Chapter 4: Common Wolves

— Leia Steele —

Blood-curdling screams erupted in the room and my entire body shivered uncontrollably. It felt like my soul was being ripped out of my body by hand and try as I might, there was nothing else that I could do.

I held on to Katja’s hands tightly, each finger wrapped as tight as it could around mine in an attempt to not let her go, but it was like holding onto thin air. Resistance was futile. Everything we did in this hellhole amounted to nothing.

We were just prisoners with no escape.

“No! Stop! Please, not her!” I begged and I begged as I half crawled and half ran to the door to reach her, but before I could, one of the burly men stepped in front of me, blocking my way.

A second later, I felt pain rip through my skull when his hand grabs a fistful of my hair and pulls my neck so hard I felt it cramping.

“Would you rather it be you, pathetic girl?” The man asked with a vile and smug smile just before his eyes wandered down my chest.

During the altercation, I didn’t notice a part of my overworn shirt had been torn and I was revealing more skin than I intended to.

My cheeks burned as I felt shame and embarrassment flood me.

“Didn’t think so,” he spat out before shoving me to the ground.

I hurriedly curled my body to cover my exposed skin and all I could do was try to gather what little there was left of my dignity.

She’s gone… I thought to myself. The one person that I truly cared about here was taken and I know for a fact that I would never see her again. And if I do, chances are she would not be in one piece.

That thought ran a shudder throughout my entire body.

Just then, a loud sound came from the door and every girl turned to where the noise came from.

“What the fuck are you all looking at? Are you waiting for a goddamn miracle? Get to work!” A man ordered us with a loud growl and every single one of us scrambled off of the grounds and up to our feet, scared of being punished if we did not listen.

It was obvious that everyone was still shaking from the fear of almost being chosen just seconds ago, but it was not like we had a choice. We weren’t given the chance to process what had just happened or given even a few seconds to breathe.

No, we were thrusted back to hell whether we liked it or not.

“I can’t believe they just took her like that…” One of the girls whispered as she tried to hold in her tears.

“It’s too early. It’s way too damn early,” another one replied as she was shaking her head in disbelief.

“Yeah, but what could we have done, huh? Earlier you were willing to just let it all go, keep our heads low and just work and work like the slaves that we were. Well, see for yourself. This is going to be everybody’s future if we don’t do anything to fight back.” Jane commented, steel and fury present in her voice, but deep in her eyes, I could see that she was also terrified and traumatized by what she had just witnessed.

All of us knew that this wasn’t going to be the last time, that sooner or later, one of us would be plucked out from this room never to be seen again. It was only a matter of wishing and hoping that it wouldn’t be you.

“Come on, Jane. We have to get to work.” Jemma, the eldest of the June sisters, said to her sister as she pulled her away from everyone.

There was no time to waste. We had to get to work or else we would all face another punishment.

“Hey, ugly, you need to scrub harder. Those toilets aren’t going to clean themselves.” Giggles erupted from behind me as a bunch of she-wolves arrived in the common area’s bathroom.

Just when I thought my day couldn’t get any worse after possibly losing the only friend I had in this hellhole, I had been unfortunately assigned to the commons’ floor.

As it turns out, the stories were true.

Just like with every Pack, hierarchies existed for a reason, but unlike most, the Shadow Claws had what they called the ‘commons’ which were just like Omegas, but they were neither higher nor lower which meant that the only reason they treated us like dirt was because we were the only wolves that were lower than them.

In order for them to feel something of importance, they needed to make us feel lesser first.

“Did you hear me, stupid? I said, scrub harder!”

The sound of a bucket being kicked and water splashing all over the tiles echoed in the bathroom just before the girls all laughed in unison. Their laughter sounded like witches or scratching nails on a chalkboard.

I hated them. I hated them so much that dark thoughts began to fill my head.

