Chapter Two: I Am No One

“Stop! Please!” My pleading is instantly lost in the bathroom as laughter fills every corner instead.

At nine in the morning, even before classes could start, I was already being subjected to whatever tortures some of my Pack members deemed entertaining for them as of this moment.

Right now it was being drenched in almost boiling water.

“Wait, did you guys hear something?” Victorina spoke, her face contorting into a fake confused expression as she looked around her peers.

“What? I don’t hear anything but mouse squeaks.” Blythe answered with a grin, followed by the others bursting into laughter.

“Yeah, you’re right. That was just a dirty stupid mouse. Next bucket!” Victorina ordered and not a second later, Marc, who was standing atop a chair behind the toilet cubicle poured more hot water on me.

I squealed in pain and shock, every nerve in my body struggling to keep it together as the hotness seeped into my skin.

This was hell, and I’ve been living in it for what felt like an eternity now.

I used to have friends, used to have others I could talk to, play with, and do other things kids used to do.

That all changed when my parents were outed as traitors of the Pack. I had no idea how that was even possible. They were so nice, so loving, and yet… once the Pack Alpha then claimed that they had been doing heinous trades and whatnot with other Packs, it was over for them.

And for me.

I lost everyone. First my parents, then my so-called friends stopped talking to me. Hell, they didn’t even dare to look at me. I became the outcast, the black sheep, the daughter of traitors.

Noone was my name, but it soon turned into a malicious nickname everybody called me — no one, and that’s exactly what I became.

I thought being ignored by everyone was the worst thing that could possibly happen to me. I realized quickly that it wasn’t.

Oh how I wished to just go back to being invisible instead of having to face torture every single day by Victorina and her group.

“What’s going on here?” Somebody came into the comfort room and I recognized the voice.

It was Vlad, Victorina’s older brother and the Beta.

He gave one look at me drenched and my skin all red and that was all he needed to know.

“Vlad,” Victorina stiffened up. “Uh, we were just, you know, cleaning the dirt around here. What is it that they say? Clean as you go.”

She and her friends let out a snort and all I wanted to do was curl up into a ball and die.

Vlad’s expression remained stoic, his green eyes staring into his sister’s same colored ones.

Some say they look exactly alike even though they were born a few years apart, but there’s no denying their similarities from the auburn hair to their pale freckled skins. They looked like nature’s god and goddess.

Their personalities though, were nowhere near as peaceful as nature. They were as vicious as feral animals.

“Well, are you going or what?” Vlad said with a raised brow and with just one cold stare, everyone stumbled out of the comfort room.

And then there were just the two of us…

I cowered in my stance. Hugging my body tight with my arms trying to cover at least what little dignity I had left.

There was barely any. I wondered if Vlad knew that.

I wondered if he even cared…

I immediately snapped out of my thoughts when he spoke with such a harsh tone it sent shivers down my spine.

“What the hell are you still standing there for, traitor? Dry yourself up and get your ass to your classes.”

“I— I think I have to g— go to the cli— clinic…” I managed to mutter before nervously showing one of my scalded arms to him.

I don’t know why, but a part of me thought he would feel at least an ounce of pity.

That was a very stupid thought that was immediately squashed in seconds.

How did I think that he, out of all the people, would care about me?

Vlad let out a chuckle, not a happy one. No, it was out of disgust and sheer audacity, apparently.

“Who the fuck do you think you are that I’d let you waste precious Pack resource? Good god, you’re really pathetic, aren’t you? No wonder you’re always getting bullied. Fuck, I’m sick of your goddamn face. Get out before I drag you out of here already. Go!” Vlad made a lunging move towards me which made my entire body quickly turn into flight mode.

Even though every step and every move I made had me feeling like my entire body was on fire, I couldn’t stop. I was too scared.

No, scratch that — I was too terrified. Utterly and horrifyingly terrified.

I ran and ran, tears streaming down my face, and the burns on my skin felt worse by the second.

There was nothing else that I could do. This has been my life now, and everyday I just tell myself that I was close.

So, so close from escaping this hell, but then something like this happens and I think — will I even make it? Will I even be able to get out of here alive before my eighteenth birthday?

I’ve lost count of how many times I’ve thought about escaping before then, but I knew it would be impossible. I would end up nowhere with other wolves who encounter me deeming me not only as a rogue, but weak.

I knew that if I wanted to at least have a chance of survival outside this Pack, I had to get stronger, get bigger, and only then will I have a fighting chance to start a new and better life.

Or at least that was what I desperately hoped.

Other students began to see me from the hallway as I ran outside. It was the only place I could think of. I needed air because it felt like my lungs were closing in on me.

Familiar faces passed by me, but all they did was turn away and pretend I didn’t exist because they knew that if they so much as give me a look of sympathy, they would also have the same fate as me.

I was inches away from the exit, the wooden door that stood between me and some bit of hope, but of course, nothing in my life ever came that easy.

Of fucking course.

When I saw him, it was too late. My body’s momentum from running was too much and even though I tried to steer away or to drop myself to the floor instead, there was nothing I could do to stop myself from colliding with…

Him.

“A– Alpha! I’m sorry! I am so, so terribly sorry!”

He didn’t move or even flinch at the contact, at the way I hit his back, but I saw that I had left a small wet mark around the sleeve of his black polo.

Fuck. Fuck! Fuck my life!

I hurriedly dropped down to my knees in a pleading position, my forehead touching the floor in the hopes of him not recognizing me as I hid my face and I continued to desperately apologize.

I could hear murmurs around us as students began to gather to witness what was yet another degrading situation for me.

Right now though, this was by far the worst thing I have experienced.

I have always tried my best to steer away from him, from the Alpha, mostly because a little part of me still valued my life, but another is because seeing him always brought me back to that night when he gave me that smile that terrified me to my core.

Until now, sometimes I still get nightmares of that time, and most of the time, if not always, he would be there.

Staring blankly at me before that smile creeped up into his face and all I could see was evil in its purest form.

Deep down I begged the Moon Goddess to get me out of this alive, but when the Alpha took a step forward and every inch of my body froze in fear, I knew…

That now my chances of surviving until my eighteenth was slim to none.

What was he going to do to me?