Jamie
I sucked air between my teeth as my sister applied a balm to the lash marks.
“You shouldn’t have angered him.” She hissed.
“It was just food, Emily. He keeps us half-starved, so we would comply with his insane desire to kill us off one by one.”
“We could have managed. What if next time he chooses one of the younger children to punish you?
“He won’t, Emily, I promise. I’ll take a thousand lashes if I have to, but he won’t lay a hand on them.”
She finished her work without further scolding. Our parents had both been sacrificed to the Alpha’s delusion a year earlier, leaving me to care for her and our two younger siblings. When the Alpha had gone mad for power fifteen years before, he had lowered rations for all ome
