"She wants nothing more than to act like the victim in this situation. I am glad Alpha Keenan finally sees the truth!"

Maya scratched her fingers. She had heard every variation of this from Alaina. How did it still have the same effect? Keenan stomping out of the dining room without her amplified it.

"Are you coming or not?" Claude said and stood on his feet.

She lifted her gaze to look at him, and Claude was peering at her with an odd look. Maya nodded and followed suit.

"Alpha Claude, you really should leave her alone. I already told you what she did."

Claude found her more than a tad bit annoying, but it was not his place to stop her actions, nor did he have any plans to. He quite enjoyed how loose-lipped she was. It provided him with information he wouldn’t easily get elsewhere.

"We merely stay on the same floor. Good night," he said with a smile and walked out the door.

"Good night, Alpha Claude," Alaina said with an even brighter smile as he walked away.

Maya ran after him while Alaina watched them with a dark look. "Alpha Claude is too nice," she muttered. "Everyone keeps falling for her stupid tricks."

Maya shut the door and had to run after Claude to keep up with him. She wished she understood Claude’s intentions; then she wouldn’t feel so conflicted.

"You could come with me," Claude said as soon as she caught up.

"Come with you?" She asked, realizing she didn’t need to struggle to keep up with him; he had slowed down to meet her pace.

"There is no way you like how you’re being treated here, and Keenan does nothing about it. I would even say he treats you worse."

Maya looked away. She didn’t know what to tell Claude, and she wasn’t sure this was a subject she wanted to discuss with someone she didn’t trust.

"Did he tell you that you can’t get out of this marriage? Worry not. I only need to have a word with the Alpha King."

Maya shook her head. "Thank you for your concern, but I am fine, Alpha Claude."

Claude smiled down at her, but she could see a twitch at the corner of his jaw. They were going up the stairs to their floor side by side, with Hilbert behind them.

"Why?" He asked. "You see, I can’t seem to place my finger on it. You didn’t have to agree to the marriage. I am sure Vilhelm would have come up with an excuse or a proper reason to bypass the Alpha King’s orders. Yet, here you are—"

She walked forward as they reached her floor. "Thank you, Alpha Claude. I will be retiring for the night."

"Good night, Lady Maya," he said with a blank expression but his eyes were as striking as ever.

She walked briskly and got to her room, shutting the door behind her. She leaned back against the door. Slowly, her legs gave out beneath her and she slid to the floor.

If Claude already found her suspicious, then Keenan must also find her suspicious.

Am I going about this the wrong way? What am I to do?

She grabbed her head, feeling the rest of her body spread across the floor. She was clearly failing, and things were worse now. Keenan wouldn’t even look in her direction.

Should I have never come here?

It wasn’t until she heard loud banging on her door that Maya realized she had fallen asleep. She struggled to lift herself; her knees hurt, and her neck was even worse off.

Her hands had fallen asleep at some point, and now intense waves of pins and needles shot through her arms.

"Wake up!" 𝘧𝘳𝘦ℯ𝓌𝘦𝒷𝘯𝑜𝑣𝘦𝓁.𝒸𝘰𝓂

Alaina was banging the door so loudly that Maya could feel it shaking behind her. She struggled to her feet and reluctantly opened the door.

Darkness still filled the space, and she didn’t want her noise to bother Alpha Claude. He was likely to poke his head into her business. It wasn’t that she wasn’t grateful for his help, but he tended to want to take more than she was willing to give.

"What do you want, Alaina?" There was an exhausted tone in her voice.

"Who do you think you’re speaking to in that manner?! You seem to have forgotten your place. Perhaps Alpha Claude is the reason you think you have a hold here."

Alaina laughed but Maya didn’t know what she meant. She wondered if the older woman just said whatever she thought would be hurtful without giving it much thought.

"You know better than anyone. You don’t belong here!"

"Did you come all the way here to tell me that?" Maya asked.

She didn’t know why she was speaking as she was. She was angry, wasn’t she? Alpha Claude had blatantly disrupted her plans. He had said they were no good.

He was right. Keenan hadn’t even looked at her during dinner. There was less than a day before they had to leave for the capital. What would happen to her while he was away?

Did he plan to return her to her father? It would make sense. It would also explain why he didn’t care anymore.

Alaina looked like she might explode, and she stepped forward, spreading her shoulders so she appeared bigger than she was.

"You have a mouth on you now, don’t you? Starting to show your true colors now that you know your victim act isn’t going to work. Now that Alpha Keenan sees the real you."

Maya felt a hand close around her chest. She didn’t like how much Alaina’s words echoed in her head. She hated that there was truth to them.

Her eyes watered, and she stepped back into her room, but Alaina grabbed her hair.

"Where do you think you’re going? This conversation isn’t nearly over."

Maya bit the inside of her cheeks to keep from screaming out loud. Internally, she was already screaming. Not because of the pain in her scalp, but because she knew that even if she made enough ruckus for Keenan to hear, he wouldn’t stop Alaina.

Just like he hadn’t done anything the first time she had appeared drenched in front of him and it wasn’t raining.

"Alaina," Claude’s voice called from the corner. "I thought I heard something."