Silver Eye: Love Meets Betrayal

I winced in pain as the shoe connected with my back, shoving me onto the floors that I had just cleaned. “What’s wrong? Lost your balance?” Jamie asked as she and her friends laughed. I knew by now not to answer. It would only earn me more beatings. So I just lay there on the wet floor and waited for them to go away. “Oh you’re not gonna stand up? That’s good. Trash belongs on the floor” Lucy said and kicked me. Soon all four of them were taking turns to kick my sides. I folded into myself and tried my best to protect my vital places as I endured the pain. After kicking me until I could barely breathe, they decided that I wasn’t worth anymore of their time and left me. I stayed still and just let the tears flow unbidden out of my eyes. I knew from experience that it would be foolish of me to try to get up right away. It would hurt a bit less if I stayed still just a little more. “Oh God, Celeste, what happened?” I heard my best friend, Devon’s voice as if from a distance. He touched my shoulder and I winced in pain so he immediately snatched his hand away. “It happened again didn’t it? I’m so sorry I wasn’t here to protect you” he said as he sank unto the ground beside me. I moved a couple inches and lay my head on his lap and he rubbed my purple hair, trying to comfort me. “Oh don’t tell me it happened again. Sweetie are you okay?” my other best friend, Melissa exclaimed. I raised my bright green eyes, swimming with tears to meet her baby blue ones. She winced as she saw the tears and bent beside me. “Oh I’m so sorry honey. Can you move now?” she asked. I nodded. Together, they helped me sit upright with me trying to hold in my winces of pain, although some still slipped through. “If I catch those girls-“ “You’ll do nothing Dev. They have every right to do this. Being an Omega is a punishment and they can punish me any way they want. You’d just get yourself in trouble” I said calmly. “But it’s not fair! Anyone who knew your parents knows that they didn’t do it, they didn’t leak secrets to our rival Pack during that ambush!” Devon complained, his bright blue eyes sparking with rage. “Exactly! Why can’t everyone else see that?” Melissa added, running her hands through her perfectly styled blonde hair, indicating that she was more than a little frustrated with the situation. “I don’t know. But we’ll make them see it, somehow. Now come on, you guys have to leave. I don’t want you to get into trouble for being seen with me again” They sighed collectively. They helped me up and then left. I wiped my tears as I continued mopping the floors, which is probably why I missed that particular spot. A few hours later, I was called to the Alpha’s office. I rubbed my sweaty palms together and tried to even my panicked breathing. Getting called into Alpha Damien’s office was never a good thing, at least for me. Because he believed that my parents had indeed betrayed the Pack by giving out secrets to a Pack we had been feuding with which resulted in an ambush during which his mother was killed, he hated me with every fibre of his being and always found a way to punish, hurt and humiliate me. I raised a shaky hand and hesitated just in front of the door, preparing myself to knock. The choice was taken away from me however when he said, “Come in Celeste”. I pushed open the door and tried to control my trembling as I walked in and shut the door behind me. He was seated behind his desk, a handsome and intimidating figure. His dark hair was in its usual sensually muzzled style and his light brown eyes were filled with the usual anger whenever I was in his presence. Even behind the desk his bulging muscles were clearly visible, daring anyone to challenge him and face their wrath. “Good morning Alpha” “If only it were, Celeste. I inspected the work that you did this morning and I’m not satisfied” My heart began pounding with renewed vigour. What had I done wrong? I was always careful not to make mistakes with my work. What could I have done wrong? “I.. I’m sorry Alpha” His eyes flashed in anger. “Did I say you could speak Celeste?” And suddenly he was in front of me. I pressed my back to the door to increase the distance between us and worked to catch my breath. “You left a spec of dust in my meeting hall! Now how should I punish you?” He stared into my eyes searchingly as I tilted my head up to meet his. I had learned the hard way to always meet his eyes when he spoke to me. “I asked you a question Celeste” he grabbed my jaw in a bruising grip and tears pooled in my eyes at the pain. “I.. I don’t know” “You don’t? Wonderful. Since you’ve left the choice to me, I could choose to have you publicly flogged again, or perhaps act as the prop in my warriors’ training. How do those sound?” My eyes widened with his every word. “Please Alpha, it won’t happen again, I promise” I pleaded, the tears now pouring. He ran his finger across my cheek, catching some of the tears. “Ah these tears, how I love to see them” he backed away with a smirk, leaving me pressed to the door, in tears. “We’ll begin by sending you to the edge of our territory to pick wild berries for today’s pie” he turned away from me, effectively