Chapter One
Elara's POV
"Elaraa!"
Someone screamed my name from outside the hut.
I jumped up immediately, pushed aside the clothes hanging over the entrance and stepped outside.
At first, I saw nothing.
Long, dead grass surrounded the hut, and everywhere was so dark I could barely see beyond where I stood. I looked around, trying to figure out where the scream had come from.
Lyra rushed out and came to stand beside me.
"Elly, what happened?"
"I don't know. I think I heard someone calling my name."
We moved a little farther away from the hut, both of us looking through the darkness. A few seconds later, someone stumbled out of it and started heading toward us.
"Oh, Freda," I said, recognizing the green skirt and brick-coloured wrap top she'd borrowed from me that morning.
I rushed toward her.
Her arms were wrapped around herself, one hand clutching the front of her torn clothes tightly. She was limping badly and sobbing as she struggled to walk.
The closer I got, the more I saw.
Her bare legs were covered in dirt. Blood had soaked through her skirt and was still dripping from between her thighs.
I stared at it.
God...
Please, let this not be what I'm thinking.
"Elara," Freda whispered, barely able to get my name out.
I quickly grabbed one of her arms and pulled it over my shoulder. Lyra took her other side.
"Easy, Fifi. It's okay. You're safe now. Let's get you inside."
Safe.
I didn't even know how I was supposed to keep her safe now that she had caught the attention of whatever demon with a dick she'd crossed paths with today.
None of us had ever truly been safe here.
Still, Freda held onto me like I was the only thing keeping her from falling apart, and I couldn't let her feel otherwise.
Leaning more of her weight against us, she tried to lift her feet. Every step made her groan in pain.
I turned my face away for a second and blinked hard until the sting behind my eyes eased.
What the hell happened?
I already knew one of those scumbags had something to do with it, but how did they even get to her, and why?
For one stupid moment, I had started believing we'd gone almost a month without another woman returning to the hut like this.
I should have known better.
Horny Alphas and Betas like them would never stop.
And women like us were the easiest to hurt.
Who would defend an omega?
If an Alpha accused one of us of something, people would believe him without asking twice. But if an omega accused an Alpha, the first question would always be what she'd done to tempt him.
That was the way this pack worked.
Sometimes, I wondered if any of those scumbags would ever receive the punishment they deserved for being so fucking evil.
We had barely reached the entrance of our little home when Freda burst into tears.
"He... he..."
"It's okay, Freda." I shifted more of her weight against my body as Lyra and I carefully helped her inside. "You don't have to tell me now. Just breathe."
We lowered her onto a soft mat at one side of the hut.
"Lyra, get me clean water in a bowl. Quickly, please."
She nodded and hurried away.
Footsteps came from behind us as everyone else rushed toward where Freda lay. Every person living here was either an omega-blooded woman or a young girl still growing up.
"What happened to Freda?"
"Why is she bleeding?"
"This isn't the time for questions," I said, looking back at them. "Please, everyone, clear the space. What she needs right now is enough air."
The hut was already too small, with about twenty women living in each one. Ours sat far away from the rest of the pack, hidden where nobody came unless they had a reason to.
Most of the omegas, especially the younger girls around fifteen, quietly made their way outside. A few of the older women stayed behind to help.
I watched them leave.
They tried hard not to stare at Freda, but every single one of them did.
They were already at that age where they'd started noticing how the older women avoided any man who came their way. They had seen how we were treated like animals meant only for hard labour and how nobody ever came to our defence.
I couldn't imagine how frightened they must have felt in their own homeland.
Turning back to Freda, I found her staring at the wall.
She looked so ashamed of herself.
There were so many bruises beneath her torn clothes. Her skirt and panties were soaked with blood, and she was trembling so badly her teeth kept knocking together.
"Here, Elara."
Lyra hurried back with a clay bowl filled with water and dropped to her knees beside me.
"Please do something. She's bleeding so much."
"I will."
I reached into my bag and pulled out one of the cloths I used to cover my face whenever I had to leave our home and go where the rest of the pack lived.
Covering our faces and masking our omega scent was something every omega woman learned early. Roaming around without doing so meant risking the attention of some hungry, lecherous man.
Even then, it didn't always save us.
Today, Freda had become another victim.
I tore the cloth into a strip before lowering myself onto my knees beside her.
It was only then that I really looked at her.
Angry red marks circled both wrists, and long scratches ran across her neck.
Whoever had done this hadn't shown her a single bit of mercy.
I gently placed the backs of two fingers beneath her chin and lifted her face.
"Look at me, Fifi. It's me."
Slowly, she turned toward me.
Freda, our always-smiling innocent princess, was only nineteen.
That morning, she'd come to borrow my clothes, laughing about how the skirt made her hips look smaller.
She'd stood in front of me asking if it looked nice enough. We'd all laughed because she asked the same question every single time she borrowed my clothes.
Just a few hours had passed since then.
And now, looking at her, it was just so fucking sad how one afternoon had managed to steal such a beautiful smile from a person.
"I want to check where you're bleeding," I told her quietly. "I won't do anything until you let me."
Freda's lips trembled while everyone went silent.
After several long seconds, she finally gave a small nod.
I crushed some of my mother's pain-relieving herbs into the bowl and gently mixed them with the water.
"It's going to sting a little," I warned.
Another small nod.
I soaked the strip of cloth, squeezed out the excess water and carefully pressed it against the bruise on her cheek.
