CHAPTER 4 - SUMMONED

****TRIGGER WARNING: This chapter covers abuse*****

*MIKAYLA’S POV*

SLAP!

A sudden pain stung across my right cheek. The impact of her palm sent me into shock as I tried to grasp what she had done to me. My lips busted as she gave me a second slap with imprints of her five fingers.

“You bitch!” She coldly scolds, “I told you to stay away from Archie!”

She lifted her right hand again and I caught it. 

“Pam, what’s gotten into you?” I shrieked in astonishment and shoved her hand away.

I was in the kitchen collecting the dirty hand towels and mittens to take them down to the laundry. Here, at the pack house, I was one of the laundry staff. She popped behind me on the stairs going down to the basement. Sensing her behind me, I turned and was greeted by a waspish slap, then she pushed me. The basket and everything went out of my hands as I fell and my head collided with the cold tiled ground.

Orphans are ranked as omegas within the werewolf kingdom. Having no living parents meant that we had no status and so we fell to the bottom of the hierarchy. That is, unless we were mated to someone with a higher rank.

As such was the case of Pam. As orphans, we were both omegas until she met her mate, Warrior Archie. This caused a change in her rank, so she would be his equal and on the same level. With that said, she used to be my best friend until she moved up in the ranks. Then she decided that I was too low to be acquainted with.

With a warrior mate and a totally new class of friends, our friendship became obsolete. She chucks me in the chest and I fall on my ass.

“Why are you attacking me?” My voice came out as a whisper, but her werewolf’s super sense would allow her to hear me. Winching in discomfort and pain, I erect myself.

“Bitch, stay the fuck away from my man!” She wrestles with me, trying to yank my hair. I used every strength that I had to defend myself and block her hands from touching me.

Again, she shoves me on my chest and I land on the ground. I tumbled on my side. “Ugh!” Hitting the hardness of the floor hurts my elbow and ribs. “I don’t want him. He only said hi to me, that’s all.”

Nothing I tell this crazy girl makes her understand. She kicked me repeatedly in my stomach. By instinct, I fold like a fetus. My hands barricade her assaults but I know that bruises would be evident. Whipping feet viciously strike my head, side, and ass.

“You are a slut and you keep throwing yourself at him. If Archie goes into the same room that you are in, I expect you to leave.” She yells with undisguised spite. Veins bulged from her neck and forehead. “Omega, do you hear me?”

Other omegas pooled around and her warrior friends stopped to watch the show in the middle of the large laundry room. The warriors found the situation comical while the omegas empathized with me.

“Okay, Pam,” I consented because I wanted her battery to halt. There was no reason for me to feel guilty because it was untrue. Clueless, I had no idea where she got her silly notion from. Throughout the years, I had cared for her too much to betray the trust between us.

Based on her angry features, you would think that I was fraternizing with her mate. The truth was, I met Archie on the night of the Alpha’s eighteenth birthday when we were serving the champagne and Pam accidentally bumped into him. The mate bond was recognized immediately. After that, she introduced me to him. Since then, Archie consistently acknowledges me whenever he comes around. Sincerely, that was all there was to it.

Pam's obsessive traits have evolved into those of a mate who harbors constant jealousy. Now, this was the first time that she actually hit me.

She gazed at me in a short silence of revulsion. I do not attempt to rise from the floor until I know that she has had her fill. Pam picks me up by the hair so that she gets a good look at my wet, dirty and bruised face. The crown of my head hurts from her merciless grip. I screamed in agony. My rib was broken but it will heal by the end of the day.

"This is your last warning." The incensed disdain in her eyes cannot be camouflaged. "If you flirt with my man again, I will make you disappear." She throws me into the wall with her final words being, "You are nothing. You're just an insignificant mole that nobody cares about."

Slamming into the wall, my body helplessly slid downwards until I laid on the floor. My breathing came in quick short breaths as I watched her storm up the stairs and out of my sight. Her warrior friends leave with her.

Omega Nikki rushes over to me and helps me up, with much concern. "Are you alright?"

"Yeah," I lied, but my healing would chip in soon. Even though my body trembled nervously, I looked around for the spilled contents and began to gather them back into the laundry basket.

Nikki helps and warns, "Stop offending her. She's a warrior now and will make your life miserable."

Rolling my eyes, I cannot believe what she just said to me, so I defended myself, "I haven't done anything."

"That's not what she wants others to believe," Nikki puts the last hand towel into the basket. "Mates are entitled to fight for their relationships, once the matter regards their fated mates. She will make you look bad in front of the Alpha."

It felt like Nikki truly believed Pam's accusations, "But I am not trying to steal the dude."

Nikki holds me by the shoulder, "Fine, I believe you because we are friends."

"I have loved only Andy." Tears welled in my eyes as I remembered my deceased mate. But I wiped my face and took the basket to the counter so that I could start the washer.

Nikki took me into a friendly hug. Friends? I contemptuously scoffed at the word. All my life I have been alone and growing up at the orphanage was terrible. I have had to fight to maintain my virtue. The rations of food were sparingly served to us and there was no denying what we were ordered to do.

Years of anguish and abuse are all that was buried in my memory. In order to divert unwanted advances from the orphan guys or high-ranked males, I wore a ghastly combination of makeup. My appearance meant zilch. Albeit, I went through each day like a zombie, never knowing where my life was going and perpetually expecting the worst.

In the past, Pam always complimented me on how pretty I was. She teased my curves and wavy light blonde hair with silver streaks. Envy would best fit what she had depicted for the years that we had been friends. Yet, she was never hostile to me.

After meeting Archie, we discussed the concept of me serving as her omega, assigned to work in her dwelling so that she could watch over me and help me to have a good life. But one day, while at Archie's apartment, he came home from his patrolling shift and caught me without the hideous make-up on. Pam was alarmed by his prolonged gaze as he took notice of me.

She threw me out of the apartment without my clothes and belongings, and complained to Matron Cecilia, who gave me a horribly scarring beating in the omega's punishment room. From there onwards, Pam berates and abuses me every chance that she gets on the false notion that I was trying to bewitch her mate.

Because of her deceit, I feared trusting others. Nikki has been nothing but nice and sweet, but once bitten, twice shy. I wished that I could have found someone to genuinely care for me. Meeting my deceased mate, Andy gave me a glimpse of hope which vanished when rogues who intruded into our territory killed him.

"I'll check on you later." She released me and smoothed out her blue and white maid's uniform, "I have to go."

I nodded as she darted out of the basement and I was left in solitude.

Pouring the detergent into the washer, I separated the colors and began to drop in the dirty contents one at a time. Grateful to be alone, I hummed a made-up lullaby that always helped me to clear my mind and feel better.

By the time I had completed the first cycle and moved the contents into the dryer, the basement door opened.

"Hey, Mika!" It was Nikki again, shouting from the top of the stairs to grab my attention. "Matron Cecilia summons you."

Damn! I sighed heavily.

Matron Cecilia was the head Omega who was in charge of the pack house. She reports directly to Luna Phoebe. The Matron turned a blind eye to Pam's assaults. She feared for her own welfare rather than to interfere with higher-ranked wolves.

A meeting with her denoted several things. It could be that I messed up and was due punishment. Especially if Pam made an official complaint, her hand would be forced to deliver a flogging to me.

At the rate that this was going, I am wondering, what the hell did I do now?