Chapter 1

• ROSELLA
• “One… Two… Three…”
• I counted in my head and waited for Alpha James to throw down the door. I heard him park his car outside, expecting him to start screaming my name very soon.
• With the way he banged the door so hard, I knew another soul must have pissed him off, and I would be the one to bear the brunt. It has always been this way, him taking out his anger on me.
• “Five… Six… Seven…” I continued counting before waiting for him to get to the bedroom.
• Like most alphas, we were staying in his mansion, but this man beats me everywhere inside this house. It’s no news to the guards and maids again how I’m being treated.
• I am the Luna that gets beaten every time, the Luna that the alpha rarely touches decently, but he has a truckload of concubines scattered all over the packhouse.
• "Rosella, where are you? Where the fuck are you? Dirham said you missed your Luna lesson again this week!"
• I heard his voice barking as he was forcefully kicking open the door to every room in the house.
• I wonder who pissed him off this time, and he wouldn’t take it out on the person; I would be the one to take the punishment even when I don’t know the person.
• He always knew where I was, but he took a twisted pleasure in making me endure his search before finally unleashing his rage. He knew I wouldn’t dare hide from him; it only made the whole punishment worse for me. He seemed to enjoy the process of hunting me down, only to punish me more harshly for my supposed deception.
• Who could blame me for wanting to escape such a beast?
• Technically, I wasn't hiding from him; I just wanted to get some rest. Normally my body could take his daily torture, but these days I've been feeling sick and constantly fighting the urge to vomit.
• Maybe my body could no longer take these beatings. I desperately wondered if the end was drawing near.
• I tried to tell him I was in our bedroom bathroom, but I couldn't find my voice as I felt very sick and distressed. I don’t have the strength to talk back at him, and I’m what he always calls me ‘The good for nothing weak Luna.’ I need to make an effort at least for him to know I was about to come and meet him; it could save my body from being battered again tonight, and it might not.
• When he suddenly pushed the door open, I was hit hard on the forehead, causing me to fall on the bathroom's wet tiles. The aching in my head increased, my stomach lurched painfully, I couldn’t get myself to stand up anymore. I shivered more in dread than with cold, wrapping my hand weakly around my body. I hated it here more than anything else.
• "So, there you are, you worthless thing, and you made me to scream your name like an idiot?" He yelled, making me wince again at the loudness of the voice. This man lacked empathy, and I hated him for it. I don’t care what kind of childhood he had; no one deserved to be treated this way. He treated me like I wasn’t worth a penny, I wasn’t, but I am human. I deserve some empathy.
• "I'm... I'm sorry... I didn’t mean to; I was too sick to leave here...”
• I stammered slowly while my hands trembled as I tried to keep them together; I didn’t want to look weak because he hated it whenever I looked frail. I prayed he didn’t hit me or do something worse. I knew I was only deceiving myself with the prayers. His boot connected with my head in a flash, and I felt like my skull would crack open. The intensity of the hit was what made me rethink if living this way was better. Maybe suicide was a better option.
• "You're sick and you don’t tell me, so people will think I'm maltreating you, right? So when you die, they'll say I killed you? That’s your plan, to make me look bad? Am I right?"
• Alpha James growled into my face, terrifyingly. The irony of how he was scared to kill me, but he didn’t care about hitting me till I could no longer take it. This man was a funny psychopath.
• "No...no, I never, my... my Alpha."
• I apologized, hoping he would forgive me this time, we both knew that wouldn’t happen, but a girl is allowed to dream. He took another look at me, and I looked at my hands as if it was suddenly the most exciting thing in the world.
• "What if you're pregnant? Yes, you could be pregnant."
• He said in excitement, and I could see the happy glint in his eyes; I wished I wasn’t because he was obsessed with me winding up pregnant, and I didn’t want that. He hurled me from the ground with one hand.
• "We’re going to the hospital. Behave like a Luna that you are ! Maybe when you finally stop missing Luna lessons with Dirham, then you would know how a Luna should act."
• He hissed as he dragged me out of the bathroom to the bedroom. If Dirham was a nice person, maybe I wouldn’t be missing the Luna Lessons almost every time; just like James, Dirham was vile. She could easily pass for a devil’s incarnate.
