Chapter 1

"Stop it Ezekiel! You'll kill her" came the hysterical cry from a voice that belonged to a middle aged woman. 

At that moment, the one who was called Ezekiel yanked the neck of a young girl from the freezing depths of an open tank filled with icy water. 

That young girl was me. 

After being released from my previous hell of being plunged face first into the tank with my neck being strangled slightly to keep me from breaking away, I emerged as what everyone wanted to see, what everyone knew I was, weak. 

Gasping for breath loudly, inhaling so much it felt like my lung would burst, coughing and choking from the hold on my neck and shivering from the intense cold. 

This is how I start my week and if I was unlucky and I usually am, this is how I end it too. 

I am still coughing while trying desperately to breathe when I lock eyes with Ezekiel. His cold eyes are the most apparent of his striking features. I tried to look away in fear but he beat me to it. 

His eyes do not contain guilt when he looks away, just growing disgust. Not even an ounce of lust as I lay on the floor, completely naked with nothing to protect my shame. 

I could feel the teardrops inching to fall from my eyes but I stifled it, a futile effort I always make because I am a fool. My tears are the whole reason for this exercise and withholding it will prolong my suffering. 

"Dry yourself up" Ezekiel barks getting impatient while launching a towel with at least half of his strength making the comfy accessory become a battle projectile as it lands on my face as a punch. 

And that's when the tears start. 

I am crying now for reasons that I can not exhaust. For the way and manner in which I was given the towel, for the fact that the towel was wet and cold to the touch. For the man who knew this and willingly gave it to me. 

"The Gamma sends his regards" there is a slight change in Ezekiel's features. He is smiling now, proud that he has successfully done the bidding of his Gamma for yet another week in a row.

His and all of Redmoon's Gamma, my father.

Yes. 

It was at my father's behest that Ezekiel stripped me naked, on his order that my head be plummeted three feet into the tank not long enough to kill me but just as long as to make me feel unspeakable pain. 

And the job of his favorite lackey was not complete unless there were tears in my eyes. Each time, getting the same results but I defiantly hold my tears back a second more every time. Today was a new personal record. 

But who cares? I am still stricken with a fever and desperate for air, I still lie bare in front of this brute, I am still starved of any inkling of affection. And I am still broken. 

I hear the door slam shut and see Ezekiel no more. I am grateful for this moment of reprieve although I know it will not last long. I curl myself in a corner as the tears continue to flow, unhinged with the absence of Ezekiel. 

"Lyra" I hear the voice of the middle aged woman again. I know her name but I am too distraught to remember, I feel like a prey, like an animal at the bottom of the food chain. 

But she doesn't care. Just like Ezekiel, she has also been given orders and that's why she is here not because she wants to but because she has no other choice. She inches closer and I flinch and whimper away. 

"Snap out of it at once! I haven't got all day" she barked in her usual harsh tone that reflected her personality and the role she was given as head of the omegas of the alpha's mansion. 

"Ssss…. Sonia" I shuddered as I caught her unfriendly face in full view, which was even a wetter towel than the one I was given - sorry I mean that was slammed into my face. 

"Get yourself together and fast, we still have work to do" she says curtly and looks away too. Out of disgust as well, no doubt.  

And this is how my week begins. 

"I hear he's so handsome. He mesmerizes even men"

"Who cares about looks? I hear he once fought three rogues in a single battle" 

"Lady Raven is indeed very lucky"

"That's not all. I hear he also knows how to treat a woman properly in public and in private quarters" 

"And I hear that you ladies are all in big trouble" Sonia joins my fellow omegas making her presence known effortlessly. 

"Miss…Sonia" 

"Good… morning ma"

"We.. have been….uhmm…waiting for you" 

The voices of the ladies called out with each of them scampering, knowing that they have been caught gossiping yet again. 

"Hold your pleasantries. So what or who were you gossiping about so early in the morning" Sonia gave them a look that hinted danger. 

The chief was no different from all of us as she was an Omega herself but whenever she wanted to, she could put the same fear in us like an alpha. The same fear was in the ladies now. 

"No…thing and no one ma'am" the omegas chorused. 

"I was sure I heard something or didn't you hear it too, Lyra?" the sinister woman looked at me with a smile knowing exactly the kind of position she had put me in. 

Before I could even say anything, I could feel the different glares from the other omegas. They looked at me with malice and unspoken threats to ruin my week if I said anything I was not supposed to. 

"I asked you a question, Lyra," Sonia's voice rose in pitch. 

"Leave her be. She has no wolf and maybe she has lost her ears too" came the voice of the haughty arrogant and insufferable pain to my life. 

Raven.