CHAPTER 4 - "Remember"

LISA'S POV

I could still remember how cold it had gotten in that cell, and how it felt like torture every day I spent there with only a few scraps of food from time to time. My sister had fallen sick and had died from pneumonia, I could still remember my cries for help but none was given. I had wished the man would act on his promise and kill me after he wiped out every wolf with affiliation to my pack like he had earlier suggested but something made him change his mind. I thought about when the Alpha finally came to me, his aura was so strong, it rolled off him like heat waves as he opened the door to my cell. I could tell he was a powerful wolf with a strong and large pack at his beck and call.

He stared at me for a while before speaking. Due to my position as the daughter of an Alpha, I could easily have held a staring contest with him for a while, trying to fight his commanding presence but I was afraid to. Evelyn had warned me about revealing my status to anyone, so I opted to play the role of an Omega, scared of what would happen to me if they ever found out my father had been a true Alpha. Determined to execute my role to perfection in order to survive, I bowed my head in submission as he came close to me.

"I have finally found a place where you would be of use to use if you don't want to end up like your sister," He finally said, in a menacing tone.

"We recently lost one of our kitchen staff, so there is a vacancy open and we need an Omega to fill the spot. Don't think for a moment that we are inviting you in the Red Moon pack, I am merely going to keep you until you piss me off or become useless, in which case I'll probably have to kill you myself if the need arises," He stopped pacing around the room and brought his finger under my chin, forcing me to look into his pale blue eyes with no life in it.

Your Lycan pack is a thing of the past now, I made sure of it, so don't think anyone would come looking for a worthless Omega like yourself. So don't place any hope on a rescue or hatch any plan of trying to escape."

"If you do your duties well, we'll feed you and you won't turn into a pack-less rogue. That is the only assurance I can give you. My name is Lincoln, but you will address me as Alpha."

I could only nod my head in agreement unsure about what to say. I desperately wanted to leave this shit hole I was in but I knew to escape from this cell was unlikely, same as a rescue if what he had said was true. I was out of options to save for one, playing the part of Omega was the best I could come up with. I would diligently do whatever was asked of me and wait for an opportunity to escape to present itself.

One of the men who frequently brought my meals to me came into the cell and handcuffed me, causing me to feel uneasy and snarl. I could tell something wasn't right, the cuffs weren't made of silver, my wrists would have been burning by now.

"Wolfsbane is what is making you wince," The Alpha said to me with delight plastered on his face.

"The potion was been integrated into your handcuffs to keep you submissive and easy to command. You won't be able to shift into your wolf form while it's on. This is one of the most effective ways we keep our strong-headed ladies in check when they step out of line. The Alpha chuckled, he was amused by the fear he saw in my eyes and the power he had over me and every female in his pack.

I was then moved into one of the several houses that housed the servants of the pack where I was assigned a small corner of them, I was given a poor excuse for a mattress, two pairs of uniforms with no shoes. I was simply called help and I was fine by it, it took away attention from me. After settling down, a grumpy old woman came into the room to speak to me.

"I could care less about where you came from or what sort of lifestyle you had once lived but all that is in the past now. I urge you to forget about all of that and look forward to serving the Red Moon pack to the best of your capabilities," she began angrily.

"You will do as you are told with no objection or hesitation. You will speak only when spoken to, and if anything goes wrong under your watch, you will bear the full consequences, and trust me, you wouldn't like to be at the receiving end of it. Are we clear?" The woman who was called Rhoda bellowed.

"Yes, ma'am," I replied, unwilling to look her in the eyes.

The first few weeks were the worst I had ever experienced at that point in my life. I took a beating almost every day as a result of doing something below Rhoda's expectations. Rhoda had set out to make my life even more miserable and there was only so much I could stomach. An ugly incident reared its head one day which led to my first lashing with silver whips.

I remember one time when I was washing dishes after being up the whole night sorting through the piles of clothes Rhoda had assigned to me. I mistakenly dropped a plate and it had shattered on the floor into a million pieces. I immediately knew it signaled. Other servants looked at me with pity in their eyes as they knew what would happen once Rhoda stormed into the kitchen.

"What were you thinking, you stupid little girl?" Rhoda screamed as she slapped me hard across the face.

"Clean this mess up, now!" She screamed into my face.

I mumbled an apology which only earned me another slap and I bent down to pick up the pieces.

"I warned you about what would happen if you messed up." Rhoda snarled, as she kicked me.

I mumbled another apology as tears streamed down my face. I quickly scooped up the shards, cutting my hand in the process. I stuck my thumb into my mouth trying to reduce the bleeding.

"Pick them up, you spoiled brat," Rhoda yelled again, pulling me by my hair before proceeding to kick me again, knocking me down into the pile of broken pieces which I had managed to assemble. I felt the anger rise as I dragged myself up ignoring the burning pain on my back and landed my fist on her face before dropping back to my knees to continue picking the shards.

The whole room grew silent, mostly out of shock and admiration for what had just transpired.

"Guard!" Rhoda screamed at the top of her lungs while nursing her broken nose. Immediately, a guard rushed in and I recognized him immediately, he was one of the enforcers who helped in maintain order in the house.

"Take her to the hole, she needs to be taught a lesson.p," Rhoda spat, pointing at me.

I was immediately whisked away to the hole where I was strapped to chains connected to the whipping post placed in the center of the room and received several lashes from a whip fitted with pieces of silver to prevent the wounds from healing immediately. I was released from the strap and ordered to clean up the blood on the floor, I was left there with instructions to return to work to finish up with the duties I had scheduled for the day.

They didn't have a shower in any of the bunkhouses where the servants slept in, just one big room with several mattresses lined up adjacent to each other, with little space to keep their clothes. There was a bathroom without a tub or a shower, so they had to clean themselves with the sink unless they had enough time to go for a swim in the lake without rousing suspicions.

I crawled into the bathroom and tried to rinse my scarred back but the pain was unbearable. I lay there on the floor until one of the girls came to clean me up as best as she could.

Life in the Red Moon pack continued like that for weeks. Most of the time, she was able to control herself to avoid getting whipped which was happening more times than not. Sometimes, she couldn't help but stand up for other Omegas, and then she would receive her lashes with silver. The servants were all broken and dehumanized over time that they could barely speak for fear of being beaten over any slight mistake. And most times, even a whimper would earn you a smack from one of the pack members who absolutely hated the sight of servants.

Their wolfsbane cuff never left their wrists, they wanted to avoid us shifting and planning a revolt. So we were usually inspected at random in order to keep us in check.

I was beaten but not broken yet. I still had my wolf senses, like the heightened sense of smell and average healing properties, but the worst of it all was not being able to shift and exercise her wolf was the highest form of torture you could subject a wolf to. And after the first few months, she could barely feel her wolf within her.