• I wanted to tell him I wasn’t pregnant, but he didn’t even give me the chance to explain myself and how exactly I was feeling, and I was too terrified to speak, or he might hit me again, adding more agony to my body. I didn’t want that, considering I narrowly escaped from a beating. Maybe the doctor would provide a better solution for us.
• *********
• When we arrived at the hospital, the doctor carried out some tests on me, and before long, the results were ready. I was visibly shaking, hoping I'd be pregnant so I’d be free from his torture and abuse.
• We were at the pack doctor's office waiting for him when he arrived with an envelope, probably containing the results of my fate.
• "I'm sorry, Alpha James, your wife is not pregnant." He said in a voice laden with regret.
• Immediately my mate turned to me and gave me a stern look. "Why then did you lie to me that you were pregnant?"
• He asked, and I bowed my head. My heart was racing, and I knew he wouldn’t hurt me here. At least, he wouldn’t try to do so in public, but I was dead meat when we got back home.
• "Thank you, doctor." Alpha James said, and they exchanged handshakes.
• "Thank you, doctor," I echoed and followed my mate out.
• Our drive home was eerily quiet and uncomfortable. When I soon reached our building and walked straight to the bedroom, I sat down on the bed, breathing hard from exhaustion.
• "You're not even fertile, One whole year, one bloody good year, in fact, almost two years, and you're still not doing anything about your infertility. I blame myself for accepting garbage like you from your useless pauper father and his good-for-nothing wife."
• He spat on my face before he looked at me as if he would love to do something worse to me. Then he changed his mind, and He walked out of the room instead.
• I didn't blame him for insulting my father; my father gave me to him without thinking about how I felt and what will become of me. They had no idea the hell I was enduring here, neither did they care.
• My mom died when I was 12, and in the space of one year and six months, my dad remarried a wicked witch who made my life unbearable. I always wanted to escape the house, but I had no means.
• I didn’t know how my dad was indebted to the late Alpha, who was patient enough not to ask. Sadly, when his son took over, he threatened my dad with death if he didn't pay.
• My dad and his wife agreed to use me as a means of paying their debt. I wasn’t doing anything useful at home, so it felt like a perfect opportunity to get rid of myself. The new Alpha hadn't met his fated mate yet, or at least, that’s what the alpha told us, and he declared, much to my horror, that I looked like a female he'd like to make his Luna even though he knew I was human without a wolf. My parents were more than happy to sell me off despite how much I begged and pleaded with them.
• I was still lost in thought when a sharp pain shot through my heart; it felt like an arrow piercing through me.
• Alpha James Rush was having sexual intercourse with another woman. After marking me and mating me, we automatically became mates, and I could feel such agonies whenever he was having sex with other females.
• This wasn’t the first time he was cheating on me. I was supposed to have gotten used to it by now, but how can a living creature get used to such torture? He knew I would be hurting; he knew but had never cared to give a fuck how I felt.
• I squeezed myself on the bed, clutching my chest the way I usually did whenever he was doing it. I was already expecting it because I wasn't pregnant. Hot tears rolled down my eyes as choking sobs escaped my throat. I was finding it hard to breathe or move. This was anguish added to the torture.
• I was supposed to have gotten used to it, but I can’t bring myself to be used to it.
• I felt my head aching so badly, my heart throbbing in my chest; I felt dizzy this time; it was different. I felt my whole world crumbling before me in many pieces and realized I couldn’t take this anymore, I had to leave, or I’d die in this hell.
• I crawled out of bed slowly, mustering all the strength left in me; I didn’t have a wolf-like werewolf, so in moments like this, I had no one to give me strength; I was a weak, miserable human-like the alpha always called me.
• Having successfully crawled out of bed, I went to my wardrobe to pack some clothes but thought better of it. Carrying loads would slow me down, and all of the clothes currently in the closet were all bought for me by Alpha James. He burned all the clothes I brought from my father’s house, saying they were rags and none suited his taste.
• I slowly peeled off the dress he picked out earlier from my body and slipped into something more straightforward, something I could run and escape in. An oversized black hoodie, black joggers with a pair of black sneakers I had hidden in a secluded part of my wardrobe a few months back because somehow, I knew this day would come.
• The day when I would grow the nerve to once in my life and make my own decision for myself, and that day is today.