SOLD TO THE RUTHLESS ALPHA:The White Wolf's Price

I woke up very early in the morning. It was 4:30 am. The alarm was set for 5:00 am, but I could not sleep. I never sleep well in this house. My name is Aadira Thompson. I am 18 years old today. And I live like a slave in my own father's mansion. My father died when I was 10 years old. Since then, my life became hell. My stepmother, Mrs. Diana, took over everything. My father's house, his money, his cars. And she turned me into the maid of the house. Every morning, I do all the house chores alone. No one helps me. I wake up at 4:30 am to sweep the whole compound, mop the floors, wash the plates from last night, scrub the toilets, wash clothes with my bare hands, and then cook breakfast for the whole family. My hands are rough. My knees have scars from kneeling. By 6:00 am, I am already sweating. Then Mrs. Diana will come downstairs in her expensive silk robe. She is still beautiful at 45, but her heart is wicked. "Aadira! Have you finished the chores? You lazy girl! You want to eat my food for free?" Even when I finish everything, she will still shout at me. I don't go to the dining room to eat. I never go there. Because I don't have money for it. In this house, Diana made a rule: if you want to eat at the dining table, you have to pay for your food. Kiara and Fred pay because their mother gives them money. But I have no money. My father is dead. So I eat in the kitchen, standing, after everyone has finished eating. Sometimes there is no food left for me. And I am also scared of my stepsister Kiara. If I enter the dining room, she will pour hot soup on me and say I spoiled her appetite. The only person who is nice to me in this house is Fred. Fred is my stepbrother. He is Diana's son from her first marriage, but he is not like his mother or his sister. He is 20 years old, in university. Whenever Diana beats me, Fred will come and say, "Mother, leave her alone, she is just a child." He sometimes secretly gives me money for school lunch. He is the only reason I am still alive in this house. But Fred is not always around. He goes to school in another city and only comes home on weekends. At school, I have only one friend. Her name is Maya. Maya's mother also died, just like my mother died. But Maya's father treats Maya like a princess. He loves her, buys her new clothes, takes her to the dining room to eat with him. Her stepmother is kind to her. Maya always asks me, "Aadira, why does your stepmother treat you like this? Your father was richer than my father." I don't know what to tell her. I just tell her to forget about it. At school, Kiara is the queen. She is in the same class with me. She wears expensive designer uniform that shows her curves, her long legs, her full chest. Her hair is always curled. She wears lip gloss. And me? I wear one faded uniform that I have stitched myself. My long black hair is tied in a rough ponytail. My bra and pants are old. Kiara tells her friends to maltreat me. "Aadira, do my assignment," she will say, throwing her book at my head in front of the whole class. "And if you don't do it neatly, I will tell my mother to lock you outside tonight." I do it. I do her assignment and mine till 1:00 am. I don't have money for dining room at school either. So during lunch, I sit alone under a tree while Kiara eats in the cafeteria with her friends. Today, I came back from school and I heard something that made my heart stop. I was hiding behind the dining room door, because I was not allowed to enter, when I heard Mrs. Diana on the phone. She was shouting, "Alpha Kade, please, I want that necklace! I know you have it. It belongs to my husband's first wife, but it has so many secrets inside. It can make my family more powerful. I will pay any price!" Then she was quiet, listening. And then her face changed. She smiled that wicked smile. "You want Aadira? You want my stepdaughter as the price for the necklace? Even though we are already rich, you want her? Okay. I will give her to you. She is innocent, she is untouched, she has never even been kissed. She is 18 today. You can have her tonight, on full moon. Bring the necklace." My legs shook. My whole body became cold. Alpha Kade has my mother's necklace. The silver moonstone necklace that my father said holds many secrets. And my stepmother wants that necklace so badly that she is ready to sell me to him. I am the price. Aadira is the price for the necklace. I ran to my small room - the store room they gave me as bedroom. No bed, just a mat on the floor. I sat on the floor, touching my silver bracelet that my father gave me when I was 10 and told me never to remove. For eight years I kept it, even though this week it has been burning me like fire. My eyes flash silver. I hear growling inside me. Just then, my door burst open. Kiara entered. She was wearing a short red dress that showed all her thighs and her chest. She looked at me in my dirty, faded uniform and laughed. "So you heard, right, you eavesdropper? Mother is going to sell you to Alpha Kade for that stupid necklace. Alpha Kade is the most ruthless billionaire Alpha in the city. He is 26, handsome like a god, but he kills anyone he wants. And he said he wants you." She walked to me and grabbed my chin, her long nails digging into my skin. "You don't go to dining room because you are poor and scared of me, right? After tonight, you will never need to go to any dining room again. Alpha Kade will finish you." I started crying. "Please, Kiara, help me. Tell your mother not to sell me." Kiara pushed me hard. I fell to the wall. "Help you? You think Fred will come and save you? Fred is not here. Your best friend Maya is not here. No one will save you, Aadira." She picked up my bucket of dirty water from this morning and poured it all over me. My uniform became wet, transparent. My body showed through the wet cloth - my small waist, my big hips, my full chest under the old bra. She laughed when she saw my body. Then she scattered all my school books on the wet floor and stepped on them with her heels. "Clean this up, you dirty slave. And wait for your Alpha. He is coming on full moon to take you as his price." She slammed the door and left me there, soaked, shivering, in dirty water, with my books destroyed. I hugged my knees, my bracelet glowing and burning, and inside me, something howled to come out.