(Amber's POV)
I felt my soul leaving my body as darkness engulfed my vision, rendering me unable to move a single step.
"How disgusting! This filthy Omega's blood has stained my latest designer dress..." It was my stepsister's mocking voice that made me realize I wasn't dreaming. My father had actually used his claws to pierce through my mate's throat.
On the ground, my mate was still writhing in agony. Rae's angry and pained voice brought my focus back. My gaze turned into daggers, aimed at my stepsister and immediately shut her up!
"Listen... Amber! Have you forgotten my words?" My father smirked, stopping me from approaching my mate.
As his grimy hand clung to my arm, a sickening knot formed in my stomach, and a fiery surge coursed through my veins!
Despite in pain, Rae took over. My hands turned into sharp claws and angrily threw my father aside. We immediately rushed towards our mate!
"Please... No! You'll be fine," Rae kept licking his wounds, making a last-ditch effort to save him, but he was bleeding out too fast... No one could survive that kind of wound... not even the strongest Alpha.
The despair and grief that pooled in our souls was overwhelming. Hope was fading. I didn't want to miss the last chance to tell my mate how much I longed for him.
"Please Rae... let me talk to him... I need him to know that I didn't want this to happen..." I sobbed hopelessly in my mind and reluctantly, she gave control back to me.
The only sound in the now deathly silent banquet hall was my father's warning growls and snarls as I shifted back and crouched over my mate.
I stared down at him with tears streaming down my face as I pressed my hands over the wound on his neck in a futile effort to stem the flow of his blood. I knew it was too deep, but I had to try.
"I'm so sorry," I choked as I leaned forward and pressed my forehead against his, "I never wanted this to happen... I want you... I want us... please don't leave me..."
His crimson eyes connected with mine as his hand reached upwards and landed weakly on my own.
"You..." he gasped as I sobbed loudly, "this is all because of you..."
It felt like my heart had stopped. I blinked in shock as I looked down at him, Rae's mournful howl echoing loudly in my head.
"No! That's..." I protested as he weakly tried to push me away, his eyes beginning to lose focus.
"This is your fault." He murmured weakly, "If I wasn't your mate... this would never have happened."
"Please... don't say that... I'm sorry..." I sobbed in a broken whisper as his breathing became shallower. I hugged him harder and tighter, fantasizing that his life wouldn't be drained away so fast because of it.
"I curse you..." he gasped as he stared weakly up at me, the anger and rage burning brightly in his eyes, "I, Eric Johnson, curse you with my life to never be happy, to be betrayed for all eternity—".
With his last breath, his eyes rolled and his hand fell away from my chest.
"No!" A hiss of despair shook out of my chest and I felt unable to breathe.
The tears streamed down my face as I screamed into the oppressive silence as Rae howled her grief alongside my own, but suddenly, there was an ill-timed taunt from behind me, "Don't be a drama Queen Amber... he is nothing... was nothing. This is for the best."
I looked back at my father, who looked at me with disdain, as if this life didn't matter.
"Why would you do this?" I growled, my eyes blazing furiously as I stood to the side of my now-dead mate's body, "I'm already going to reject him! Why are you killing people at will?"
"Watch your language!" Father inhaled angrily." Have you forgotten that bitch? I told you, only death will put an end to accidents! I will never allow another omega gene in my family! EVER!"
That bitch? I knew he was talking about my mother. My father hated me just because my mother was a homeless omega, and he saw it as a punishment from the Goddess for tainting his noble Alpha bloodline.
"Someone!" Without waiting for me to retaliate, he angrily ordered the guards, "Take Amber away!"
Everyone in the room remained silent, afraid to speak. I see my stepmother and stepsister not far away looking at me with smiles on their faces. I must look like a clown right now!
"Amber! I told you! He's an asshole! You can't trust anything he says!" Rea yells in my head. Yes, we can't trust him anymore, everything he says is a lie, it's all to control me better, there's no way he'll ever respect me, much less actually let me see my mother!
