Ameira's POV
I wasn't allowed to sleep on bed. Beds were for real daughters. Not for me. The cold wooden floor beneath my thin blanket had become more familiar to my bones than the feeling of kindness. I used to dream of soft mattresses and warm arms when I was younger back when I still believed that someone might come rescue me. That maybe, just maybe, my life wasn't a mistake. But no one ever came. Not when my stepmother pressed a hot iron to my cheek and said it was an accident. Not when my stepsisters tore up the only dress I had for the school gathering. And not when she told the entire pack I was nothing but a mistake the Moon Goddess forgot to erase. I was the omega nobody wanted, the thing they all stepped over on their way to glory. The alphas looked at me like I was dirt. The girls looked at me like I was a disease. I wasn't even allowed to shift my wolf was too weak, too broken. and worst of all, I believed them and started seeing myself less. Every morning, I woke up to the slap of the broomstick handle against my shoulder.
"Up, lazy rat!" my stepmother hissed, yanking the blanket off my body. "The packhouse needs scrubbing. If I find even a single speck of dust, you will get nothing for dinner."
She was tall, elegant, and cruel like a queen who knew she ruled over me with no opposition. Her name was Calista, but to me, she was a monster in lipstick. She had married my father after my mother died, only to poison him slowly over a year until he dropped dead one winter morning. No one suspected that she killed my dad. They believed every sweet lie she whispered, every tear she faked. But behind closed doors, she was something else entirely. I got up, ignoring the aching bruises from the night before. My stepbrother had thrown a boiling pot of soup at me because I dropped a spoon. The scalds on my arm throbbed, raw and red, but I couldn't stop to care, If I didn't clean the kitchen before breakfast, I'd go hungry Again. I washed, scrubbed, polished, and swept in silence, my fingers were bleeding, my stomach growled I had not eaten anything last night, because I did not finish my work on time.
My room was a storage closet in the basement. There was no window, just cobwebs, a cracked lightbulb, and the smell of mildew. I had one thin blanket. No pillow. The floor was hard, and sometimes I'd wake up to rats crawling over my legs. But it was better than being near them. Better than being near Kaela and Vivian, my stepmother's daughters both golden haired, sharp-tongued witches with fake smiles. They had silk sheets and perfume-scented baths. They laughed at my scars and made jokes about the smell of ash that clung to me. Once, Kaela called me "Packhouse Trash" in front of the Alpha heir. And they all laughed. That was the day I stopped looking people in the eye.
One afternoon, as I limped down the hallway carrying a heavy basket of laundry, I overheard something that made my heart twist.
"She's our mate?" a deep voice asked.
I froze behind the wall.
"No way," another scoffed. "That pathetic thing? You sure the Moon Goddess didn't mess up?"
My stomach dropped.
"She's disgusting," said a third. "We can't claim that. What will everyone think?"
I didn't need to peek to know who they were. I knew their voices well the six Alpha heirs from the most powerful packs surrounding ours. They had arrived that week for the Gathering. Tall. Powerful. Worshiped. And I was their mate. All six of them. But instead of joy… they sounded angry. Disgusted. As if the Moon Goddess had cursed them.
"We will reject her publicly," said one coldly. "Let the whole pack know. If we all do it together, no one will question it." The others murmured in agreement. My knees buckled. How did I become their mate? Then I remembered my eighteenth birthday is next week. I turned and went back to my room to cry my hear out. They already planned to reject me, why is the moon goddess so cruel?
"Ameira!! Get me water, My stepsister's loud voice came from her room. I quickly dried my tears with the back of my hand and hurried to get her the water, if i waste anymore time only the moon goddess knows she will do to me. I rush to the fridge to grab a the water bottle and rush back to her room.
"You are two seconds late she said"
" I'm sorry. I apologized to her, I went ahead to give her the water and the water bottle slipped from my hand and spilled on the ground. Calista slapped me twice on my cheeks. "Lazy fool!! Can't you hold it well? You deserve a serious punishment for this
She took the iron again.
"This face of yours... it's too pretty for someone so useless."
I screamed as the heat seared into my cheek. The pain was unbearable, but I didn't beg her to stop that will make the punishment worse. I nearly passed out from the pain. And when she was done with the punishment, commanded to clean the floor. Which I did my face was bleeding but she didn't care. When I was done cleaning the floor I went back to my room to treat my face which has become burnt by the iron. I hardly slept because of the pains. Calista woke me up with a bucket of cold water the next morning, she made me wear a white dress. The same one my mother had made for me before she died. The only thing I had left from her. It was now stained, torn at the hem, and too tight around my ribs, but Calista forced me to wear it to the Pack Square.
"Today's special," she smiled, shoving me forward. "Today's the day everyone gets to see what you really are." She dragged me to the front of the crowd where the six Alphas stood tall, their cold eyes, sculpted jaws, and smug smiles. I was dragged in front of them.
"She's our mate," said the first one. "But we reject her."
"She's too weak," said another. "A shame to be linked to us."
Each one took turns. Each one said it louder. The pack members were laughing and insulting me. The children were throwing rotten tomatoes at me. Someone spat on me One of the girls probably one of their girlfriends poured a drink over my head and whispered, "You thought being their mate would save you?"
I just stood there, soaked and scarred, and listened to them reject me like I was nothing, when they were done tormenting me, the six of them left with there girlfriends without looking back. Calista dragged me back to the basement and locked the door. I wanted to cry but the tears refused to come, I just stared at the cracked ceiling, my face still burning, my heart shattered in ways I didn't know it could.
Suddenly the door creaked open and I heard Heavy footsteps. Coming into the basement, I saw six shadows in the dark. One by one, they came inside there eyes glowing, and they were breathing heavy they closed the door behind them.