Chapter One

Madeleine

Fear

Pure, unadulterated fear

That was all I could feel as I lay on the cold floor of the basement of the house I had been in for a week. My hands went to my stomach as I felt something wet and warm below my flimsy shirt. I touched my stomach and winced as my fingers were streaked red.

I was bleeding and I was alone. From upstairs, I could hear the angry voices of people, bickering about something.

They say you get used to fearing and to living with it after some time. But how did you define ‘some’ time?

It had been a week since I was forcing myself to accept this new reality. But having been sheltered by my loving parents all my life, I was finding it difficult to come to terms with the fact that they were no more.

My previous pack had lost all its members in a fight against the Black Forest pack last week and I, a wolfless girl, had been left alone. 

Since I hadn’t awakened my wolf yet, nobody wanted me. I was beneath them all.

Steve, the Black Forest pack’s omega was asked to use me as a slave and he did that dutifully. Thankfully, as I had no wolf he despised me so he never even looked at me save for scowling or hitting me.

Relieved that nobody thought of forcing themselves on me, I was thankful to the Moon Goddess for providing me with a temporary shelter. However, more often than not, I would find myself hurt and crying, but at least, I used to be on a makeshift bed.

Tonight, however, he decided to throw me into the basement. It was dark and cold. I wasn’t sure how long I stayed lying on the cold floor until I finally mustered the energy to get up.

A part of me just wanted to give up and wait for death to finally greet me, but I could hear my mother’s voice playing in my head, “wolf or not, you are my brave girl and I hope you will always be that.”

Those words stirred something within me. Placing both my hands on the floor, I tried to exert as much energy as I could and forced myself into a sitting position. Struggling and panting, I finally managed to lean on one of the several wooden poles that held the house together.

A tear or two trickled down my eyes but I wasn’t even aware of the fact that I was crying. 

Tearing the corner of my shirt, I tried to dab at the wound, praying that I would somehow get out of this hellhole. But then I realized that prayers weren’t going to work. I had to act on my own, but first I had to escape.

As I sat wondering about what to do next and kept thinking of how to stitch myself up, I heard footsteps above. My heart began to thud erratically as my hands began to shake.

The sound of footsteps echoed through the basement like a loud blaring horn against the pin-drop silence of my surroundings and I tried to make myself invisible. Obviously, I failed.

It was still dark and the only light coming in was the rays peeking in through the small rectangular slits on the top. There was a light bulb somewhere but I recalled Steve breaking it the last time. He had tried to hit me with a baseball bat and had hit the bulb instead.

Thud. Thud.

The basement roof creaked as the door slowly opened. I tried to hide behind an abandoned chair and prayed that he would forget I was here.

“Madeleine, where are you?” Steve’s drunken voice floated towards me. He took a swig from the bottle he was holding in his hand and I was sure that was not the first bottle he had had for the day.

‘How long has he been drinking?’ I wondered. The wristwatch on my hand showed that it was hardly 9 pm. 

I put my hand on my mouth to not let a single sound escape my lips and willed myself to stay quiet and not tremble. 

“Oh, I see… playing hide and seek, are we?” Steve spoke in a drawled voice and I crouched further into the broken furniture. 

He strolled around the basement and began upending the furniture and other things he had stored inside. The sound of things breaking, rods clamoring echoed through the place and I quickly put my hands on my ears to drown the noise.

‘Be quiet, be quiet.’ I kept repeating in my head but I felt myself being pulled forward when something forcefully yanked me out of my hiding spot. Steve found me hiding behind the chair and dragged me out, holding my hand.

“Please, I didn’t do anything!” I begged as fresh tears trickled down my face. 

“You did, I saw you talking to Clare in the morning. And then she comes to me saying I should give you time to mourn your dead family and let you rest. You think you can gossip about me and get away with it?”

My eyes went wide at the words, and I knew that he wouldn’t think twice of hurting me again. Now, there was no one to save me but myself.

As such, I mustered the courage to answer him, “I…I only told her the…truth.” My voice barely came out as a whisper, but I was surprised that I could speak. 

“What?”

Steve’s voice came out, angry and annoyed. It was as if he had heard me but he was giving me the chance to take my words back.

Surprisingly enough, I wasn’t feeling scared anymore. Emboldened by my courage, I decided to speak again with a firm voice, “I said, I told her the truth…of what a filthy person you are.”

My low voice turned into a scream as I yelled at him by the time the last few words left my mouth. Steve only looked at me in confusion for a minute, too stunned to see that I had suddenly found the courage to talk back.

However, his features quickly turned into that of fury as he raised his hand to throw that bottle at me. My eyes flicked to the basement door and I saw my opportunity to escape. 

I ducked and pushed him aside with all my efforts before rushing upstairs through the small flight of stairs and running out into the backyard.

My feet carried me outside but the injury to my abdomen was making it difficult for me to keep running. I stumbled against a small rock and lost my footing, falling to the ground again.

I could hear Steve’s voice drawing nearer as he walked out of the house into the backyard. Trying to look for a way out of the situation, I raised my eyes to turn around and something caught my eye.

A pair of brown eyes were staring at me through the dense grass of the forest behind our backyard. Those eyes were eerily calm and were fixated on me. Startled at the sudden appearance, I stifled a scream.

Could that be true? Or was I hallucinating? 

I blinked and those eyes were gone.

Steve had almost reached me and was yelling at me, ready to hit me when I heard a distinct growl that made him stiffen on the spot.

Shocked by the sudden noise, he looked around but couldn’t see anyone. Thinking that the sound he had heard was a trick of his mind, Steve raised his hand and that’s when the wolf came out of the bush.

My eyes went wide as the glorious wolf revealed himself.

A huge, golden-furred wolf was standing in front of me, his teeth bared and eyes filled with anger. However, what surprised me was that he wasn’t even looking at me.

Something overcame me as, despite his big brown eyes, I felt that the wolf in front of me was far better than the one behind me.

“Help me…please.”

Those words slipped out of my mouth in a whisper before I could take them back. And as if on cue what I didn’t expect to happen, happened.

In a swift move, the wolf jumped up from the ground, completely ignoring me as he almost glided over my head aiming straight for Steve.

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