"Rae, do you fear death?" My scarlet gaze fixed on the hypocritical bastard, the blood from his fingers still not dry.
Rae didn't answer me, but my bones began to rattle, my joints began to extend outward, and as I let out a roar of rage, I quickly lunged at the bastard!
My fangs sank sharply into his arm and the taste of blood spread through my mouth. The taste of blood turned us on.
"Bitch... HOW DARE YOU?" Rage spilled from my father's mouth.
"Ow-" He SHIFTED into a huge black wolf and threw me out with force.
The huge difference in strength caused me to be quickly thrown against the wall by him. I heard the sound of cracking ribs and blood quickly spurted out of my mouth.
"Someone! Wolfsbane!" I vaguely heard someone give the order. Suddenly, I felt a sharp pain in my neck and a wave of excruciating pain rushed through my body, as if fire traveled through my veins and I writhed in agony on the floor.
"Hopefully the wolfsbane will knock some sense into you and if that doesn't then an indefinite stay in the dungeons until you learn to behave well." He whispered hatefully into my ear as I clawed desperately at my own skin.
He released his hold on my neck and stepped back, taking a deep breath as he ran his hands through his hair.
"My apologies," He said with a somber voice, "She's not well mentally, as you can see. That's the only reason that I never introduced her to you. Guys... she's simply too unstable. "
As my consciousness began to fade and I felt rough hands grab hold of me, I swore to myself that no matter what happened, one day I would seek my revenge... no matter how long it took.
(Amber's POV) Three years later, in the cell. "I curse you..." I still remembered the night that my mate died vividly... it replayed over and over again in my mind and my mate's dying words haunted me endlessly. I'd thought of taking my own life, but I knew my mother was still waiting for me. Though I didn't know if she was still alive, until I heard definitive news of her death, I wouldn't give up on my own life! My father had only imprisoned me; he hadn't killed me. I believed that in his eyes, I still held some value. So while he demanded my obedience, he wouldn't let my mother perish. However, I wasn't simply kept locked in a dungeon. For the past three years, I had been kept here in solitary confinement, with only the stoic presence of the guards and the unwanted advances of the men that my stepmother sent to try and take the one remaining precious thing that I had left to me. My virginity. She and my stepsister viciously tried to turn me into a whore. Thankfully, none of
(Amber's POV) As I left the dingy hallways of the dungeon and stepped out into the light, my eyes squinted shut reflexively as my hands flew up to shield them from the glare. After so long in the darkness, the warmth of the sun's rays was a welcome relief on my pasty skin, but the light was almost excruciatingly painful for my eyes. As I take a deep breath, I finally feel Rae's awareness of the three years that Rae has been in a deep sleep because of our mate's death. Rae?" I stop myself, worried that it's just my imagination. "Amber, it's me, I'm back." After a short silence, Rae finally answers me. Suddenly I feel the sun begin to warm. I heard my father click his tongue in disapproval at our reaction to being outside after so long, but I didn't want to give him the satisfaction of provoking a reaction. So, I resolutely followed him in silence, shielding my eyes and glancing to the sides furtively to see if anything had changed within the layout of the pack land on the walk from
(Amber's POV) "What is she talking about?" I asked furiously, my tone holding a dangerous edge to it. "Don't worry Amber, Daddy found the perfect match for you," My stepsister's voice rose gleefully as she clapped her hands in excitement, "You should be happy that he went out of his way to find such a good match for you, especially after your public disgrace." She tittered as I growled lowly. "Are you for fucking real right now?" I scoffed angrily as my father's face darkened, "You hold me in a dungeon for three years, subject to the horrors of the guards that your bitch of a wife personally handpicked to punish me and now you retrieve me only to marry me off to goddess knows who?!" I could feel Rae's rage building at a far faster rate than my own and it took everything in me to stop her from wrenching control from me and surging towards these two conniving little bitches that directed everything behind the scenes. "Your sister is right. After what you did at your Bar Mitzvah..."
