Chapter 19: A Reminder to Everyone
Chapter NINETEEN: A Reminder to Everyone
Meredith’s POV.
The warm water slid over my skin, washing away the lingering drowsiness and frustration from my morning. The two maidservants moved around me with practiced precision, their touch light as they helped me bathe.
I should have been grateful, I supposed. After all, they were only doing what they were told.
But I couldn’t ignore the way their gazes kept flickering—hesitating—toward the mark on my shoulder.
The crescent moon.
Even without looking, I could feel the weight of their curiosity, the silent questions they didn’t dare voice. It wasn’t their fault. The mark was impossible to miss, standing out starkly against my pale skin, a dark reminder of what I was. Cursed and wolfless.
Or rather, what I wasn’t.
I swallowed hard and forced myself to stay still, but inside, my stomach twisted. The water did little to soothe the deep-seated ache that came with being seen like this. Exposed. Judged.
No one ever saw my skin—not since the mark appeared. I kept myself covered, hidden. But here, under the careful hands of the servants, there was no hiding. And the occasional glance, the brief flicker of pity or uncertainty in their eyes, made me feel stripped bare in a way that had nothing to do with the bathwater.
By the time they wrapped me in a towel and began dressing me, I was eager for it to be over. But then, I noticed the gown they had chosen.