Lied Upon

The next morning, all of us were back to our roles in our respective homes, a collective silence seemed to have gone over the entire pack, and as a collective, it seemed we had decided not to speak about the fact that our former Alpha had just been murdered.

It was sad for me, I knew, but I wondered if the new Alpha, Damon, would allow me to get into the library. I knew only caring about books made me look a little cold-blooded, but that was the thought in my mind during the morning meeting, when the head maid was assigning tasks to us.

“Sarai, Devin and Alexis, you are on kitchen duty.”. As they called out, I stood in place, taken aback. I had been working at Beta Timothy’s home for a few months as I had been posted from the other home I had worked at, and the day I had come in, I had been told that the only thing that I could be trusted with would be the laundry at best.

Now, hearing that I had been assigned to kitchen duty was new, and it shocked me for a few minutes. “I’m sorry I bother you ma’am, but-”

Quickly, Devin pulled me back before I asked the foolish question that had been dancing on the tip of my tongue. Perplexed, I looked over to her. “What? I wanted to ask her if she was sure that she wanted me on kitchen duty today, because she said that the only thing that I could be trusted with was the laundry, and now she is assigning me to the kitchen? Pretty sure there was a mistake somewhere.”

“By the gods,” sighed Devin, placing a palm over her face. “You really do have a potato head, don’t you? We just lost our Alpha, so things have been moved around. It’s the coronation day for the new Alpha. He will be crowned in the ceremony tonight, so it’s a bit shocking.”

“Really?” I asked, taken aback. I had not been alive when the now-former Alpha had been crowned, but I did not think that it is normal for a new Alpha to be crowned the day after the first one just passed.

I asked Devin as much, raising my eyebrows. “Isn’t that just a little bit fast? I mean, the previous Alpha hasn’t even been dead a few days. I don’t think it’s normal. Besides, I told you what I saw, didn’t I? And I’m sure I’m not the only one who saw it. He killed his own father. How is he still our Alpha? Shouldn’t there be a code that stops him from doing that?”

With a hiss, Devin pulled me aside and gave me a warning, the crease between her brow emphasizing just how serious the words she was telling me were.

“Listen, Sarai. I like having you around. You’re my friend. That’s why I’m going to warn you now that you should not be talking about what’s going on in the pack. I personally think you should keep your mouth shut, but you know, only if you want to remain in the park or alive.”

I looked after her in terror as she walked away and left me staring after her in curiosity. Would I actually be banished or killed for asking a question about the new Alpha?

I ran after her as she continued to mutter about Damon and how disrespectful he was.

“You just told me I couldn’t gossip about him!” I yelled, choking out a laugh.

As we made it into the kitchen, we decided to be all business and get to work immediately, starting with the huge pile of dusty plates that had been brought out for the sake of the coronation.

Just then, a familiar face walked into the kitchen along with a pair, and they started to giggle before walking up to me where I was washing the dishes.

I stood there, mouth agape as the dish I was holding on to slipped and fell onto the floor into a million pieces.

“You! You’re here washing the dishes even though you had just lost your sugar daddy, huh? No wonder you got a pass to the library. I heard someone saying it too, that the only way an Omega like you could have gotten into the library. What with the way you look.”

“What the- I’ve never done anything to you,” I cried, squatting to bend down and pick up the pieces of the dish that had fallen to the floor and broken into pieces.

“The reason why you were getting into the library is because you were sleeping with the old alpha.”

Finally, I had had enough, and I said just as much. “Listen, you don’t get to say things like that to me. I do not know you, I have never done anything to you, yet here you are, insulting me by implying that I had slept with the former Alpha, the man who was old enough to have given birth to me?”

By now, a crowd had started to gather, and all around me, people were murmuring and pointing fingers at me and I felt a world of shame. The maid, Cynthia lunged at me and began to spit out her disapproval.

“You slept with the father, and the other day in the library, the son came to your rescue. If you are not a skank, I don’t know who is.”

The crowd seemed to swell just then, and as I tried to respond, the first slap made its way to my cheek, leaving my skin red and raw.

Emboldened by her attack on me, her minions materialized from nowhere and began to hit me, slaps on slaps, till I fell on the floor and into the broken pieces of the dish that had broken.