II

Kaiya

Ace’s and Dylan’s words echo through my head as I run for the packhouse in horror, but soon I would learn it is just the start of my misery.

“No! We must reject her!” and “In her weakened state, rejecting her would be a death sentence!” ring through my mind on repeat while my legs can’t carry me inside fast enough to escape the horror unfolding.

           My lungs burn and hot tears roll down my cheeks. Terror grips me and my mind reels while my emotions spiral into a confusing symphony of mixed feelings. My legs nearly give way when I am forced to halt at the top of the stairs after climbing them to the Greek revivalist style balcony overlooking the extensive gardens between the packhouse and training grounds. 

           Rebecca stands at the top of the stairs, just inches from where I halted with one of her sweetest smiles plastered to her pretty face. 

          “I have something for you,” she says in that sickly sweet tone that drives me insane. 

           The thing about Rebecca, besides her being the Beta's daughter and Ace’s girlfriend, is that her sweetness is saccharine. It’s fake and too sweet then leaves you with a bitterness on your tongue and in your soul. It’s like she is trying too hard to win Miss Congeniality in a beauty contest. 

           In school is where her true colors showed most. Everyone in the pack from lowest Omega to highest ranked wolves attended the pack school together. The first time it happened was one of the days Ace had shown his kinder side. Rebecca had tripped me, maybe accidentally, but I now think it was intentional. I was carrying my lunch when I tripped over her foot which had not been in the path moments earlier.

          “Watch it, Omega!” She hissed in a voice only I had heard. 

           Others were around but no one nearby was paying attention to us. Ace approached her table and helped me to my feet, asking if I was okay. Rebecca shot me a death glare and I nodded that I was fine before rushing to clean up the mess that had been my lunch and myself.

          Later that day, in the back stacks of the library, where I would often hide to sketch or write poems, Rebecca cornered me.

          “You may live in the packhouse but don’t forget your place! You are an Omega not one of US!” She snarled before slapping me across the face. “That is for looking at Ace as if you might stand a chance in Hell winning his affection!”

          I was not aware I did any such thing. Ace is sometimes kind and I appreciate his kindness whenever it shows, but I would never presume myself worthy.

          As she walked away, I heard her giggle to another girl, “Kaiya is just a worthless Omega slut!”

           Her personality suits Ace, I suppose, but his kindness wavers whenever she is around. He becomes more focused on what she wants and thinks. He seems to care too much about her opinions and less about his own, or mine.

           This is in contrast to Dylan whose cold and angry exterior leaves one wondering “what is he covering up? Or is he truly so uncaring?”

           I furrow my brow in confusion as Rebecca holds out a small, cut crystal vial, with an intricate brass top and black tassel.

           “Perfume?” I ask. “Why would an Omega need perfume? Not to be ungrateful, but…”

           I quickly switch from my shocked response to a more humble tone, so as not to cause problems.

           “No, silly! It’s a potion to help you with the pains of your first transformation and as an added bonus it will hide that pesky mate bond you are saddled with,” Rebecca offers, twirling a finger in her perfectly curled blond coils, while the other hand holds the vial out to me.

           I am highly suspicious of this and something nags at me not to accept what she offers. Like everything about Rebecca from her smile to the coils she has Amira help her create in her hair every morning, something about this seems fake. 

          “I couldn’t possibly! Please don’t waste something so precious on me,” I say, taking a step back and teetering on the top stair before finding my balance.

          “But I insist,” Rebecca says through gritted teeth with that stupid fake smile plastered on her glossy pink lips. 

          I sidestep, hoping to move past her and get away from all of this insanity, but her hand darts out and grabs my wrist. Rebecca pulls me closer and uncaps the vial with the other hand.

        “I saw you! I know what you are…what you are to THEM!” Rebecca hisses and snarls. 

       Her grip on my wrist tightens as she adds, “ you will stay away from Ace and Dylan and drink up like a good little Onega.”

      I struggle as she pours the liquid down my throat. It burns and I thrash in her hold, and then the pain strikes. I double over with the searing pain that shoots through me, radiating from my abdomen outwards.

       ‘It hurts! It burns! It makes me feel so weak…I am sore, Kaiya, but I must rest,’ my wolf Lilly's sweet voice sounds weak and badly hurt.

