Chapter 5:

AN: This is a universe where everyone has a wolf. It can be an alpha, beta or other wolf. Slaves are often taken from the lowest class of wolfs and slave master are often beta or alpha.

DPOV

It had taken the better part of the morning, but I had made some inspections and preparations for the full moon. I wasn't the only one that was affected by the full moon, and although everyone would be affected, the effect was a lot less in non-alphas and betas.

The King was my worst concern. But at least during this full moon I knew I could protect Rose from him. He would probably pick another victim, but there was only so much I could do. Although if there was ever a time to organize a massive orgy it would be during the full moon. Even Madame Kirova wouldn't bat an eye if I requested that.

The army had two alphas who I know have their own way of handling the full moon. One is female, the other male and both unmated. It didn't take a genius to figure out how they usually spend the full moon. They never gave any problems, and that is all I cared about. I have never seen them together outside of the full moon, so it was probably an arrangement of convenience. They do say there is nothing like an alpha coupling though. But because female alphas are more rare, not every one of us is able to experience that.

And Alpha females are just as strong as alpha males so they kind of need to agree.

I made sure most beta's were either in the sparring pits, against other beta's and that the day to day business was handled by others. They usually were anyway.

I walked back towards my room, a room where she would be waiting for me. A small smile pulled at my lips.

When I walked in she was standing in front of my weapons admirroring them. I had left her some leathers and she was wearing them now. I decided she should always wear leathers. Not that she wouldn't look beautiful in a dress, but this suited her. The leather pants were tight around her hips and legs. The top was made from softer material, but it hugged every curve. Her arms were bare. They were simple soldier leathers, the only thing I could come up with on short notice without raiding actual women's closets. Kirova hadn't bothered to give her more clothes than her night-gown, thinking she would mostly be out of clothing anyway.

I vowed I would commission her her own leathers. Nothing fancy, but something fit for the warrior she was.

She had bathed. Her hair was still damp. It was wild on her back. I imagine someone had spent a long time trying to tame those strands into the soft and uniform curls she had come in with here last night. But I preferred this. I wanted to run my hands through them.

I clenched my hand at my side before the limb could betray me.

I stared at her for a while before she finally turned away from my weapons and her eyes found me. She was a bit startled. She hadn't heard me come in.

I chuckled. "I see that keeping track of your surroundings is one lesson your guard friends failed to teach you."

She just stuck her tongue out at me.

I had to walk away to stop myself from laughing.

I started to undress. I had the bath water replaced by hot water and was finally going to get that bath I had wanted since last night. I was actually a little self conscious when I undressed in the bathroom. I didn't know why, but I kept seeing if Rose was sneaking a peek. Or maybe I didn't want her to be embarrassed.

I got into the warm water and I felt every muscle in my body relax. I still had to figure out how I am going to handle Rose during the full moon. It was not a good idea to be in the same room with her. But I couldn't actually leave either. If I leave a concubine alone in my room during a full moon people will talk.

I was worried not only mine but her inhibitions would be lowered. I would never force myself on her. But things might lead to something and taking her virginity in the full moon was not something I wanted to do. I wouldn't have the control I would normally exercise.

The things I wanted and needed during that time would be too much for her to handle.

I groaned as not all of me was relaxed anymore. She was getting under my skin and I couldn't allow it. Attachments were a dangerous thing. Also I didn't want to make her feel that I could save her. If we did sleep together she might get the wrong idea.

But it would take a lot of control on my part. Luckily I had a lot of practice with control in my twenty-four years of life.

After I had calmed down and cleaned myself I got out of the bathtub and dried off. I put on some clean clothes and I walked towards the rest of my quarters.

"I have business I need to take care of. You can stay here." There was a bit of frost in my voice and I tried to be as indifferent as possible. Years of practice had made my face unreadable. Her eyes narrowed.

"So for two more days, this is what it is going to be, you are just going to avoid me?"

"And what would you have me do exactly?"

She threw her hands up in the air. "I don't know, something! You saved me, surely there is more you can do then just hide me away in your room until it is time for someone else to take a turn."

There wasn't. I could have helped her run, but she had made it clear she wouldn't. That was the extent of my power.

"I don't have any power over slaves. Rose."

She scoffed at that. "Yeah right, the Great and powerful General doesn't have any say in the lives of slaves."

