Chapter One: Agony
Thirsty and hungry are the words I repeat every day. In my lifetime, I have only experienced agony and anguish. The loneliness gets even more profound as the days pass by. I suffer in silence and scream out yet nobody listens to me. They all seem to detest me. I have never known love. I hear the phrase called 'love' and I have seen others display it to each other, yet nobody ever exhibits love towards me.
There are days when I've felt like taking away my mortality and leaving this terrible world, but I fought the impulse to do so. The only thing that kept me going was my intention to escape the pack one day and go far away, to a location where I would never be found. There I will start a new life and find peace. Every day, I prayed for a helper to come. Days felt like months, and months felt like years. The torment felt so long that I was startled by the fact that I still had life in me.
My name is Claude Rollins, and I am the only omega in a pack of betas. They consider me an abomination because they found out I could shapeshift. They debated sending me out of their pack to join the rogues but chose to keep me after a beta made me his slave. I served his three sons and they treated me in a more humiliating manner than the rest of the pack. I was always thrashed and injured, even for the slightest error.
The pack does not allow me to eat with them. I was given a little shed under a tree just in front of the pack's territory. That is where I reside. I was always exposed to the perils of the night, but the pack did not care.
My pack was called the Luna pack, and Luna meant the moon goddess. The pack was named after the goddess of the moon. Its domain was deep in the forests near a small town called Margery, named after the founder. The land was identified by tiny trees which had the Luna emblem engraved on them. The trees ringed the entire territory, so when a member of an enemy pack saw it, they would know that it was the Luna pack and they should not trespass.
I have never been treated with kindness. After the pack found out I was a shapeshifter, I worked as a slave every day. One day, I was asked by one of my beta's sons to bring a bottle of wine and serve it in front of their shed. His name was Trevor. He was in a discussion with a friend of his within the pack. I carefully approached them while holding the wine bottle and two glass cups. As I walked, my hands were shaking since I was always scared of them. Suddenly, I tripped and one of the glass mugs crashed to the ground.
As soon as it happened, I looked at Trevor. His enraged glare sent shivers down my spine. I began to shake as I yelled 'sorry' more times than I could count. I could feel my heart racing quickly as though it wanted to explode in my chest. I bent down as I shuddered in terror and tried to pick up the broken shards of the glass cup. My hands shivered as I began sweating and panting intensely. Suddenly, while still picking up broken bits of the glass cup, I sensed a shadow over me. I looked up and it was Trevor. As soon as we caught gaze, he slapped me in the face and kicked me to the ground. I gasped in pain and began weeping, but he didn't stop. He came over to me again and kicked me many times in the stomach. I coughed and wept but he repeated the action many times and soon began shouting;
''bastard! You Omega b***h. How dare you?! That was an expensive glass cup you w***e"
Trevor began calling me insulting names while standing above me. I held my stomach and groaned in pain while I cried. It was the most brutal beating I had ever gotten. His friend simply stared at me with no compassion in his eyes. As I grieved, I wondered why he would hate me so much that he wouldn't even stop Trevor from inflicting such pain on me.
This was my hell, and I was getting tired of living in it. After beating me, he picked up the bottle of wine and the other glass cup from the floor, then went back to continue discussing with his friend. They spoke and joked with each other, ignoring my presence. I rolled on the floor repeatedly. I groaned aloud in anguish as I wept. Some other members of the pack walked by and ignored me.
After a long session of battling to get up, I eventually found the strength to lift myself off the ground. At that point, Trevor and his friend had left the scene, entirely snubbing my existence. I struggled to walk back to my shed. Different members of my pack stared at me as I groaned in pain but did nothing. I had to tend to my wounds by myself. It was almost nightfall. After treating my wounds, I slept whilst having both hands wrapped around my tummy. I wailed in anguish till I slipped into a deep slumber. When I woke up, I kept experiencing the pain and had to endure it throughout the day as I labored once again.
I developed a sickly-looking body due to the hard treatment I experienced from the rest of the group. I had blonde hair, was average in height, and light in complexion. I had no idea if I was physically attractive because such adjectives were alien to me. I couldn't think of such things because I was usually too busy striving to survive every day. However, there was a moment when a member of the pack told me I was lovely and that I should utilize my gorgeous face and figure to lure my beta so he might like me.
I always felt starving. There were days when my beta would starve me and not express any explanation for why he did it. They reveled in my torture.
One day, when I was sweeping the floor in front of my alpha's chamber, I heard him discussing with my beta, Nathan. I sneaked to the door and began eavesdropping on their conversation.
I was able to obtain some facts regarding my powers. I was stronger and faster than the typical wolf. That was what my alpha told my beta. He also urged him to make sure he was careful with me and that if I tapped into my full powers, I could rip apart everyone in the pack.
All my life, I had only known myself to be an abomination. Shapeshifters were severely despised in my pack. I had no idea that being a shapeshifter had its rewards. That night, as I lay down under my shed, I contemplated so many thoughts about what I had just discovered. I had no idea I could be as powerful as my alpha described. It gave me a feeling of hope. I disliked everyone in my pack and I finally felt that there was a way I could win my independence.
Later that night, I began training my body and mind. I delved deep within myself as I began to search for my inner wolf. That was my way out. That was my escape.