Zielle
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The morning light bleeds pale through my window when I wake to the sound of whispers.
Two maids stand outside my quarters, voices low and nervous. I keep still, listening.
"They're transferring the Alpha," one of them murmurs. "Luna's orders came late last night."
The other gasps softly. "To that place?"
A pause, then a shaky reply. "The Hollow Keep."
The name hits me like a cold slap. My blood runs ice.
No. Not that place.
The Hollow Keep was shut down years ago. Everyone in the palace remembers why. I remember why.
There had been another Alpha then. A feral one, violent, unpredictable. He had attacked a guard in his first week here, and in her fury, the Luna ordered him taken to the Keep for "discipline."
They said he lasted three days.
When I was called to see him after the punishment, I couldn't even recognize what was left of him.
Flesh torn, bones broken, his mind gone. Emptied out by pain.
He had begged to die before he finally did.
