My fated alpha by Natalie novel Chapter 1

Madeleine

Fear

Pure, unadulterated fear

That was all I could feel as I lay on the cold floor of the basement of the house I had been in for a week. My hands went to my stomach as I felt something wet and warm below my flimsy shirt. I touched my stomach and winced as my fingers were streaked red.

I was bleeding and I was alone. From upstairs, I could hear the angry voices of people, bickering about something.

They say you get used to fearing and to living with it after some time. But how did you define ‘some’ time?

It had been a week since I was forcing myself to accept this new reality. But having been sheltered by my loving parents all my life, I was finding it difficult to come to terms with the fact that they were no more.

My previous pack had lost all its members in a fight against the Black Forest pack last week and I, a wolfless girl, had been left alone.

Since I hadn’t awakened my wolf yet, nobody wanted me. I was beneath them all.

Steve, the Black Forest pack’s omega was asked to use me as a slave and he did that dutifully. Thankfully, as I had no wolf he despised me so he never even looked at me save for scowling or hitting me.

Relieved that nobody thought of forcing themselves on me, I was thankful to the Moon Goddess for providing me with a temporary shelter. However, more often than not, I would find myself hurt and crying, but at least, I used to be on a makeshift bed.

Tonight, however, he decided to throw me into the basement. It was dark and cold. I wasn’t sure how long I stayed lying on the cold floor until I finally mustered the energy to get up.

A part of me just wanted to give up and wait for death to finally greet me, but I could hear my mother’s voice playing in my head, “wolf or not, you are my brave girl and I hope you will always be that.”

Those words stirred something within me. Placing both my hands on the floor, I tried to exert as much energy as I could and forced myself into a sitting position. Struggling and panting, I finally managed to lean on one of the several wooden poles that held the house together.

A tear or two trickled down my eyes but I wasn’t even aware of the fact that I was crying.

Tearing the corner of my shirt, I tried to dab at the wound, praying that I would somehow get out of this hellhole. But then I realized that prayers weren’t going to work. I had to act on my own, but first I had to escape.

As I sat wondering about what to do next and kept thinking of how to stitch myself up, I heard footsteps above. My heart began to thud erratically as my hands began to shake.

The sound of footsteps echoed through the basement like a loud blaring horn against the pin-drop silence of my surroundings and I tried to make myself invisible. Obviously, I failed.

It was still dark and the only light coming in was the rays peeking in through the small rectangular slits on the top. There was a light bulb somewhere but I recalled Steve breaking it the last time. He had tried to hit me with a baseball bat and had hit the bulb instead.

Thud. Thud.

The basement roof creaked as the door slowly opened. I tried to hide behind an abandoned chair and prayed that he would forget I was here.

“Madeleine, where are you?” Steve’s drunken voice floated towards me. He took a swig from the bottle he was holding in his hand and I was sure that was not the first bottle he had had for the day.

‘How long has he been drinking?’ I wondered. The wristwatch on my hand showed that it was hardly 9 pm.

I put my hand on my mouth to not let a single sound escape my lips and willed myself to stay quiet and not tremble.

“Oh, I see… playing hide and seek, are we?” Steve spoke in a drawled voice and I crouched further into the broken furniture.

He strolled around the basement and began upending the furniture and other things he had stored inside. The sound of things breaking, rods clamoring echoed through the place and I quickly put my hands on my ears to drown the noise.