I was getting angry. She didn't understand and my control was slipping. I let out a bit of alpha energy. It needed an outlet. And if it would send her the message how serious I was about this, then the better. Rose had exposed how powerless I was. And I hated it. I wanted to help her, I wanted to save her. But I couldn't. I didn't even have a say in transferring to a house slave. I was the most powerful alpha around yet I was powerless to save her, all because of one thing I could not change.

"No, because I am one!" as I set that truth free a serious amount of energy was released as well. I had expected her to bow down. I had expected her to fall to her knees. But she just stood there shocked. I was shocked too. I hadn't meant to blurt it out like that. But she got under my skin.

"You're a slave?" her voice was small. She wasn't afraid, which was something in light of my energy outburst.

I had expected her to crumble knowing that her last hope of freedom was a dead end. But I was wrong. Her face was gentle. Her eyes only held concern for me. Concern for a fellow slave.

I sat down, I took out the leather bind at the nape of my neck and ran my hands through my hair. I leaned back into the chair and looked at the ceiling. Anywhere but her eyes.

She sat down next to me and she waited patiently. It took me a few moments to compose myself and to retract the last pieces of alpha energy. The same alpha energy that seemed to have little effect on Rose.

"I am slave-born. My mother was a concubine. I was raised here in the palace. When I was little I had duties in the concubine garden. When I was six I started training in the army. Most male children of concubines do. Honestly, the odd slaves who have children also send their children there."

I remember being separated from my mother. I knew I wouldn't be there anymore to help her, to protect her. It had been traumatizing. I can still remember the day like it was yesterday. The army training base wasn't that far away from the palace but I wouldn't be able to see her everyday anymore and that scared me.

"People started noticing my strength early on. When I was six I could beat kids two years older. When I was ten I could take on sixteen year olds and when I was thirteen I was stronger than all of them."

They couldn't deny it anymore then. They had to act. Because I could make them all bend down for me if I could. One of them had recognized I had needed guidance and made sure I had the training I needed. I would forever be grateful to Galina for that. No other had been willing to teach me.

"Slave-born don't make it past lieutenant and that is already highly unlikely. But they didn't have a choice with me. I was just too powerful. But I had to work three times as hard to earn half of what my free peers had. They tried to stop me at every turn. It would create bad precedence for a slave to reach that high."

I looked over to Rose for the first time since I started talking. The concern on her face was still there but there was something else there, recognition.

"Still I don't have the same privileges as the rest of the Generals. In military matters they turn to me, but otherwise I am as powerless as I have always been. I have to make sure I don't step out of line, that I don't give them any ammunition to use against me, because I may be stronger than any of them, but I am not more powerful. And the moment they think I step out of line, they will retaliate."

She moved a little closer and placed her hands on mine. "It must be exhausting."

I let out a breath. It was.

"So why do you stay?"

It had been the same question I had asked her. Why hadn't she run? And it had the same answer. I couldn't leave someone. We were so similar and it hurt me a little bit to know Rose experienced some of the same problems I had. Being strong and being a slave is a problem for those so used to dominate us.

"My mother is still here at the Palace. She works in the palace crop fields now. I see her every couple of weeks. If I ran, I would have to take her too."

And if I left, who would keep the King in line? I feared without me as a savefall things could get ugly very fast.

"So, we both endure for the people we love." She laughed a little. "And both of us are complaining about it even though we have better living conditions than the large majority of slaves." She chuckled.

Because it lacked the one thing we craved. Freedom. But I suppose that was true for every slave.

RPOV

He had left that night. I think he needed to process what he had told me and so did I. Also he did actually have work to take care of. Like he said. He had to work three times as hard as anyone else.

In a way I felt closer to him now, even if any fantasy of him somehow setting me free had been squashed. If he couldn't have his freedom, there was little hope for the rest of us.

I was having plenty of time to think about everything and I was panicking. Tonight was the full moon and I could feel its effect. I had no idea what an Alpha in the full moon looked like up close. I usually just locked myself in my room with Lissa. Would he be different when he walked into that door tonight? Would I be? I knew the stronger you were the more the full moon had its effect on you.

And Dimitri was very strong.