       “What was in that vial?,” I ask, convulsing with pain.

      “Nothing that will kill you, but I don’t know about you wolf,” Rebecca muses before another wave of unbearable pain shoots through me and I struggle to keep my foothold, while Rebecca tumbles down the stairs, when her grip around my wrist finally slips.

        I hear a scream from behind me, and attempt to look over my shoulder at the screaming maid, Flossy by the sound of her voice, but before I can get a good look Beta Carson is on me. He pins me to the hard marble surface of the balcony and slaps me.

        “How dare you betray this pack!” The Beta snarls before slapping me again.

        I look up through tears. I am so frightened and bewildered and I fear what has become of Rebecca. Sure, she is a fake and a schemer, but I would not wish her any horrible injuries or death. I can hardly register what is going on, through the hatred and pain as Beta Carson stops hitting me only long enough to start choking me.

        “She pushed Miss Rebecca,” Flossy cries out and that is when I register the scents and presences of my Fated Mates.

     Dylan’s smoky scent reminiscent of the annual bonfire is drowned out by Ace’s earthy scent of pine and petrichor. That is the only way I can register which is closest to me.

       Ace’s voice sounds murderous as he snaps,” You jealous, traitorous whore! How dare you hurt my girlfriend?”

       For the first time outside of training, I feel Ace’s large, booted foot kick my ribs. Only this time it is with an unparalleled ferocity. I think I feel one of my ribs crack, but I am already in so much pain it just intensifies what I am already feeling,

       I see spots appear in my vision when Dylan’s vibrant blue eyes come into view above my face. But I sense just a brief hesitation in his actions.

      “Enough! I am still Alpha here!” Alpha James’s voice rings through the horrific scene and I feel the world fading from around me.

      The edges of my vision are blurry and dark. My body is one giant, painful bruise and I think I split my lip, not for the first time.

      “What happened?” Alpha James asks in his booming voice. “Why are you not training?”

      “Kaiya had her first shift today,” Dylan starts in a cold, flat tone, though there is something…a slight waver in his voice I have never heard before.

       “She ran from the training grounds,” Ace hisses, leaving out the part where we discovered we are Fated Mates. 

        “I saw her and Miss Rebecca talking, then Kaiya pushed Miss Rebecca down the stairs,” Flossy cries.

         Flossy has always been one for dramatics and is often sucking up to both the Alpha and Beta families. 

         “Has anyone checked on Rebecca?” Alpha James asks.

         “I have, Alpha sir!” The familiar voice of Beta Carson’s brother in law, who is a pack doctor, pipes up. “She has a pulse, but I need to get her to the pack hospital quickly!” 

         “You do that, Bill, and keep me informed!” The Alpha says firmly before turning his attention back to me. “First you abandon your morning duties of training your future Alphas, then you violently shove the Beta’s daughter! I thought you were better than this!”

          The Alpha sounds as disappointed as he is angry. I had no clue he had any regard for me, let alone enough of one to think I was better than whatever this all is. I regret Rebecca’s fall, but I didn’t do it intentionally, she came at me.

          “I-I’m sorry…I didn’t mean…it was…accident,” I whimper softly with my eyes turned to the ground and head bowed in supplication.

          “Let me punish her father! I won’t show any mercy!” Ace says with a cold voice and hatred glazing his beautiful eyes causing them to look like a raging sea about to pull me under its wake as I glance up at his beautiful face now contorted in anger.

         “Not this time, son! Kaiya, you are banished from this pack and sentenced to five years imprisonment in The Iron Keep over in Red Fields. If Rebecca dies, you will too. Is that understood?” The Alpha asks and I nod sheepishly.

        I didn’t get a trial or the opportunity to properly defend myself! There will be no justice for me! It is just another reminder how little I matter to any of them.

        What hurts the most, is the burning hatred in Ace’s glare. He had been kind on occasion, but that time is gone for good. Yet, neither he nor Dylan rejected me.

         My surroundings blur as rough hands grip me and the searing pain once again racks my body before the world goes dark.

         I hear one last thing as I drift into unconsciousness…Ace quietly says, “I should have just done it! None of this would have happened, but now she will pay!”