Moon Marked

3| Mark of Sacrilege

Aurelia

Meena was agitated as she paced in front of me, cursing and gesturing angrily, but I could barely concentrate on anything she was saying.

When she had realised my mistake and pulled me away from the roof, my front had smacked hard against the stone ledge, my ribs rattling with the pain as it flourished in my chest. It was a similar feeling that had rushed through me when I found that Alpha looking back at me, my breath suddenly stuck in the base of my throat as his ashen gaze filled with purpose and darkened with their hunger. Right now, Meena was lecturing me about my obvious carelessness of having gotten caught—but it was taking everything in me not to peek over the ledge to catch a glimpse of him all over again.

"We're fucked!" Meena's words finally filtered through my shock as I blinked up at her.

The repercussions of what I had done were written in the lines on her face, and some part of me should have been as worried as she was—Instead, a wave of calmness seemed to wash over me in its place.

"You're exaggerating," I murmured, shuffling slightly as the sharp pain of our escapade shot through me.

I pressed a hand to my chest just below my breastbone, sucking in another deep breath to stop the pain from flaring. The plight of this night would bruise my skin by tomorrow, and even though we healed faster than mortal men, I could still imagine the dark purple splatters that would cover my pale skin.

For the next few days, I would have to get changed when no one was looking, otherwise the news of my bruises would fly through the sanctuary faster than a butterfly that had just gotten its wings.

The concern in Meena's gaze heightened as she turned to me, tugging at my dress to try and get a look at the damage.

"After the matrons find out that you got hurt, they'll pry the truth out of us. Then they'll have us flogged as they command us to repent for our sins." She hissed as I pushed her hands away from me.

Usually, Meena didn't care about the matron's punishments, but something about this time was different.

"You don't even know if he has said anything yet, all we have to do is—"

"Of course he has said something—all Alphas are the same, Aurelia. They will always use their power over anyone who is weaker than them, and just like the witches that gave us their marks, they hate to be disobeyed." Meena spat out, and for a moment I was too stunned to say anything.

It was obvious we had lived different lives before we had been brought to this sanctuary. The day Meena had arrived at its steps, the place had been strife with gossip. For me, her arrival had been a nice reprieve from the nasty words of the other sanctuary girls, and I had been glad for it until I realised that they were only repositioning their torment onto someone who had been through something much worse.

Some said that Meena had shown up at the sanctuary beaten and bruised, and others said she had been captured and chained because she hadn't wanted to submit to the mark the witches had given to her. Everyone had seen the scars on her back that painted a picture of the violence she had endured, but no one had the guts to speak about them.

Meena had never confirmed any of the stories, and it had never felt right to ask her about the truth, but right now—I could see the pain clearly in her eyes.

"If he has said anything then it is my punishment to take." I held onto her as I stood up, straightening my spine and gritting my teeth through the pain of the movement. "You should go back to your room, and I will stay here and claim it was an accident. I'll tell them that I came up here to pray in the sacred spring and if they—"