TWO| The sealed threat

SOPHIA

Call me crazy for agreeing to his sick terms, but I did not have a choice. Dark Moon pack was the only home I had ever known. I lost my father at the age of eight, I had never known my mother's identity, I only knew that she abandoned me at the hospital with a letter addressed to my father, telling him she wasn't ready to be a mother or to be married. Whether she was alive or dead, I didn't have the faintest idea.

After my father died in an accident while running errands for the beta as his personal assistant, the beta and his wife, Beta Maximus and lady Miranda, thought it best to adopt me, and that was how I ended up growing up with Adeline, Hailey and Marilyn Blane - the beta's daughters - who stopped at nothing to make my life miserable.

I agreed to the job, knowing that I would be in the same environment with Asher. He would see me from time to time, and maybe - just maybe - it would change his mind. I hoped to remind him of all the love we had shared, all the dreams and plans we had together. But as the days turned to weeks, he grew colder and more distant, until he eventually started to look through me.

And Adeline? Oh! She saw me alright.

I was the only maid she saw in the entire pack house. She made me do her hair, dress her matrimonial bed, cook her meals, wash her clothes, take care of all her needs. As if that wasn't enough, she often made me do the dirtiest chores, like draining the gutters, clearing the compost pit alone, digging the garden for roots and herbs, all of this while taking care of her.

Her sisters, Hailey and Marilyn showed up very often after she was crowned Luna. They spared no attempt to mock me. At different intervals, they had poured food on my hair, all because it was either "too salty", "too sweet", or "too spicy".

I cried every night, asking the goddess what I had ever done to deserve such cruelty, but I never got answers.

Three weeks into the torture, I fell sick. I would often be fatigued after doing the slightest of chores. I became selective with my meals because a lot of things made me more nauseous. I started feeling bloated, slow, but I made sure to mask it most of the time because Adeline always took advantage of my weaknesses.

However, on this particular evening, it was hard to hide. While washing the dishes and still baking cranberry pies for Adeline and her sisters, the room started to spin around me.

I dropped the plate in the sink and rinsed my hands with the rushing water, and placed my right hand on my forehead, but it didn't seem to help. I closed my eyes to suck in deep breaths, but the longer I tried to stand, the worse I felt.

I opened my eyes and held onto the sink. I wanted to finish the dishes at least, Adeline would kill me if I wasn't done by the time she got back.

Immediately I picked up the plate, it slipped from my hands and shattered into pieces on the floor. I jumped backwards in shock, and the jump seemed to drain all my energy.

"Help!" I tried to scream, but I wasn't sure anyone had heard me. I couldn't hold myself up on my feet anymore, and soon, I felt myself fall to the ground beside the broken pieces of the ceramic plate.

~

By the time I opened my eyes, the smell of disinfectant kissed my nostrils, causing me to sneeze with pain. I opened my eyes to find Martha, a fellow maid and my friend, smiling down at me as she placed a hand on my forehead.

"It's alright, Sophia. Take it easy."

I struggled to sit up, and she assisted me, before I looked around.

"Where am I?"

The walls were polished with bright blue paint, and I was seated on a stretcher, clad in a white and blue printed hospital dress.

"You're in the pack house hospital. You collapsed in the kitchen, so I had to bring you here." She looked up at the clock on the wall and gasped in shock.

"I'm really sorry, Sophia. I have to leave now. Let me know when you're back, okay?" She let go of my hand as she rose from her stool. I flashed her a small smile and watched as she walked out of the room. Immediately she left, a female doctor walked in with an envelope in her hands.

"You're awake, miss Bailey. That's great." She said, smiling at me.

I narrowed my eyes on her. I could tell she was happy I had not passed on to the land of the dead, but was that enough reason for the grin spread across her cheeks.

"Yes, I'm sure it is." I replied, staring down at the envelope in her hands.

Was that for me?

"You gave your friend quite a scare. When she brought you to the hospital unconscious, I was very worried. But, I found out - as your test results would say - that it is what happens when a weaker wolf is carrying a strong foetus."

I corked my right brow at her, noticeably feeling better.

