Chapter 4: What I Endure

Lilac’s P.O.V:

4 Years Later:

My back slammed against the wall hard enough to make my bones rattle, but before I could recover from the shock of it, one of the girls grabbed onto my hair and yanked my head back so that I was looking directly into her pale green eyes.

“Listen little fucker!” Serena Stonewater spat at me, her perfectly manicured razor nails digging into my scalp to cause me even more pain. “You think we’re going to tolerate you and your shenanigans just because the Beta shows you pity? You’re nothing but a little rat that got thrown out into the gutters by her own family.”

A growl threatened to escape my lips but I clenched my jaws together, refusing to give Serena or any of her slut-squad the satisfaction of seeing me rattled.

“Whoa…” Another one of her squad-mates, Aisha Smith gave a surprised laugh as she pointed her manicured fingers at me. “Look at her face. If looks could kill, bitch would have turned us into ash by now.”

“Hey!” A slap to my cheeks had my head snapped to the side as the pain resonated inside my head. “How dare you look at us like that? You little bitch! First you mess up my work and now you have the nerve to show me attitude!”

I tasted blood on my tongue, knew that the slap had busted my lips. But even if these fuckers beat me half to death, I wasn’t allowed to talk back or beat the shit out of them in return.

Why?

Because I was living at their mercy. So any and every person at Red Claw felt like they had their right to abuse me as they pleased.

 “Girls,” Serena huffed as she let go of my hair and stepped back. “I’m bored of her attitude. What’s the fun in hitting a piece of garbage? ”

“Yeah, let’s just leave the piece of shit here.” Aisha and her followers cooed. “Lunch is almost over. And besides, we just got our nails done yesterday.”

“You got off easy today, slut.”

With a final shove at my shoulders, Serena Stonewater and her goons slithered away from the alleyway, their short skirts barely able to cover their humongous asses.

Spitting out the mouthful of blood, I wiped at my lips, sighing as my fingers came back stained red.

I pulled out the hair tie holding back my long brunette strands in the messy bun that I had put it into before coming to the backyard for lunch and after running my hands through my tangled strands a couple times, I decided to leave it down. The day wasn’t over yet and something told me, it was only going to get worse.

“Lily!”

“Oh, shit!” I muttered under my breath as I heard my best friend, a.k.a, my only friend, come running towards me from across the field from the Soup House.

Dani was short for Danika Mehra; she was of mixed Asian ethnicity and had long wavy black hair and beautiful brown skin. She was the daughter of one of the patrol guards in the pack and just as much an outsider as me. So if there was someone who understood what I went through in the pack, then it was her. Funny thing was, whenever she was with me, the packmates still treated her better.

“Lily! Lily!”

“I not deaf, Dani,” I snapped at her as she came to a stop in front of me while bending over with her hands on her knees to catch her breath. “What took you so long?”

“I was caught up in lunch line,” she told me apologetically before her eyes went to my busted lip and she gasped. “Oh my god! Is that-”

“Serena’s handiwork? Yes, ma’am.” I shook my head. “I mistakenly signed my name on the last page of her assignment so instead of having me just redo one last page, she threw the entire assignment into the trash and I won’t be getting the fifty that she was supposed to give me.”

“I think you should tell the Alpha the truth, Lily.” Dani spoke hesitantly. “And Beta Luca too. Even if Alpha Krimson doesn’t listen, at least Beta Luca will.”

 “Absolutely not.” I shook my head immediately. “If I had to tell them anything, I would have done so four years ago. I just have three months, Dani. So I stay put, keep my head down and get the hell out as soon as school’s out.”

“But…but…”

“If you’re about to say what I think you’re about to say, then don’t.” I told her clearly, wiping away my lip with the side of my apron. “There’s nothing here for me. Nothing…and no one.”

“Let’s get you cleaned up then,” Dani sighed. “Your cheeks turning red.”

Following Dani back to the kitchen area of the Soup Kitchen, we got one of the assistant cooks to get us some ice cubes and then we sat right at the back of the dining area, away from prying eyes. I wrapped the ice cubes in my handkerchief and placed them on my cheek, wincing when the pain got even worse from the cold before relief set in. Dani had already gotten herself a tray, so she now dug into her food with relish.

I could see someone’s eyes boring into the back of my skull and I didn’t have to turn around to know that it was Serena and her slut-squad sending all their ill-wishes my way.

To everyone in the pack, I was the enemy pack’s child who got dumped at the edge of pack territory when I was barely thirteen years old. With no memories of what happened to my pack that night or how I came to the pack territory in the first place, it wasn’t any surprise that most of the pack still looked my way in suspicion. Alpha Krimson might have given me a roof over my head, a place where I could get free food and education, but none of it came for free. I was the pack’s servant.

I worked at the Soup House six days a week, a special restaurant/kitchen funded by the Alpha where packmates could eat for free twice a day. During school days, I had to take care of cleaning the dining hall and the dishes once a day, but on Saturday, it was usually full-house, so I had to work double shifts, like I had to do today. Sundays were my days off, because the people usually spent their days with their family or went out to have fun…and I spent it on training with Beta Luca, trying to get stronger so I could defend myself when I got out there into the world one day.

But other than that, I wasn’t allowed to tell anyone what happens to me on a daily basis, the kind of bully I am forced to endure or the kind of treatment I am given by the people at the Soup House where I live…because no one cared, especially not the Alpha. And most importantly…I wasn’t allowed to tell anyone that I was Alpha Krimson’s little mate.

Why? Because my mate hated my guts. He had done so from the very first day he had found out which pack I had come from…and then his eyes had become so cold and distant than I was afraid to go near him.

“You’ve finished your own assignment, right?” Dani asked worriedly. “Do you need help? You can come over at my place to finish the rest o-”

“No,” I shook my head, throwing the ice into the empty glass at the corner of the table when it began to melt. “I finished it yesterday. I just need to submit it on time.”

“Assignments due on Monday…how can you finish all of it by then?” Dani asked. “Serena can be one mean bitch and we know it. What should we do?”

“Don’t worry, I have a plan.” I gave her a small smile, wincing when the cut on my lip stung from stretching my lips. “I’ll get my money’s worth.”

Lily…I don’t like this…what if she retaliates in a-”

Before Dani could finish her sentence, a commotion at the door caught our attention, followed by the squeals of delight from the slut queens. And that was how I knew, even before turning, exactly who it was that had just decided to show up at the Soup House, to make my life even more miserable.

“Oh…shit…” Dani gave me a nervous look, lowering her eyes immediately as I got up from the table and turned around, my face becoming devoid of all emotions.

Because standing at the entrance to the dining hall was none other than Alpha Krimson…and as if he knew I was here, his bright red eyes snapped in my direction…and I watched them turn hard and cold, just as the smile disappeared from his lips.