Melting Mercury

Chapter 8

Harlow

Walking through the hallways of the castle felt weird.

I'd never been in such luxury in my life. Even when I lived on werewolf territory, the pack I worked at never had such expensive architecture. It was even weirder as I realised how I looked like to everyone else in the castle.  I appeared to be a 'werewolf' to them.

Not one of my finest moments.

I nearly cried when I realised that the cautious looks that were being shot by the human maids were being directed at me. Me. I wanted to grab them by their shoulders and explain to them that I was one of them, not the enemy at all.

But a part of me suspected they'd fear me more if I transformed into a human woman right in front of them.

So I tried my best to keep to myself and not to be intimidating but that was pretty hard considering I was currently in the body of a roughly six-foot male. I pretty much towered over every single human that I passed.

I heard commotion coming from the end of the hall that made me turn around to avoid that way but as I looked back I noticed many of the people I'd passed on my why here were rushing back down the corridor.

Everyone had a look on their face as if they were about to shit themselves. Maids and even guards rushed down the carpet with frightened looks on their face. I managed to grab one of the maids that were also in a bustle to get to whatever was going on.

"Hey, you! Where's everyone going" I asked. She didn't look into my eyes but kept her gaze trained on the bridge of where our skin met. Her arm seemed to tremble under my touch.

"The Alpha King has demanded all staff to be seen in the throne room immediately sir,"

My blood froze over. Did he figure out I escaped already?

"Why has something gone wrong?" I questioned, wondering how long I had to escape before I was caught.

"Yes, something terrible, The king's mate has gone missing" An unexpected released sigh of relief escaped my lips and for the first time since we began this conversation, the woman looked me in the eyes.

Shit those are some gorgeous eyes.

Definitely gonna borrow those next time I'm putting on a disguise.

I realized how this looked like to her and I quickly went to defend myself "Not like that madam It's just this will be easy for the King as he can easily track her down with her scent" I explained in a rush. I did not know if wolves could do that but it sounded believable enough.

The woman seemed to believe me and I let her go, watching as she practically tripped over herself to rush to the throne room. I couldn't help but smile in her direction as I realized how great this was.

Thank goodness his mate decided to pull a stunt now. This was practically home free for me. I could just go to the meeting for a few seconds and then escape afterwards when the king leaves to hunt his soulmate down.

Poor girl clearly needs an escape too.

I thought about my disguise for a second before deciding it might cause too much attention. I shrunk down to a much shorter size that'd be easy to hide in a crowd in. I changed my buzzcut to long black hair that I put in a bun.

My thoughts went back to the beautiful eyes of the woman I'd just talked to and I couldn't help myself. I blinked a few times feeling as my irises glossed over to the lilac purple I'd just seen. I played around with the rest of my features a bit after that. Taking bits and pieces from memories of other extraordinary women I'd encountered.

All that was left was the maid uniform and I was done.

Freedom here I come.

I slide into the throne room and played meek as a guard harshly yanked me into the crowd. I made sure to slither around a bit, hiding amongst the dozens of staff that filled up the room.

Soon a large slam was heard as the King had clearly arrived. But I couldn't help the goosebumps that ran over the surface of my skin on his arrival. I felt my heart sink to my stomach as the sound of his footsteps against the polished floor rang throughout the room.

"She's here" He murmured making a shiver run down my spine. I couldn't help but smirk.

Hide in plain sight. Smart girl.

"Everyone eyes up!" The sounds of dozens of heads being lifted mirrored my own as I raised my head to meet the king.

I kept my eyes on anywhere but his face as I studied the looks of the others beside him. I suspected the one of his right was his beta and the other one his gamma. One was a burly man and the other a woman who stood tall with a huge with a confident but annoyed stature.

Tingles ran down my body from the top of my head to the tips of my fingers as for some reason I felt the overwhelming urge to move towards the front. My eyes danced around the room briefly until they were met with the eyes of the king.

I let out a rather loud gasp and turned my head back to the floor. It was him, the man that caught me yesterday was the fucking King of Werewolves.

Fuck Arlo aren't you the smartest person in the world.

A loud growl bounced off the walls of the room as the King stepped down to manoeuvre his way through the sea of people. Everyone split for him, careful not to come into contact with him. Praying that it was not him he directed his anger at.

I moved with the people who were moving but it seemed to feel like the king was just getting closer. I pinched my eyes together closed as I directed my head at the floor in almost a painful manner.

Can his mate just come out and own up to her fate so we can all leave?

"Everyone stop moving!" He suddenly commanded. Everyone in the room immediately stopped in their tracks and the room was once again dead silent. He then began moving through the crowd once again until suddenly his footsteps stopped. 

A sudden musk filled my nostrils and I couldn't help but take a deep breath in as if trying to print its scent into my memory. The silence was starting to get suspicious so I opened one eye only to look in horror as there were expensive shoes standing right in front of me.

"You can fool all these people love, but you can't fool me".