I fixed my eyes on him. If I was a pig, it was because I wasn’t fed enough, I wanted to shout. Besides, if anyone was a pig, it was him. He ate much worse at the dining table. I finished the last bite of the apple, reluctantly putting the core back in the bag. I couldn’t eat it. My mouth was parched. I began to sip at the juice box and then opened the bag of crisps, carefully placing the first one in my mouth and listening to the loud crunching sounds as I bit into it.
Heaven. Salty goodness. I ate much slower now, my stomach beginning to feel satiated and if I were honest, bloated due to not eating this much in a long time. I felt like a chipmunk trying to squirrel food away for winter. Damien just shook his head at me in disgust.
“Honestly, I can’t believe we’re related sometimes.”
Neither could I. Damien looked more like my father while I looked like my mother, or at least that’s the assumption I made. I preferred it that way. Why would I want to look like the people who made my life a living hell, day by day? Why would I want to be associated with them? I would rather be related to somebody who was kind and compassionate. But this pack was filled with cruel and inhumane pack members. Honestly, I thought with a sudden spurt of viciousness, it wouldn’t be the worst thing in the world if Alpha Jaxon forcibly took over this pack. It might be a horrible thing for me to think that way, but there was no kindness to be found here. This pack was vicious and cold-blooded. Just like my father.
I methodically chewed on the crisps. My brother shifted on his bottom scowling.
“Would you hurry up already?” he barked.
I looked at him, raising a brow. I suppose I should be grateful he wasn’t brandishing the remote control for the dog collar at me. Either he had forgotten it or he just wasn’t in the mood to use it. Either way, I was glad. I tried to eat a little faster to show my appreciation as he grunted and glanced away. But eating the salty food just made my throat dry and my thirst increase.
I began to drink the last of the juice. I was finished. I glanced regretfully at the paper bag, wishing I had kept some food for later, but I suspected Damien would not allow me to. “You’re such a pig” Damien snapped, reaching out and taking the offending garbage off me.
I waited for him to leave. It wasn’t customary for him to stay and keep me company, but he seemed hesitant to go. Strange. I glanced at him. There was a shifty expression on his face. What was going on? Why was he acting so peculiar? I made a gesture at him.
“Shut up” he snarled “I’ll go when I’m good and ready to.”
I felt like an animal on display as he sat there. It felt like he was waiting for something. But what? I blinked. My body was starting to feel a little off. Like it was floating. My eyes widened and I reached out a hand to try and steady myself. I fell to the floor, on my back, my eyes staring up at the ceiling.
“About time it started to take effect. I must not have put in a high enough dose for it to work quickly enough” my brother’s voice was positively callous as he stood up and then moved, kicking me in the legs and causing a sharp stab of pain to shoot through me.
What was happening to me? I tried to move my arms and legs, but they refused to cooperate or obey me. They felt like leaden weights. Damien had done this, I realized with dawning horror. The juice box had been dosed with some sort of drug or poison. No wonder he had sat there and waited. He was making sure it took effect. I felt like an idiot. I should never have eaten that food, but if I hadn’t, he no doubt would have made me. Damien moved so that he was standing above me, his face towering high above me as I looked up at it. There was a vicious grin on my face.
“I thought the last meal thing would have been some sort of clue, but it went right over your pretty little head didn’t it Riley?” he mocked, his eyes gleaming “you really are pathetic” he chortled.
Last meal? Had it been poison I had consumed? Was this finally the end of me? Was my father finally ridding himself of my presence? Why now? I wanted to form the words but they would not come. Instead, my vision became blurred as Damien cocked his head at me. “At least you’ll prove useful before you finally die” he murmured, “so you’re good for something at least.”
My vision began to dim. I felt him kick me hard in the midsection, my body reflexively curling in on itself. Darkness began to surround me. Damien knelt by my ear, his voice chilling. “I can’t wait until you wake up and realize exactly what use we have for you. Alpha Rowan is about to be dealt with and he’s just as foolish and stupid as you are. Father and I are going to have the strongest pack in the country and it’s going to be all thanks to you and that poor, pathetic, Alpha Rowan. How ironic is that?” he said chuckling darkly, straightening up as I stared at him in horror.I succumbed to the darkness and heard no more.
