July 8th
The sun was shining, the leaves swaying slightly in the breeze. The smell of freshly cut grass brought a small smile to my lips and filled me with a sense of peace. It was barely eight in the morning but already the sun had warmed the air.
The groundskeeper Kyle, had already done his rounds early this morning, avoiding the summer heat by starting at the crack of dawn, not that I could really blame him. It was the hottest summer we had seen in twenty years, or so Mrs H kept complaining.
I sat down on the discoloured stone step, stretching my legs out in front of me, I rested my back against the old wooden door and sighed. With a warm cup of British tea, in a cracked mug that Mrs Henderson had shoved in my hands, I let the illusion of freedom fill me with the only contentment I had ever felt as I watched the garden around me.
A tiny frog jumped from the pad of a lily on the lake into the slightly longer grass on the far side of the water. Even so far away I could see every detail clearly, I watched, fascinated as the small green creature stretched out its legs, pushed off from the ground and disappeared into the blades of grass that stretched into the forest beyond.
My eyesight had steadily improved ever since I found my wolf a little under a year ago, it was definitely one of the perks of being a shifter. I loved the gardens, I always had, it was my happy place. The one place in this humongous house where there was no worry, no threat, no predators. I sipped from the broken cup, careful not to catch my lip on the broken edge as contentment filled me, even if it was to be fleeting.
Flowers all around the garden were blooming, I couldn’t name them all, but Kyle had taught me my favourites. Roses, the white ones that had that hint of pink in the middle of the petals. Sunflowers, the big yellow happy flowers. Peonies were the ones that looked messy and yet beautiful at the same time and lotus flowers floated out on the lake between the lily pads. Each one was colourful, completely different, and yet utterly beautiful in its own right.
I finished my tea and let myself relax. If the conversation I overheard last week was anything to go by, I wouldn’t have the opportunity to do so for much longer. The Alpha was planning to sell me as soon as I turned seventeen and then the goddess only knows where I would end up. There would be no more sneaking out to enjoy the gardens, no more stolen moments to calm my nerves and settle my thoughts.
I glanced into the bright morning sky and not for the first time, wondered what I had done in my past lives to warrant being the receiver of such a harsh fate. My entire life had been one long series of miseries. I shook off the thought, I suppose there were worse Alphas to belong to, there were worse fates to have. At least I didn’t belong to that brute that was here last month. I shuddered as I thought about the beast that masqueraded as a man and the brutalized woman that was his slave.
Once upon a time there was a grace, a dignity and an honour in belonging to a shifter pack, or so the history books I coveted told. I smiled as I imagined the world I had been reading about each night under the cover of darkness. Where shifters had the freedom to choose their own fate. Times sure had changed.
The door opened behind me on rusty hinges, and I jolted forwards to stop myself from falling before turning to look up into the caring eyes of Mrs Henderson. The woman was, for all intents and purposes, as close to a mother as I would ever get. “What are you doing child?” She asked with a smile.
“Just enjoying the morning Mrs H.”
“Well, come on in now. There’s work to be done.” She offered a genuine smile and stepped back into the kitchen that was now bustling with staff.
“You take the bedrooms today, Amara.” Mrs H stated with a glance at me as she looked at the gathered staff, handing out assignments for the day.
The bedrooms weren’t my favourite but at least I wasn’t on kitchen duty. I could cope with just about anything so long as I didn’t have to serve food to the Alpha, or scrub the pans after the cook burnt the eggs, which she would, she did every morning, and my fingers still hadn’t recovered from the last time I was assigned the task.
“Grace and Keira take the guest rooms. The Alpha will have visitors in the coming days, we don’t know how many and we don’t know when they will arrive, so all the rooms need to be prepared and freshened daily.” She continued and I winced, that meant a lot more work for us all over the coming weeks. Hopefully they would come soon and leave sooner and hopefully for us all they wouldn’t be as bad as the last lot that visited.
I watched as the girls all flinched, Carly in particular seemed horrified at the thought of more visitors, not that I could blame her. She had definitely been the one to suffer most at the hands of the last visiting Alpha, she still bore the cuts and bruises that hadn’t quite faded, and I had no doubt that some of the scars would be with her for life. Her hands shook as she took a step back away from the group, as though to protect herself from men that were not here yet.
Mrs H spared her a sympathetic glance before continuing on with the assignments. There were 14 girls gathered in the huge kitchen, 14 slaves, 14 women that had never seen a kind hand beyond what Mrs H showed us every day. How I wished for a better life for us all, a life like the history books told us it should be, with an Alpha who cared.
I shook off the thoughts. Everyone wishes for better, but I know that it’s not always greener on the other side. At least the Alpha left the children alone, there were others out there that didn’t, Carly was case in point.
The girls started to move, each heading in the direction of their assigned task for the day and I followed suit, grabbing a cleaning case from the storeroom off the kitchen and getting to work.
Cleaning the bedrooms was disgusting. The Alphas son Harley had a habit of leaving tissues on the floor and I shuddered as I tried not to think about what they were covered in. He also never flushed the toilet in his connected bathroom and left all his dirty clothes on the floor.
I gathered the dirty washing into a pile to take down to Mia and picked up all of the rubbish before scrubbing my hands. My face was scrunched in disgust as I flushed the toilet, dumped a quarter bottle of bleach into it and scrubbed it with a brush before cleaning the rest of the bathroom.
There were bottles of aftershave strewn all over the counter, towels so soft they were like touching the clouds, cuff links that were probably worth more than my life, and shoes left on the floor made of handsewn Italian leather.
