Chapter 1

ROSELLA 

“One… Two… Three…” I counted in my head and waited for him to throw down the door. I heard him park his car outside, expecting him to start screaming my name very soon. 

With the way he banged the door so hard, I knew another soul must have pissed him off, and I would be the one to bear the brunt. It has always been this way, him taking out his anger on me.  

“Five… Six… Seven…” I continued counting before waiting for him to get to the bedroom. Like most alphas, we weren’t staying in the packhouse, but this man beats me everywhere inside this house. 

It’s no news to the guards and mads again how I’m being treated, and I no longer feel shame when I get the opportunity to leave this room. 

I am the Luna that gets beaten every time, the Luna that the alpha rarely touches decently, but he has a truckload of concubines scattered all over the packhouse.

"Rosella, where are you? Where the fuck are you? Dirham said you missed your Luna lesson again this week" I heard his voice barking as he was forcefully kicking open the door to every room in the house. 

Told you! I wonder who pissed him off this time, and he wouldn’t take it out on the person; I would be the one to take the punishment even when I don’t know the person.

He knew where I was, but yet, he found pleasure in searching for me first then pounding on me after claiming I was hiding from him. He knew I wouldn’t dare hide from him; it only made the whole punishment worse for me. Who wouldn’t hide from such a beast?

Technically I wasn’t hiding from him; I just wanted to clean up. I tried to tell him I was in our bedroom bathroom, but I couldn't find my voice as I felt very sick and distressed. I’ve been too weak to do things myself, and the alpha denied me access to any maid; I did my stuff myself. I don’t have the strength to talk back at him, and I’m what he always calls me ‘The good for nothing weak Luna.’ I need to make an effort at least for him to know I was about to come and meet him; it could save my body from being battered again tonight, and it might not.

I managed to tie the towel around my chest in an attempt to go to him when he pushed the door open. The door hit me on the head, causing me to fall on the bathroom's wet tiles. The aching in my head increased, my stomach lurched painfully, I couldn’t get myself to stand up anymore. I shivered more in dread than with cold, wrapping my hand weakly around my body. I hated it here more than anything else.

"So, there you are, you good for nothing woman, and you allowed me to scream your name like an idiot?" He yelled, making me wince again at the loudness of the voice. This man lacked empathy, and I hated him for it. I don’t care what kind of childhood he had; no one deserved to be treated this way. He treated me like I wasn’t worth a penny, I wasn’t, but I am human. I deserve some empathy.

"I... I... I'm... not..." I stammered slowly while my hands trembled as I tried to keep them together; I didn’t want to look weak because he hated it whenever I looked frail. I prayed he didn’t hit me or do something worse. I knew I was only deceiving myself with the prayers. His boot connected with my head in a flash, and I felt like my skull would crack open. The intensity of the hit was what made me rethink if living this way was better. Maybe suicide was a better option.  

"What excuse do you have this time, worthless thing?" He asked with a snicker, and I knew he could do something worse if I didn’t speak up now. This man is a beast, and everyone knows it. Before getting mated to such a man, the moon goddess probably hated me from birth. 

"I'm... I'm sorry... I didn’t mean to; I was too sick to leave here.” I forced the words out of my quivering lips, and I hoped he believed them this time. He rarely thought of me as his Luna, and listening to me is like a premium feature, once in a blue moon. I watched him clench and unclench his fingers in anger, and I sighed. I knew what was coming next. He would start to hit me very soon. It’s like a repetitive circle, and I already knew what would end it—me ending the day with bruises and weak bones.

"You're sick and couldn't tell me, so people will think I'm maltreating you, right? You didn't tell me about your sickness, so when you die, they'll say I killed you?" He growled into my face, terrifyingly. The irony of how he was scared to kill me, but he didn’t care about hitting me till I could no longer take it. This man was a funny psychopath.

"No. I'm... I'm sorry, my... my Alpha." I apologized, hoping he would forgive me this time, we both knew that wouldn’t happen, but a girl is allowed to dream. He took another look at me, and I looked at my hands as if it was suddenly the most exciting thing in the world. I mentally prepared myself for him hitting me or anything going wrong.  I started another countdown until his hands connected to my throat before the usual beating.

"What if you're pregnant? Yes, you could be pregnant." He said in excitement, and I could see the happy glint in his eyes; I wished I wasn’t because he was obsessed with me winding up pregnant, and I didn’t want that.  He hurled me from the ground with one hand. "Behave like a Luna that you are; you don't know how to behave like a Luna! Maybe when you finally stop missing Luna lessons with Dirham, then you would know how a Luna should act." He hissed as he dragged me out of the bathroom to the bedroom. If Dirham was a nice person, maybe I wouldn’t be missing the Luna Lessons almost every time; just like James, Dirham was vile. She could easily pass for a devil’s incarnate.

I wanted to tell him I wasn’t pregnant, but he didn’t even give me the chance to explain myself and how exactly I was feeling, and I was too terrified to speak, or he might hit me again, adding more agony to my body. I didn’t want that, considering I narrowly escaped from a beating. Maybe the doctor would provide a better solution for us.

On our way to the bedroom, my towel loosened due to the way he was dragging me. He, however, pushed me to the bed without taking a second glance at my body, went to the wardrobe, and brought a dress he bought for me during his birthday dinner, I have no idea why he loves extravagant things, but I, for one, I’m not a fan of it. I wouldn’t say I like unnecessary things, and I love minimalist things. Simple things blow my mind rather than extravagant things.

"Put it on." He instructed, throwing it at my face. It was a royal blue dress, and it looked like I was going for a ball rather than a hospital checkup. I wouldn’t say I liked dresses like this, but they seemed to be his weakness. On rare occasions when I make him happy, he pays Dirham to go shopping for dresses like this for me.

I managed to stand up and wore the cloth for him. I turned to the standing mirror in our room to look at myself, but I couldn't recognize the person I was seeing. I became less than a shadow of myself with heavy black bags under my eyes and how skinny I had become in less than two years. He said he hated fleshy females; he wanted his wife to have the body of a model, so he made me eat broccoli and other tasteless vegetables only once a day, checking how much weight I had lost at the end each day.