Chapter 02.

Rune.

A devilish smile marred Rachael’s face as she stared at me while the other wolves gasped, clearly immersed in the drama.

“What would I want with you, a servant?” she pursed her lips with a slight tint of amusement. The tears did not stop spilling from my eyes, so I wiped my face with the back of my hands.

“You don’t have to do this,” my voice was shaky, with fear dripping from every word I spoke.

“Who are you to tell me what I can and cannot do?” Rachael smiled sweetly and let her hand land on Kimi’s face the second time, sending the poor wolf to the floor. I winced. The side of Kimi’s face was a bright red, and for a few seconds, Kimi looked around us like she didn’t know where she was or what she was doing. More tears spilled from my eyes.

“She’s just a child,” I wanted to yell, but the words came out like a whisper. I hated how weak I sounded and felt. Rachael had let Kimi go, but that only meant her attention was now on me, and there would be no way out.

“She’s just a child,” Rachael mocked and closed the distance between us.

“And you are a traitor’s daughter. You are even way lesser than a rogue. You and your filthy family should’ve been beheaded or served wolfsbane water so you’d drink it and disappear forever,” upon hearing I was a traitor’s daughter, the little crowd went into an uproar of throwing insults and wishing me and my family gruesome deaths. I bit my lower lip again and hung my head. I was no match for Rachael, Jummy, and all the wolves present. I had a weak, tiny body, and I could not fight; all I could do was wish they had had enough and would let me go.

I looked down at Kimi and passed her a little smile before crouching down to lift her.

“What do you think you’re doing?” Rachael accompanied her question with a kick to my side, and I fell into the dirty water.

“What makes you think you have the right to play savior?” She approached me and yanked one of the two braids I had my thick black hair in. I parted my lips in pain, but no words fell out.

“You are a traitor, do you hear me? A disgusting traitor, and I’m going to teach you a lesson you’ll never forget until you take your last miserable breath,” she pulled on the braid harder. In a desperate need to at least try and save myself, I pushed Rachael away from me. The push wasn’t as hard as I expected because she only staggered twice, but that was enough to let out the beast in her, and I’m not talking about her wolf.

“This bitch!” Rachael screeched and kicked my face so hard I flew to the other side of the room.

But she wasn’t done. She hadn’t even started with me yet.

Rachael sashayed her way to where I lay and pulled me with my braids out of the medical house. The wolves from the medial house followed, and other wolves outside gathered. There were more wolves now, not one of them with the single decency to help out.

“How dare you put your filthy hands on me?” Rachael thundered, and her supporters voiced their opinion on my bad behavior.

“Rachael, please stop this,” I whispered, but that only seemed to anger her even more. Slaps came from different angles, and at some point –I can’t pinpoint where– Jummy joined in. They slapped, kicked, stepped on, and threw punches at me like I was a training bag and not a living and breathing wolf. My entire body ached, and I could barely open my eyes from how heavy they felt. Was I on the brink of death? I hoped I was. At least I knew no one would beat me up while I was dead, and even if they did, I wouldn’t feel it.

My breathing was haggard, and I didn’t need to see my face in a mirror to know that I looked like shit. I bled from multiple cuts on my body, but it was not enough for them.

“I wish I knew where your mother and sister are kept; I would’ve visited them and extended my generosity to them. I can only imagine what your sister’s face would look like after I beat her up like this,” my head shot up just in time to see the edges of Rachael’s lips tugged up in a satisfied smile. Her once clean lavender dress now had not only dirt on it but also my blood.

“Leave my mother and sister out of this!” my voice was slightly above a whisper.

“Are you telling me what to do because you’re itching for another beating?” I folded my lips to keep me from saying more. I was not itching for another beating.

From my peripheral vision, I saw some servants, about three of them in the distance, watching me and shaking their heads. Servants have been beaten up many times, but it was the first time a servant got beaten to a pulp like this.

“Rachael, I think this is enough to teach her a lesson,” I heard Jummy’s somewhat scared voice say. Jummy had always been a weak wolf whose only strength came from Rachael’s meanness. She was once a victim of Rachael’s beatings back when we were pups, and ever since then, she’d been scared of Rachael, always groveling around her to make sure she accepted her and saw her as an equal. I remember how excited Jummy had been when her family was invited to Rachael’s house by her parents for dinner. Jummy couldn’t stop talking about it, saying it was her chance to get Rachael to accept her. I knew what that meant for my friendship with Jummy since we had been best friends since we knew how to walk, but I was happy for her. Even when Jummy started to do the horrible things Rachael asked her to do, she was still a scared wolf. She didn’t want to be caught in the crossfire of the result, but she also didn’t want Rachael to turn her back on her. It was the only reason why she put her hands on me, and I could tell that she regretted every bit of it.

“Shut up! If you were going to turn soft, you shouldn’t have come with me in the first place. You knew this was going to happen,” Rachael spat in a low voice, but I heard her clearly. I’m sure everyone heard her clearly due to our sharp hearing abilities.

“I’m sorry. But she looks like she’s about to die, and you know what Alpha Kane thinks about murdering servants in the pack,” that seemed to do the trick. I forced my drooping eyes open enough to see the realization of Jummy’s words hit Rachael. So, their arrival at the medical house was planned? Was that why I was sent to the medical house to clean at the last minute? Because Rachael pulled some strings?

She turned to me.

“Now, get on your knees and apologize,” I had nothing to apologize for as I didn’t think I did anything wrong apart from existing, but I wanted this all to end because, after everything, I still had the medical house to clean.

Ignoring the pain I felt from every inch of my body, I got on my knees slowly and settled my hands on my thighs. I parted my lips to apologize when a new, deep, and very masculine voice came from the crowd.

“What’s with this gathering?”