Chapter 1: Getting sold
"Daddy please don't let me go to him. I will work hard. I will do every thing else, I will work as your maid, but please not to the alpha", I plead with tears and snort running down my face.
My jeans ripped at the knees from kneeling and crawling around to plead with my step father.
"Don't you get it? You are just a burden and if you continue to be like this, I will leave you and your mother alone", he spits and drags his pants from my hold.
But If I remember vividly well, they were never his, they belonged to my father who died of a stroke two years ago.
About the same time I was put into this deep mud of misery.
"You bitch, didn't you hear him? Stop begging" mom kicks the maid who was subjected to pedicure and stands up in a jolt.
I watch her as she approaches me and even though all hope is lost, the sight of my mother calms me for a brief second.
Maybe she would talk to Jeffery to make a compromise.
But then, a hot slap lands on the side of my face and before I know what is going on, I hit the ground hard from the force of the slap.
I want to cry, but I find myself laughing in mockery.
I can not help but mock myself. What did I expect?
Sympathy?
From a woman who refused to breast feed me because she wanted to keep in shape or the woman who did not hesitate to bring in her boyfriend the day after my dad's death?
Rose was never the kindest, in fact, she was never kind and sometimes, I am convinced she wasn't born with a conscience towards anyone especially me.
Right now, Jeffery, her third boyfriend since dad died is all she can think about even in the house that my father built and for some reason, I understand that even Jeffery is going to be a thing of the past soon.
"Are you laughing? You bitch!" She says as she stomps on me with the heel of her right foot just in time for the door to burst open and people I can only recognize as the soldiers of the alpha king storm in.
And in that brief moment of recognition, I find a strength in me to pick my weak self up and run.
Anywhere away from them, anywhere away from the alpha king, because I know that if I go in with them, there will never be a chance for me to have my own life.
Never!
I race through to the kitchen and am about to break through the wooden door headfirst when I feel myself getting pulled back.
My heart quickens and I fight back with everything that I have.
Every part of my might both physical and mental that for some moment, I believe that my sheer determination will make me escape.
"You bastard, stay and let them take you. Or just die!" She screams and I realise who was holding me back.
My mother.
My heart breaks at the realization that even until the very end of it, she wouldn't stand up for me.
Because I was a mistake to her, she never considered me human.
That explains her lack of hesitation to sell me, her virgin daughter to the Alpha king who is in heat.
This happens every year, but I escaped because I was underaged.
Turning eighteen changed everything for me. They let me grief for two years and now, my life is about to skydive into a journey of misery I could never be saved from.
Some girls didn't even make it out alive, they said.
And that is about to be my fate too.
I soften as I am reached and dragged back to the living room by the soldiers.
My heart is shattered and I just want to die now that there is no more hope for me.
"You would never have amounted to anything anyways. Just bear the Alpha king a son and be grateful that you were even chosen", she says as if she isn't just glad about the thousand dollars wired into her account in exchange for me.
But that isn't all, because her words strike two cords in my heart.
I have always wanted to be someone who people could look up to with respect.
I have a dream, one she just talked down like ashes.
And that sharpens my resolve.
My dream?
I will achieve it and prove to her that I can amount to something great.
While she just like she has always wanted will stop being my mother.
"As from this moment onward, you are nobody to me", I tell her with spite laced in my words but something in me wishes that she would plead to take me back.
That she would realize how bad this is and save me.
Those are practically the last words my energy can form.
"You know I never wanted you anyways. So thank you. Everyone heard this bastard, I am no longer her mother", Rose says with a joy and laughter I have never seen her show before as I am taken out of the house that used to be my home with my father who loved me unconditionally.
My hope drains.
I feel weak as I am being dragged into the huge black car with expensively customized interiors which I immediately pass out in.
One minute, I am put into the vehicle that would lead me to the very end of my life, the next minute I find myself amongst another set of twenty three girls who are here for the same reason, but unlike me , they are all dressed prim and proper.
Was I drugged?
Each one of them trying to show off their personality which totally confuses me.
What are we here for?
A match-make ceremony or the end of our lives?
None of them is showing fear or disgust towards the situation they are about to be thrown into.
I am slumped on the edge of the chair beside some other expensive looking girls who make it a big deal to keep a distance from me.