I suppose the only one stronger was the King. What would he be doing tonight? Would he have one of the girls? I shuddered at the thought. If regular-King was someone to be feared, what would full-moon-King be like?

I was trying to think of something to keep me busy until tonight. Something to get my mind off of things and so I wouldn't notice how my skin itches everywhere, like something was trying to claw its way out.

I walked towards the library. Other than the weapons and giant sized tub it was the only personal touch to an otherwise bare room. But I doubt this was a result of his slave status. I think this was just him. He was a warrior who had grown up with nothing.

I scanned the library. There seemed to be a novel series he liked. I could see several books with the same cover but different titles. I picked up what seemed to be the first book in the series. I got comfortable in the chair and started reading.

Lissa was always the bookworm, I spent most of my free time either amasing or practicing new techniques. I never had the patience for books, but I must admit, this story was compelling. Maybe I did like books but I just needed a good story and the most scientific literature Lissa had spent time reading had been purely informational.

I was halfway through the book when I felt a sharp stab in my side. I doubled over from the intense pain. I wanted to scream but no sound came out.

One more but this one was in my chest. I breathed through the pain and after a few moments it was gone again. I put the book away. When I put it down I noticed how dark the room had gotten. It was still light out, but the sun was setting and the fading light of the dusk was all that illuminated the room now.

I walked over to the lights and lighted them piece by piece. By the time I got to the last one, there was that pain again. It seemed to be pulsating, the pain was in sync with my heartbeat. No, that wasn't right. It wasn't my heartbeat. It was hers.

"Please, not this full moon, please."

I tried pleading with her. Although maybe Dimitri would be one of the few that could help me with her. He was an Alpha afterall.

I ran to the bathroom and looked at myself in the mirror. My eyes were starting to turn to a dark amber, my canines lengthening, my nails grew sharper. She wanted out and if I didn't let her out soon, she would rip me in half. One way or another she would be free.

I knew I was pulsating power. I could feel myself doing it. There was a slight shake of the pieces in the bathroom as the power emerged from me in the rhythm of her heartbeat.

"I can't give you what you want. I know it isn't fair. But if it makes you feel better, I am trapped too."

There was a slight pause in the pain as if she was indeed happy that I was trapped too. I almost laughed. She and I weren't that different. Hell, we were supposed to be one. But I had kept her locked up for so long. I had too. It was for our own safety. She knew this too, but that primal side of me didn't care. It just wanted to be unleashed. And God, I wanted that too.

"I know, okay, I will let you out soon, I promise, I really will, but you can't be let out now. I have to figure out how to do it safely."

I was pleading. I was desperate.

I sunk to the floor. I balled up, trying to keep everything inside.

DPOV

I had taken care of most of my to do list when I headed back to my room. The sun was setting and I could feel my wolf scratching just below the surface. I didn't really know what to do with Rose, but I would figure it out.

I would get to my room, let my wolf out and we would take it from there. I usually ran, so that was the best option. I would also get an answer to the question if she had transformed yet. We hadn't talked about it and she hadn't let her wolf out yet.

Normally the first time the wolf would come out is somewhere in your teens. You didn't have your wolf when you were a child. Somewhere evolution had been smart not to let primal parts of a rather violent species out before they had the brain capacity to control it. I had been very young at thirteen, but my circumstances were different. Rose would be a little late with seventeen, but nothing anyone would bat an eye at.

I was around the corner from my room, when I felt power radiating from the direction of my quarters. There wasn't anyone particularly powerful in the vicinity.

I moved a little closer and once I was close enough to the door, I knew it was coming from inside my quarters. I panicked for a moment, but soon calmed down, knowing that the power was too weak to be him.

Also this power didn't set my wolf on edge. The King's power rubbed me the wrong way, like petting against the grain of fur on my wolf. But this, however, felt like velvet on my skin. Almost a caress of power instead of a blunt hammer.

I opened the door and was prepared to attack whoever had come into my room. But there was nobody.

I let out my wolf and looked around the room. Rose was also nowhere to be seen. I felt a pulse of power again and my wolf headed to the bathroom. I followed. In the corner of the bathroom was Rose, she was hugging her knees with her head resting on them. She hadn't noticed me yet. She kept chanting 'Please don't come out.' over and over again. And every couple of minutes I would feel the pulse of power.

It was coming from her.