The Human Among Wolves (Aurora) novel Chapter 371

Chapter 371

He didn’t wait for a reaction. He didn’t need one. He simply tilted his chin toward one of the maids.

dark hair braided tightly down her back.

“Take her,” he ordered.

-a young woman with

The maid stepped forward immediately, hands clasped neatly in front of her. She kept her eyes down when she spoke, her

English stiff and accented.

“This way, miss.”

I hesitated—barely-before following her down the hallway. She walked quickly but silently, turning corners with practiced

ease, leading me deeper into the mansion.

Every hallway looked the same-tall walls, soft lanterns, thick carpeting. Every few meters, another maid passed by, none

daring to look directly at me.

Finally, she stopped before a door of pale wood and opened it, stepping aside to let me enter.

The room was… beautiful.

Warm. Spacious.

Too nice for someone who’d been dragged out of an auction like cargo.

A large bed sat in the center, covered in dusky pink blankets and layers of soft pillows. A chandelier glowed overhead. A vanity

sat by the window, its mirror clean and perfect. A wardrobe stood tall against the wall, its doors carved with delicate floral

designs.

The maid approached quietly and pointed toward the second door inside my room.

“Bathroom,” she said softly. “Shower. Towels. Clothes in wardrobe. Sleep. Tomorrow… master will call.”

The way she said master made something cold curl through my bones.

I nodded once-because what else could I do-and she bowed slightly before slipping out of the room, closing the door behind

her.

The silence that followed felt huge.

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Empty.

My legs shook as I moved toward the bathroom. The floor was warm beneath my feet, the lights soft and golden. Everything

was spotless, luxurious-like a room meant for a guest, not a captive.

But it didn’t matter.

Nothing about this place was mine.

Nothing here was freedom.

I turned on the shower, steam filling the room within seconds, and stripped out of the dress they’d forced me into. I stepped

under the water, letting it wash away the makeup, the perfume, the cold.

The shower ran until the room was filled with thick, warm steam, fogging the mirrors and softening the edges of everything

around me. I stayed under the water longer than I needed to-longer than I probably should have.

When my fingers finally wrinkled and the heat began to fade, I stepped out, wrapping a thick towel around myself. The

softness felt unfamiliar against my skin. Too gentle for a night like this. Too careful for a world that had just sold me off like

merchandise.

The mirror cleared slowly as I wiped my hand across it. My eyes-those silver-ringed eyes-stared back at me in the dim light,

and for a moment I didn’t recognize myself at all.

I brushed my teeth with one of the unopened toothbrushes lined on the counter, mechanical and slow, as if doing something

normal could trick my body into calming down. It didn’t. My hands still trembled.

In the main room, the wardrobe stood quietly waiting. I reached for the first thing I saw-a soft, oversized nightgown in pale

ivory-and slipped it on. It fell loosely around me, brushing against my knees, light enough to feel like wearing nothing at all.

The bed looked impossibly soft. Too soft. The kind of bed someone would give a treasured guest, not a girl purchased like a

prize.

But exhaustion hit me all at once-heavy, bone-deep, dragging at every part of me.

I pulled back the blankets and slipped beneath them, the scent of lavender and clean linen settling around me. The mattress hugged my body immediately, warm and cloudlike.

And still… I didn’t feel safe.

I curled onto my side, pulling the blanket tighter around myself as if that would help. My heart beat too fast, my thoughts

circling endlessly-Zayn, Kael, the mark on my wrist, the King, and now Sergei Morozov.

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This mansion.

This room.

This bed.

None of it dulled the truth.

I was alone.

Completely, terrifyingly alone.

My eyes burned, but no tears came-not yet. Not now. My body was too tired to cry.

Within minutes, the heaviness in my limbs won. My breathing slowed. Darkness pressed in gently this time, not with fear, but

with exhaustion.

And before I could fight it-

I fell asleep.

*******

—

I woke up slowly, my eyelids heavy as the fog of sleep clung to me. For a moment, everything felt weightless too quiet, too

still. I blinked, letting my vision adjust, and pushed myself upright.

Warm sheets.

Soft mattress.

A room that—

My room.

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