The disdain in his voice and the elegance still persisted, but his tone was sharp, and the clenching of his jaw didn’t go unnoticed either. As he continued glaring into my eyes, I began to see stars. I had been starving, and the pain from the night of terror had not yet healed. I had only covered the bruises and wounds under a large sweater and an oversized dress, but that didn’t mean they didn’t exist.
His scent was so strong just like his presence that I began to lose my consciousness.
My vision blurred, and my body began to crumble. “Step aside, look what you’ve done,” I could only hear Lord McQuoid’s voice before I passed out. I watched him push his son aside and approach me.
I don’t know who carried me to where but I kept having these dreams of the past.
‘Mommy will always love you,’ Those words were once spoken by my mother.
‘Daddy will be proud of his little girl when she grows up and becomes a pack’s doctor,’ My dad used to be so loving before he exposed his infidelity. I was my parents’ spoiled princess, but only until I was six. After that, I don’t even remember who I was. Just an excuse to make each other look bad or guilty.
They used me in their personal war, and now I was without a family, a loved one, a parent, or even a friend.
“Ahh!” My neck hurt so much from sleeping in the same position, probably. I winced as I began to wake.
“I’ve never seen Norman lose his temper before,” I heard some people talking around me. It was a woman’s voice.
“Of course he was angry. He was having such a hard time seeing us around, and then she showed up,” This time, the voice sounded much younger.
“What if he kicks us out as well?” the girl asked.
“That won’t happen. You are my childhood best friend, someone who left the pack with me and took her little daughter into the wilderness just so that she could be with me. I will never let this girl ruin our lives,” that was my mother. I realized the other two were Aunt Emma and her daughter, who had left the pack with my mother many years ago.
“She’s waking up,” the girl, Charlotte, who I used to play with when I was little, announced as she saw me struggling to open my eyes. I had never felt so weak before.
“Come on, stop this drama and get up. You’re leaving.” My mother didn’t care about my condition. I bet she couldn’t even sense that something was wrong with me. She just grabbed my arm to pull me out of the bed again, but this time, I shrugged myself free, hugging myself and shaking my head.
“Lord McQuoid said I can stay here,” I uttered miserably.
“Look at her, she’s already trying to take Lord McQuoid on her side,” Aunt Emma had not changed in her behavior. She was still the same arrogant lady with her eyebrow raised and a scowl on her face.
“Imagine, this is how the calmest one behaved. Girl, you better leave if you don’t want to fall under the radar of the other brothers. They are not as nice as Norman,” Charlotte stated, and my body shuddered. What did she mean by that? Norman was nice? Did that mean the others would be worse than him?
Helanie:
“Great, Lord McQuoid said you’ll be staying in my room,” Charlotte remarked, sounding more irritated than ever. I had always admired her, even though she was only a year older than me. But seeing her now made me realize how luxury can change a person.
She paced around the room, scoffing and clenching her fists in frustration, unable to calm down.
“Charlotte, it’s only temporary. Soon, she’ll be gone, and you can have your room back,” her mother reassured her, gently patting her on the back to soothe her. I felt like such a burden sitting on the mattress they had hastily laid out for me.
“But there are so many other bedrooms,” Charlotte grumbled.
“If she gets her own room, it means she’s staying here permanently. Try to understand, we don’t want that, right?” Aunt Emma muttered under her breath, running her fingers through Charlotte’s hair as though she was trying to be discreet.
I didn’t respond to anything they said. All I wanted was to lie down and drift off to sleep. I hadn’t eaten all day-just an apple, which a maid handed me when everyone left for dinner, abandoning me in Charlotte’s room.
“Fine. But not for more than a week,” Charlotte snapped before climbing into her bed and turning off the bedside lamp.
Aunt Emma shot me one last glare before leaving the room. Finally, I could lie down and rest. But that wasn’t the case. Sleep wouldn’t come easily, and when it did, it brought the same nightmare-where I was pinned to the cold ground and those alphas were crawling over me.
“No, get off me,” I screamed, feeling their hands on my body. I was repulsed. I wanted to tear at their skin, break their fingers, and throw them into boiling oil.
“Get off me!” I shouted again, this time thrashing violently. A blow struck me hard, jolting me awake.
“What the hell is wrong with you? Shut up and go back to sleep,” Charlotte growled, having woken me from the nightmare.
I was drenched in sweat, gasping for breath, but realizing it had all been a dream brought a brief sense of relief.
“Dammit, if you’re going to wake me up every night crying over your nightmares, you better ask for a new room,” she muttered, already back in bed and sounding thoroughly annoyed.
I didn’t blame her. I would have been terrified too if I woke up to someone screaming like that.
After calming my breaths, I eventually drifted off again. But that didn’t mean the torturous nightmares stayed away. By the time morning arrived, I was awakened by the sound of murmurs around me. Charlotte and her mother were already in the room, getting Charlotte ready.
A deadly storm was expected in two days, and the weather was predicted to turn dangerously cold. Every single student at the academy, along with the staff at the mansion, was busy preparing for it.
My two brothers, whom I was meeting for the first time, were out in the woods, gathering firewood. I was told to get ready quickly, as everyone would be working together to secure the mansion and academy from the storm and also pick the fruits from the trees before the storm destroys them.
I’d never seen anything like this in the packs. The rogues had a very different way of living. I didn’t have a suitable outfit for this kind of work. While Charlotte was dressed in black pants and a white top, I had to make do with an old blue dress.
We marched alongside the other maids to the woods to join the stepbrothers and share the load. We stopped when we approached two men. The one stepping forward was a tanned, handsome man-tall, broad, with a slim waist, and wearing a dirty white sleeveless shirt over black shorts. He held an axe in his hand, effortlessly splitting wood with a single throw.
“That’s Maximus. He’s Lord McQuoid’s third son. Isn’t he cute?” Charlotte whispered in my ear before smirking and straightening her posture.
His blond curls framed his chiseled face, the golden strands catching the light in a way that made his piercing blue eyes even more striking. A thin scar traced just beneath his full, tempting lips, drawing attention to them, giving his face a rugged, almost dangerous allure. The tattoo on the back of his hand-a sword, distinct from his brother’s-only added to his handsomeness. His body was a masterpiece of lean, sculpted muscle, effortlessly powerful.
“Oh, sorry, I forgot-he’s your stepbrother. You can’t look at him that way,” she teased dramatically in whispers, pouting as she glanced back at Maximus, who was now heading toward us.
“You all know why we’re gathered here,” he began, his voice strong. “The storm will be arriving soon, and we must prepare as we always do. So get to your assigned duties and-” He paused abruptly when his eyes landed on me in the crowd. I gulped and looked down, my hands clasped tightly in front of me.
I remembered how Norman had reacted to me, and I feared Maximus would humiliate me in front of everyone too.
“And you,” he pointed directly at me, causing me to look up swiftly, “come with me. I’ll assign you some work.”
That was odd. He didn’t say anything else.
Everyone else had left, but I had to follow him. He led me deep into the woods and stopped near a river. There were empty buckets placed on the side, so I assumed my task was to bring water to the main area, where they would be washing the fruits the maids were collecting before the storm.
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