The Masked Alpha's True Luna

Once again, Odette fell into a nightmare she couldn't wake up from. She could not move around inside that nightmare, and the Masked King stood before her, staring down at her with his menacing red eyes.

However this time, he repeated the line he spoke before as he touched her skin with the tip of his claw.

"You cannot leave this kingdom, Odette. Because you are a part of me."

In the next second, her chest burst open, leaving a big gap that anyone could put their entire arm inside.

Finally, after her chest burst open, she opened her eyes and returned to the same room where she woke up the last time. 

She stared at the chandelier for a while before placing her palm on top of her chest. For some strange reason, her chest returned intact, but she couldn't feel her beating heart at all.

She turned her head to the right towards the door, and frowned, hoping that it was all just a dream, and she didn't just die like that.

Thus, she called the cat maids weakly, "Ruru… Rori…"

The cat maids had sensitive ears, so when they heard Odette's call, they walked into the room together.

"Your Grace, are you alright?" Ruru asked worriedly. She had been staying on guard outside day and night, waiting for their King's bride to wake up after the shock. "Did you get hurt anywhere?"

"Here…" Odette said as she pressed her chest. "His Majesty, he touched my chest with his claw, and it just burst open."

"But why didn't I die? Is that just an illusion? Or is this an illusion?" Odette was confused. No creature in this world would survive having their heart burst open like that, so she assumed that she was already in the afterlife right now.

But if this was the afterlife, how come she hadn't met her adopted parents or her real parents? 

Was she such a horrible person growing up, so she wasn't allowed to rest in peace even after her death?

"What happened in the garden wasn't an illusion, Your Grace," Rori replied. "Your chest did burst open, and you are still alive… well, sort of."

"H-how could I stay alive? That's not possible!" 

Ruru and Rori looked at each other, before nodding in tacit understanding.

They started unclasping the buttons in their maid dresses slowly, and took off half of their dress, showing their bare chests.

Odette's eyes widened when she saw the hollow hole in their chest, just like her in that dream. 

Odette looked at them, and their chests back and forth, unable to understand how they could still look pretty much alive even though they didn't have hearts anymore. 

"This isn't an illusion, Your Grace. We—no, everyone in the castle—have no beating heart. We wouldn't be able to live in the kingdom if we were still alive," Ruru explained. "We are already dead."

…

It didn't take long for Odette to connect the dots. She asked slowly, "How long have you been dead?"

"… A long time," Rori replied.

"We have forgotten how long time has passed for us. The sky stays in that deep purple color forever. There is no sun, no moon, and no season change," Ruru added. She looked at Odette with pity, "And you are one of us now, Your Grace."

Odette was unable to understand that. In her culture, when a pack member died, their soul would either join their ancestors to be worshipped, or they would wander around the forest, and it was all based on their merit. 

However, there was a third category, where the souls of pack members who had no use, no merit, or even brought harm to the pack, would be tossed into the fiery pit and would be tortured in hell. 

But this… this was just unbelievable. 

"Then, does that mean we're in… hell?" Odette asked.

"I wouldn't say that, Your Grace. We're not harmed, well, most of the time when His Majesty is in a better mood," Rori replied. "Once you're dead, you will need to give His Majesty your heart, so you can stay inside his domain."

"But it's alright, Your Grace. You will live normally in this domain. Nothing will ever harm you under his protection, so you can be rest assured," Ruru said.

Nothing but silence was coming from Odette. The cat maids knew that it would be really difficult for her to digest the situation. Besides, they were unable to tell her about everything regarding their Masked Alpha King without his permission. 

Telling her that she was a dead woman now was already a huge shock, so Rori and Ruru excused themselves, giving time for their King's new bride to fully grasp the situation. 

Odette was left inside the spacious room. She looked down at her chest to check and saw that she still had her skin intact, unlike the cat maids.

But she knew that there was nothing but space inside her chest. She couldn't detect any heartbeat, but she still breathed like a living being.

It was indeed hard to believe for someone who never had any affinity with magic before. However, after seeing the deep purple sky, the hovering dark cloud, the garden full of thorns, the hollow heart, and most importantly, the Masked Alpha King, it would be stupid for Odette not to believe that the masked man was an omnipotent being akin to the king of the underworld.

Odette sat on the bed, contemplating her new life in this strange world. She was used to accepting her fate when she was an outcast in her pack and tried to make the best out of her situation. 

She understood that Masked Alpha wanted to find strong warriors from other beastmen tribes outside to be recruited into his kingdom.

"But why me? What use of him for recruiting me?" Odette pondered over and over but was still unable to find any reason for why she was stuck in this place. She refused to believe that man would let her stay out of kindness.

The only person who knew her purpose of staying in this kingdom—and if she could leave in the future—was the Masked Alpha King himself.

"I have to talk to him again," Odette deduced. "I want to know what I should do to regain my freedom and leave."