MARKED BY DECEPTION

2-SERA

“w***e!”Simon said to me unprovoked. He had been trying to get on my nerves since we started this journey to the Full Blood Moon pack.

He sat opposite me in the caravan, and had been giving me weird looks ever since we stepped foot outside of our pack.

I had ignored him, but with the way he kept on looking at me, I knew it was itching him desperately to say something distasteful to me, and against all better reasoning, he finally scratched that itch.

“You are such a w***e!”, he said again, this time with more vim.

I would so badly love to have his head on my own silver platter.

“You were only picked because you sell your body”, he spat out,it would sting if it were true.

I looked at him from head to toe, sizing him up. From his demeanor I could tell that he was scared of what I’d say in retaliation. He was tapping his feet restlessly, he always did that when he was scared.

What a p***y.

I flashed him a bright smile,“Says the dog that runs after cheap bones”. I watched as his face turned crimson red after I said those words. It got to him, he started growling at me,stuttering and saying incomprehensible words.

Typical Simon.

A chuckle escaped my lips at the sight before me, “Now the dog barks”, I said in between cackles.

“Urghhh!”, he growled, leaping forward like he was about to pounce on me and have a duel right here.

“Lyra!”His eyes were bloodshot, Cornelius held him tight, restraining him with his hands. Even without him doing that I knew it was all fuss, Simon didn’t have it in him. He never did.

Out of the three of us, he was the less skilled fighter. He was well aware of that. I was not sure of Jeremiah and John’s strengths but I could bet on my last penny that they could beat him too, that was how much of a pitiful fighter he was.

“Allow him, Cornelius”, I looked at Simon, he was panting like a beaten wolf as Cornelius continued to hold him by his chest. One would think we had already fought with all that loud breathing of his, this man belonged in the theatre.

I smirked at him,“let him do his worst Cornelius”

His fist tightened and his jaw clenched, “I’d kill this girl!”, he shouted his favorite threat,now getting the attention of Jeremiah and John.

“What’s going on here?”John asked, turning to look at us. His worried eyes shifted from Simon to me, waiting for an answer.

“Ask him”, I gestured at the man who had called me a w***e.

With the way Simon treated me you would think I was his long time nemesis. Someone who had offended him by harming a loved one or something, it would have been more understandable if that were to be the case.

I had not always had issues with him, not until I became relevant to Alpha Brandon three years ago.

When I turned twenty, I had grown into my features, men could die for my beauty. My hair had become so long, the curls had maintained a lovely pattern. My bre*st and my as* had become well rounded, my waist tinier and I had lost all baby fat on my face and body.

Realizing the strength, brain and beauty I now possessed, Alpha Brandon started to add me on his tougher missions, making me the only woman on board.

That infuriated Simon and some other men with fragile egos.

Why was a woman my age in a man’s job? handling such important matters?.

Since then he had not let me be, he made sure every mission was difficult for me with his tireless arguments and complaints.

Simon ignored John, and spoke to me“I am going to make sure you return as bones.”

“You can do nothing you pathetic mf!”I had also learnt to defend myself early, unless I would have continued to be picked on by every other man and every person who saw an omega as less of a wolf.

He gritted his teeth,“You’re lucky we are close to our destination , I’d have dealt with you”, he replied.

I laughed in his face again.

Oh Simon!, he was better off as the alpha’s jester.

“Better luck next time”, I winked at him, he kissed his teeth. Frustration continued to build up within him.

“Look!”John said, distracting me from the earlier drama I just had with Simon. He was pointing outside, his eyes sparkled with excitement.

I looked out my window immediately,“Wow”.

The gates of the Full blood moon pack could be seen some miles ahead of us. They were taller than how I imagined.

As I continued to look at it, I felt my heart sink at the realization that this was going to be home for more than three weeks. I had never stayed this far from my pack, for this long as well. Other missions took two weeks or less, but Brandon insisted that this was going to be up to a month.

“We will be dropping here”, Cornelius spoke to the driver.

Our caravan stopped, we took our bags and continued the rest of our journey on foot. If we were going to blend in we had to look like the rest.

After fifteen minutes, we got to the gate that I was in awe of. There was a long queue of other omegas, servants, displaced wolves and paupers that came for seasonal labour.

We joined the queue taking the roles of displaced wolves who came to work for a livelihood in their pack as they prepared for the end of their full moon cycle.

It was believable, we looked the part , dressed in half rags. It was not too far from our reality back home.

When our turn finally came, the guard handed us our tags, a gold metallic square piece with the Full blood moon crest on it. A wolf howling at the full moon, engraved on it.

“Turn”, the second guard commanded.

“Let me see the bags”, he lazily went through each of our bags, barely lifting past the first items in the bags. I had expected more scrutiny, from a pack like theirs, maybe the hundreds of workers that entered before us had tired them.

They opened the gates after their search, “Go in, registration is at your left”.

We nodded and walked in. As soon as my feet stepped into the pack,I felt the shift immediately.The air was different. Stronger and richer.

My lips parted in surprise “Wow”. This was how I thought packs looked like when I was little - green and healthy.

“This is so …different”, John said, he had a similar face of awe that I had.

The difference between our pack and here was so painfully obvious, even though I tried not to compare, you could tell when a pack cared about their environment and their people.

“Brandon could learn a thing or two”, I said, still in awe.

I noticed the glare Simon shot at me, I ignored him. Sometimes I wondered if he’d rather be the one warming up Alpha Brandon’s bed. Maybe that’s why he called me a w***e so often.

In my twenty-three years of living, I had never seen a werewolf dickride another like this before.

“I think we should just follow everyone to where they are going”, Cornelius suggested, noticing the tension between Simon and I.

Jeremiah was the first to lead the way, we all followed him behind quietly. We were led to the palace, the registration was going on there.

I joined the queue and waited for my turn.

“What's your name?”, the elderly woman asked.

I paused. It just occurred to me that I had not thought of a name for this mission.

Holy s**t.

She looked at me irritated as I delayed.

“Lady?”, she tapped the table with her pen. “I don’t have all day”

“Sera”, I answered quickly with a smile. “my name is Sera”.

She wrote it down in her book, looking up at me again she paused then said,“palace kitchen.Next!-”

I tried my hardest to not look overly joyous as I left the queue. Once again favour had proved to be on my side,just where I wanted to be.

I joined the rest of the kitchen girls. When our batch was complete, an elderly woman who had introduced herself as Lady Rose led us into the palace.

As we stepped in, I heard deep voices conversing above me. Intrigued, I lifted my eyes up and saw two young men, I recognized one immediately as our eyes locked.

Alpha Darius,…the man I ought to ruin.

Little did he know.