Jenna

“Jenna, you get back here right now!”

I sigh while rolling my eyes.

Not a moments peace have I had since I got out of the hospital. Anna is making sure I make up for the time I lost working as her slave.

It doesn’t bother Anna that I was in the hospital for two days recovering from almost being drained of blood. The woman has no compassion at all, it seems.

She doesn’t know the truth of what happened to me, the Dalgaard’s covered it up, but I expected nothing more.

Anna was told that I’d fallen and banged my head, knocking myself out, which meant I needed time in the pack hospital to recover. Not that she gave one tiny shit, she didn’t visit me once, but I didn’t expect her to.

Since being released a few days ago, I’m not sleeping without nightmares, and I’m scared of my own shadow. I keep thinking that Lorcan is going to pop out of the shadows and kill me.

I don’t want to think that, but what else am I meant to believe when the man tried to kill me?

I feel sorry for Luther and the things he must go through each time Lorcan regress into his mind. Not only that but what Luther has to endure when Lorcan wants to hurt someone. It’s not Luther’s fault, but it helps me understand a little more why Luther won’t claim me.

It hurts, but what can I do?

I don’t believe that anyone knows that I know about Lorcan. No one mentioned him, and I didn’t bring him up either. It means that Luther is willing to take the blame for what happened, and it hurts that Luther thinks I’ll blame him.

Luther has no control over the things that happen with Lorcan, so how can I blame him?

My heat hasn’t hit yet, which is unusual. But I can’t say I’m not grateful because I am. I can’t afford to be bedridden and trying to tear my heart out; that would cause all sorts of problems.

People would find out and want to know who the hell my mate was. Philip would strangle me if he thought another man would touch me.

Thinking about what Philip would do should I be in heat makes me shiver. The monster that he is would take full advantage of the situation, and he’d finally get what he’s always wanted from me, my virginity.

Would Luther feel Philip’s touch as I would?

It’s said that once you find your mate, claimed or not, they will feel each time you’re with someone else. While in heat and rut, those touches are magnified tenfold and cause unsurmountable pain for your mate.

But if that were true, wouldn’t Luther have felt each time Philip has touched me since we realised we were mates?

Then I think that maybe Luther just doesn’t care. He doesn’t want me, and he isn’t bothered that my foster brother molests me each chance he gets.

That thought hurts my heart because I realise that I mean nothing to anyone on this earth. I never have, and I never will.

I’m still not fully recovered a week after Lorcan’s attack, but that hasn’t stopped Anna and her brats from abusing me every chance they get. I’m trying my best to stay out of their way and carry out my duties. But neither is easy when my body still aches with every movement I make.

It would be easy if I weren’t an Omega. If I were higher up in the food chain, I’d have the ability to heal much faster. As it is, I don’t.

Since being released from the hospital, Anna has hit me three times. Two days ago, she twisted my arm up to my back and almost broke it. Thankfully, she didn’t, but she warned me that the next time I spilt milk on the floor, she’d make me lick it up like a dog.

Philip has also been a bastard to me.

His wandering hands always make me sick, but what can I do when I can’t fight to stop him?

Jessica has left me alone, but that’s only because she hasn’t been around me lately. She’s been working at the salon in town, which takes up most of her time. That also means that she’s too tired to beat on me when she gets home.

It’s a sad state of affairs that I believe that to be the best thing to have happened to me in forever.

At the moment, Anna has me taking dirty clothes to the laundry room, situated on the mansion’s lower level. Apparently, that’s not all she wants, and she has called me back.

“Yes?” I ask, aspirated with a basket full of clothes in my hands.

“Check your tone, girl,” I try not to sigh and roll my eyes. If I did that, she’d gouge them out. “There are two baskets, not one.”

“I can’t carry both at the same time,”

I try not to sound childish, but the one I have is heavy on its own. I don’t have my full strength yet, which is pitiful at the best of times.

Anna slams her hands on her round hips and glares at me. “I beg your pardon?”

I swallow hard.

Anna doesn’t like me answering back, though I have a few times in the past. If she wanted, she could take her belt and beat me right now.

I hope she doesn’t; my body couldn’t take any more punishment at the moment.

For a woman in her fifties, she’s incredibly strong, and she could snap me in half with one hand should she wish it.

“I’m sorry,” I whisper around a hard swallow. “I just meant that I was going to take this one,” I lift the basket slightly. “Then I’d come back for the other one.”

Anna’s eyes narrow as she grits her teeth. “You’ll take them both now, or I’ll make sure you can’t sit down for a month. Do you understand?”

I swallow again while nodding my head.

I’m not trying to disobey Anna; I’m merely expressing that I can’t manage both baskets.

However, I can’t refuse what Anna wants, not if I want to make it through the day without a beating.

Anna forcefully drops the second washing basket on top of the first. The weight makes my arms sag slightly, and my knees strain not to buckle.

I bite back a groan because Anna will batter me into next week if I should make a slight noise.

“Get this lot in the washing machines, then get back here so you can help with dinner.”

“Yes, Anna.” I walk away as quickly as I can.

The laundry room is down a flight of stairs and along a deep corridor. My limbs are shaking, my mouth is dry, and I can feel beads of sweat at my temple and down my back.

My arms strain to hold the baskets, and my stomach clenches. I’m not going to make it to the laundry room; I just know that I’m not.

If I drop these washing baskets, Anna will skin me alive. With her wolf hearing, she’ll hear me drop the baskets. I know that Anna is listening right now to see if I fail.

Once I’m in the laundry room, she won’t care because she’ll know that I’m doing nothing other than washing clothes. I’ll be okay if I can only make it there.

‘Just keep moving, Jenna. Just a few more steps, and you’ll reach your destination.’

‘I’m trying,’ I tell Shadow, my wolf.

It took her a while to wake up after Lorcan’s attack, but I didn’t feel so lonely the moment she did. I was so lost without her for those few days, and I was scared that she’d never come back. But she did, and my best friend promised never to leave me.