All three of them were smaller than me. If I still had my wolf it wouldn’t take much effort to turn around, grab them by their hairs and slam them against the walls. The feeling of seeing their blood ooze out of their heads and drip down on the bathroom walls, or hearing the sound of their rancid screams after having pain inflicted on them would undoubtedly fuel me from the inside.

I balled my hands into a fist as the bottom of my already dirty and filthy uniform which was just a rugged and torn black maid’s dress started to get wet.

I wanted to do it. I wanted to do it just once just to teach them a lesson, because if they knew exactly what it felt like being belittled by the higher ranks, then why did they have to do it to other people? Why did they have to make us feel so small just for them to feel big? It was unfair.

I’m going to hurt them. I’m going to make them bleed. I swear to the moon god—

“Let’s get out of here. There’s too much filth. I don’t want her disgustingness to rub off on me.” One of them said, quickly breaking me out of my thoughts and bringing me back to the present.

As soon as they were gone, I let out a deep and long breath, but my heart continued to beat loud and fast in my chest.

I can’t believe I thought of doing such brutal things to them just minutes ago. How could I do that? I know that what they do to me and others were terrible, but I would never stoop that low. I would never be like them.

Images of my mother in a pool of her own blood flooded my head and I was immediately mortified.

I would never do that again. I could never ever do it again. I… I shouldn’t.

I let out a deep sigh before facing the toilet again and getting back to work.

—

It felt like I had already done five hours of work just scrubbing and cleaning every nook and cranny of the common’s area, but when I looked at the clock, only two hours had gone by.

Oh my goddess, this was torture. How could a group of thirty or less create so much mess in just a few days seeing as somebody gets assigned to clean this area every three to five days? It was like they were pigs who left everything dirty, just constantly expecting others to clean up after them. It was horrendous.

The worst part is that I had no choice to be that person — the one that cleaned up.

I had reached the second to the last room of their floor when all of a sudden, I heard whispers outside the hallway.

“Did you hear? The Dark Alpha had someone taken from his group of slaves again.”

I immediately froze while my eyes widened and my grip on the broom I was holding tightened.

“Seriously? Who was it this time?”

My heart began to beat faster while I walked closer to the door to hear what they were saying louder.

“How should I know? I just saw a girl with long dirty blonde hair being dragged away as she cried her eyes out. She looked kind of young, but then again it’s not like the Dark Alpha cares about age. Whatever he wants, he gets.”

Shivers ran through my entire body the second I knew who they were talking about and it was none other than Katja.

I remembered brushing her hair every single day, those beautiful blonde locks of hers. Even as time passed by, somehow her hair never changed. While other girls lost the luster and shine of their hair, hers always remained soft.

My heart began to hurt just thinking about what the Dark Alpha was doing to her, or what other horrifying things he was just about to do to her.

“What do you think he’s doing to her now?” The voice outside asked.

I gulped nervously.

“I heard he likes to make them scream. The louder they scream, the more it turns him on. One time, one of us passed by his room after he had a slave there and he saw blood everywhere. It was like a torture chamber and every inch was covered in dark red.”

All of a sudden, my legs felt like they had lost their strength and my vision started to blur.

No, it couldn’t be. Katja… Katja was going to be fine. She is strong. Stronger than most of us. She could fight him. She could get away.

She…

She’s going to die.

The realization hit me with so much force I dropped down on my knees and placed my hand on my fast-beating heart and trembling chest.

I told her that everything was going to be okay. I told her that I would protect her, but in the end, I couldn’t do anything.

I could stand up, forget about all this, and go back to drowning myself in my work in order to try and take my mind away from my friend being tortured to death, or I could go to her right now and try and save her.

The first one wouldn’t kill me physically, but emotionally, I would be dead inside knowing that I left my one friend to die.

But the second one, that one will most likely actually kill me.

Or worse, have me tortured just like Katja.

I closed my eyes and let out a heavy sigh.

I know exactly what I have to do.

I’m going to save her…

Even if it means getting my heart ripped from my chest by the Dark Alpha.