Yard of Shame

Rozen Ricks

“She promised to wait,” I muttered in gritting teeth while sharpening my own claws against the diamond blade on the wall. “She said she trusted me!”

The words of Glenda are still in my head pounding at my every nerve, taunting my honor and pride as she begs to be married to that alpha.

How could she fucking say that when she even fell asleep in my arms last night?!

I can tell something has changed. She definitely changed… the subtle scent, the empty eyes, but I believed her when she promised me that she would be by my side!

How could she marry another alpha?!

The door opened and an elderly lady came in gasping for air, apologies written all over her face as she bent on her knees.  

“Alpha, Ms. Glenda is currently trying to shift into her wolf in front of our elders and the Crest pack. She’s having a hard time, alpha. We all know that until now, she can’t properly shift!”

I clenched my teeth and continued polishing my claws, not caring to say anything.

“Alpha, I think we should call her back before she will be totally embarrassed. Please Alpha Rozen, you cannot let this happen to our Glenda!”

Her voice is tinged with desperation and worry. Why wouldn’t she when she was the one who took good care of Glenda when my alpha father adopted her into our pack?

“Let her be!” My voice thundered through the walls, the statue of the moon goddess rattling on the floor. “She wants this. She requested this wedding herself. No one will rescue her!”

“But alpha, she is your sister! We cannot let the Crest pack make fun of her.”

“My decision is final,” I said detachedly. “No one will save her and that is a tall order!”

Helpless and in tears, the woman left sobbing. That’s when Justin came in still fully blooded coming from a successful hunt. We are secretly curbing a rebellion from a small pack in the border of the Folkshire, an ancestor land that three packs are competing to own.

“Alpha, I concur with Jezebel. It is high time to let Glenda get married. The alliance was agreed by father. You cannot just undo it on your whim. I am grateful that you did not stop the mating ceremony.”

I faced him squarely, studying the hard lines figured all over his face. He is my beta, the second-in-command. If one of the contesting alphas was successful to kill me, then Justin would take my position.

“Victor does not like Glenda. He even refused the wedding alliance of our fathers when he found his mate. Do you want her to be wed to a man who only sees her as a mere child bearer?”

He bowed his head in shame.

“Alpha Rozen, I did not mean that way but that is the nature for Glenda. She does not have the right to fin-”

“Did I ask your opinion on this, Justin? Did I?” I said, my voice changing a little darker.

“No, Alpha Rozen. I’m sorry.”

I patted his shoulder and then squeezed a bit harder on his open wound earning a grimace from him.

“Good. Know your place.”

Mariana Rose

Breathing hard, I closed my eyes and clenched my hands but I wasn’t able to shift.

Of course, nothing would happen.

No wolf would never come out of me. I can never transform into one.

Sweat trickles down my back as laughter erupted from the ladies of the Crest pack.

Judging spectators and ladies began whispering louder which I already expected. I supposed Glenda is an unwelcome member in the pack, an outcast just like all the other adopted wolves I encountered before.

In closely knitted packs, an outsider can never be a family. 

“What a shame. She ran away from the pack for months only to be back as weaker than before.”

“As expected, Glenda did not improve. She’s still the worst werewolf ever. Shame for her to be the alpha’s sister. Alpha Rozen must have been punishing her day and night.”

“Alpha Victor doesn’t deserve a good-for-nothing woman like her! She’s like a regular human!”

I gulped when the elders from the Silverthorne pack looked at me in disappointment. It feels like my members from my small pack back home are staring at me, reproaching me for practically selling them out to my ex-husband.

Just like these people, I let them down. I let Evan deceive me. They are out there suffering because of my incompetence and foolishness.

“This might help,” one of the elders from my pack at the order of Jezebel came forward carrying a knife and cutting my skin and blood seeping out drenching my thin clothing.

It stung but it isn’t enough to summon anything out of me. It hurts but it is nothing compared to what I went through in jail.

I stood there with clenched hands and bowed head enduring the embarrassment and the physical pain. If this is the price I am going to pay in order to be accepted by Alpha Victor then so be it.

“Cut her more!” Jezebel shouted prompting the elder to snip on my skin again.

I tasted blood but I did not do anything to defend myself.

“Drag her! Do anything to make her wolf come out!” she commanded once more, earning some gasps and laughter from the crowd.

And they did. A warrior pulled me and dragged me around the cold ground like a dog to trigger my wolf out as memories of my suffering inside the jail assaulted me.

I bet Jezebel is enjoying seeing me like this, torturing Glenda. 

I grunted as my skin skidded on the sharp pebbles on the soil further grazing at my wounds.

"Her wolf must have been ashamed of her, that's why it won’t come out! It sucks to be Glenda right now!”

“What use is it for her to be a sister to a powerful alpha if she is being treated like trash?”

I was left on the ground almost naked, bleeding, and being mocked all over. My body contorts with pain, veins bulging out of my neck that I tried so hard to conceal.

Nirvana is starting to wake up from the bind which I should not allow. With my teeth grinding, I remained my head down, biting my lips in humiliation.

“No, Nirvana!” I spoke to her silently. “Not now, you cannot come out now!”

They are dressing me down, laughing at my weakness, maligning my inability to shift. Even though they are laughing at Glenda and not at Mariana Rose, this is the same treatment I got when I was at the court while they handed me that lifetime sentence.

“She is nowhere near Margot’s level which is exactly what we need. We a dumb weak luna for our alpha,” I heard an elder utter followed by a big celebrating sigh of relief.

My wolf whimpered and began sulking but later it cried and then called Brutus, Evan’s wolf, for help that will never come. Evan, my ex-husband, if he has been really one for me, who is supposed to protect me will never come.

I crawled towards the spot where they left my dress and tried to reach it but another hand took it and handed it to me.

“It’s fine. Don’t try too hard for me to notice you,” a cold voice spoke in front of me, offering his hand for me.