If you told me a year ago that I'd be mated then rejected by the alpha of my pack I'd have checked you for fever or perhaps a head wound. I have been a slave since birth. No one knows anything about my birth, I am simply Lisa. I have no wolf, no rank, and odd things happen around me. I don't even look like the wolves of my pack. I am small, pale with strange eyes that shift from green to gold when I am emotional and I have shockingly silver hair. Not blonde, not white, not even gray. It hangs to my waist in braids of silver. The pack members have tried various ways of trying to change it, but always within days it is back to my waist in silver. No dye, cutting or even shaving of it changes it. Only I have discovered if I change it, it will remain how I chose it. I just don't tell the others this fact. They would use it to force me to change my looks and I like how I look now.
As a slave I basically do housework until I eventually pass out on my mat in the cellar, then back up to cook and clean again. Every day is the same routine. Cook, sneak small scraps of food where I can, clean, tend to the laundry and look for any clothing deemed for the garbage to try and salvage fabric to make clothes, receive my single meal of the day then pass out until 4am when I start all over again.
I woke to a strange feeling in my body, a pull
that felt it should be warm and safe but instead filled me with cold dread. I thought I was going to experience another odd episode. Theyd been coming more and more lately, probably why I was relegated to staying away from any of the ranked pack members.
Sometimes my emotions made lights flicker or blow out, sparks danced along my arms and hands once, storm clouds gather and cause a large thunderstorm with pitched lightening that burnt nearly an acre of forest on the pack lands, and I once got so mad I burned a blouse of the Lunas because she taunted my oddities while throwing the blouse at me for cleaning.
After that incident the pack doctor was called to give me a medication that kept my emotions basically null. I simply existed as a machine. A cleaning, cooking and uncaring machine.
Still lately, it's getting worse. Yesterday I was distracted watching the pack members out at the training fields and I was sweeping the kitchen floor when I realized that the broom was no longer in my hands and was instead sweeping the floors by itself. I quickly grabbed it back and looked around relieved to see that no one else was around to see it happen. I would be punished for certain if they had.
I was still sweeping when a scent hit me like nothing I'd ever smelled before, it smelled of fresh oranges and sweet summer heat. I followed the scent and ran smack dab into Luke Thorne, the future alpha of the pack. His nose flared as he looked down on me and recognition formed in his eyes. It was the mate bond. He grabbed me and shoved me into a wall, his hands fisting in my hair as he skimmed his nose up the side of my neck breathing in my scent.
He dragged me towards his office and locked the door where he claimed my purity with malice. Almost as if he hated the act itself. I couldn't understand. Mates are supposed to be loving, cherishing and kind. He was none of those things. He sneered down at me, my torn clothing, my body sprawled bleeding and sore, and he rejected me. He said he'd never allow a nobody to stand beside him and that he'd mark Natalie instead. I went to speak, through my tears and pain, my humiliation and grief to accept his rejection, but he wouldn't allow me to. He said a filthy nobody deserved to live shamed, outcast and miserable.
I didn't yet know what he meant, but I'd soon learn. That night he took Natalie. I felt a pain so intense I rolled off my mat and vomited on the floor. My body writhed in pain and agony all night. The next morning he made a point of coming to the cellar to sneer at me again and ask how I enjoyed my night. I knew now that this would be my life from here on out. Night after night I endured the pain. Eventually, I learned to accept it and even embrace it. I found solace in escaping the packhouse to the lake in the woods. It was rarely visited by any of the pack so I barely had to worry about being bothered. The small waterfall made an endless melody against the rocks and the cool water was soothing to my aching muscles. I would lie there until the worst of it subsided and then I'd sneak back into my cellar and lay on my mat. This was my only joy for four short weeks that summer. One night a patrol guard caught me and reported me to Luke. After that I was locked in my cellar from midnight until four am. I had to endure it all with no helpful water. But, I adapted to this too. I even managed to get some sleep at nights eventually.
This has been my reality for over a year now. I am heavily watched while I am not locked away so I haven't had any chance to make it back to my lake. I have given up even trying to find a way.
I was scrubbing potatoes when Natalie sauntered into the kitchen, her long brown hair hanging in soft waves around her stunning face, Chloe her evilest minion trailing her like the amazonian barbie from hell. She stopped right in front of me on the floor, as I was not permitted to sit on the furniture, and said in her high nasally voice
"Oh look, it's the little mouse, diligently going about her work. I wonder if the little mousie is thirsty?" she took the kitchen sinks hose and turned it onto the coldest and gleefully sprayed me in my face.
I jumped back in shock and nearly knocked the bowl of potatoes into the floor. She only laughed more cruelly and kicked the bowl sending them flying everywhere. -sigh- now I'd have to wash them again. But Natalie wasn't done with me. She turned to me and said to Chloe
"I wonder if Luke has told the little mousie the good news yet?"
Chloe, never one to miss a chance to humiliate or hurt me responded at once playing along with Natalie's game.
"I don't believe he has, I think he was leaving that bit of fun for you Nat. He knows how much you love to tell good things."
"well, little mouse, it's your lucky day! I have the best news ever and I will share it with you! In two weeks, I'll stand before you and this entire pack and pledge myself Luna and Mate of Luke. Isn't that just the most wonderful thing you've heard?" she said with a sickeningly sweet voice that only sounded as if she'd meant it to be nice.
"Oh Nat! don't miss out telling her the best part!" Chloe nudged her
"Oh how silly of me! Little mouse! I forgot! You will be in charge of making the ceremonial hall look it's best, you'll be making most of the banquet AND you'll be permitted to stand and watch me take the place that the Moon Goddess mistakenly gave you in the first place! I think this is most fitting for teaching a creature such as yourself just where she belongs, don't you?"
I, of course, said nothing. I sat on the floor looking everywhere else but at her as I had learned that even looking at her shoe could send me to bed with no dinner for a week solid. She never wanted any feedback, only wanted to twist the knife again and watch the pain enter my eyes. But this time, I couldn't stop the reaction. My mind turned black and the next thing I knew the pots and pans on the rack above the work counter came crashing down around the pair of she-demons sending them clamoring back to escape being hit.
She screamed for Luke and I felt the sharp sting of a slap then the prick of a needle and my world went black.