Cassie -
Kneeling there on the soft area rug beside his bed, my heart is pounding, I have to force myself to remain still yet remain breathing. I may not be submitting to him, but I can make it appear that way for as long as I can, to appease him, hopefully he will fall for it and go easier on me, until I can think of a way out of this. Ace's feet appear in my line of sight, and I know by the flexing of them that he is squatting down in front of me, but still I don't move, not even a flinch. He places 2 fingers under my chin and forces my head up, so I am looking into his dark brown eyes as he gazes back at me. I thought I glimpsed a flicker of what could have been wonder in their depths, but it was gone before I could truly know.
He spoke in a whisper, as though not wanting anyone to overhear, "Cassie, Cassie, Cassie, I'm hurt you say you don't wish to be alone with me, you see, I happen to know you want me, that is why you are submitting to me so prettily. So submissive and open to dominance."
Submissive? Open to dominance? I think not. I roll my eyes in my head, and suddenly, an involuntarily scoff escapes me at his comment, and I receive a stinging slap for my indiscretion, d@mn my attitude, I was doing so well, I brace myself.
"You b!tch, how dare you scoff at the thought of submitting to me, I will show you, you are made to submit to me!" He yells pulling my hair, forcing me to look him in the eye. Then he pushes on the back of my head and I sprawl on the floor at his feet, he delivers several hard kicks to my abdomen and steps on my hand as he proceeds to leave the room, turning at the door he says "I expect this whole room to be spotless, then you can continue with your regular chores" and with a sanctimonious nod he leaves me laying on his bedroom floor.
After laying there for a few minutes trying to catch my breath and thinking about what he said, I pull myself up by the bed clothes and stagger to the bathroom. I splash some wash onto my face and notice in the mirror that my lip is swollen and there is a trickle of blood running from a small split in the corner of my mouth. Once I see the blood, I can taste it, so I cup my hand and drink some water from the tap to flush the coppery flavour of blood from my tongue.
His words still ringing in my ears, I proceed to tidy and clean his room before recommending my bathroom duties, all the while wholly aware of the time lost and what trouble I will be in if I don't finish soon and start dinner. Leaving Ace's room I go down a floor to the Delta and Gamma suites and upon entering Madeline's bathroom, I freeze. She has smeared makeup on the mirrors, smashed perfume bottles on the floor, poured shower gel on the toilet and placed all her towels inside the shower and switched it on. This is going to take ages to clean. Why would she do this? Because she was sent away by Ace?
Glancing at the clock I realise I am screwed, there is no way I am going to be able to complete everything before dinner, which means I will have to skip dinner to finish cleaning and the washing if I don't want to be punished. I turn off the shower and hang the towels on the handrail to drip dry while I clean everything else. Once that is done, I check the time again, an hour! A whole hour in 1 bathroom, I'm dead! I grab the towels and sprint to the laundry room, where I load them into the washing machine and pull everything out of the dryer, then I dash to the kitchen to begin dinner.
I'm left alone in the kitchen which is good, no interruptions means less time wasted and my lip and cheek have stopped throbbing, my stomach still aches and my hand feels stiff, like my fingers are repairing themselves. Once dinner is served, chicken soup, cottage pie, stew, and pastries for dessert, I stash a little bowl of food in the oven, hoping it will go unnoticed and head back to the laundry room, I fold the dry clothes, move Madeline’s towels to the dryer and on my way upstairs to finish the bathrooms, I drop off the clean washing outside the doors of the bedrooms throughout the pack house.
Once I'm done I pop back to the laundry room, fold the towels and rush them back upstairs to Madeline’s bathroom, then I sneak back to the kitchen to grab my bowl of hidden food so I can eat and head upstairs to do my schoolwork. I push open the kitchen door an inch and freeze, voices, voices that strike fear in my soul.
"Baby, that tramp has taken ALL my towels, I can't shower, and I want a shower," Madeline whines, making it seem as though I did it to spite her.
