Chapter 3
1281 Words
Arya's POV
I kicked the bucket.
I was frustrated.
It keeled over and the water flowed out of it. I watched with a nonchalance born of frustration as it gently flowed across the floor.
Then I realized the door it was heading to was Alpha Reece's room. It was going to seep under it if I let it.
I leapt to work as if scalded. I knew Reece could very well scald me if he came back and found the floor of his room wet.
I righted the bucket, though it was already too late. I grabbed the mop I had dropped a moment earlier and started mopping frantically.
I pushed open Reece's door.
He had warned me never to do so. But I had no choice now. Either he catches me in his room and punishes me, or he finds water on his floor and still does the same.
Either way, I was getting punished by him. My best bet was to get the water off his floor first.
I set about my task vigorously.
"I hate this place," I muttered to myself when I was done mopping the water off the floor.
"So do I."
I started and looked up. Reece was scowling. The same exact scowl he had when his father picked me off the bushes, smiling after having my parents murdered.
Ugh! I retched mentally. I dared to reach his face.
"But believe me, that's only because you're here." Reece continued, staring at me nastily.
"What are you doing in my room?" He growled quietly.
My mind spun quickly. I could have told them a bunch of excuses. I have used some of them with Reece's father when he caught me searching his room occasionally.
But none of them involved a mop and bucket.
I cleared my throat to give myself more time to think.
Reece closed the distance between us in two quick steps.
"What are you doing in your alpha's room without due permission?" Reece growled, a little bit louder this time.
I was forced to tell the truth.
"Mopping water. As the mop in my hand should have told you."
"Mops don't talk." He replied simply.
"How come there was water in my room?" He asked again.
He stepped over the threshold, stepping on my toes as he passed.
I breathed out a sigh of relief I hadn't realized I was holding. If he has not hit me yet, maybe he will never do so.
Perhaps today was one of those days he didn't feel like using me as his punching bag. Or maybe, the official inauguration ceremony tomorrow was heavy on his mind.
I decided I had better reply fast, to get rid of all chances of getting hit.
"I knocked over the bucket."
"Why?" He continued asking me nonchalantly. From his tone, I can tell he didn't particularly care.
But I never missed an opportunity to plead with him to let go of me.
"Because I was frustrated." I replied promptly and waited for the "why?" I knew I would follow it.
It did.
“I had become weary of working for the Kane family, which was what made me frustrated. Firstly your father, and then you. Let me go, please…"
It was one of the few things I have begged for since both Reece and his father saved me from the bushes to come to live with them.
Every day of my life, I regret ever accepting to come live with them. But I was so afraid.
I had thought that maybe, if I said no, Alpha Harry Kane would kill me right there and then.
I had thought maybe he had a knife tucked into the band of his shorts like his son did.
So, when Harry Kane had asked me to come live with them, I had said yes without a delay, even though I was scared of the idea.
My opinions then were, that as long as he did not kill me right then, I could always escape whenever I wanted.
As it turned out, I was wrong. I have been trapped in this goddamn house for the past ten years, lower in rank and dignity than the lowest of maids. And more maltreated than the worst of them.
I never left the house without some form of escort, to make sure I didn't run away. And even at that, I rarely went out at all.
I was always kept busy in the house with one chore or another. Even some useless ones at times.
Like mopping a floor I had mopped just two hours ago.
It was this one that had got me so frustrated that triggered me to kick the bucket, well, literally.
Reece turned to face me when I made my usual request. I held my breath. But he wasn't going to hit me. He only looked like he was considering the request.
I got excited, though I kept my face in an expression of plea.
"Please…" I implored him.
Quite suddenly, Reece burst out laughing.
“As much as I hate you, you are much more valuable to me as a pack member than as a villain." He laughed.
“However, tomorrow I shall turn eighteen.” I began speaking. But he cut me off.
"Kill the dream." He said with finality, turning back into the room. " The penalty for spilling water in my chamber will be served later, you understand.”
I walked away.
In reality, begging him to let me go was just a last-ditch, halfhearted attempt. I have decided what I'm going to do.
I would turn eighteen the next day. That means that I have reached the age I must not be under the protection of a pack.
I could choose to be a rogue. Or I could visit some other packs in the hope they would take me in.
I did not care which it was. All I cared about was to be as far as possible from the pack that had killed my parents.
My trouble was, I knew Reece would not allow it, though I legally had the right to take that decision once I turned eighteen years old.
As he had said, I am far more useful to him in the pack, no matter how much trouble I give him.
Yesterday, I had made the choice yesterday to act independently. I had decided that I would escape that very same night.
Caught up in his inauguration as the official alpha, Reece might not notice I was gone till it was two days after. I hoped the guards would be too occupied to pay attention to me.
Stealing my heart against all the things that could go wrong, I went about my tasks, humming a tune my mother usually sang when she was alive.
When it was night, I retired early. If Reece kept seeing me around, he might realize that as the next day was my eighteenth birthday, I may be getting ideas.
Hours later, I jolted awake. I dozed off on the chair while waiting for the whole house to fall silent.
I looked at the clock hanging on my wall. Twelve o'clock in the morning was a little while away.
I hummed myself a happy birthday song, then slung my backpack over my shoulders.
A little groping outside the window saw the cord I had tied earlier that day in my hands.
Grinning, I held it securely with two hands, pushed off my feet from the lintel, and let gravity pull me down.
Only to fall right into Reece's hand. He was grinning as well.
"I knew you would try that." He said.
- Writer
