Chapter 1 Left to die
(I’m writing this for the inkitt contest)
Chapter 1
“Left to Die”
POV Seraphine
I watched my own mother hanged in the town square by my father, the pack Alpha, when I was four.
My father found out that my mother had cheated on him, and I was the result of their adulterous union.
If I didn’t do as I was told by my father, whom I now addressed as Alpha Josh, I would be hanged next.
I cooked, cleaned, ironed, scrubbed, and mended the Alpha’s and his sons’ clothes.
Nothing I did was enough. Father always found a reason to punish me.
A few months before my eighteenth birthday, the doctor takes my brother’s blood to prove the Alpha bloodline. While he’s there, he takes my blood to figure out who my father is.
Two weeks later, the doctor shows up terrified. Alpha Josh and the doctor step into the study, and I pause for a moment in front of his office on my way to the kitchen.
“Do you realize what will happen if this gets out? Her real father will seek revenge and kill me and my boys,” Alpha Josh barks.
“What makes you think he doesn’t know about her already?” the doctor asks.
“Enough. She will be dealt with, and you will forget this entire conversation ever happened, or there will be consequences,” Alpha Josh snarls.
I continue walking down the hallway to the kitchen.
Melissa, the head servant, slaps me across the face.
“I saw you listening in on the Alpha’s business. You do it again, I’ll tell him, and he’ll beat you within an inch of your life. Understand?”
I nod.
“I’m taking off early. Don’t tell the Alpha. Take care of dinner and the cleanup afterward. I’ll leave you with May and Lyla.” She takes off her apron and heads toward her lover’s house.
She’s so lucky. I wish I had the freedom to live without the threat of a noose hanging over me all the time.
After dinner, my brothers give me the warmest jacket I’ve ever worn. It’s so soft and wraps around me tightly, like the hugs Mother used to give me when I was little.
The boys talk about girls, guns, and how they can’t wait to grow up to be like their father.
We walk for hours into the woods, past our territory and into the deep forest where the rogues and witches live.
They stop in a clearing by a frozen lake.
“Any last words, Seraphine?” Lyle asks, suddenly holding a gun in my face.
“Please, don’t. I’ll do anything,” I plead, stepping back a foot at a time until I’m on the ice covering the lake. I continue walking backward.
Kevin laughs. “You’re no good to us alive, Seraphine. You’ve known this was coming for years.”
“I promise I’ll disappear. You’ll never see me again,” I cry.
Lyle lowers his gun and frowns.
“What the fuck are you doing, Lyle? Father said to kill her. Give me that. Do I fucking have to do everything around here?” Kevin growls.
The ice starts to crack, and I try to run forward when it opens beneath me and swallows me whole.
The last thing I see is Kevin raising the gun. The sound of a gunshot rings out as a bullet flies over my head and I fall into the darkness.
Every inch of me trembles as I fight to stay alive, but the words you’re no good to us alive hit me hard, and I let go.
I feel myself become weightless. The freezing water fills my lungs, and just as my eyes are about to close, I see deep icy-blue eyes flash to obsidian. Someone grabs me and blows air into my lungs.
Four hands surround me, and I start to heat up. My body stops trembling. I feel warm and at peace.
Am I dead? Are these angels?
I feel my body floating upward before being pushed out of the water onto the ice.
A female creature with huge dark wings wraps me in her arms as two more winged creatures emerge from the ice.
“Good work, you two. Let’s get her somewhere safe.”
“And the boys?” one of the males asks.
“I was only told by the goddess about her. We don’t have conversations. She speaks to me and tells me what to do.”
Her wings flap, and soon we’re up in the sky. The males follow, and I fall asleep in her arms.
It feels like hours pass before I see the lights of the big city.
The three winged creatures land in the snow in a residential area. The female walks up to a brownstone house and rings the bell.
A woman who seems vaguely familiar answers, looking terrified, and steps back.
“This is your niece. As far as Alpha Josh is concerned, she died after getting shot at by his sons and falling through the ice. You will take care of her until it is time,” the female creature says.
She hands me over to the familiar woman, whose eyes light up.
“Seraphine? My sister Melanie’s daughter!”
She pulls me close.
She steps back a few feet from the winged female and sets me on my feet. When we look back, the creatures are gone.
“Ben! Come quick!”
A handsome older man comes around the corner.
“Why does she look so familiar?” Ben asks.
“She’s Melanie’s daughter.”
Ben’s face beams as he leans down and gives me a hug.
“I’m your Uncle Ben, and this is your Aunt Bella. Your mother ran away when she was young. The man she loved married another woman, and it broke her heart. Do you know if she’s still alive?”
I look down as tears fill my eyes.
“Hey, you’re safe, kiddo. No one will harm you here. You can talk when you’re ready.”
He calls their servants, and they surround me.
“You need to clean her up and let her wear some of my daughters’ dresses. We’ll get her clothes tomorrow,” Ben says.
The girls take off my wet coat and ugly boots.
“How did she get here?” Ben asks.
“How do you think?”
“Why wouldn’t they take her to her father?”
“Are you kidding? If his wife knew about her, she would have her killed.”
“Why? She had to have been conceived before, not after the wedding,” Ben says.
“Either way, she is the firstborn. What do you think that means?”
“Fuck. I didn’t think, Bella.”