"Maddie, why would she take your towels?" Comes Ace’s tired voice "and what…Cas? Why are you listening at doorways? Get in here and explain yourself!" He started off sounding tired, but once he noticed me, his tone changed. It was his no-nonsense tone, and I scurried in to defend myself.
"Ac…Beta '' I corrected as his eyebrow arched, "all her towels were on the shower floor and were soaked, so I washed and dried them all and have just returned them to Madeline's room" I explain. This is followed by a shriek from Madeline, and she races towards me, fists raised.
"You fụcking liar, you skanky @ss wh0re, how dare you lie about me and try to make me look bad!" She screams, pummelling my face and arms with her fists. I try to block her attack but Ace comes up beside me and hold my arms at my sides, seemingly enjoying watching the drama unfold.
"I'm sorry, I'm sorry, it won't happen again," I plead, crouching into a ball to defend my already tender stomach from more abuse.
"What are you doing in here at this hour anyway?" Asks Ace.
"Probably trying to steal food again," sneers Madeline.
"I saved a small portion for myself as I haven't eaten since yesterday morning," I say quietly, but they hear me.
"Liar, fụcking, fat, lying, fụcking b!tch" screams Madeline, almost incoherent with rage, "creeping around stuffing your face at all hours, get to bed, wh0re!"
I chance a glance at Ace, and seeing no emotion on his face, decided it was a lost cause and headed back out of the kitchen and made my way to my room.
Ace -
I couldn't let her eat, I know she didn't eat earlier but after the way she was with Maddie I need her to learn her place, or Maddie will never accept my plan and though I could force the plan it would be easier if Maddie approved. It can't be long until her birthday, and I need her to understand where she belongs, behind us, following our lead, accepting our authority. So tonight she starves, again.
Maddie and I have spoken, she understands the situation and accepts we need a child, she has agreed to Cassie being my mistress until we have a son, she knows I don't want Cassie. She will be the mother, she will raise our child, and nobody will know any differently. We have a plan in place to get us the top position in the pack, Alpha and Luna are due to return day after tomorrow and then we will begin executing the plan. Maddie's father is aiding us and before the end of the month, I will be Alpha. Maddie will be named my Luna immediately. Maddie turned 17 2 weeks ago and her mate is not in our pack, so long as she stays here she wont find him. She doesn't want to anyway, she wants me. We already act as though we are mates so that people are not suspicious, and Cassie will be arrested and accused of harming Luna Lily which keeps her away from everyone. Nobody will see her again, she will be my plaything, to do with as I see fit, and once I have a son, I will dispose of her as I did my first mate.
Cassie -I slowly make my way back downstairs and get myself to my room. I close the door as quickly as I can and lock it, closing myself in, away from the world. I pick up my school bag and, through my pain, I settle into my bed gingerly and attempt to complete all my assignments before I am too tired to focus. I still need to keep my grades up if I am to have any hope of leaving here.When I finally look up, having finally finished my last assignment of the day, I rub my tired eyes, relieving the dull ache that is forming behind them slightly and I glance at the old child-like clock I have on my dresser, the clock I have owned since I was around 5 years old, it is a little beaten and there is a crack in the glass front, but otherwise it has always worked well so there had been no need to buy a new one.With a sudden jolt of surprise, I see it is a little after 2am. Happy birthday to me, I think to myself, caught somewhere between excitement and dread. I wonder what fresh new hell co
Cassie -Hundreds of questions seem to be chasing each other around in circles inside my head, whirling like a tornado until they all seem to blur into one constant stream of thought. There are muffled voices, just out of my hearing range. Who is that? Odd smells surround me. Is that disinfectant? Strange sounds resonate in my ears. What is that beeping? I can't seem to focus on anything, or keep any single thought straight in my mind, and why won't my eyes open? Why can't I move or make a sound? All of this hits me in the span of about two seconds, the questions repeating themselves over and over. I try to concentrate on one specific question and manage to grab ahold of one, whose voices? I vaguely recognise those voices, like a memory of them is just out of reach. The memory of the voices tickle my brain as other details try to push this thought aside, but I cling to