The Alpha and his family had never been shy about their wealth and I should probably be used to it by now, but it still made me sick, tidying away their extravagance while people in this town couldn’t afford to feed their children. The Alpha reaped the rewards of the packs hard work and paid them a pittance for the hours they labored.
It was lunch time before I had finished with the bedrooms and my own stomach growled as I carried down the mountain of clothes the Alphas daughter had left strewn around her room this morning. With the rubbish taken out and the laundry left with Mia, my morning jobs were done, and I made my way to the kitchen to see what was left over from breakfast and lunch.
We all ate left over’s from the Alphas table, but we weren’t allowed to indulge and none of us were stupid enough to risk breaking that rule, the rest of the food was supposed to be disposed of but the cook and I had a deal.
I entered the almost empty kitchen and spared a look at Hannah who pointed to the counter before speaking. “Your food is on the back, the waste is in the larder.” She stated with a small nod before turning her back to me and carrying on prepping the deserts.
I had never told her what I did with the waste food, but the older woman wasn’t daft, if she didn’t know, she at least suspected. It was a big risk to take, one that had my hands shaking every day, but my wolf was always there, pushing me to take the added risks, she was my angle and my devil, helping me to walk a fine line.
I couldn't wait until the full moon when I could let her out to run. It was the one freedom the Alpha allowed all slaves. After all, denying the moons pull was neigh-on impossible, especially for the young, and I only found my wolf less than a year ago.
I quickly ate my lunch before grabbing a sack and filling it with the tubs of food. Each tub contained a meal, twenty-eight tubs, twenty-eight meals. I closed the bag and made my way out of the larder, through the kitchen to the door into the garden before heading towards the bin shed keeping my eyes open for any of the staff.
My entire body was tensed as I approached the wooden construct, with one last glance around and the all-clear from my wolf, I took a deep breath and stepped around the side of the building to the almost invisible gap in the hedge. I squeezed through, ignoring the scratching on my skin and the pricks from the thorns, I ducked behind the bush and shimmied along to the end of the row where there was a gap in the fence that surrounded the property and ducked out into the forest that surrounded the pack house.
I could see Brent in the forest, pacing the small space, wringing his hands together as he waited. The man looked worse than the last time I had seen him, although it had been a while, the pack members took turns coming to meet me, unfortunately there was no telling what time I would make it out, and some days I couldn’t make it at all, so whoever was on pick up duty could be here for hours, today was unfortunately one of those days.
“Sorry I’m so late Brent.” I murmured when he stopped pacing and turned to face me.
“That’s okay, I’m just grateful you came.” He answered with a wide smile of appreciation, his shoulders relaxing as he took me in. “You girls all okay up in that house?” He asked, the same way he did every time he met me, and I offered a smile.
“Yeah, we’re good Brent, we’re surviving.” I answered, thankful that there were some good men in this world, Brent was one of them. He worked day and night as a labourer at the lumber mill the Alpha owned, but could barely afford to feed his mate and three children, he was in the same boat as a lot of the pack members.
“You don’t look so good.” I stated before regretting my words when he blanched.
“I’ve been ill the last couple of weeks.” He stated and my wolf called out in my head that he was lying, although it didn’t take her superior senses to tell me that, I could see it with my own eyes. “Here.” He stated holding out a stack of empty tubs, the tubs that had been filled with food when I dropped them off yesterday and I traded them for the full tubs in the bag I was carrying.
“The Alpha has visitors coming soon so we will be preparing extra food until they arrive, I should be able to bring you more than usual tomorrow.” I informed and watched as the man’s eyes lit up at that. How was it that this good, hardworking man was so excited to hear there would be more scraps available for him to feed his family. He shouldn’t have to live like this, none of us should.
With a heavy heart I made my way back to the pack house grabbed a fresh drink and sat down in the grass by the rose bushes, my favourite place in the extensive grounds. I was out of sight of the house, no one could see me, and I couldn’t see them, it was like none of the rest of the world existed, my own little heaven. I sipped from my cup, watching the garden around me as two of the younger girls walked by with their own drinks, talking a million miles a minute.
“It could happen though, right?” Layla asked, her innocent voice serious and Macy laughed.
“Sure, in your dreams maybe. When would you ever meet your fated mate? We’re not allowed out of the pack house, you’ll never meet the pack members, and the visitors we get here are worse than the Alpha, I hope you never end up mated to one of them.” The slightly older girl stated, even at fourteen Macy was too much of a realist, too resigned to her fate.
“But if you mated with one of the visitors, at least you wouldn’t be a slave.”
“Of course you would. Look at the Luna. Can you honestly tell me that is the life you’re dreaming about?” She asked and of course the girl was right.
The Alphas fated mate was a bitter twisted woman. Half the time she seemed broken, the other half she was worse than the Alpha. But Macy was right, her life was no better than that of a slave, she wasn’t allowed to leave the pack house without the Alpha or a guard, she had no free will, every decision was the Alphas, and his ruling was law.
I shook off the thoughts, the girls had moved too far away now for me to hear their conversation without focusing my hearing and I wouldn’t invade their privacy like that. I drained the last of the tea from my cup, stood and straightened out the grey dress that was the slave’s uniform and made my way back into the house.
Mia was hanging washing on the line, Tara was beating the dust out of a rug over by the bin shed, Layla and Macy were sat lost in conversation, to the outside world everything here would seem perfectly normal, a relaxed and happy home, but we knew different, none of us were here by choice and we all hung on the mercy of the Alpha.
I left my cup in the sink and went in search of Mrs H, time to get back to work.