Why though? I wonder mentally, and I get my answer when I look ahead at my reflection.
But I don't feel bitter because of how unkempt, out of place and dirty I look, instead I start to see the bright side of it.
"I wonder how she got here", someone says, drawing my attention from the odd reflection of me.
I turn to where the voice came from.
"I know right, she is so dirty, she has no chance, I have a better connection and that's why I got in here. I didn't really do it for the money", one of the well dressed ladies sitting and looking prim and proper says as she spares me a glance full of disgust and hatred at first sight.
There is a determination in her eyes that makes me look away.
"Me too, I tried last year and all those who didn't look half as good as me were eliminated in the first round. I made it up to the fifth round before I had to go home", her friend says, trying to sound more mature because of her experience.
"That means she has no chance!" The first lady who looks to be about three years older than me says.
"Exactly, plus she looks barely legal. She is simply no competition for us", they say before moving their attention to how much they want to be the alpha king's Luna even if it means they would just have to bear him children in a loveless marriage.
And that has told me everything I need to know.
I couldn't argue at all with their talk about me being barely legal, because aside from my small size, I literally began to shrink in size after my dad's death.
Malnourishment and eating only for survival brought me this far.
Everything to also sharpen my conviction that I might get a chance at having a normal life.
I will return after I am deselected in this round, then make a name for myself.
I slump into the chair then let exhaustion wash over me.
Until I am startled into waking up with a rapidly beating heart.
What is going on?
There is a shuffling going on around and I find myself trying to sit up as well.
The progress of everything is weird, but this will be the only phase I will be going through here anyways, so I sit up just like the others. I wouldn't want to stand out too soon.
Whispers from the other ladies float around, but who are they kidding?
We are werewolves, so the whispers reach my hear like normal speech would and I find myself smiling even harder because as a little girl, I have always wanted to marry for love like my father even though it was not reciprocated.
But at least, he was happy to be with the one that he loved even though Rose only loved him for his Irish money.
They keep talking about how I don't have a chance at this.
And why in the world would my heart not stop beating so fast?
I find myself turning my head around in search of something, or is it someone?
I can't really place my hand on it, but the desperacy in this search is about to make me go crazy because I can't stop it.
Someone opens the door and a lady who appears to be in her early sixties with the milky skin of a thirty year old comes in.
She is holding a walking stick and escorted by some palace soldier guards who I immediately recognize by the badges on their chests.
A deafening silence follows, but I still find myself shuffling my seat in search of what my heart wants.
She clears her throat as she approaches us and I have no doubt that she was trying to caution me because of the dirty look she sends my way.
I lower my head, because no matter what, I can not bring myself to disrespect an elder even though she already hates me at first sight and is doing nothing to hide it.
I raise my head to the sight of her smiling at one of the other girls, particularly the one who had flaunted her connection.
'Good for her', I find myself thinking with a smile before my partly settled heart starts to race hard against my ribcage again.
I clutch my chest in pain as I bend forward while she makes the announcement.
"The Alpha King Warren Lucas will be selecting his breeder from the first selection and the rest of you will be sent home the moment he does." She starts and concludes her information in one sentence and my heart did not fail to leap out of my chest at the mention of his name.
At this rate, I feel like it is my heart disease acting up, because this is a little to much for me to handle.
Just then, the door is pushed open again and I immediately swing my head to the side.
No one comes in, but I can feel a presence that despite how strong and domineering it is, it instantly puts my heart back in its place.
Then he shows his face.
The smirk that has been rumored to never leave his face is what appears first, then his full big well sculpted body walks in.
Is it him? No, that can't be!
My heart can't possibly be in search of the viscous alpha who I want to escape from as soon as I can.
And as if he feels my gaze on him, he turns his head and our gazes lock and somewhere in the depths of my heart that sought him, I feel myself leaning in towards him.
As much as I try to hold myself back and tell myself that he is the reason why my life is so miserable.
That he is the reason why I might never get a normal life if everything goes according to Rose's and Jeffery's plans, I find myself looking at him, into his eyes without the fear I am used to.
"She is the one, I pick her", he says in his rich baritone voice as he stops right in front of me, then everything goes blank.