(Ryan's POV) I was in total darkness and all I could see was two men writhing together in the distance, one of them my father. I yelled and ran as hard as I could. But no matter what, I couldn't get close to them. "Father!!!" I shouted out to my father but he didn't reply, simply turning his head from his position on the floor and smiling half heartedly at me as the man who sat above him lifted his arm and plunged his claws straight through my fathers chest. Blood spurted out. "NO!!" I woke up with a start, my chest heaving as the emotions of the nightmare still ran rampant inside of me. I looked around in confusion at my surroundings but it didn't take long for me to realize that I had obviously fallen asleep in my office and the memories of that night had haunted me in my dreams once again. I let out a long breath and ran my hands over my face as I forced my heart to slow its rapid beating in the comforting silence. That was part of the reason that I worked so hard... to escape
(Amber's POV). I waited patiently outside the doors of the pack house waiting for the Beta to return but instead an Omega was sent to collect me and showed me to my room. "Is... is Ryan alright?" I asked her as we walked through the corridors, but she didn't answer me and avoided my eyes completely. I turned to thank her for bringing me to my room, but I was forced to step back hastily as the door closed quickly and narrowly avoided hitting me in the face. "Great. We've traded one prison for another." I muttered despondently as I sagged down onto the bed, "I don't understand any of this Rae, why would he react this way to us?" Rae whined softly as she paced in my head in distress. "I don't know. It doesn't make any sense. This was the first time that I've ever seen him, so there's no possible way that we could have offended him somehow." "Maybe our stepmother set this up for us... or our stepsister... they're petty enough." Rae growled. "I don't know... it wouldn't make sense to
(Amber's POV) "It seems our Luna hasn't yet adapted to her new role, has she?" a mocking voice followed. "So, it's our duty to reinforce her memory," another derisive voice chimed in. I woke with a gasp to an unknown icy sensation spreading across my face and as my wolf and I spent a moment in panic as the haze of sleep lifted from us, we suddenly realized that the sheets and mattress around us were soaked. Before I could piece together what had happened, a woman with a squirrel-like face appeared in my field of view and her nose wrinkled in disgust as she looked us over. "You won't be lounging around all day now that you're here." She sneered, "It's seven already and work started hours ago for the rest of us. Get up, you're late." I blinked up at her as I tried to decide whether or not I wanted to let Rae answer her, but eventually, I decided against it. Ryan had already made it clear that he was going to make life difficult for me here and out of spite, I had already made the
(Amber's POV) I held the smile on my face as I raised my eyes to meet the curious gaze of the Alpha King and his wife. "Ryan, who is this?" He demanded with a confused expression, "I thought you were going to fetch the chef so that I could tell them what a wonderful job they did?" Ryan opened his mouth to reply but I didn't want to give him the satisfaction of taking credit for the food or hiding the fact that it was me who had put all the hard work into producing this, so I answered before he could. "Actually, your grace, you are meeting the chef." I said, raising my eyes confidently to meet both his and his wife's gaze, "I wanted to make sure that you ate only the finest food, as you both deserve, so I wanted to see to it myself. I can't offer much but if there's one thing that I know how to do well, it's preparing tasty food." The Alpha King clapped his hands together in delight as he looked between Ryan and me, which in itself was an extraordinary action. Normally, he didn't
(Amber's POV) After the meal had finished and the Alpha King and his wife left, Ryan disappeared for a time so I returned to the kitchens and let the omega's know just how much the food we had made together had been appreciated by everyone who ate it. Despite their protests, I helped them clear the dishes and return the kitchen to its orderly state before heading back to my room. But I didn't get to make it that far as I suddenly found my wrist being clenched tightly as I was dragged in the opposite direction. "Wait! What are you doing?! Let go of me!" I cried as I pulled against the unknown assailant but when my senses returned and I took in the broad shoulders and furious eyes of the man in front of me, my heart sank when I realized it was Ryan. "I hope you're fucking pleased with your achievements today," He hissed savagely as I found myself pulled forward and shoved through the doorway of a room that felt as welcoming as Ryan's personality. "What are you talking about? I trie