dismissing me. “Yes Alpha” I replied and quickly exited his office. I wiped my tears as I set off for the forest. It wouldn’t do to waste any time. I couldn’t afford to be in any more trouble. As it was, I had gotten off easy on this punishment. Sure it was unsafe for untrained wolves to be at the edge of our territory border but if I hurried then I would be safe, especially since it was daytime and werewolves generally preferred to run at night due to the invigorating power of the moon. I made my way through the least busy part of our territory in order to encounter as few people as possible. The beating I had endured this morning was enough for me. I didn’t want to chance another. Plus if a Pack member made me late, I would still be the one that was punished and more than anything, I did not want to be punished by the Alpha. He always found clever new ways to hurt my body as well as my mind. I was almost in the forest when my luck ran out and I ran into the absolute worst person I could meet; Natasha Rommel. Natasha had dated Damien for a while and everyone assumed he would marry her and make her his Luna but he didn’t. They broke up with no explanation to the Pack but she still carried herself like she was the future Luna. She had no doubt in her mind that she would get back together with Damien and become the Luna. Since Damien hated me, she made it her mission to make my life a living hell, perhaps to win his favour. So as I ran into her, my heart fell to my stomach. “Well, well, look what the cat dragged in. Going somewhere?” She asked, flicking her sleek, bright red hair over her shoulder. Her grey eyes shined with malicious intent as they usually did whenever she directed them at me. Before I could reply, she pulled on my t-shirt, bringing me closer to her and cutting off my air flow. “I asked you a question mutt” “Yes! Yes I am” I said, trying to claw at her hands and dislodge them from my throat so that I could breathe again. “Why do I smell my Damien all over you? You w***e!” She slapped me, then shoved me to the ground. I struggled to catch my breath and just succeeded when she gripped a handful of my hair and used it to lift me up. I winced at the white hot pain in my scalp. “Please” I begged. Her friends snickered behind her. “Oh look, she’s begging like the little slave girl she is” Lorelei said and they snickered again. “If you ever go close to my Damien again I’ll break your little neck” she said and shoved me to the ground again. She and her friends left, laughing all the way. I sighed and massaged my scalp to calm the scalding pain, then hurriedly got to my feet to continue my hunt for the wild berries before I would be late and get punished again. The beatings and bullying were all daily occurrences for me and although they still hurt, I found that it became easier and easier everyday to get up. I still held out hope though that one day I would find the person that framed my parents and this would all be over. If not for me, for my fourteen year old brother, Owen. I could not have him live the life that I was living. I wouldn’t! I finally made it into the forest and hurriedly began searching for the berries. I knew the type that Alpha Damien would want because this wasn’t the first time I was given this task before. When I got them wrong the first time I was starved for two days. I definitely wouldn’t repeat that mistake again because that meant my brother had to survive on the little food that they gave him. Usually, I added most or all of my share secretly to his but since I didn’t have a share those two days, he’d had to survive on just the little he was given. I saw the berries and sighed in relief and began picking them. I put them in the basket I had grabbed in the Pack on my way here. I knew that I had to fill whichever basket I brought to the brim so I carried a medium sized one. If I carried a small one Damien would make me go back and fill two large ones so I compromised. The basket was almost full when I heard the growl. I looked up and stared into the crazed eyes of a large brown wolf. Oh God, it was a rogue. I looked around and saw that I had somehow wondered slightly past our boundary. I turned to run back but the wolf tackled me to the ground and I went tumbling down a slope. I shook with the force of my fear as we stopped and I scrambled to get away from the crazed wolf. He lunged for me again and in a instant I felt the pull to change. I knew what it felt like because I had felt it several times during a full moon but since I was not allowed to run with the Pack, I had never before heeded it and shifted. But this time I knew I would have to. The breaking and reshaping of bones was excruciatingly painful and felt like it lasted a day when really it was just for a fraction of a second. The wolf landed on me and I quickly scratched it with my claws and rolled away. I made to try to run again but that proved to be a mistake when the wolf tackled me from behind again. This time I could feel its teeth at my neck, about to tear it clean off. I had never felt such frigid terror as I did in that fraction of an instant. I raised widened eyes and cried out as the fangs sank into my neck.