Chapter 3: A Slave for the Week

Everything about Alpha Cain is worse.

            I don’t know if I should be happier or angrier but the Iron Wood Pack’s Omegas aren’t the ones who prepared breakfast the next day. Rather it was this pack’s own Omegas.

            We were given our own food in our own prison-rooms and told that we only have five minutes to devour the whole stale bread and cold soup and some cloudy water that I suspect was from the rain yesterday. Maybe the soup was made from that rain too.

            I finished my bread while I thought of the soup to be the water as I chunk it down my throat from its bowl in one go. As for the cloudy water, I used it on my face instead, washing my face lightly, dampening my hair so I can tightly tie  it with a strip of cloth from my torn dress.

“Five minutes up, Omega!”

I didn’t bother replying so I silently strode from my prison-room, the tray of plates on hand.

“Leave it there,” the Omega in the washing sink grumbled.

I was dragged from the kitchen even before I could slip a chocolate biscuit in my pocket and into the bright day outside, the sun almost blinding me when I looked up directly to the sky.

Like yesterday, we’re lined up again, one chain holding all of us by the same Beta who punched me yesterday for smirking at Alpha Cain.

Did they know their Alpha visited me? Had they known, no doubt they would rain me down with punch after punch like I’m some bug easily squeezed by a finger.

We walked and walked, cars passing by. The citizens of The City Above sneering at us, some snarling and a few smirking. They are indeed in their finery, I suppose they are mostly the families of Betas and Warriors and Healers. Except for their own Omegas, who dwell in the same reeking underground home like us in The City Under.

We arrived two hours later, walking to what seemed to be an unfinished bridge. We never even bother to stop for water or rest on our way here.

“Listen all you Omegas of the Iron Wood Pack…” the Beta holding the chain, whom I heard was called Beta Jansen by Alpha Cain yesterday, looked down all upon us as he lifted himself up on the tiny platform his fellow Betas had brought out for him.

“By the Alpha’s commands, your first job for the rest of the week is to continue the building of the bridge above the Marianne River high in the air, a short-cut to your former pack which is now connecting the two cliffs.”

Murmurings from my pack silenced Beta Jansen. Indeed, most of us are scowling and frowning. Some did even hissed curses at the Beta.

“But most of us are females and children!” I was the one who cried that out. Males are rarely Omegas. If they are, they’re either assigned as bodyguards or sentries. 

“The bridge’s construction has been halted ever since The Conquering, so you will all be responsible for it now. You will stay here for the rest of the week.” There’s a finality of his tone that none of us dare to challenge. Yes, some of us mumbled. But aside from that, we began moving. The older, middle-aged ones hauling blocks of bricks and shoving cement while the younger, inexperienced ones were mixing waters, applying cement while racing against the sun’s heat to not let the cement dry quickly. Or we’ll gonna be fucked up.

Miraculously, I don’t know if it’s the Moon Goddess’ mercy or something, we managed to survive the first day. We were very, very far from half-way but we managed to get it through.

Stars are already starting to winked into existence when the rain poured down. Although we were given tents by the forest on the side of the road, it didn’t save us from the cool, untamed breeze and the cold of the night from dragging us to restlessness.

We barely even slept. But we still pushed ourselves to wake up the next day. Porridge we’re served which was prepared by the Blood Dawn Pack’s Omegas, thanks the fuck for that ‘cause I will literally march up my ass in Alpha Cain’s residence if he told us that we’ll also be the one to cook our breakfast before the first light of dawn while also building his bridge to our former home.

Our former home, soon to be connected by our new home of horror. Great.

Alpha Cain very well knew that he has men who have considerable strength to do his blue-collar job tasks. But he still chose us. And it obviously shows how much he despises us just for being Omega.

Well, at least the Alpha and I agreed on one thing—on hating each other. 

But honestly, this little act of ‘kindness’ of him, like letting his own Omegas cook us breakfast and giving all Omegas a day to rest and do whatever we want, says a little bit of his character. 

