Less Than A Vampire

Marliene's POV

"Scrub harder, Marliene! You dirty pig."

"That's a new one," I murmured to myself. Usually, it was just "Scrub harder, Marliene." Now it had a suffix attached to it. How glorious.

My life was far from glorious. If anything, it was a cycle of constant humiliation, hate, anger, and helplessness. Every morning I woke up, I questioned why I was still alive. Why can't You just kill me off? I would ask. My life means nothing to anyone. I am a wolfless, orphaned, lowly servant. My life revolved around serving the Ashthorns and their spoiled daughter, Celeste.

Celeste took a special kind of pleasure in making my life harder than it already was, and I could never understand why. I wasn't the only servant in their house. No, not even the only young female servant. It almost felt like there was something about me that made her feel threatened. It couldn't be because I was prettier than her, because there were other servants who resembled divine beings.

But I remained her biggest threat. She never wanted me close to her friends, her parents, or anyone. I was isolated, and the only time I was ever brought out was when I — or someone else — committed a crime, so that I could be punished.

All this I endured, believing that I would be free one day.

That day seemed farther away than yesterday.

"Marliene!"

Someone screamed, jolting me back to consciousness. I turned around so quickly to find Margaret, the head of staff staring intently at me.

"You look like you've been pulled from another planet," she said with a light chuckle.

"I wish that were the case," I mumbled beneath my breath. "Did you need something?" I asked in a more audible tone.

She nodded, then handed me a paper bag.

"In there are some supplies for you. Mr. Ashthorn asked me to bring those to you. He wants you to get ready and meet them in the meeting chamber in twenty minutes."

I slowly scowled as my gaze fell to the bag in my arms.

"But I still have so much cleaning to do," I argued gently.

She shrugged.

"I don't think you'll be doing much cleaning after today anyway, if what I heard is true. Just obey him to avoid more problems for yourself, okay?"

I nodded and dropped the mop to the floor.

Slowly, I walked to the tiny room I was given. My steps were calculated as my mind ran through the worst possible things Margaret could have meant by "I wouldn't be doing any cleaning after today."

I stepped into my room and shut the door behind me, gently locking it. Then I emptied the contents of the bag onto the bed.

My eyes widened as I found a flowing yellow dress, along with some skin and hair products. I picked them up one after the other, then turned to the cracked mirror resting against my old wall.

"Get ready," I whispered. "Wait a minute. Is there something going on that I'm not aware of?" I asked myself aloud.

"Well, of course," I murmured again. Dropping everything back onto the bed, I hurried into the bathroom to clean myself up.

Exactly twenty minutes later, I was fully dressed, staring at my reflection in the mirror. The woman who stared back at me was unrecognizable. Is this perhaps what Celeste had always seen in me that made her antagonize me so much?

A loud bang on my door interrupted whatever moment I was having and startled me right back into reality.

"Coming!" I yelled back as I sprayed a generous amount of the perfume I was given. I opened the door to find a servant standing there. She stared at me wide-eyed for a few seconds before finally delivering the message she brought.

"Mr. Ashthorn sent for you, Marliene," she whispered, then hurried off.

I grinned. For the first time, someone other than Margaret had said my actual name. Maybe this was something I could get used to. I took my time walking to the meeting chamber, spending another three minutes on the way.

"There is no way I would stoop as low as to marry that despicable Alpha!" Celeste's raging voice reached me as soon as I pushed open the door of the meeting chamber.

All eyes turned to me, and I could literally see Celeste's face move from outrage to shock, then jealousy, and finally anger.

"Why is she wearing my new dress, Mom?!" she demanded.

Without waiting for a response, she lunged toward me, but a wave of her father's hand stopped her in her tracks. She turned, livid, as her claws protruded.

"Daddy!" she whined.

"Celeste, didn't you say you wanted Daddy to do something about the proposal?" he asked. The way he spoke — his tone, his expression — everything sounded off and a little scary.

I instinctively took a step back, but a force pushed me forward and shut the door behind me. I stared at the faces of the Ashthorns.

"W... what do you mean? Why is everyone staring at me like that?" I asked, feeling like prey surrounded by predators.

"Marliene, darling, you look so beautiful," Mrs. Ashthorn said. "It's such a shame that you've hidden all this beauty under those rags that you wear."

I wanted to retort so badly, but I remembered that I was alone against three werewolves with abilities they weren't afraid to use, while I was wolfless and powerless. I swallowed my response.

She gave me a look that seemed to say, "Wise choice."

"Marliene, the Ashthorn family has received a marriage proposal from the Alpha of Moorgrave Pack. You know that, as loyal members of the pack, we cannot refuse, lest we lose our reputation before other families. Now, Celeste, our daughter, has refused to accept this proposal because she has set her mind on someone else. And we all know that you have no one who has sought — or will seek — your hand in marriage, seeing as you're a wolfless omega. So we have collectively decided that you will go and marry Alpha Lex and represent the Ashthorns."

I was dumbfounded.

Alpha Lex was a notorious manwhore who slept with everything in skirts. Rumors even had it that he may have slept with his own mother. Although it had never been confirmed, there's no smoke without fire, right?

This is the man they want to force me to marry?

Someone they can't even allow their precious daughter to marry?

"I don't see why I should be replacing Celeste," I said after a while of silence. "After all, I'm only a lowly servant and do not carry Ashthorn blood in my veins."

They shared a look amongst themselves. Then Celeste got up, cackling as she approached me slowly.

"Oh, you," she mocked. "Did you really never give a thought to it? How you ended up in the Ashthorn house with no family to ever come and claim you? Do you really think you're an orphan? Fool!"

I scowled slightly. "What are you implying?"

Mrs. Ashthorn rolled her eyes. "This one is not smart. It's a good thing that we don't have to pretend anymore anyway. Though I still don't understand how you could birth such a useless child."

"She probably got the genes from her mother," Mr. Ashthorn said.

Mrs. Ashthorn nodded. "That is definitely it. After all, she did follow her mother's footsteps in becoming a slave."

I gasped lightly as everything started making sense. I pointed to Mr. Ashthorn. "You are my father? Where is my mother?!"

He shrugged.

"I wouldn't know. She seemed to be too heartbroken to have her child snatched from her right after birth. Her fragile heart couldn't handle it. She must have died somehow. That's beside the point. We are here for a different reason, Marliene. Do you accept the proposal, or should we ask the Alpha to send his guards?"

I stared at them, and all the years of humiliation and pain flashed before my eyes. I felt the suppressed pain turn into a deeply rooted anger that shook me to my core. Shutting my eyes, I took a deep breath to calm myself.

Then, slowly, I spoke. "I accept the proposal."