You're late, Emmaline

CHAPTER 2

"You're late, Emmaline!"

The booming voice echoed through the corridor, snapping me out of my hurried daze. My breath caught in my throat as I halted in my tracks, my chest heaving, and my hair disheveled from the frantic sprint.

I hadn't meant to be late, not again. But it seemed no matter how hard I tried, I always ended up disappointing him— my father.

I stood before him, my cheeks flushed with embarrassment, feeling every pair of eyes in the room boring into me. Beside him, my stepmother's disdainful gaze made my skin crawl, while Natasha's smug expression twisted my stomach into knots.

I had just run half the length of the entire pack house, my feet pounding against the polished wooden floors, desperate to reach the breakfast table early and avoid incurring my father's wrath. He despised lateness, viewing it as a sign of weakness, a flaw that he couldn't tolerate in his offspring.

But for me, Emmaline, the hidden daughter of the alpha, being on time was more than just a matter of punctuality. It was a matter of survival. You see, unlike the rest of my family, I was born without the gift of the wolf, an effect that made me an outcast in the eyes of my father and the pack.

As I stood before him now, my chest heaving and my hair disheveled from the frantic sprint, I could feel his eyes boring into me with a mixture of disappointment and disdain. Beside him, my stepmother, cladded in a fine purple royal gown, offered me a smug look, her lips curling into a sneer of disgust.

And then there was Natasha, my stepsister, my father's golden child. She sat at the table opposite him, her hair neatly packed in a royal bun as she surveyed me with undisguised disdain. She was everything I was not: beautiful, confident, and above all, blessed with the gift of the wolf.

Flashing my gaze from the annoying view of Natasha, I turned to Dave, his face was bright, a smile on his cheeks as if nothing had happened. He had always been perfect at hiding emotions, especially for our secret relationship. He was my father's favourite minister whom often got invited to meals which he never really did to his other ministers.

"I-I'm sorry, Father," the words stumbled out of my mouth, barely audible over the pounding of my heart. But even as I spoke, I could see the disappointment etched into my father's features.

"You may sit!" His response was swift and cutting, each word like a lash against my already battered pride.

With my head bent, I walked over to the huge table and sat, turning at the food as I devoured mine hungrily as I hadn't had a proper meal since the day before. "Emmaline," my father's gruff voice called as I responded almost immediately, "Yes, father."

"I have taken into reason your current life status and I am not proud with it," He continued, the rest of his words conveying about how tonight's mating season would be the third I have attended without bringing a mate back home. I continued to ignore the rest of his words until I heard him talk about selling me off.

"Ugh?" My jaw fell, shock rigging all the emotions I had reeling in my veins.

"You heard me right Emmaline, if you don't bring a mate home by tonight's mating ceremony, I'll sell you off to Alpha Cauldron of Cauldron pack." He announced, silence filling the room.

My jaw fell and I was just about to talk when Natasha's voice cuts in.

"I think it is nice she gets mated to someone, it's better than been useless, at least for once she gets to be of benefit." Natasha voice beamed as anger teemed in my veins. I resisted the urge to plant a fist to her face for calling me useless.

"Father, I'll bring home a mate," I said, my gaze flashing over to Dave, as I admired his diamond shaped face, full lips, crystal blue eyes and lustrous short hair.

I couldn't help but notice the look of disgust in Natasha's eyes, a cold smirk skittered out of her lips. I turned back to Dave thinking of a way to make it up to him. My life depended on him mating me, my father was planning on selling me to Alpha Cauldron, a sinister alpha who is thrice my age.

Moreover, Dave was liked by my father so, definitely, nothing could go wrong. He would mate me and announce our relationship to the pack and he gets to succeed my dad as Alpha and I as luna. That could only happen if Natasha doesn't brainstorm something to stop me as she usually does.

I watched as Dave rose from his chair and made his way out of the room, greeting my father before heading out of our large dining room. Standing up some seconds after him not to sound suspicious, I rushed out to meet him and try to talk to him but he was long gone and already out of the pack house.

Heaving a tired sigh, a though flashed in my mind. He was going to head the practice at the sparring grounds in minutes and that was my chance to see him before the mating occasionally.

Glaring at my wristwatch, I rushed past him into the clear streets of my pack. The training grounds in the werewolf packs were not like that in the open world, here we are thought how to strengthen our wolf's and it's abilities to grow into fierce werewolves.

But that could never be my wolf. My wolf was an omega and to make matters worse, it was a sleeping wolf. That is what allows other wolves to dote on me freely and go scot free. Engrossed in thoughts, I collided into a figure, a tall and mighty one at that.

"Uh." I managed to utter as I missed a foot and was just about to fall butt flat to the floor when all of a sudden, his hands gripped my waist.

"Watch your steps," A masculine voice chimed.

Wiping out of my reverie, I jerked back at reality as I rose back to my feet. My gaze roved over to the figure that had just saved me, it was Stuart, a bully in the pack.

My heartbeat cowers at the sound of his voice. "I am very sorry," I said bowing lightly in fear. I watch as his black shoes walk towards me until our bodies were just a hair breadth from each other. His perfectly tanned fingers stretched at my chin as he pull it up, our faces near each other.

"You better be," he scoffed, a smirk on the corners of his lips as a wave trudged through me at his touch.

I closed my eyes, a cold shiver running up my spine. "You worthless Bitch!" He mocked breaking into laughter immediately as I crash butt flat to the floor.

"Hahaha." I heard the titters, the laughs.

I hear a group of guys and girls laughing at the scene. Stuart joined in on the laughter as he turned taking steps at his friends who were watching me from afar. It was all probably a set up to ridicule me to the fact that I am a weak omega.

Rising back to my feet, I began brushing my dress as it had already been painted in dirt.

"There she is, Worthless Emma!" I hear a familiar giggle, it was Natasha's.

"Well, if it isn't little Emma, all alone again," she interrupted making me face her, Natasha was standing tall in front of me with her signature smirk plastered on her face and flanked by her usual posse of spiteful girls. "Still no mate at almost 18? What a disgrace!" She spat.

The girls tittered and laughed cruelly as Aurora growled within me.

"Maybe if you weren't so pathetic, someone might actually want you," one of Natasha's friends, Kira, sneered.

"Of course, who would want a mate as scrawny and worthless as Emmaline?" Another, Rhea, mocked.

Aurora, my wolf who had just stirred from her sleep, raged, snarling and snapping within my mind. "Let me at them! I'll tear those insolent fools to shreds!"

I struggled to restrain my fury, taking a deep breath. "No, Aurora. They're not worth it." But on the outside I remained silent, face burning.

"Nothing to say?" Natasha taunted. "Not so confident without a big strong mate here to protect you, are you?" She mocked, laughing.

"LEAVE HER!!" A masculine voice thunders as Natasha's chuckles subsided immediately.