Adrein.
While the old healer remained hunched over Anabel, his quiet murmurs drowning in the heavy silence, my gaze drifted away from my sister’s pale face and began to sweep slowly across the bedroom.
The chaotic state of the room became glaringly obvious. Two heavy leather traveling trunks rested wide open on the soft mattress, their interiors stuffed haphazardly with silk dresses, heavy winter cloaks, and velvet jewelry pouches that had clearly been thrown inside in a frantic hurry.
It wasn’t the neat, meticulous packing of someone preparing for a scheduled journey; it looked like the desperate scramble of someone trying to flee in the dead of night.
A cold prickle of suspicion worked its way up my spine. My jaw tightened as I slowly shifted my eyes from the bed to the corner of the room, where Valerie stood trembling against the stone wall, her eyes darting nervously between us and her unconscious mistress.
"Valerie," I called out, my voice flat, sharp, and cutting through the quiet room like a blade.
The maid flinched violently, her fingers clutching the fabric of her apron as she slowly lifted her head to look at me.
"My Lord?" she squeaked, her tone laced with overwhelming terror.
I gestured broadly toward the bed with one hand, keeping my tone low yet demanding. "Care to explain why Anabel’s trunks are packed like this?" I paused. "Where exactly were the two of you planning to go in such a frantic hurry?"
Valerie swallowed hard, her chest heaving as a fresh wave of panic washed over her face. She shook her head rapidly, backing herself further into the stone corner as if she could merge with the wall.
"I... I don’t know, my Lord!" Valerie stammered, her voice shaking uncontrollably. "I swear I know nothing! I was just... I was just following Lady Anabel’s orders!"
"You know nothing?" Damien spat out sharply, his patience completely evaporating.
He stood up from beside Anabel, turning his imposing frame toward the terrified maid, his Alpha presence flaring just enough to make the air in the room feel suffocating.
He took two slow, menacing steps toward her, his eyes narrowing to dangerous slits. "Do not play stupid with us, Valerie! You are her personal maid! You don’t just shove half her wardrobe into traveling trunks without asking a single question or knowing where she is heading!"
"I am telling the truth, Lord Damien!" Valerie cried, tears spilling over her lashes as she cowered under his shadow.
"Tell us the truth right now!" Damien roared, his thunderous voice vibrating off the stone walls as he raised a harsh finger at her face. "Who told her to pack? Was she running away? Who was she meeting?" He paused panting. "If you lie to me or hide a single detail, I will personally have you thrown into the dungeon for treason against the Alpha bloodline!"
The harsh threat snapped whatever fragile composure the poor girl had left. Valerie let out a high-pitched, hysterical shriek and dropped instantly to her knees, slamming her forehead straight onto the hard stone floor in a desperate, trembling bow.
"Mercy, my Lord! Mercy, please!" she sobbed out, her body shaking so violently that her knees knocked together. "I swear on my very life, I know nothing!" She continued as she pleaded desperately. "Lady Anabel just ran into the room in a complete state of frenzy and she was screaming at me to pack her bags immediately!" She paused. "She said we had to escape, but she never told me why or where we were going! Please believe me, my Lords! I really, truly know nothing else!" she added with so much conviction.
"Damien, back off," Aidan commanded sternly from the center of the room, holding out a hand to halt his brother’s advance. "Terrorizing the maid won’t give us answers if Anabel kept her in the dark."
"She’s hiding something, Aidan!" Damien growled back, his fists clenched tight at his sides as he glared down at the sobbing girl on the floor. "Anabel doesn’t just decide to escape her own home out of nowhere! Someone put something in her head, or something happened that we don’t know about!"
"We will get to the bottom of this once Anabel wakes up," Davian chimed in, his loud voice echoing as he kept his eyes glued to the doorway, ensuring no one else intruded. "Right now, yelling at a crying servant isn’t going to wake our sister."
"I agree," I muttered, though my eyes remained fixed on those packed trunks.
The knot in my stomach only tightened. Anabel was terrified of something—terrified enough to abandon her home without telling a soul.
The room devolved back into a tense, chaotic murmur as Damien continued to glare at Valerie, who remained face-down on the floor, weeping quietly and pleading for her life, while Aidan paced back and forth near the foot of the bed with his arms crossed tightly over his chest.
"My Lords!"
The head healer’s sharp, elevated voice suddenly shattered the rising chaos, cutting through our arguments like a lightning strike.
The four of us froze instantly.
Damien halted his pacing, Aidan stopped dead in his tracks, Davian spun around from the doorway, and I immediately looked down at the old man crouching beside Anabel.
The healer had completely stopped his physical examination. His trembling hands hovered over Anabel’s wrist, and his face, already weathered with age, had gone completely pale.
His eyes were wide with a mixture of utter shock, disbelief, and deep apprehension as he slowly lifted his head to look up at us.
Silence descended upon the room so rapidly that the sudden absence of noise felt deafening.
Damien, Aidan, Davian, and I exchanged a series of sharp, intensely curious glances, a collective wave of uneasy tension binding the four of us together. Whatever the old man had just discovered, it was clear that the state of our sister was far more complicated—and far more dangerous—than a simple faint.
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