Chapter 1

July 8th

The sun was shining, the birds chirping, the leaves swaying slightly in the breeze. The smell of freshly cut grass and blooming flowers brought a small smile to my lips and filled me with a sense of peace. It was barely eight in the morning but already the sun had warmed the air.

My eyes landed on a small bumble bee, flitting in and out of the perfect blooms and not for the first time I wondered what his life is like. Is it a simple life, carefree, or does he worry, do predators haunt his every waking moment, is he in a hurry, panicked, is that why his wings flutter so fast. It’s easy to lose myself in such thoughts, when my own reality is hidden behind the door to my back.

The groundskeeper Kyle, had already done his rounds early this morning, avoiding the summer heat by starting at the crack of dawn, not that I could really blame him. It was the hottest summer we had seen in twenty years, or so Mrs H kept complaining.

I sat down on the chipped and discoloured stone step, stretching my legs out in front of me I rested my back against the old wooden door and sighed. With a warm cup of British tea, in a cracked mug that Mrs Henderson had shoved in my hands as soon as she saw me yawning in the doorway, I let the illusion of freedom fill me with the only contentment I had ever felt as I watched the garden around me.

The slightest of breezes kept me from breaking out in a sweat and the packhouse behind me offered a little shade as the sun continued to rise, by noon every inch of the grounds would be flooded with sunlight and the heat would be inescapable.

I watched the birds in the distance as they hopped from one branch to another in the apple trees that sat to the left of the lake. The water rippled as fish came up for food and a tiny frog jumped from the pad of a lily into the slightly longer grass on the far side of the water. Even so far away I could see every detail clearly, I watched, fascinated as the small green creature stretched out its legs, pushed off from the ground and disappeared into the blades of grass that stretched into the forest beyond.

My eyesight had steadily improved ever since I found my wolf a little under a year ago, or maybe I was just learning to use my gifts better, it was definitely one of the perks of being a shifter, and I took advantage of my blessings at every opportunity. I loved the gardens, I always had, it was my safe space, my happy place. The one place in this humongous house where there was no worry, no threat, no predators. I sipped from the broken cup, careful not to catch my lip on the broken edge as contentment filled me, even if it was to be fleeting.

Flowers all around the garden were blooming, it was the height of summer and there was a good crop this year. I couldn’t name them all, but Kyle had taught me my favourites. Roses, the white ones that had that hint of pink in the middle of the petals. Sunflowers, the big yellow happy flowers that made me smile every time I saw them. Peonies were the ones that looked messy and yet beautiful at the same time and lotus flowers floated out on the lake between the lily pads. Each one was colourful, completely different, and yet utterly beautiful in its own right.

I finished my tea and let myself relax. If the conversation I overheard last week was anything to go by, I wouldn’t have the opportunity to do so for much longer. The Alpha was planning to sell me as soon as I turned seventeen and then the goddess only knows where I would end up. There would be no more sneaking out to enjoy the gardens, no more stollen moments to calm my nerves and settle my thoughts.

I glanced into the bright morning sky and not for the first time, wondered what I had done in my past lives to warrant being the receiver of such a harsh fate. My entire life had been one long series of miseries. I shook off the thought, I suppose there were worse Alphas to belong to, there were worse fates to have. At least I didn’t belong to that brute that was here last month. I shuddered as I thought about the beast that masqueraded as a man and the brutalised woman that was his slave.

Once upon a time there was a grace, a dignity and an honour in belonging to a shifter pack, or so the history books I coveted told. I smiled as I imagined the world I had been reading about each night under the cover of darkness. Where shifters had the freedom to choose their own fate. Times sure had changed.

The door opened behind me on rusty hinges, and I jolted forwards to stop myself from falling before turning to look up into the caring eyes of Mrs Henderson. The woman was, for all intents and purposes, as close to a mother as I would ever get.

“What are you doing child?” She asked with a smile as she took in my relaxed state.

“Just enjoying the morning Mrs H.”

“Well, come on in now. There’s work to be done.” She offered a genuine smile and stepped back into the kitchen that was now bustling with staff.

It still amazed me how a family of four and their occasional visitors needed so many staff, but then I guess when you are the Alpha of the pack and live in a veritable mansion you get what you want, no matter if it was needed and no matter how many people suffered in the process. At least it meant none of us were particularly overworked.

“You take the bedrooms today, Amara.” Mrs H stated with a glance at me as she looked around the room at the gathered staff, handing out assignments for the day.

The bedrooms weren’t my favourite but at least I wasn’t on kitchen duty. I could cope with just about everything so long as I didn’t have to serve food to the Alpha, Luna and their kids or scrub the pans after the cook burnt the eggs, which she would, she did every morning, and my fingers still hadn’t recovered from the last time I was assigned the task.

“Grace and Keira take the guest rooms. The Alpha will have visitors in the coming days, we don’t know how many and we don’t know when they will arrive, so all the rooms need to be prepared and freshened daily.” She continued and I winced, that meant a lot more work for us all over the coming weeks. Hopefully they would come soon and leave sooner and hopefully for us all they wouldn’t be as bad as the last lot that visited.

