Chapter 2

-Ashina- 

I have been in what seems to be what? A trance? For how long? Days? Weeks? Months? I can't tell. But in that period, the world seemed to pause until I opened my eyes to a ceiling.

Is this the moment I join my ancestors and all those who have lived before me? I wondered to myself. I knew I had died, and even then, a consciousness of the afterlife was what I could not understand. Is this what it means to die?

I haven't been able to feel anything for a while but now I felt myself lying on a bed, harder than the one I had in my room.

"Elena...Elena..."

While I was still trying to process what was happening to me, I heard a voice call in the distance. Whose voice is that? It kept getting closer and closer till a door creaked open.

"Elena, are you still in bed, honey?" A woman's voice said softly and it seemed she was referring to me. I made an effort and sat up.

Wait...this is not the afterlife, is it? Why, this is the room of a typical werewolf. Surely, I can't be alive.

The woman sighed, bringing my attention back to her. She walked from the door to the bed and sat beside me.

I was puzzled. What is going on? Who is this woman? Where are all the maids? Where is my wedding dress? I'll be late for the wedding, where's...

"Elena, are you still sad about it?" The older woman said. "We talked about it already, didn't we? I and your father have been working so hard. Once we gather the money, we'll buy you back from Gizmo. You know it is never our intention for you to be his slave but we can't help it."

Wait a damn minute...

I am not Elena. What in the devil's name...

My eyes dilated as they rested on the mirror in the room. I took my hand to my face in shock. This...is not me. I stood up and walked to the mirror to be sure I was seeing well. The pretty face staring back at me was not mine.

I almost crawled out of my skin. It was at that moment the memories began to come. Stacy walked out of my room after poisoning me, a young lady taking wheezy breaths on her bed, which were her last. The dress I had on was what she was wearing.

It all made sense to me now, I had reincarnated in another's body.

And not only do I have to deal with that, I have been sold off to Gizmo. Could my life get any better?

"Elena?" The woman, whom I drew to be Elena’s mother, walked up to me with tears in her eyes. She placed a hand softly on my shoulder.

"Please don't hate us," she said. "Your father cannot even look you in the face because of the shame he feels."

I could only stare at her. I had no words in my mouth. I watched as she sobbed softly, leaning on me for support.

There were sounds outside and she looked up with a gasp. She rushed to the window and looked.

"They are here already," she sounded horrified. "Quick, get ready, they are here for you."

I did not even have the time to recover from everything that had happened to me. I was already being paraded to the palace in a ride, through the familiar streets I had grown to know all my life.

The worst thing? I am to be a slave to Gizmo, Lucian’s younger brother whom I detested because of his disgusting and ruthless nature.

I was pushed into the palace roughly towards Gizmo's quarters.

He was seated on a large comfy chair with a hard countenance as always. It was very difficult to believe that this same man was the brother of my loving Lucian.

Lucian was a tough man as well; as a leader, he had to be, but only when necessary. But Gizmo was evil by nature.

As I stood looking at him, I wondered how I would be able to cope, and what Lucian would be now without me.

A sharp pain cut across my face, the sound of Gizmo's hard skin against my face resounding in my ears.

I gasped, losing my balance and falling to the ground. I was so lost in my thoughts that I did not notice him walk towards me.

"That's right," he sneered, looking down at me. "I guess your parents did not teach you to bow before royalties."

"Is this the dirty thing that man gave you?" I heard him say to the guards.

"Yes, Gizmo," one replied.

"She is not even worth the Price," he hissed. "But she will be of some use to me. Take her out of my sight and let her begin work immediately."

And that was how I was welcomed back to the palace where I was once reverenced and honoured.

The guards were not anything gentle with me as they shoved me to a large room where Gizmo's maids lived all together.

"Find a corner over there, and get ready for work," one said and walked away.

I walked slowly into the room towards a bed, ignoring the pairs of eyes boring into my skin.

I had barely settled on one, which I presumed to be empty when about three girls approached me.

"Hey new girl," One of them said to me.

"No Suzy, you don't call her new girl. She's the new slave," Another, apparently the meanest as her looks suggested, said and there was a chuckle across the room.

"Oh don't be so hard on the slave," the third said with mock pity.

"I heard her father borrowed money from Lord Gizmo but was too poor to pay, and now he has to give his daughter in exchange," The mean girl told them, and they laughed hysterically.

"Such a sad tale."

Everything was getting into my head, their noises and I almost shouted at them to get the hell out of my face, forgetting for a split second that I was no longer Ashina, the alpha's fiancé, but Elena, a commoner and now a slave. I had to hold my peace.