"And what does that have to do with me? This weaker wolf and foetus thing?"

She looked at me like I was crazy, before breaking out into another smile.

"You don't know?!"

"Know what?"

"hmm." She shook her hand and held out the envelope to me.

"I guess it's a good thing I printed this out after all, even though I thought you would already know because pups with alpha blood normally make themselves noticeable in the first thirteen days, and seeing as you are an omega, it should have been earlier, but..."

What was she saying? I snatched the envelope from her and tore it open.

What did I have to do with an alpha pup and...

My breath ceased and my heart stopped to beat immediately my eyes caught sight of the words written in bold fonts, all in capital letters; PREGNANT.

My eyes moved to the top of the paper to find the name on the result; SOPHIA BAILEY.

I couldn't breathe. I looked up at the doctor with tears in my eyes and saw that she was still speaking. I held the paper in my hands and rose from the stretcher, uninterested in any other word she had to say.

"Wait! Miss Bailey, it's dangerous to leave without the necessary medications!"

The doctor tried to call after me, but I didn't stop to hear anything she had to say. I couldn't.

It was raining when I stepped outside the hospital, but I didn't care. I ran into the rain and let it soak me from the crown of my head to the sole of my feet, allowing it wash my tears away.

What was I supposed to do?

'Why don't you tell him?' I heard my wolf, Dawn, whisper softly in my ears.

As I pushed open the door of the maid quarters, I scoffed.

Tell him? What good would that do? He already made his choice! He picked his mate over me.

'That was before he knew you are carrying his baby. Tell him, Sophia. He knows he is the only man you have ever been with. It might just be the miracle you are searching for. The one that would change his mind.' Dawn said.

I was a tad bit comforted by her words. People said she was weak because she was a small white omega, but she was filled with wisdom and love, and that was what got me through the nightmare of the night.

I decided to write a letter to Asher. I had lost my phone and contact with him after he was crowned alpha king. I slid the test result into the envelope and snuck into his study. He wasn't there, so I slid the envelope underneath his laptop, hoping he would catch a glimpse of it.

I returned to the servant's quarters and waited. If he got the letter, he would know at what time to send me a response.

About three hours later, there was a knock on my door. I jumped down from my bed even with little strength and rushed to the door. Just as I had expected, a guard from the palace stood in front of my door with a white envelope, bound by the royal seal.

My heart hammered against the walls of my chest.

It was a reply from him!

"A letter for miss Sophia Bailey from the house of King Asher Morris."

"That's me. I'm Sophia Bailey." I managed to speak. He handed me the letter and I snatched it from his hand before closing the door and pressing my back against it. I tore the letter open with shaky hands, and quickly skimmed through the content written in black ink.

My heart sunk and my shoulders fell with every paragraph I read.

"I DO NOT KNOW WHAT TRICKS YOU HAVE UP YOUR SLEEVE, SOPHIA. BUT I, ALPHA ASHER MORRIS, DENY YOUR CLAIMS. I WILL HAVE NOTHING TO DO WITH WHATEVER IT IS YOU CLAIM YOU CARRY.

AND IF IT IS AT ALL TRUE, THEN IT IS A THREAT TO THE FAMILY I INTEND TO BUILD WITH ADELINE, A THREAT THAT CANNOT REAR ITS HEAD. THEREFORE, IF YOU WANT TO LIVE TO SEE YOUR BABY, YOU WOULD LEAVE DARK MOON TONIGHT.

DISAPPEAR, SOPHIA. MOVE ON. I NEVER WANT TO SEE YOU AGAIN, AND BELIEVE ME, YOU DO NOT WANT TO SEE ME TOO, BECAUSE MINE WOULD BE THE LAST FACE YOU GET TO LOOK AT. THIS IS NOT A THREAT, IT IS A PROMISE."

My knees failed me and I crumbled to the ground with tears in my eyes.

Once again, Asher had succeeded in breaking my heart, but this was the last time it would ever happen.

I decided to run, pack my things and leave the pack house that night, use whatever money I have left on me to escape Dark Moon. Swearing with my life, that I would never return.

Never.