I watched as the girls all flinched, Carly in particular seemed horrified at the thought of more visitors, not that I could blame her. She had definitely been the one to suffer most at the hands of the last visiting Alpha, she still bore the cuts and bruises that hadn’t quite faded, and I had no doubt that some of the scars would be with her for life. Her hands shook as she took a step back away from the group, as though to protect herself from men that were not here yet.

Mrs H spared her a sympathetic glance before continuing on with the assignments. There were 14 girls gathered in the huge kitchen, 14 slaves, 14 women that had never seen a kind hand beyond what Mrs H showed us every day. How I wished for a better life for us all, a life like the history books told us it should be, with an Alpha who cared.

I shook off the thoughts. Everyone wishes for better, but I know that it’s not always greener on the other side. At least the Alpha left the children alone, there were others out there that didn’t, Carly was case in point.

The girls started to move, each heading in the direction of their assigned task for the day and I followed suit, grabbing a cleaning case from the storeroom off the kitchen and getting to work.

Cleaning the bedrooms was mind numbing work. It was also a little disgusting. The Alphas son Harley had a habit of leaving tissues on the floor and I shuddered as I tried not to think about what they were covered in. He also never flushed the toilet in his connected bathroom and left all his dirty clothes on the floor.

Mia was on laundry duty today, I gathered the dirty washing into a pile to take down to her and picked up all of the rubbish before scrubbing my hands. The guy was a pig. My face was scrunched in disgust as I flushed the toilet, dumped a quarter bottle of bleach into it and scrubbed it with a brush before cleaning the rest of the bathroom.

There were hundreds of pounds worth of bottles of aftershave strewn over the counter, towels so soft they were like touching the clouds, cuff links that were probably worth more than my life, and shoes left on the floor made of handsewn Italian leather.

The Alpha and his family had never been shy about their wealth and I should probably be used to it by now, but it still made me sick, tidying away their extravagance while people in this town couldn’t afford to feed their children. The Alpha reaped the rewards of the packs hard work and paid them a pittance for the hours they laboured.  

It was lunch time before I had finished with the bedrooms and my own stomach growled as I carried down the mountain of clothes the Alphas daughter had left strewn around her room this morning. I had skipped breakfast in favour of sitting outside with my tea, but I was regretting it now.

With the rubbish taken out and the laundry left with Mia, my morning jobs were done, and I made my way to the kitchen to see what was left over from breakfast and lunch.

The slaves all ate left over’s from the Alphas table, but we weren’t allowed to indulge and none of us were stupid enough to risk breaking that rule, the rest of the food was supposed to be disposed of but the cook and I had a deal.

I entered the almost empty kitchen and spared a look to Hannah who pointed to the counter before speaking. “Your food is on the back, the waste is in the larder.” She stated with a small nod before turning her back to me and carrying on with the task of prepping the deserts to be taken out to the Alpha’s table.

I had never told her what I did with the waste food, but the older woman wasn’t daft, if she didn’t know, she at least suspected. She wouldn’t ask, plausible deniability, she had once told me, and I figured that was for the best. I was the one who took this risk, it should be me that paid the price of disobedience if I was ever found out.

It was a big risk to take, one that had my hands shaking every day, but my wolf was a rule breaker, constantly in the back of my head telling me to disobey, to run, to lie. To do whatever was necessary to survive this life. She was both the devil on my left and the angel on my right, my best friend, my biggest supporter and the only person in this world that I could truly rely on. I was looking forward to the full moon next week so I could let her out.

It was the one freedom the Alpha allowed all slaves, unless we were under a punishment. After all, denying the moons pull was neigh-on impossible, especially for the young, and I only found my wolf less than a year ago. My control was excellent, or so Mrs H told me, and I hadn’t had any of the problems I had seen the other girls have so maybe that was true, but I didn’t do anything special, I was just me, so when she asked how I controlled it I honestly didn’t know what to tell her. I wish I had an answer. Pearl got mad last week and shifted in the hallway. She was still bed bound after the beating the Alpha gave her, he almost killed her.

I quickly ate down the sandwich that had been left on the back for me before grabbing a big sack and filling it with the tubs of food the cook had left in the larder. Each tub contained a meal made from the leftovers of last night’s dinner and todays breakfast and lunch, twenty-eight tubs, twenty-eight meals. I closed the bag and made my way out of the larder, through the kitchen to the door into the garden before heading towards the bin shed keeping my eyes open for any of the staff.

My entire body was tensed as I approached the wooden construct, with one last glance around and the all-clear from my wolf, I took a deep breath and stepped around the side of the building to the almost invisible gap in the hedge. I squeezed through, ignoring the scratching on my skin and the pricks from the thorns, I ducked behind the bush and shimmied along to the end of the row where there was a gap in the fence that surrounded the property and ducked out into the forest that surrounded the pack house.

It was a five-minute walk from here to the meeting point and although I was now out of sight of the pack house, I still kept my eyes wide and alert. My wolf was quiet in my head, listening for sounds that only she could hear, keeping me safe, always.