Ace -They went to the fucking hospital, sh!t, now what?? I need to think of something…Almost as soon as our meeting had ended yesterday afternoon they went over to the hospital to pay a visit and spend time with each of the wolves that were injured during training and most specifically, they went to see how Cassie was and what she could tell them about how she ended up there. Luckily for me, she was still out cold when they got there and she didn’t wake up at all while they spoke with the doctor, seeing if he had any insight into how she came to be in this condition, but when Cassie wakes up I have no doubt she will tell them everything.I managed to sneak into her room last night at around 3am, during a shift change, so I went completely unnoticed and I slip
Cassie -After my conversation with Dr Thorne, he went to follow up on my blood test results, and I leaned back against the mountain of pillows behind me and closed my eyes. The words how and why kept flashing behind my closed eyelids. How did someone get ahold of wolfsbane, let alone get it into a hospital and manage to dose someone with it and why would they want to? It doesn’t take a genius to work out it was probably Ace that did it, or maybe Maddie on his orders though.I must have drifted off to sleep again for a while, and when I woke up, I was shocked, utterly speechless.Luna Lily was sitting beside me reading through a binder of some kind. She is stunning, all regal elegance and true grace with her auburn hair tied regally in a chignon and her eyes downcast to a b
Cassie -After spending another 3 long, peaceful hours in the hospital, Dr Thorne finally came around with my discharge papers. He had Thomas come into the room to hear about the aftercare I needed, so I had "no excuse" as he put it, but to follow the regime, which he delightfully told me with an impish grin on his face. I rolled my eyes at this but listened carefully as I wanted to get better quickly, he told me I needed to eat little and often, and nothing heavy to help me gain some weight back. He also gave me a prescription of vitamins to help me and my wolf get stronger again. Once he finished, he brandished the discharge papers under my nose, I signed and was handed a bag of clothes.I glanced in the bag and then sharply up at Dr Thorne who blushed slightly and said he had run out to a nearby shop on his break to buy m
Cassie -I end up falling asleep while Thomas snacks on the popcorn he brought up for us to eat while we watched a movie on the giant TV hung on the wall opposite my new bed. We were up half the night just chatting and I think it is safe to say we are now friends and not just protector and protected. Thomas makes me feel normal, like I can once again be the girl I was before. He makes me forget all the bad stuff, the trauma, the torment, Ace and Maddie’s cruelties, and even Ace being my mate, even though he doesn’t know that yet, I will tell him, I just don’t know when I will be ready to admit that my mate is my tormentor. I feel like a person when I am with him and I already love him like a brother.The next morning when I wake up, I don’t open my eyes right away. I listen to Thomas breathing d
Cassie - Thomas and I walked down the stairs together, Thomas chatting happily beside me, clearly trying to distract me. I guess he could sense the tension in me. "You will be fine Cassie, trust in our Luna, she only wants to help, and so does the Alpha, and you have me now. I'm not just a guard, I'm your friend and I won't let sh!t go bad." He says before we reach the ground floor. He speaks quietly so as not to be overheard and then, without waiting for my reply, he continues on down the stairs. When we get to the door of the office, we pause and Thomas knocks. "Come," calls a soft voice, the door is ajar and Thomas reaches out to push it open further for me. "Thank you", I said ge
Cassie -Shortly after the reassurance from Luna Lily that Thomas would still be protecting me, she escorted me back to the room I stayed in last night, Thankfully nobody was leaving me to walk the hallways alone.“I want you to stay here, this is your room now dear. Thomas will be up shortly with some food, his training will have ended by now and I know that boy loves to eat. I am going to talk to Sven, I need to tell him what you told me and then I will come back to you and we will discuss how you wish to go on from here. This is your room now, for as long as you wish it to be,” she sighs heavily and continues, “this should have been our heir’s room, but it was not meant to be I guess, at least now it will be put to use.” Then she turns away from me and walks back down the hall, the way we jus