HOLLOW

•EIGHTEEN•

•Natalie's POV•
•

I decided to get to know my way around the castle since Athanasios can't be my escort every time. After about twenty minutes I was starting to regret my past choices. I had gotten myself lost in the maze of hallways.

Not many people passed by me. Maybe one every five minutes? It was no doubt a deserted area compared to other parts of the castle where it seemed to be flooding with bodies.

Soon enough, I approached large windows that stretched from the ceiling to the floor. The patterns of the walls immediately told you that this was one of the nicer parts of the castle.

Through the large windows, I could see the surrounding land. All of the trees, snowy areas- all of it. Even on a patch of land, there were people training. Specifically teens. I even saw Socrates looking on and barking orders.

"Hey, Natalie!" I whipped around, startled by the voice behind me. It was Ioanna. "Oh, you scared me." She chuckled at my reaction. "What brings you to this wing?" She questions.

"I was planning to learn my way around the castle but I now see that it's too big to memorize alone," I explain. She nods, understanding. "Yeah, I once got lost for two days. And I still don't know my full way around." Our laughter followed her statement.

"I could show you around." She offers. I didn't have anything else to do and I would like to learn where everything was. "Sure."

_____

"What's it like?" I furrow my eyebrows in confusion. "What's what like?" I question. I honestly had no idea what she was talking about. "Being mated to an Alpha, being luna." My mouth makes an 'o' shape in realization.

"It's odd having everyone bow to you and having people at your service. The mated to an alpha thing doesn't really cross my mind that often. It's just a title to me." I explain. She nods taking everything in.

The two of us were sitting in one of the many living rooms. It was pretty quiet and isolated. "So how have you been spending your time?" I ask her out of curiosity. I haven't seen her much lately and wanted to know what she's been up to.

"Well, I'm kinda Zephyra's personal assistant in a way, so I've been shadowing her and what-not. It's really as boring of a job as it sounds." She sighed and I couldn't help but feel sorry for the girl.

"Why don't you do something else? You obviously aren't happy with the position." Ioanna only shakes her head. "I can't. Humans are not allowed to choose what they want to do so we are stuck doing housework." She explains.

Housework? They should be able to do whatever they desired. "But It's the only thing we can do. We aren't physically equipped like werewolves so we can't do many of the jobs they do." When she put it that way it made sense.

"That's more reasonable but do you at least do something you like?" She nods and a smile replaces her serious face. "Yeah! I like to paint and read. It makes up for lots of stuff." She seemed very happy and passionate when she talked about it.

_____

"No! It's mine!"

"I saw it first!"

"I was born first!"

"I... touched it first!"

"I called dibs!"

"You liar!"

"It's not my fault you're not telepathic!"

"How long has this been going on for?" I question in agony. Athanasios looked at the watch on his wrist and sighed. "Five minutes going on six." I groaned knowing that it wasn't going to stop anytime soon. "Do something! I can't take it much longer!" I began to grip at my strands of hair as the two went on.