Chapter 1
Lenora's POV
My steps on the grasses were hard and desperate. The screams and the smell of smoke engulfed my nostrils and ears, but I kept going. I desperately wanted to stop. I wanted to do what I promised, but I kept going. I betrayed them and I didn't know how to make it better.
I stopped just far enough from the pack house, my breath ragged due to exhaustion. Turning around, I followed the smoke that dissipated into the sky and the screams were no different either. The tears in my eyes flowed down my cheeks non-stop. I was losing my people to the fire.
My heart bled for them. My soul was shattering each second their screams echoed in the forest where I stood. I wanted to go back. I needed to be their leader and protect them. I wanted to save my family—my father, my mother, and my brother. My mother's scream echoed at the back of mind just seconds before her throat was slit.
Same fate lied for my father, and I didn't know where my brother was. I needed to find him. Protect him. I took a step forward, ready to go into that fire, enveloping my pack.
“Run, Lenora! Run as fast as you can. They can never know who you are. They can never know what you are. Run!”
****
Cold water splashed on me, jolting me awake with a gasp. Ada, the Omega slave assistant, glared at me as she placed the bucket she held down. “Get off that bed now!” she yelled. “We leave for the pack house in minutes”
I slowly got off the bed, but she slapped me. “Are you blind!” she barked. “Greet this instant!”
I took my hand off my burning cheek. I folded my fists in anger and bowed, gritting my teeth. “Good morning, Ada”
With a proud smile on her face, she walked out of the room. Every slave stepped out of their little assigned structure to gather before the slave master, Ryker. He was a bald man with a small stature. I spotted my friend as I joined everyone else, but before we could speak, Ryker addressed us.
“No running or there will be consequences,” he warned as we were chained up.
The large gates that trapped all slaves were opened. However, just as we stepped out, a few slaves headed towards the bushes. “Hey!” one of the guards yelled as they chased after them.
Unfortunately, the slaves could not go far as the guards were quick to get them. It was a foolish plan to begin with. No one wanted to serve in the dreaded Lycan king's mansion and worse as a slave, but trying to run while chained and malnourished was a death wish.
We were put in vans while the unfortunate ones, which are the runaway slaves, were made to walk there. Being trapped here for five years, I can say there was more awaiting them. Not long after arriving at the pack house, they were tied up and flogged.
We stood in the corner, watching and listening to their wails of pain. Amber came closer to me with her eyes red. She always has a soft heart and the tortures we were made to watch and endure always made her tear up.
She studied my stoic face for a minute and sighed. “You don't pity them, do you?” she asked.
“I do,” I replied, my eyes on the boy who was trying his hardest to climb the tree he was tied to in order to get away from the whips but was failing. “But they brought it upon themselves. They were told not to run, and they did”.
Amber sighed. “I feel sorry for them. They do not deserve this treatment. They only wanted to run away from this enslavement”.
“Why didn't you run?” I asked.
“I'm not stupid,” she quickly said, and I raised a brow.
“For a wolfless omega, you can be heartless, you know,” she said.
I didn't mind her words. “That is a lesson for each one of you. If you dare try to escape from this place, you will receive even more punishment,” Ryker yelled in anger.
He was even more upset now than it did when they had attempted to run. “This is Elizabeth,” he gestured for the lady who walked closer to him.
“She is the head maid of this pack and will assign each of you to your various duties,” Ryker said and smiled at the lady to proceed.
With a book in hand, she began calling and assigning tasks. “Where do you wish to be, Lenora? I want to work close to the Lycan King,” Amber said with dreamy eyes.
“You surprise me every day,” I sincerely stated.
“What? I had a dream, and I made him fall in love with me. He will not harm me,” she said.
I said nothing to those words. We all knew what His Majesty was capable of. He was a monster. A dread to all those around him. Packs feared His Majesty, and it was no different for us slaves. Every year, slaves were brought to this mansion, but every year, they disappear with no trace.
Rumour has it he killed them. But I knew the truth. Unfortunately, explaining that to anyone was only going to push the pack into chaos. “Amber, laundry,” Elizabeth said, pointing towards the maids who had already been assigned there.
Amber pouted as she joined them. I knew she was relieved. Anyone would be. It was better to work anywhere else in this mansion than close to His Majesty. No one would want to be trapped with him. And I would want to be as far away from him as possible.
Not just because he was a worse than a monster in my eyes, but because of the secret I held. He could sniff it out, and I would rather avoid such.
“Lenora,” my name being called, pulled me out of my thoughts.
“You will be one of the Lycan king's private maids”
