Chapter 3 (Humiliation)

I felt like I was finally free. I could no longer feel any of my body parts. It was like they had all found their safe haven and left me, like my parents, like my adoptive family… like Ethan.

“Hey, can you hear me?”

I heard a faint voice in the dark endless path I was walking on.

“Please, wake up.”

The voice had sadness in it and it ached me hearing them.

“I am sorry, please don't go.”

I knew that familiar voice, but I could not figure out its owner.

“Please Zayla, please don’t leave me.”

He sounded like he was crying, like he was pleading.

“I love you.”

Just then I felt like a fish who’d been caught on a hook. I was immediately pulled out of the darkness and all I could see was a blurred figure of a man until I realized I was coughing really hard.

“Zayla? Thank god! Are you okay? I am so sorry Zayla. I will accept all of your punishments, just don’t leave me. I love you Zayla. I love you.”

His words roamed around my head before I was dragged back into the darkness.

Flashback

I was already in my junior year. The long sophomore year ended very fast. The class monitor, Hannah, became my break buddy. She was from our neighboring country’s pack. Her wolf came a year before she joined the school and now she was a pro at it. However, even she could not avoid our natural instinct to sometimes shift without any control over our wolf. And here I was. My wolf seldom came like it just wants me to know about its existence but does not want to be with me. Nothing new.

Hannah’s father was the Beta of the pack and her parents wanted her to get an education where she could be safe. So they changed the entire country and sent her here, a place where none of her packs' potential enemies could harm her. Lucky Hannah to have such parents. We were always together. And when I wasn’t with her, I was with Ethan.

“Wow girl!” Hannah watched me like I was her new favorite piece of art. “All of this effort just to meet Ethan for a simple class project and yet you still deny having feelings for him.” She stated and I chose to remain silent.

She was the closest friend I had at school. Someone who, despite always sleeping and being absent during lectures, was always present for me. But I had never learnt to trust anyone.

I knew Ethan was not just another normal guy in my life. I knew my heart had placed him above everyone. Equal to Hannah if not above her. But even after knowing it, I still couldn’t admit my feelings for Ethan in front of Hannah or even Ethan himself. They meant no harm, I knew it. They would never mean any harm. I believed it but again, I had never learnt to trust anyone.

I saw my reflection in the mirror and Hannah was right. I was dressed a tiny bit too much to meet Ethan just for a simple class project.

“What, you are now ignoring my question?” Hannah questioned, rolling on my bed, hugging Mr. Calm. It was a stuffed pink pig toy that I bought after coming to this new school. In the first few days, I hardly interacted with anyone and even though I showed like I preferred loneliness, it was very lonely for me to continue to act normal. And one Saturday as I was visiting the market, I spotted this toy and bought it immediately. Ever since that day, Mr. Calm has been my cuddle buddy. The one who fills the void.

Later, indeed, I got close with Hannah and Ethan, but no one could ever replace Mr. Calm’s position in my life.

“You know you are spending a lot of your time in my dorm room more than your own right?” I asked in an attempt to divert her question.

“My room does not have Piggy and you know that.”

I sighed after hearing her answer. “His name is not Piggy.”

“He is one, though.”

“Don’t you have to prepare for the project too? Is Liam going to be doing the work for you both?”

“Whatever, I did not ask him to choose me as his partner anyway. He brought that load onto himself.”

“But still you could contribute a little.”

“I definitely could, but I don’t want to.”

“Hannah go.” I said, more like ordered.

She rolled the other way, ignoring me.

“No more Mr. Calm for you if you don’t.”

She grunted and lazily got up from the bed.

“If you weren’t my best friend, I’d kill you for using Piggy against me. You know that right.”

I chose not to entertain her anymore.

“Plus one last advice before I go.”

“This is the first advice you are about to give me,” I corrected.

“Okay, one first and last advice before I go. Even though you are not admitting the fact that you have feelings for Ethan, I know you do. And I know he does too. Or else he wouldn’t have chosen you to be his partner in the first place out of all the other girls who openly show their interest in him. So you better let him know too before its too late.”

“With that logic, are you saying Liam likes you too?”

She was speechless for a second.

“I hate you,” she left the room closing the door with a loud thud.

He likes me too?

We had to meet each other in the evening and we’d planned to work together in the school library.

After checking myself in the mirror for almost a hundred times, I was on my way to meet him. It was like I had forgotten that my life would never be happy and peaceful for too long. So, that day I was brought back to the painful reality.

Just when I was only few minutes away from the library, Nory and her soldier minions blocked my way.

“Going somewhere all dressed up huh. I wonder where,” Nory smirked and I froze seeing the evident rage and jealousy in her eyes, the eyes that were adament about destroying me.

I was petrified. I was too scared to retaliate. So all I could do was run away, like always.

But one vs many was a battle that could easily be predicted. I was caught soon after and was dragged to the school’s storage room, where not many people visited.

I never knew that it was then when the real humiliation started. Those girls started tearing my dress with their long nails, giving out evil laughter. I struggled, but was no match for them.

“You dare come in between us.” Nory slapped me hard on my cheeks and the claws scratched my face.

"Ahh!" the sound of pain escaped my mouth.

At that moment, I did not know whom to call out to, whom I should expect to come and save me. I was all alone and miserable.

Just when I was losing hope, dying at the humiliation and hating myself for being so pathetic, the storage room’s door crashed open and fell on the ground like it was a simple plain unattached wood.

Behind it stood a man with golden eyes that were sparkling with rage and thirst. Thirst for blood.