Cold Hearts

The bucket of water clasped in my hands fell with a heavy thud, just as I was kicked to the ground.

"You think you're special than us!'' Linda, daughter of the servant supervisor and the eldest among us all, shouted as she repeatedly kicked my stomach.

"The Alpha shows you attention and you think you're special?'' She shouted, gaining laughter from her minions.

"Please, stop!'' My voice came out whimpered and broken, I tried to clasp my stomach but was met with the shattering tragedy of getting kicked again.

"Weston becomes Alpha soon. And when he does, he finds a mate more worthy, and leave you to rot!''

The very words had shattered my heart. Not just the thought of being abandoned, but Weston choosing another as his mate.

"ALONDRA!'' A masculine voice shouted at a distance, shattering the calm of the day. Linda stopped in her tracks and bowed her head, horror written on her face.

"Alpha, I...''

"Save it, you'll get what's coming for you in the cells.'' Weston responded, before turning to me and stretching his hand out. When he touched me, fire ignited within me like never before, reminding me of my feelings for him and the dooming fate that we would never be together.

He was my best friend, but we were worlds apart!

Perhaps, the world that we existed in will One Day Collide. And we would be together.

"Weston!"' 

That voice. That voice was the reason our world would never meet.

"My queen.'' I bowed my head respectfully, as I avoided her eyes.

"There is much to be done in the Park House. More Alphas are going to be coming in for your coronation day and before that happens, you need to be ready.'' Mrs Pierce, Alpha Weston's mother, spoke out loud as she disregarded my presence. I kept my head bowed before I felt my best friend's hand on my lower back, urging me forward.

"I already talked to my father. We set the meeting for this evening, not right now." Weston answered, but his expression was fixated on me. I always felt bad whenever he showed me attention in the presence of his mother - his mother who hated me with everything she had.

"Why do you still have to be seen with this commoner? There are tons of beautiful women in this Pack, Weston. Women who would kill for a chance to be at the future Alpha's side."

"And those women are nothing compared to Alondra. She is kind and she has a beautiful heart. She is my best friend. All these women you keep talking about only wants me because I am going to be Alpha.'' he answered in a heartbeat, meeting the Queen's size. 

I felt like I was intruding or in a private moment. While I love the way he defended me, I didn't like it when he was doing it against his own mother.

"Tell me, Alondra,'' Mrs Pierce quipped as she turned her attention towards me. "Do you not think it is best that certain grades of flowers be allocated in the gardens according to their types and qualities and according to their durability?''

I stared at her for a split second, afraid of the storm that hid behind her eyes. I failed to understand where she was going with that question or how she even knew about flowers to begin with. I worked at the garden almost all my life, it was where I went whenever I finished with my chores at the pack house. I tended to the flowers and the vegetables on the other side and hardly any other servant was ever given duties there.

I liked it. It was a quiet place and I could always collect my mind. This was always the place where Weston and I would go to sit and talk; where we would go for a run and then come back and change, right at the end of the Guardian of the river and we would often go for a swim together with his sister, Trish, and her best friend, Aria.

"Yes, my queen. Different grades of flowers are selected and split according to the equality, durability, and the needs of the flowers. They are flowers that cannot grow next to each other and there are..."

"Exactly!" She interrupted. "There are different grades of flowers and different qualities and types. The same applies to people - people of a lower-quality cannot mingle with...''

"Mother!'' Weston quipped in a wanton tone.

"What, son?'' she interjected. " It's only the truth, isn't it?" She said, palming up. "People are talking, and it's only a matter of time until you become Alpha. What happens then? Are you going to keep calling this lowlife around everywhere you go…?''

"If I have 2 years. She's my best friend in the whole world. I love and enjoy her company more than anyone else inside that Park House. She has been my friend since childhood...''

"Something I wish I corrected years ago.'' her voice was intimidating, but it wasn't intimidating to Weston. He spoke as if he was used to her.

There was an uncomfortable silence that rested in the air between them for a while. Both mother and son were engaged in a staring contest and I couldn't help but feel like I was the one who caused it. For as long as I remember, the Queen has always hated me. Something inside of me has always felt like she hated me before she even met me.

"Come on, Alondra, Trish is asking for you!'' Weston said as he wrapped his fingers around my wrist, causing goosebumps to rise all over my skin. He pulled me with him as I tried to collect the bucket of water that was still laying on the wet ground. while we brushed past the Queen, she gripped my other hand tightly, causing me to flinch.

"Listen to me and listen carefully,'' she whispered against my ear in a tone that was filled with authority and malice. "When Weston is crowned Alpha, I promise you that you will become the scum at the bottom of his shoes. I will make him forget everything about you. And in that, I am going to put you in your place and remind you that a lowlife scum like you does not belong with the royalty.'' she said through gritted teeth.

The air between us tensed, as she released my hand and left me standing there, feeling stranded and broken. A tear dropped from my eye before I wiped it immediately, hoping that Weston had not seen that.