If nothing else, this ball would be a short escape from that cell which by the evening was already beginning to drive me insane. I was allowed back up to my room where a dress and a maid awaited me armed with a hairbrush and soap.

"Hey," I said after the guards had finally let go of me and gone outside of the room to stand guard.

"I'm Matilde," she said with a nervous wave. "I'm here to..."

"Make me look less like I've spent all day in a dungeon?" I asked looking at my matted hair and dirty fingernails.

"Yeah...I ran you a bath," she replied.

"Thank you," I said as I made my way to the bathroom and took the hairbrush and soap that she held out for me on the way past.

When I was clean, she filed my nails and did some fancy thing with my hair. I then had to get into the dress, which was a light blue, grossly outdated ball gown.

"Don't worry, Miss," Matilde said as she tied the back. "Everybody will be wearing stuff like this and you look beautiful."

"Thank you but it's so heavy. How am I even supposed to walk in this?" I asked as she tightened it more. "Or breathe."

"Sorry."

I looked at my reflection in the mirror and sighed.

"It also reminds me of the ball we have at the pack every year," I said thinking about the Pack Founding day.

"Do you miss the pack?" she asked after a pause.

I nodded.

"I'm not surprised and I don't blame you. It's your home and you have your mate and children there," she said quietly.

"Do you miss it?"

"Me?" she questioned a little taken aback.

"Yeah."

"Sometimes a little, I guess. I had friends there," she said tucking in a loose strand of my hair.

"Why did you have to leave?"

"My mate was one of the Alpha's men. Four years ago, he went against orders and was kicked out so I went with him. Nothing drastic, nothing violent and he probably deserved it too. I don't hate your mate, and deep down neither does my mate, but we had nowhere else to go but here and now we've made our life," she explained. "My opinion is that he can be a bad man and he may be too harsh on those that disobey him but I also know that he does everything he can to make the law-abiding citizens of his pack as happy as possible and as long as you treat him with respect and don't try to cross him, he is fair and kind and gentle. You just don't want to be on the wrong side of him."

"I can certainly agree with that," I muttered thinking about all the times I'd got on the wrong side of him. "But that doesn't justify what he has done. Even if it was in the name of his pack, some of the stories I've heard in this castle are shocking."

"Maybe it is wrong of me to side with him," she replied. "He has done terrible things and if the King found out what I was saying, I'd be hung as a traitor."

"I won't say a word," I promised.

She smiled before smoothing down my dress and saying "all ready."

"Thank you, Matilde," I replied.

She smiled again before leaving the room.copy right hot novel pub