Chapter 7

Lucy's POV

The bucket of dirty water sloshed as I shuffled down the east corridor, my back aching from hours of scrubbing floors. Madam Victoria had been in a foul mood all day, snapping at everyone, assigning extra work to anyone who so much as looked at her wrong.

Something was happening in the upper levels. I'd seen guards rushing back and forth, heard doors slamming. A new group of slaves had arrived yesterday—mostly girls. They'd been taken straight to the bathing chambers for preparation.

For him.

I shuddered and focused on my task. Just empty the bucket, refill it, get back to scrubbing. Keep my head down. Stay invisible. That's how you survived in this place.

The male servants' quarters were at the end of this corridor—a cramped warren of cells where they kept the new caught male slaves, the ones deemed too weak for the mines or the fighting pits. I wasn't supposed to be down here, but Madam Victoria had insisted the floors needed cleaning "top to bottom."

As I passed one of the cells, I heard something that made me pause.

A sound. Soft. Muffled. Like someone crying, but not quite.

I stopped, frowning. The door was slightly ajar—unusual, since they usually kept the male slaves locked tight. Through the gap, I could hear ragged breathing, punctuated by small, desperate whimpers.

And something else. Something wet. Rhythmic.

Maybe one of them is sick.

I should just walk away. It wasn't my business. But something about those sounds tugged at me—reminded me of things I'd tried to forget.

Setting down my bucket, I pushed the door open a fraction wider.

The cell was dark except for the moonlight filtering through a high window. At first, I couldn't make sense of what I was seeing—just a pale shape writhing on the straw pallet, limbs twisted at odd angles.

Then my eyes adjusted.

Oh God.

The figure on the bed wasn't a boy at all.

Bare breasts, full and flushed with heat, rising and falling with rapid breaths. Narrow waist. The curve of hips. Long hair, darkened with sweat, splayed across the moldy straw.

A woman. A girl, really—couldn't be more than seventeen or eighteen.

And she was completely naked, legs spread wide, one hand working frantically between her thighs while the other squeezed and pulled at her breast.

I could see everything in the moonlight. The way her fingers pumped in and out of her slick cunt, wetness coating her hand and dripping onto the straw. The way her hips bucked and ground against her palm. The way her swollen nipples stood out like dark peaks on her heaving chest.

Her eyes were closed, her mouth open in a silent moan, her face twisted in an expression that was equal parts agony and ecstasy.

The bucket slipped from my nerveless fingers, hitting the stone floor with a crash that echoed like thunder.

The girl's eyes flew open—wild, unfocused, glazed with fever. For a moment, we just stared at each other. Her hand was still between her legs, fingers still buried inside herself, frozen in the act.

Then shame crashed over her features. She yanked her hand away and grabbed desperately for something—anything—to cover herself. Her fingers found the discarded shirt, but she was shaking so badly the fabric just slipped through her grasp.

"You're..." I couldn't finish the sentence. Couldn't quite believe what I was seeing. "You're a girl?"

"No," she gasped, still trying to cover herself with trembling hands. Her inner thighs were glistening with wetness, her sex swollen and red from her own rough handling. "Please... don't..."

But it was too late. I'd seen. And suddenly, so many things clicked into place.

The pretty fisher boy they'd brought in today. The one who'd been assigned to the male quarters instead of being sent straight to the breeding pens like all the other girls.

They don't know, I realized. They all think she's a boy.

"How?" I breathed. "How did you—all the women go straight to the Girl's Hell. There's no way you could—"

"Please." Her voice broke on the word, tears streaming down her flushed cheeks. "Please, don't tell them. Don't—"

She tried to stand, to come toward me, but her legs buckled. She went down hard on her knees, completely naked, one hand clutching her stomach while the other reached for me in desperate supplication.

I could see the wetness still dripping down her thighs. Could see the way her whole body trembled—not just with fear, but with that terrible, consuming heat.

"If they find out I'm..." She couldn't even say it. "They'll send me to him. To the King. Please, I'm begging you—"

She collapsed forward onto her hands and knees, gasping. From this angle, I could see everything—her breasts hanging heavy, her sex exposed and dripping, her whole body flushed and trembling.

Sweet Jesus. She's in heat.

Not the kind humans usually got. The other kind. The kind that happened when a woman's body recognized the presence of Lycans—when something in her blood responded to their scent, their proximity.

Feral Heat.

I'd only seen it once before, in a girl who'd lasted three days before they took her to the King. She'd been found in her cell just like this—naked, desperate, pleasuring herself with anything she could find because the need was too strong to resist.

That girl had survived the King longer than anyone.

"You're burning up," I heard myself say, making a decision I'd probably regret. "We need to cool you down. Stay here. Don't move. Don't make a sound."

I slammed the door shut and threw the bolt, then grabbed my bucket and ran.