Maybe he did care, maybe he didn’t. Maybe it’s his way of tightening on our leash even more. 

I don’t know. But what I know, for all his kindness, it didn’t save him from me calling him a jerk. An arrogant, ruthless jerk.

The second day of the building-bridge task has slightly become hard. Several Omegas have now been complaining of the heat. We're only given water every three hours. And for the eight hours we’ve worked, I think it’s only twice. Unfortunately, our dinner didn’t include water.

And our dinner, even though it’s roasted meat as to what Beta Jansen and his bunch of other shitheads said, it tastes dull and without seasoning. The meat is so cold that I swear my urine is warmer than this. It looks like it has been in their pots for a week and they didn’t even bother to heat it up or turn it into another meal like a stew or something.

But my complaining wouldn’t magically turn our dinner into a sizzling roasted lamb or beef. So, being used to the complexity of being an Omega, I shoved it down my stomach as quickly as I could. Besides, the more we linger and frown at our food, the more we’ll lose appetite and end up waking up sick the next day. 

When I finished eating my portion of roasted meat, I burped. My fellow Omegas sitting beside me stared. I just shrugged at them. 

“What?” I said to them, “It’s going to come out as shit from my butthole anyway so why bother?”

They just rolled their eyes. 

The rest of the four remaining working days of the week has been the same routine: we rise up at around six, their Omegas serve us breakfast, we work for eight hours with only two glasses quenching our thirst every three hours, and we have our rather simple dinner. 

Never mind the Betas roasting a pig enough for the six of them. We can definitely smell it even if they did it several feet from us. I guess that’s another kind of torture then. Well for me, the smell of the aromatic roasted pig helped me eat my cold stir-fried chicken in minutes. I swallowed a chicken, then inhaled the scent of their roasting pig, then swallowed another piece of chicken again. Those are my life hacks, my ways I did to survive as an Omega.

 I frowned when their Omegas handed us water from a plastic cup. But one look at the cloudy, bits-of-soil thing in the liquid made me realize it’s from the rain last night again.

I drink it in one go anyway

We managed to finish the bridge, perhaps also by our quantity, by the last day. It began to drizzle slightly, though the sun is still perched up high in the sky. We ignored the threat of rain pouring down at us in the middle of the afternoon and hastened instead.

By the time twilight stained the sky with its marvelous colors, we walked to the other side of the bridge. Per Beta Jansen’s command to check the sturdiness of the bridge we built. 

Well, if it doesn't go well, we’ll basically be picked up as drowned corpses in the unrelenting river below. Good thing we managed to cross and return in one piece. As I hoped, the bridge remained solid under our feet. Thank the Moon Goddess for that. 

Although I wouldn’t mind if Alpha Cain’s car will pass here and eventually find himself dropping in a cruel height and plunging into the Marianne River dramatically.

It would be a fucking great scene to watch, I suppose.

I was the last to return and walk back as we crossed the other side of the bridge. I studied the lands of what was once been my former home. Alpha Cain has indeed made use of the Iron Woods Pack’s arid temperature for he has turned it into a training ground for the surviving Warriors and other men in my pack. What was once a nature park where me and my sister occasionally wander is now a war camp for Alpha Cain’s legion. Only a few houses remained, most were tents erected. Surrounding the dense area in the middle which is obviously littered with sparring rings and weapons of all types.

I only managed to pull myself from the musing when a smooth small stone hit my head. I whirled and Beta Jansen was grinning. “Are you gonna stay there as long as you want? Perhaps you want us to strap you into one of those trees so you can watch them for all eternity, huh?”

            I just shrugged and stuck out my tongue. 

A punch aimed for my left, but I dodged right away. Beta Jansen’s eyes widened but I only gave him a lazy smile.

And I’m glad that lazy smile my sister once taught me saved my face from another bruise.