I'm No Cinderella

Chapter 9

**Edited while I was at work, please point out any spelling/editing mistakes that I missed!

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A Deal With The Alpha

I awoke from a sleep riddled with nightmares late in the afternoon, finding myself still alone in the spacious room. It had been the same nightmare over and over, the exact one that had been plaguing me before the ball, except this time my pursuer had a face, and it matched that of the creature who had slept beside me– who had wrapped an arm around me in his sleep. A chill ran down my spine, and I let my eyes wander around the room once more, if only to distract myself from that memory.

Not much had changed while I was asleep, other than the fact that I now knew the smell that clung to the sheets wasn't detergent. It was him, and the bedding smelled even more strongly than they had the day before. I knew that I should take solace in the knowledge that it meant that he hadn't slept in the bed with me after I had fainted, but it was hard to feel relief with the memory of trembling, caged beneath his heavy arm so fresh in my mind.

Of their own accord, my eyes drifted back to the corner above the bookcase, and my lips tilted down in a small frown. Sometime while I was asleep, a maid must have come to clear the web away, all remnants of the fly and his struggle for survival gone, like that. I wondered again when my own time would come, when the prince would grow bored of his human plaything and send someone to clear all memory of me from the room as well– or would he dispose of me himself?

I spied a tray on the bedside table, reaching across the space to pull on a little note sticking out from under a napkin, nearly camouflaged behind the white linen cloth. With the little folded piece of paper in my hand, I hesitated. Was it a note from the alpha himself? Did I dare to read what was inside?

I cautiously flipped it open, breathing out a sigh of relief as I realized there was no way the messy scrawl could be that of a prince. Though only a few short sentences, it was difficult to decipher the message, the handwriting bordering on child-like, as if the writer had never fully mastered the skill.

Luna, it read, please eat this food when you wake up. The rumors claim that you're human, so then you must understand why I cannot return with a second untouched tray after you slept through breakfast.

She didn't need to sign her name to the note for me to know that it had come from Eden, the timid lady's maid that had forced me to eat my eggs the previous morning.

I took a few careful bites of the food, it was a strange pasta dish that I had never seen before, loaded with vegetables, and coated in a creamy, cheesy white sauce. My eyes widened as I studied the dish more closely. Is there shrimp in this? My family hadn't been able to afford any kind of fish not caught by Ash or Reed in the river down the road from our house in as long as I could remember. Real seafood was reserved for only the unfathomably rich.

I scraped the plate clean, in part to appease Eden, who may very well be the only ally available to me, but also because I had never encountered such food before in my life, not even at the feast two nights prior. I stared down at the note as I finished. From the way it had been hidden beneath the napkin, I knew that it had been risky, or at least so in her opinion, to leave it for me, so I knew that I couldn't just leave it lying around. There was a book of matches on the little table beside a candle. I pulled one out, striking it against the book and touching the flame to the corner of the little paper, watching as the secret note went up in flames, and holding it until I felt the sharp pain of the fire licking my fingertips. I dropped it with a soft curse, allowing the remnants of my tea to put out the fire, not caring if the ashes floating on the top were suspicious. It no longer resembled a hidden message, and that was all that mattered to me.