Ugly cow
SOMA
A slap cracks across my cheek the moment I step into my cousin’s room, stealing the breath from my lungs. I stumble back, my fingers flying to my face as the second slap lands harder. My head snaps to the side, and my vision blurs.
“Where were you, you ugly cow?” Maeve snarls, advancing toward me. Her hand lifts, and I flinch. My hair falls over my face like a shield, as if to protect me from the third hit. But she drops her hand with a smirk. “Trying to run?”
“N-no.” I force my feet to stay planted, even as my hands shake at my sides. “I came as soon as you called.”
A laugh slips from Sheila, her older sister, who’s on the bed. Maeve shoots me one last glare and turns away, lowering herself onto the padded chair before her dresser.
Red lipstick glides across her mouth as she speaks. “What took you so long?”
She is the same person who ordered me not to eat or leave the guest room until I scrubbed the toilet clean. Responding will only earn me another slap, so I hold my tongue.
“Have you gone deaf?” she barks.
“I’m sorry,” I whisper. “I’ll be faster next time.”
“You’re wasting time,” Sheila mutters without looking up. She sits cross-legged on the bed, painting her toenails pink. “Tell her what you want already.”
The sharp scent of her nail polish fills the room, and my stomach twists beneath the oversized sweater hanging off my shoulders. None of them asks if I’ve eaten today. They already know I haven’t. To any outsider, I look like their personal slave. But my only crime is being born an omega.
In Shadowspire, omegas are less than pets. My mother was foolish enough to love one and elope with him. Father died in a raid, and Mother followed soon after giving birth to me.
All I inherited from them is a wolf too weak to shift and a body that betrays me with sickness or unconsciousness every full moon.
After my parents’ deaths, Aunt Helen, my mother’s sister, took me in. Some call it kindness, but I know what it is. A life sentence. Life was bearable when her husband, Uncle Dorian, was alive. But since his death, the beatings have become routine. His wife and daughters make sure to remind me how unwanted I am.
“On it,” Maeve sings. Her lips curve into that familiar condescending smirk as she reaches into her handbag. “Go to Color Lounge and fetch me a bottle of Glow Oil.”
Color Lounge is the most popular cosmetic store, and they went shopping there earlier today, which means this is another punishment. Are they trying to keep me from eating?
My chest tightens. I haven’t eaten since yesterday’s lunch, and without the bathrooms clean, I can’t ask for food.
“I need it for Friday,” Sheila adds.
Friday is the Luna Selection ritual. The entire pack has spent months planning and obsessing over it. Training their daughters, buying dresses, and fighting for invitations.
Every unmated girl between eighteen and twenty-two dreams of becoming the next Luna of Shadowspire. Or more specifically, Prince Brynne Rybak’s chosen mate. The future queen. If either of my cousins is selected, my life will become unbearable in ways I don’t want to imagine.
“Can I finish cleaning the bathroom first? It’ll only take—”
Sheila hurls the nail polish bottle at my head. I react on instinct, diving forward. My knees slam into the floor as my fingers close around the bottle, catching it seconds before it smashes against the hardwood. Pain flares up my legs, but at least the bottle didn’t break. If it had, there would be no food for me tonight.
The room goes silent until Sheila’s dark, menacing laugh slices through it. Her gaze cuts into me as she sizes me up, disdain etched into every line of her face.
“Look at you,” she tells me. “Pathetic.”
Maeve is usually the one who dishes out the verbal insults, but on days like today, Sheila takes the lead. Pushing to my feet, I cross the room and return the bottle with a shaky hand.
“I’m sorry,” I breathe.
“Always sorry,” Sheila spits. “Never useful.”
Maeve clears her throat, and my attention shifts to her. She retrieves a thick wad of cash from her handbag and tosses the money at me. It smacks my chest and drops to the floor.
“Be back in ten minutes,” she states. “Or else…”
The unspoken threat hangs in the air. Ten minutes means there’s no time to walk, and my dinner is on the line. I grab the cash and hurry from the room before they change their minds about letting me leave. My stomach growls, and my thighs burn from kneeling too long during my earlier chores.
As soon as I step out of the house, the cold air hits me. The rains have begun. Shadowspire will grow colder as the year progresses. I weave through the driveway, avoiding their expensive cars that gleam beneath the fading sunlight as I head straight to my rusted bicycle leaning crookedly against the far wall.
“Please work,” I whisper, swinging onto the old bike.
The wheels squeal in protest when I pedal, but they move. To save time, I take a shortcut with uneven roads, gripping the handlebars tightly while ignoring the ache in my legs as potholes jolt the bicycle. Mud splashes against my shoes while the evening wind bites through my thin sweater. Up ahead, an engine growls as I approach the blind corner leading to the main road.
Headlights appear first, and a black car barrels around the curve in front of me. Its tires slice through a puddle, drenching my clothes, face, and hair in muddy rainwater. I skid to a stop with a gasp.
The car keeps going, and the royal flag on the hood whips in the wind as it disappears down the road. Cold water drips from my curls onto my shaking hands, and the humiliation of the entire day crashes into me at once.
A sob escapes before I can stop it.
“Don’t cry. Don’t cry,” I tell myself over and over again.
But the tears I’ve been holding back finally spill down my cheeks. I clutch the handlebars, my body shaking.
One day, I’ll leave this pack.
Until then, I’m just Soma, an omega at the bottom of the werewolf food chain, and no one is coming to save me.
Hello, lovelies!
Thank you for reading this book and taking the time to add it to your libraries. This is an early access story, which means: If you’re reading for free, you have access to three chapters per week. Subscribers have access to four chapters per week.
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PS: This is an edited version of the book: The Alpha’s Unexpected Luna: The Selection. The completed versions of the first editions are on my profile and only available to subscribers.
