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Phoebe’s POV 

I jerked awake with a force and snapped my head around me quickly, peering into the darkness that had befallen my old pigsty of a room.

I felt different, insanely different and it felt as though I could see life from a different perspective. Quickly rolling out of the mat on the floor, I turned on the coal lamp that I had placed close to my bed and gasped when I realized that it was way past midnight.

What the hell?

I slowly rose on my feet, unsure of what it was that must’ve awakened me until a small voice whispered at the back of my head that today was my birthday… My 18th birthday!

Today was also exactly a year after my family and a lot of people from my pack were killed. The day I had been forced to become an orphan and a slave. I couldn’t believe it.

How time flies…

I could vividly remember how they had snuck in in the middle of the night, while everyone was busy preparing for my 17th birthday party the next morning; and had taken out every living soul in my pack, ranging from little children to adults.

Surprisingly, they had spared me for some sick reasons, and had taken me as a form of souvenir to their Alpha who immediately waved me off and recruited me as one of his many slaves.

They always mistreated me in every way, threw insults at me and even beat me up for the slightest reasons but those ill treatments they meted on me wasn’t enough to keep me locked up, nor enough to have my mouth sealed.

I was a Princess, the daughter of a strong Alpha for that matter, and thus I couldn’t tolerate being trampled upon even now that I had been reduced to the position of a palace slave.

I remembered how weak I had been that night, and how I had been abused by Alpha Draco’s soldiers. The thought brought fresh tears into my eyes, but I wept not out of sadness but out of anger.

Now I was of age and I could already feel it. I had always wanted a day like this to come, a day when I would be classified as an adult and would be able to escape this hell hole of a place.

I seeked revenge too, but that would have to come later, after I had successfully escaped from here and had returned to pick up the burnt down remains of my father’s pack.

Anger surged through me like I was reliving that gory day, and it also brought tears to my eyes whenever I remembered everything I had lost.

A noise in the hall snapped me out of my reverie. I could hear the unmistakable sounds of a female whimpering and I quickly stood up, I was curious and wanted to know what was happening.

I stealthily crept out of my room, following the sounds of the whimpering until I arrived at a scene where one of the brutal soldiers of this pack was trying to force himself upon a young girl of about my age.

I wasn’t surprised though, because stuff like this was a usual occurrence around here but I still got pissed whenever I saw or heard of it happening.

In blind rage, I picked up a plank which was carelessly discarded on the floor and used its blunt edge to hit the soldier hard against the head.

His agonized screams filled the air, but in a way it seemed to make me feel better. 

“Bitch! Bitch!” He chanted, holding his head but I ignored him and quickly went to help the girl to her feet.

She quickly muttered a rushed; “Thank you,” and ran off; and I was about to run out of the scene myself when the bulky, bad smelling soldier forcefully pulled on my legs, thus making me fall to the floor with a loud thump.

I literally kissed the dirt when I fell and spat out some of the dirt in my mouth before I went back to trying to escape. He grabbed at me again, but this time, I was a little more prepared this time. I began stomping at his chest with enough force to break his ribs but he still wouldn’t let go.

“Let go, you animal!” I screeched whilst stomping ferociously on his chest in order to make him let go of me but his grip was like a vice, unwilling to tear away.

During the course of our struggle, a sweet smelling smell immediately attacked my nostrils. It smelled of pines and something minty and surprisingly made my wolf, Isla, jerk awake.

She suddenly began prancing about in my head, making it quite difficult for me to focus on the soldier who immediately noticed that I had lost focus and used the opportunity to send me sprawling to the floor.

I struggled against him and at the same time , tried to block out the smell that was attacking my nostrils but they both proved abortive.

Just as the soldier was about to land a fatal blow to the side of my head, a deep voice sounded at the end of the corridor, immediately halting his movements.

“And what’re you both doing there?” The voice asked curiously. I immediately looked up at the owner, only to have my breath hitching in my chest.

The sweet smell was coming from him, this proving that he was my mate; but that wasn’t the problem now, the problem was the fact that he was Alpha Mark, the son of retired Alpha Draco.

His father was responsible for the deaths of my people.

“No!” I snarled with a voice so thick with emotions that the soldier literally cowered back in fear. “Are you my mate?!”

I had always envisioned my mate as someone I would love and who would love me too. I had always seen my mate as someone who would get me out of this suffering, but then I was presented with this?

This young man whose only aim was to inflict me with pain and more pain?

I saw a deep frown immediately etch on his perfect face and from the look in his eyes, I already knew what was coming.

He was about to reject me and I knew it; I didn’t even try to stop him either, instead, I held my breath and waited for it to come.