Caroline:
"Oh my goddess!" I squeal, panic surging within me, when someone bumps into me, causing the tray of appetizers in my hand to drop onto the floor with a resounding sound, the appetizers scattered on the floor.
Tears instantly well in my eyes, my body trembling with the dread of what is to come as I look up at the person who has caused me such a great ordeal.
And it was none other than Victoria, one of Britney's lackeys. But before I could even open my mouth, she dropped to the floor, screaming.
"Please don't hurt me!"
"What?" I choke out, confusion etched on my face, because I really don't understand what she's up to this time. Her tricks never cease to amaze me; she has tons of them up her sleeve.
But she grins triumphantly, because once again I've given myself on a silver platter.
"What's going on here?" Mrs. Jones, the pack's head cook, demands when she rushes out of the kitchen.
"I saw her trying to steal some of the appetizer, and when I tried to stop her she—" Victoria didn't finish when a hard slap that sent me to the ground landed on my left cheek.
The warm, metallic taste of blood instantly fills my mouth as tears stream down my cheeks, not just from the physical pain coursing through me, but from the emotional pain that had engulfed me whole.
"You lowly slave, how dare you lay your filthy hands on the appetizer meant for the Alpha? Now you have ruined it!" Mrs. Jones enunciates each word with venom, showing just how deep her hate toward me is.
To think she concluded I was the one at fault without listening to my side of what happened.
I looked up at her face, clutching my cheek, the impact from the slap still ringing inside my ear, but I heard her correctly.
Swallowing back the blood inside my mouth, I ask,
"I thought it was you who sent for me to come and help with the servings?"
She slaps me again.
"The audacity to speak back! And why would I call a slave to serve the Alpha, his distinguished guest, and soon-to-be Luna?" Mrs. Jones questions, and I try to act as if my heart didn't ache at the mention of that name, Luna.
So this was their plan; Mrs. Jones never called for me. I was tricked once again. And they used Mrs. Jones. Again. Because they know how much it will hurt me. And it has.
I look at Victoria's face at the thought, and her lips curl discreetly.
So now what?
I'm going to be locked up again in the dark dungeon, playing hide-and-seek with the rats?
Receive another 50 lashes?
Scrub the entire ceremonial hall until my hands bleed?
Fill up the well with icy stream water from the border with just a small bucket?
Or, worst of all, starve me for another week?
I have yet to finish the last punishment. I still have three days to go before I can get three slices of loaf and a fish as my daily meal.
I really hope it won't be so, but who am I kidding? This has been my life for the past three years.
A nightmare.
A relentless cycle of never-ending torture.
I'm a traitor… the one who caused the death of almost half the pack members, my dad, and the alpha's parents. I was branded a murderer, stripped of my dignity, and demoted to a slave.
But Britney, the alpha's younger sister, made it her mission that I know what hell felt like every blessed day.
She's the princess, and who dares defy her orders that I should be taught a lesson by everyone?
Already, the rest of the pack members hate me, since they each lost a loved one because of me, so they already wanted to torment me, and with the princess backing them, I'm like a tennis ball, being tossed around.
I have nowhere to turn to for help.
No, not to my mother or big brother, who hates me the most. Even my wolf decided to abandon me.
I have absolutely no one.
I'm hungry. So much that it hurts.
Only the goddess knew how hard it was for me to see that appetizer but not take a bite, even when I knew it was a bad idea to eat one on an empty stomach, since there was no promise of a meal afterward.
"I'm sorry, Mrs. Jones. I deserve to be punished." At my words, she rolls her eyes, sizing me up like I was something disgusting.
"Come on, take her away. Give her 100 lashes, no food for a week, and let her clean the ceremonial hall afterward." She instructs the two warriors standing at the entrance.
They approached, their burly figures towering over me.
"Get up! Slave. You don't expect me to help you up?" One of the warriors sneers, showing his disdain by hitting me with the tip of the silver spear he was holding.
I slowly push myself up, but then I'm hit with a sudden wave of dizziness.
The last thing I heard was Mrs. Jones's contemptuous scoff:
"Hump, she's just pretending," followed by something hard hitting me in the back before I succumbed to the darkness.
~~~
I don't know how long I've been out. But I hear Mrs. Jones's voice, thick with disbelief, ask
"Are you sure?"
"Are you doubting my profession?" Dr. Sheila, the pack's head doctor and a close friend of Mrs. Jones, asks back, and I can sense the displeasure lacing her tone.
"No, pardon my words. I'm just surprised someone was able to lie with her. Look at her—she's nothing but skin and bones. Not to mention all those old and fresh wounds? Who in their right mind would find this thing arousing?"
Okay.
I feel like a specimen being analyzed under a microscope right now. What am I missing out on? I wonder, trying to open my eyes, but they feel heavy.
My head feels like it was trapped in a storm, buzzing with confusion, and my body feels heavy, as if weighed down by invisible chains.
"Do you have something to help terminate it? She's already a burden, not to add her child."
My eyes flew open at those words.
I'm pregnant? And she wants to get rid of it?
"You shameless slave, who would have thought you were whoring around in your state?" Mrs. Jones chastises.
For the first time in years, I laugh. A loud one.
"Whoring around?" I continued laughing.
"Why don't you ask your alpha if I did? That night he made me feel special while our bodies were entangled in his bed. When he looked me in the eyes like I was some rare gem. But he treated me like dust under his feet the very next day. Why don't you ask him? Because I'm as confused as you are!"
Those were the words on the tip of my tongue, but I swallow them back, bitterly.
Mrs. Jones's hand landing on my cheek pulled me out of swirling emotions.
"Have you finally gone nuts?" Mrs. Felicia demands, and I look her dead in the eyes and question back.
"Why don't you tell me? Mother?" I emphasize "mother."
Her eyes widened; she must be surprised I called her that after all these years.
"Tell me, Mother, do your genes carry madness too? Because I know for a fact they harbor murder, wickedness, and heartlessness." She raises her hand to slap me again, but this time, Dr. Sheila decides to intervene.
"Enough, she's your daughter for goddess' sake."
"She was, once, but not after colluding with the rogues."
I laugh again, seeing the way the voice falters at the latter part of the statement.
"Mother, do you know what's funny? That you knew all along. But let me take the blame!" I push my feet off the bed, another wave of dizziness washing over me the moment I stand up.
But I fight through, walking out of the pack's hospital.
"You ungrateful child! Come back here." Mrs. Jones calls after me, but I pay her no heed.
I was out of the hospital when a hand grabbed my wrist firmly.
"You're coming back with me to get rid of that thing growing inside you! Do you think whoever got you pregnant will take responsibility?"
"Let go of me!" I shout, yanking my hand out of hers, and I don't know where all the strength came from; it sent her to the ground.
But then a voice behind me causes me to stiffen.
"You're pregnant." I turn to face him, the blood draining from my face.
"Alpha Trevor." I gasp, my body a trembling mess, seeing the expression on his face.
Icy and aloof.
Nothing like the man who awakened strange sensations within me. With the seed of that encounter growing inside me.
"That thing inside you is a curse. It can't see the light of day," he says emotionlessly, before instructing the warriors around.
"Send her back in there; that thing inside her must be terminated! Immediately!"
Those words felt like a death sentence.