Freda winced the moment the cloth touched her skin.
"I'm sorry."
She squeezed her eyes shut and tried to bear it, but another painful whimper escaped before she could stop it.
I eased my hand, moving even more gently this time and praying the herbs would dull at least a little of her pain.
Freda stayed quiet while I cleaned the scratches around her neck. The poor girl couldn't stop staring at the wall, and every little sound made her entire body flinch.
"Elara," she finally said in a small voice.
Her fingers curled into the mat beneath her.
"It... it was Elder Cedric."
My hands stopped.
Of course it had to be one of them.
I tightened my fingers around the cloth before forcing myself to loosen them.
"You don't have to force yourself, Fifi."
She lowered her head. After a few seconds, she continued.
"I was coming back with the food from the food store when he called me. I had my scent masked. I had my face covered. I don't know how he..." Her voice broke as another sob interrupted her. "I didn't want to go to him, but he kept calling, and I was afraid of what he would do to me if I ignored him."
"It's okay," Lyra said quietly. "We understand."
Freda nodded and wiped her tears with the back of her hand. Bringing both hands forward, she started fidgeting with her fingers.
"He told me to bring some of the food inside his house. I was scared. The moment I entered, he locked the door and grabbed me." She sucked in a broken breath. "I tried to scream, Elara. I swear I screamed, but he covered my mouth and kept telling me to stop fighting him because I was just a little omega girl and I had no right to refu—"
She stopped.
Her whole body shook as she cried uncontrollably.
Lyra immediately turned away and pressed a hand against her mouth.
I didn't want to ask what Elder Cedric did next. I didn't even want to hear her say it, so I asked the only question I could think of that would save her from telling me the abomination that man had done.
"It's okay, Fifi." I slowly patted her back. "How did you get away? Did he threaten you?"
"I only got away because Serena came to see him," she said once her sobs had slowed. "He heard her outside and left me there to answer the door. I climbed out through the window, and I kept running till I reached our border."
She raised her head to look at me.
The shame, fear and guilt in her wet eyes made me want to find Elder Cedric and feed him his own dick.
"I should never have gone inside his house."
"Don't do that," Lyra said immediately. "You were carrying food back here, and he forced you into his house."
The other women murmured angrily behind me, but Freda only started crying harder.
I dropped the cloth into the bowl and held both her hands tightly.
"What that bastard did to you is his shame, not yours. If I hear you blaming yourself for his actions again, I will be angry with you, Freda. And you know how irritating I can be when I'm angry."
A little laugh escaped her through her tears.
I got up and hugged her tightly, trying hard to hold back my own tears even though I wanted to cry with her.
"Now, let's get you to stop bleeding down there and prevent any infections. Lyra, bring me my mother's medical book. The big brown one."
She hurried toward the wooden box in the hut and returned with it.
I wiped my fingers on my skirt before opening the book.
It was filled with my mother's handwriting.
I skipped to the pages where her writing had stopped and mine had continued, then wrote down Elder Cedric's name and what he had done.
My mother treated the women here when she was alive, even though she was forbidden from doing so. Being the Alpha's bride had saved her from living as a slave after they discovered her omega blood, but it hadn't stopped her from caring for the women who weren't as lucky.
She hid my scent too.
For thirteen years, nobody knew I'd inherited her omega blood.
It wasn't until she died that Serena got the chance to expose me.
My own twin sister.
Maybe she hated that Mother and I were so close. Maybe she simply couldn't stand knowing there was something about me she could use to drag me beneath her.
Whatever her reason was, it worked anyway.
I was removed from the main house and sent to live with the omega slaves.
By then, I'd already spent most of my childhood watching Mother clean wounds, crush herbs and treat women the rest of the pack didn't care enough to save.
When she died, someone had to continue what she started.
I looked at the names filling the pages.
There were too many of them.
Sometimes, I didn't even know what I expected to do with the book. I couldn't exactly walk into the main house, throw it at my father's feet and expect him to suddenly care.
Still, I kept writing.
If the rest of the pack wanted to pretend these things never happened, then fine.
I wasn't going to help them forget.
I closed the book and returned my attention to Freda.
"I won't hurt you, I promise. I want to check the bleeding under your skirt, and if you want me to stop, just tell me and I will."
She was scared, but she nodded anyway.
I asked the other women to leave and waited until only Lyra remained before carefully lifting Freda's skirt to examine her.
There was a lot of blood.
Too much.
It hadn't even slowed or shown any sign of stopping soon.
"Elara, is something wrong?" Lyra asked.
I quickly reached for my bag without answering and searched through the herbs inside.
Only a few bundles remained.
"Where's the Athelas medicine I had left in here?"
"You already used the last one about a week ago."
Fuck.
I closed my eyes.
I'd completely forgotten about that.
Opening them again, I searched through my bag once more, even though I already knew there was nothing there.
I needed the last few bundles in my mother's room.
I wished I'd carried everything from there before moving to the huts, but that would have raised too many questions. Nobody could know I'd inherited my mother's healing gift.
Mother had been the last pack healer, and if they discovered I had the same gift, they would never leave me here.
I wanted to use what she'd taught me for us.
Not for some evil men who would suddenly remember I existed the moment they found out I could be useful to them.
Freda groaned behind me.
I looked at the blood beneath her and made my decision.
The medicine was in my mother's room.
Which meant, for the first time since my own sister had thrown me out, I had to sneak back into the house I once called home.
