens, anyway. What reason would the Prince have for visiting the kitchens? I would be safe there, surely. A lowly dishwasher.

His name is Orion. Whenever I think it, a foreign feeling drips down my spine. I can't afford to have him in my mind.

Prince Orion.

I scrub my eyes with my numb fingers. I've had so many thoughts in the past few days, none of which have been helpful. It's particularly bad in the night, when the darkness makes a blank canvas for my psyche to tear apart.

Wait - !

I've hallucinated every way the pain would wrench his expression.

I don't even know your name!

Vivid imaginations of a lone figure, standing still in the cold night.

Why are you running from me?

He let me go.

He could have chased me. Even in human form, he would be far faster than me. In wolf form, there wouldn't be a question; I wouldn't get ten feet. He could have tracked my scent through the forest hours after I left.

But he didn't. He let me go.

My parents seem happy. On the few occasions Dad lets Mom accompany him to events, fellow alphas comment on how wonderful they are as a couple. They're so in love.