Chapter Three

Two weeks later…..

I am still not sure how it happened.  It is all a blur to me, the mating ritual, the heat.  The whole thing seemed like a dream, more like a nightmare, one I still can’t seem to wake up from.  Everything and everyone I had ever known had been ripped from me, and now I am forced to live my life as a Sigma, a slave to the pack.  The once highly respected Alpha’s daughter, now nothing. 

Everyone has been making my life harder too.  Sarah is constantly finding ways to torment me.  I was assigned to work as a slave at the Beta house.  I start at five in the morning, and leave around ten at night.  I never have a day off and never have a break.  The only thing that makes this somewhat bearable is my new friend Lindsey.  She has been a godsend through all this. Without her, I am not sure if I would have survived the last two weeks. 

I met Lindsey my first night in the Sigma camp.  I had been captured after running off during the mating ceremony.  Just as I had suspected, Jackson left his keys in the truck.  However, I didn’t make it far.  Someone must have called my father because he had patrols at the borders and roadblocks on all the streets. 

He had me locked up until the heat passed, three agonizing days.  When I finally calmed down, my mother came to visit me.  She could barely look at me with anything more than disgust.  She had me belted to a chair as the women cut my beautiful blonde hair. Sigmas were not allowed to have long hair, it is considered a sign of beauty and Sigmas were not to be looked at as beautiful.  Afterwards, I was thrown out, to live with the Sigmas.  

The Sigma camp was much like what I knew about the Rouge camps.  They were located on the outskirts of the pack land and were nothing but tents that were set up.  Much like how the Native Americans lived from history class. Lindsey and her aunt took me right in and taught me how a Sigma is supposed to act. 

“Hey Em, are ya about done with the wash?”  My mind snapped  back to reality and I looked over at Lindsey who was putting the mop back in its place.  

“Huh?” I replied.  

She pointed at the dryer door that was open and the basket of half folded clothes on the floor. “Are you feeling okay?  You looked like you were gone for a moment.”  

I shook my head, “yeah I was just thinking about everything that has happened so far.”  

“It’s no good to focus on the past.  It will only bring heartache, instead focus on the here and now” 

She was right. 

Before Lindsey became a Sigma, she was the daughter of our best warrior.  She had trained her whole life to be a warrior too.  I remember seeing her in the halls at school, though we were not in the same social group.  Lindsey was a few years ahead of me and became a Sigma right after she turned eighteen.  

I smiled at her and nodded as I went back to folding the wash.  This was my life now, I just needed to learn to accept that.  

“So, have you seen the new guest that is visiting with the Alpha?” Lindsey asks as she picks up a shirt and folds it.  

I shake my head, “new guest? I didn’t know the Alpha was expecting anyone.”  Referring to my father as ‘The Alpha’ has been a hard adjustment for me.  I wish I could turn back time and things could be as they were.

“Well rumors are that he is from some distant pack, the son of an Alpha or something, here to do business with Alpha Eric.”  She shrugged, “I hear he's hot.”

I laughed as a voice spoke from behind us.  “He may be hot, but the two of you have no chance at all; someone like him will never be with a Sigma.”  I cringed as I turned around. 

“What do you want, Sarah,”  I sighed as she leaned against the door to the laundry room scoffing at me.  She has made my life miserable, constantly tormenting me, making sure I know that she is on top now.  It doesn’t make anything better that I was assigned to work in her family’s house. 

“I will never get over the Alpha’s daughter being a Sigma. Miss ‘I’m so perfect.’ No one wants to be you now.” she laughed. 

“Just go away and let us work please.” I rolled my eyes and turned back to folding clothes.  Just then I felt a hand on my shoulder spin me around.  Sarah had rage on her face.  Before I knew what happened, I felt a slap across my face.  I covered my face with my hand and looked at her in shock.  

“You don’t get to boss me around anymore! Learn! Your! Place!” she glared at me hatefully.  “Don’t, even as much as, look at me wrong Emily, or your life will be hell, trust me, a slap will feel like a hug when I am done with you.”

My hand reflectively went to my face, covering where she had slapped me.  The sting brought tears to my eyes, but I didn’t want to give her the benefit of the doubt and let her see me cry, or know that it had affected me in any way. 

“You will always be jealous of me Sarah, of who I was, and what I had.  Even now that I have been stripped of everything, you are still jealous because none of that will ever be yours.”  I glared into her eyes with hate.  “This will be Heather’s time to shine.” 

It hurts knowing everything I have spent my life working for has been stripped away; however, I pushed those feelings away and stood my ground against Sarah.  

Sarah scoffed and left the room.  She knew I was right.  She never stood a chance of taking over the Alpha duties and trained to be the new Alpha.  At best, she could be Heather’s Beta, but that is only if her older brother Liam decided to step down.

Lindsey moved my hand away.  I forgot my hand was there, my cheek had already become numb.  She examined my face, then grabbed the scissors and cut a piece of her shirt, wetting it with cold water from the laundry room sink and placed it against my face where a welt had started to form.  

“You know, it wouldn’t take much to kill her,” she contemplates.  

I laughed, “as tempting as that sounds, it is probably better to let her live for now, I don’t want more drama.” 

I carried the laundry upstairs and began putting it away in its proper drawers.  As I passed by Sarah’s room, I could hear her in there with someone.  The door opened a crack as I peered in.  I could see her, half dressed.  She was sitting on the bed, straddling someone.  That someone sat up and leaned to kiss her, Jackson. 

I gasped.   They must have heard me because they both looked toward the door.  Shit.  I grabbed the clothes and took off down the stairs. Shit, shit shit.  

“That little bitch,” I could hear Sarah, “I’ll be right back.” 

“No,”Jackson replied, “let me take care of it.”