Riley POV
My mouth is dry and my head is throbbing when I wake up. I put a hand to my head, my eyes adjusting so that everything becomes clear as my eyes shoot open and I put a weary hand out, only to touch my brother’s hand which he promptly yanks away with a look of irritation on his face. I’m sitting, in a car, and I can feel the vehicle moving as I stare blankly out the window.My clothes are different. I glance down at myself. I’m clad in a uniform, a maid’s one but this one is much more tasteful. The dress reaches my knees and I’m wearing stockings and proper shoes. The material is clean and starched and my hair has been pulled back in a ponytail. While I had been unconscious, somebody had redressed me and I glanced at my brother’s stiff profile as he sat opposite me, his jaw clenched. I swallowed hard. What was this? What was going on? Why was there a need for me to be dressed in such a uniform and where were we going?
My father is in the passenger seat while a warrior is driving. He turns his head, narrowing his eyes as he takes in the confusion on my face.”Finally awake,” he says with a certain amount of disgust on his face “Good. For a moment there I thought we might have to persuade you to wake up.”
The dog collar is still on me and as I glance to the side, I see the remote is resting in Damien’s hand, tightly enclasping it. There is a bag sitting between us and there is a smell that sickens me to my stomach, nausea overwhelming me. Instinctively I know what it must be and yet I am shocked that it is sitting there, so casually, as though it contains something innocent and ordinary.
I cannot bear to look at it. There are blood stains on the bottom and while it is safely closed and I cannot see inside, the knowledge of what it possesses is enough to make me want to vomit what contents are left inside my stomach. My brother sneers as he sees the blood drain out of my face.
“Looks like you just worked out what’s in the bag. That there, is Alpha Rowan’s severed head” he said gleefully as I blanched and tried very hard not to puke ” You should have seen the look on his face when he realized that he was not going to get away with his life intact. Stupid bastard never even saw it coming” he chortled, while my father listened from the front seat.
“Enough Damien” my father barked, glancing over his shoulder “If she’s sick we have nothing to change her into and she needs to play the part of an obedient servant if this is to work” he admonished my brother who glared at me petulantly, like a child who had been told off for the merest thing.
Why did they need a servant at all? My father glanced at me and saw the puzzled expression on my face. “Alpha Jaxon would expect us to have at least one omega or servant with us. It would be suspicious if we didn’t bring one along” he said irritably.
Something didn’t ring true to me. If that was the case, they never would have needed to drug me to do their bidding. Even if I had initially refused, Damien could have used the remote on the shock collar until I was forced to obey them. There would have been no need for such subterfuge. My eyes narrowed as my brother shifted in his seat, a look of impatience coming over his face. It wasn’t a long trip and by my calculations, we were going to be there any minute. What was I going to do? Take their word on it, or trust the instincts screaming in my head that there was something very wrong about all this and they were lying to me?
My father turned his head resolutely to the front. His eyes were glinting. His lips were curved back into a pleased smile. My brother looked bored. The bag between us rolled slightly and I flinched as it got closer to me. Neither of them were looking at me now. My hand began to tremble as I began to feel myself all over. I pulled my feet slowly out of my shoes, tipping them slightly. Nothing. The shoes were empty. I put my feet back in. I subtly felt one leg with the other, trying to find any lumps or bumps in the stockings, but there was nothing in either of them. My hand began to slide into the pocket of the apron, and I felt a lump, but it wasn’t in the apron and I stiffened, casting an uneasy glance at my father and brother, before my hand slid below my dress, feeling something tied around my waistband.
Damien turned his head and I paused, leaning back and pretending to be nonchalant. He grunted and glanced back out the window. I quickly untied the item, feeling a small bag in my hand, my fingers finding the zip and opening it. Inside was a tiny glass vial. Miniscule. It couldn’t have contained more than two drops of some sort of substance within it. The bag itself was no bigger than my thumb and had been coarsely made from crocheting wool. I bit my lip. How was I going to get rid of this, whatever this was, without them knowing about it? I didn’t want it on my person. I didn’t know what it was, but I didn’t want to get caught carrying anything on me when we entered Alpha Jaxon’s territory. They were bound to search us, weren’t they?
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