The Alpha
743 Words
“Get it together, you bumbling i***t!”
Hannah fell to the floor, her hand tenderly pressed to her stinging cheek as Mrs. Blackmon glared at her. Pain seared across her face and tears stung in her eyes, and she willed them not to roll onto her cheeks.
Emily watched from her spot by the sink where she was washing dishes, her lips pursed. Hannah knew Emily wanted to come comfort her, but she also knew what would happen if Emily tried to interfere in her behalf.
“I told you to polish the silver, and look at it!” Susan screeched. “Alpha Blackwell will be arriving in three days, and the Luna will have our throats if things don’t go well!”
Hannah stared at Susan’s evil, heartless green eyes. She’d never know why Susan hated her so much. She knew the panic of Alpha Blackwell’s visit was going to cause Susan to be even more cruel than usually over the next few days.
Alpha Layne Blackwell.
Hannah had never met the Alpha of Blood Moon pack in person— very few actually had. Alpha Blackwell was the strongest Alpha out there— his pack was three times the size of theirs, and his packhouse resembled more of a castle than a house. No one had ever dared to challenge him, and all other Alphas in the region scrambled to stay on his good side. No pack had ever survived a war against Blood Moon. He was said to be strong, domineering, emotionless, and merciless.. like a machine. Hannah had been shocked to know he was coming to Crescent Moon to visit— surely her small pack was a blip on his radar. And while she didn’t know why he would be coming, she couldn’t help but feel a little curious. She had heard he was handsome, unmated, yet indifferent to she-wolves— as if he didn’t care to ever have a mate.
Hannah tuned back into reality about the same time that Susan’s eyes flashed dangerously, her grey hairs that had come out of her tight bun sticking out around her intense face as she reached down and snatched Hannah by the back of her neck.
“And now you ignore me, girl?” Susan snarled.
Hannah braced herself, and cursed herself internally for not apologizing and answering Susan. She knew what was coming. Iris whimpered in her head.
Her eyes burned as she stared at the wood floor, Susan’s nails digging into the back of her neck like daggers.
“A glutton for punishment,” Susan hissed. “Thomas, help me get her into the cellar!” She barked.
Glancing up, Hannah saw the panic in Emily’s eyes, her hands frozen on the plate she was washing. Thomas, one of the older cooks, had come to grab Hannah’s right arm as Susan grabbed her left.
Hannah met Emily’s terrified eyes. “It’s alright,” she mouthed silently to her sister.
Tears welled up in her brown eyes as they dragged Hannah away.
She’d made this journey a few times before. Her legs were limp beneath her as Susan and Thomas dragged her to the door that led to the staircase to the kitchen cellar. She knew the rough wooden floor against her thin knees should hurt, but none of it mattered. She knew what pain was coming for her, and that dulled every other pain to nonexistence.
Susan and Thomas threw her down on the dirt floor of the cellar, the pale yellow light flickering above them making her eyes squint as dust traveled up her nose. She made not a single sound as Thomas grasped her hands and tied them tight around the support beam in front of her, her chest pressing against the wood.
Tune it out, Hannah, Iris whimpered.
Her mind was a million miles away as she felt the muggy air of the cellar on her skin when susan ripped her dress open to expose her back.
Her brain went far away without her having to order it to.
By the time she heard sound of the whip cracking— the sound she’d hated her entire life, the sound that was the cause for every jagged scar on her back, she was conjuring up a peaceful scene in her head. One where she was far away, a million miles away from Crescent Moon and Susan and Eugene Blackmon.
It was a beautiful scene, indeed.
- Writer
