The Alpha's Mistress

14

Word Count: 1930

~Sienna

Despite the horror curling in my stomach, I can't remove my gaze from Elora's body.

A thick puddle of blood has gathered around her dark hair, spilling out across the floor. Mercifully, her hair covers most of her face, although her right leg is contorted at an unnatural angle that has my stomach pitching.

Kayn and Lexa's voices are muffled as I try to comprehend what I'm witnessing.

Slowly, I zone into what they are saying.

"I don't know what happened. I just came out and I found her like his," Lexa exclaims, her expression stark and panicked.

Her fingertips are tinted red from where she must have checked for breathing or a pulse.

Elora is dead.

"Lexa you need to get to your room," Zayn orders. His voice is so stern it rattles even me.

"But-"

"Go!" He insists.

Lexa takes one last look at Elora, grimaces, and then rushes up the stairs, her pale nightgown rustling around her legs.

Kayn's hand is on my shoulder, but I'm too numb to feel the weight of it. "You should go too."

"No...I can't," I stammer.

I need to stay here, to do a job that doesn't actually belong to me. It just feels wrong to run from her like this, to sit in my room as if she isn't here, dead.

Kayn kneels down, brushing his fingers against her slender neck. He waits a couple beats before his lips settle into a grim line.

"She's dead," he affirms.

Vacantly I feel like I should be crying. Instead, all I feel is a painful stab in my stomach, with all other emotion choked in my throat.

"How?"

"She must have fallen down the stairs." He looks up the sweeping staircase, then back down at the floor. "Fuck, look at all that blood."

I cover my mouth with my hand, seeing the reflection of the chandelier in the surface of the blood. It glistens hauntingly.

Footsteps pound from behind me. It's Onyx, followed by Lucia and a guard.

"What's going on?" Onyx demands.

He stops short, horror morphing his features as he drinks in the sight of what was once one of his marriage candidates.

"It's Elora. She's dead," I whisper.

Lucia sweeps up beside her son, wincing at the horrific sight. With her she brings a cloying scent of perfume that clashes violently with the bitter smell of blood.

"Did anyone see what happened?" She asks, pulling a handkerchief out, pressing it to her nose.

"My sister found her, but I don't think she saw anything," Kayn explains grimly. "This must have been an accident."

I look back up the stairs. How? No one has so much as broken an ankle on these stairs let alone fallen to their doom.

"She came here with her sister right? Go tell her," Onyx demands.

The mask of an Alpha passes over his face, chasing off any hints of panic. His composure in such situations is both admirable and disturbing.

"Me?" Kayn looks torn between staying with me and obeying his Alpha's command.