Chapter Eight

His cruel laugh sent shivers through me as the rest of the Patrollers stood to leave with him. Not one of them looked my way; their loud voices told me of the degrading sex acts they fully intended to inflict on me when they returned.

Trembling and terrified, there was no one I could turn to for help; not one member of the Mountain Top Pack would lift a finger to prevent the Beta’s son and his friends from raping me when they returned. My mind went numb with fear as I returned to my chores; not even being threatened with rape by those evil men would stop me from getting a beating if I did not complete them. As I scrubbed, cleaned, and prepared the arena for the festival next week , I desperately tried to come up with a solution, but I couldn't find a way out. 

On very rare occasions, mostly when the Council Leaders came to visit the Alpha and Luna, I was given a couple of hours freedom. The Luna would come toi find me and order me to go and see the Alpha in his office, I was used to being sent there for every tiny misdemeanor so I would expect a beating. It always came as a surprise when he told me to disappear for a couple of hours, if the weather was bad I would be locked in my room but if the weather was good he lket me return to my mothers old cottage. It lay abandoned just as we had left it that fateful night and when I was old enough I had cleared out everything that was broken, thrown away all the old food and other perishable goods that had obviously rotted in the years I had been away. It had been left for the woods to reclaim and on the rare occasions I was allowed to return I saw this in action, the beautiful flower beds and precious vegetable plots Mama had carefully cultivated were quickly overcome and reclaimed by the woods.The thatched roof sprouted roots and then flowers growing into the protection of the trees, and the shrubs and bushes ran wild as the trees themselves appeared to embrace our tiny former home.

A couple of days before the festival this rare event occurred again when the Councillors decided to do a quick check of our Pack I was called to the Alpha's office in the middle of the afternoon. Without looking up from his laptop the Alpha sneered at me,

'It's your lucky day slave, you have two hours off. Get out of my sight.'

He dismissed me with a wave of his hand and I fled back to my room not wanting to waste a single minute of my freedom. I changed intoi the only decent dress I owned, a simple pale green gypsy style dress that brought out the colour in my eyes. Unbeknownst to me, when I shook my long tresses out I looked beautiful, a tiny, dainty ethereal faery given a brief freedom.  I walked leisurely through the woods, it was a warm day and I carried a bottle of water and a sandwich I had purlioned from the kitchen, as no one would be able to see me eat it I was going to enjoy it. It took me half an hour to reach the cottage and I was shocked to see it had almost been completely engulfed by the wood now. I had to pull out handfuls of weeds and vines to make a small entrance to climb inside and my heart dropped. It seemed I was to lose this small sanctuary sooner than I thought, it was months since I had last been here and the same vines and plants I had pulled away from the door now occupied almost all of the cottage floor. It was like walking through a wild flower field and as I looked around me I knew I would never return to my Mams home when I left it this time. I placed the water and my sandwich in the little nook beside the long overgrown fireplace and made my way through the tangled growth into the back garden. This had been my haven as a small child, the place Mama had left me for hours while she went about her duties as the Pack Healer. It had been secure and safe for a bright, intelligent pre schooler to play and learn without fear of being hurt. She had taught me so much about the world we lived in breaking it down so my child's mind could process and understand her words. I knew the names of all the flowers, shrubs and trees, all the vegetables, herbs and fruit she carefully cultivated to suppliment our diet but also to use in her medicines.  

It was all long gone, overgrown and comopletely taken back into the woodland, you could not even see the fence as somehow the wood used to build it had grown roots into the rich, fertile soil and tress had sprouted their leaves. There was one place that remained clear and I had no idea why nothing grew over it, but in my heart I believed it was natures way of showing respect to a woman who had lived in harmony with mother earth all her life. My mother's grave was right at the very back of the garden, a place the Patrollers had cleared and dug out so she could remain in the place that had captured her heart when she moved to. They had laid her to rest in a simple ceremony I had not been allowed to attend and placed a simple headstone carved with her name, date of birth and the words, 'Adored Healer of the Mountain Top Pack & Beloved Mother of Dakota.'

I had been shocked and touched the first time I read that inscription, it was the one and only time that the Mountain Top Pack showed me any compassion.

 The huge black Wolf lifted his head and opened his nostrils, there was that scent again, it was driving him insane, a sultry mixture of tangy citrus, sweet summer rain, and innocence, along with a deep seated fear and hatred.