The meeting point was in sight, and I could see Brent pacing the small space, wringing his hands together as he waited. The man looked worse than the last time I had seen him, although it had been a while, the pack members took turns coming to meet me, unfortunately there was no telling what time I would make it out, and some days I couldn’t make it at all, so whoever was on pick up duty could be here for hours, today was unfortunately one of those days.

“Sorry I’m so late Brent.” I murmured when he stopped pacing and turned to face me.

“That’s okay, I’m just grateful you came.” He answered with a wide smile of appreciation, his shoulders relaxing as he took me in. “You girls all okay up in that house?” He asked, the same way he did every time he met me, and I offered a smile.

The slaves weren’t allowed to leave the pack house, most of us had never seen the land that our Alpha ruled over never mind the land beyond it. One of the slaves had been taken on a trip to another pack a couple of years ago but she never returned. Anyone who left did so permanently.

“Yeah, we’re good Brent, we’re surviving.” I answered, thankful that there were some good men in this world, Brent was one of them. He worked day and night as a labourer at the lumber mill the Alpha owned, but could barely afford to feed his mate and three children, he was in the same boat as a lot of the pack members.

“You don’t look so good.” I stated before regretting my words when he blanched.

“I’ve been ill the last couple of weeks.” He stated and my wolf called out in my head that he was lying, although it didn’t take her superior senses to tell me that, I could see it with my own eyes, although I wasn’t brave enough to call him on it. Brent was a proud man, so I wouldn’t question him.

“Here.” He stated holding out a stack of empty tubs, the tubs that had been filled with food when I dropped them off yesterday and I traded them for the full tubs in the bag I was carrying.

“The Alpha has visitors coming soon so we will be preparing extra food over the next days or weeks until they arrive, I should be able to bring you more than usual tomorrow.” I informed and watched as the man’s eyes lit up at that. How was it that this good, hardworking man was so excited to hear there would be more scraps available for him to feed his family. He shouldn’t have to live like this, none of us should.

With a heavy heart I made my way back to the pack house with the empty tubs that I washed myself and restacked in the cupboard with the others. Mrs H was dolling out drinks for the girls and I grabbed a tea before making my way outside to enjoy the afternoon sun for the half an hour I would have spare until the afternoon jobs were assigned out.

I sat down in the grass by the rose bushes, my favourite place in the extensive grounds. From here I could watch the water ripple across the lake, smell the flowers, see all of the wonderful creatures as they went about their day in the garden. I was out of sight of the house, no one could see me, and I couldn’t see them, it was like none of the rest of the world existed, my own little heaven.

I sipped at the cooling tea, enjoying the sweet taste and watched the garden around me as two of the younger girls walked by with their own drinks, talking a million miles a minute as they swapped tales.

“It could happen though, right?” Layla asked, her innocent voice serious and Macy laughed.

“Sure, in your dreams maybe. When would you ever meet your fated mate? We’re not allowed out of the pack house, you’ll never meet the pack members, and the visitors we get here are worse than the Alpha, I hope you never end up mated to one of them.” The slightly older girl stated, even at fourteen Macy was too much of a realist, too resigned to her fate. She wouldn’t dare to dream, Layla on the other hand was a believer of fairy tales, neither of them had found their wolf yet, that wouldn’t happen until the first full moon after their sixteenth birthdays. And I pitied the heartbreak they would feel when their wolves realised for the first time that they would never be free.

“But if you mated with one of the visitors, at least you wouldn’t be a slave.”

“Of course you would. Look at the Luna. Can you honestly tell me that is the life you’re dreaming about?” She asked and of course the girl was right.

The Alphas fated mate was from a land across the seas, although no one ever spoke of it, apparently the Alpha had killed the entire pack and brought the Luna back home with him, making her his mate. She was a bitter twisted woman. Half the time she seemed broken, the other half she was worse than the Alpha. But Macy was right, her life was no better than that of a slave, she wasn’t allowed to leave the packhouse without the Alpha or a guard, she had no free will, every decision was the Alphas, and his ruling was law.

Quite often the Luna was as bruised as we were, sure she sat at the Alphas table and ate her fill and dried with towels that were like silk but she wasn’t free. The only people in this house that were free were the Alpha and his son. Even his daughter would one day be sold or traded by her father for the sake of some sort of alliance. Juliet’s life was not her own either and she knew it, and in return took it out on us.

I shook off the thoughts, the girls had moved too far away now for me to hear their conversation without focusing my hearing and I wouldn’t invade their privacy like that. I drained the last of the tea from my cup, stood and straightened out the grey dress that was the slave’s uniform and made my way back into the house.

Mia was hanging washing on the line, Tara was beating the dust out of a rug over by the bin shed, Layla and Macy were sat lost in conversation, to the outside world everything here would seem perfectly normal, a relaxed and happy home, but we knew different, none of us were here by choice and we all hung on the mercy of the Alpha.

I left my cup in the sink and went in search of Mrs H, time to get back to work.