Cinders [Completed]

Chapter 10: Searching

My back, though wrapped in bandages from Mom's extensive medical cabinet, screams as I move my arm too aggressively to pick up an especially large pot. I can feel each burn like the ember is still resting on my skin. Lucy told me I look sicker than her this morning, as I was helping her get ready. She was right. The morning after a punishment is always the worst.

The kitchen chatter is louder than normal this morning. Busboys and kitchen aids are all talking over each other in excited animation. A cleaning maid walks in and whispers something to them quickly, causing another riot of noise. I do my best to ignore them, scrubbing at the bottom of a pan, but my ears perk up when I hear -

" - and then Prince Orion -"

"What?" I ask before I can stop myself. The kitchen crew looks at me in surprise, not used to me talking, but the maid just turns to me in excitement and begins a barrage of information.

"Haven't you heard? Apparently, one of the midnight guards heard screaming from Prince Orion's room in the middle of the night, and then the Prince's personal guard went and brought a pack doctor to his room! And it was the Prince's screaming, just to be clear, he wasn't getting freaky or anything -"

My heart stills in my chest. The Prince was hurt? Attacked?

"But, get this, I heard he was physically fine! No wounds at all and you know what that means!"

She looks at me with earnest, wired eyes. When I respond with a confused, concerned look, she rolls her eyes and continues.

"It was almost definitely his mate's pain! I guess he's still able to feel it through the connection, even if she did reject him. I wonder if she killed herself, or something. I would if I had thrown away the hottest man in the country."

"O-oh. That's - terrible."

"Right?!" A kitchen aid that I see everyday but don't remember the name of adds in. "But that's not all. Just this morning, Joanne said - "

"Joanne just told me," the maid says to me with a dissatisfied glance towards the kitchen aid, "that Alice - you know, Alice, the housecleaning maid that she works with - Alice was called into the Prince's office today. Just Alice."

"And Callie was just telling us that Alice just got back!" The kitchen aid pipes up again. "Callie, what did Alice say?"

A barrage of questions amasses from the congregation around Callie. She clears her throat and announces over them.

"Alice told Joanne who told Kitty who told Jeremy who told me that Alice went into the office, Prince took one look at her and that's it! He said 'thank you for your time' and apologized for taking her from her work and then she left!"

The crowd gasps. I open my mouth silently, like a dead fish.

"So these events obviously have to be connected, right?" Callie continues, "my theory is -"

"Gossiping about your Alpha!" Blackwell shouts, and I realize she's snuck closer to the group. She reaches out a hand and smacks the back of the kitchen aid's head and he winces. "Get back to work!"

I dig my gloved hands into the sudsy water.

-

Alice. He called Alice to his office.

The Prince must have gotten the name from the Alpha I was talking to on my way out yesterday. His logic makes sense; his mate would be Alice, a housemaid. I wonder what he looked like as she came in - excited? Happy? Relieved?

Angry? Powerful? Possessive?

I wonder if he would love me.

My dad loves my mother very much. He tells her so everyday; most days, I can even see it in his eyes. A real affection - an undying loyalty. The mate bond at work. But the mate bond doesn't stop my dad from beating my mother. It just stops my mother from seeing it. She sees it as love. It isn't.