Chapter 1 Emily's POV

Emily's POV

"Farm!" The Task Giver's ugly voice rang.

It's like the seventh time he'd decided another girl's fate. And Zyna wasn't just some girl. She was my friend, at least we were quite close in the Groomers school. It's just a posh name for a place they schooled orphans.

I heard my heart thud in my ears. I kept praying and hoping that mine would turn out differently.

I quite enjoyed sciences, I can't be doomed to a life on the Crestview farm.

"This one," He looked up at me from behind his huge mahogany desk. The man opened his teeth to reveal a very scary set with prolonged canines.

I shivered, hoping in vain that they would not smell my fear.

But the laughter that they burst into confirmed it. I was so scared, I almost pissed my pants.

"What's your name?" He asked me.

"Emily." I replied, looking away.

"What's your wolf name?" He asked, getting pissed.

I adjusted my stance and said the name I'd carefully kept a secret for as long as I discovered it on my necklace, the one thing I have from my mom who's image gets more blurry as the day goes by. "Vynara, Vynara Baron." I said, managing to get the words out before I choked on them.

"Baron?" Task Giver asked, looking up. I knew I had something like an oath with bad luck, but I honestly didn't think it was this bad. Why is he paying special attention to me?! I kept asking myself,

While he looked me up and down like a strange specie, I let my eyes wander his office. It was a very big room in the school. The biggest, even larger than our induction hall.

The only ceremony that was ever held was the one the little orphans had when they were scouted from all around Crestview.

It's a big city with three major wolf packs, equally strong and unable to take out each other, and so they all lived in faux unity.

"Is she mute?" He asked, glaring at me.

"No sir." I replied quickly.

"She's a dreamer." A man who stood right next to him said. "The Mistress says so." He added

I shot him a nasty look, which earned a feral assault on my cheeks.

I gasped in shock and pain, but held my tears back.

The Task Giver sucked his teeth, while indecently looking me up and down.

"How old are you?" He asked.

"Old enough to see my mark." I replied to him.

"I'm assuming you have?" He asked, looking strangely at me. But it was forgivable, I did give a strange answer.

"No." I replied to him, smiling.

It was no longer a thing of sadness being a wolf without a wolf mark.

I hadn't had my first shift yet, but I knew to expect it in the next three years, and I had a very big hunch that I'd have a big, bad, beautiful wolf.

"We'll send this one to the Damon palace." The Task Givers smiled very sinisterly.

"Why?" The man who had the most annoying input I'd ever heard earlier, asked him.

"She is just what they deserve." He said. "And I hear they are in need of a new maid."

"What happened to the old one?" I asked, my curiosity getting the better of me.

"She died." He smiled again.

And against what he'd have imagined, I smiled back. They weren't gonna see my fears.

I was roughed out of his presence, and a bag was thrown over my face.

I felt myself being led, we met a couple of people, after a brief, hushed conversation, I was finally in the car, and not one like the ones I'd been in, it was quite spacious, and smelled like Cedar wood, luxury!

It was a long ride away.

If I was really going to Alpha Damon's palace, then...

I didn't know what to expect!

The only company I had asides orphans, were those who loathed orphans.

I sat still, with a breathable bag still over my head, praying the journey ends soon.

"Leave her in the shed." An icy, but classy woman's voice broke into my thoughts.

Was I just in a car with Luna Damon?! I almost freaked out, but it'd have been far more spectacular if I had seen her.

After hours, I mean, I literally slept and woke up, I was ushered into the living room.

It was by far the grandest place I'd seen.

The guards who brought me in immediately returned to their posts at the giant door that let sunlight in.

"Is this the girl?" A male voice asked.

I was told to bow my head anytime I entered any Alphas palace, I knew to do that.

But I badly wanted to see to whom the voice belonged. We had very few males in the home.

"I don't know." Another replied, but this one was beautiful.

Like the fool I was, I raised my head up and looked in the direction the voice came from.

It was supposed to be a quick glance, but the chiselled faces I saw ran through my daydream for the next few hours.

I hadn't seen men so beautiful.

They looked a lot alike, but one looked older and taller.

"You can talk." The shorter one said, "Our mother is not gonna be down in a while." He added.

He smiled so wide, and kept eye contact with me.

The other looked quite uninterested, his eyes rested on everything but me.

"I'm Emily." I said.

"Emily?" He asked, looking confused.

"I'd rather bear Emily." I replied to him.

I tried to talk some sense to myself and look back down, keep my hands firmly tucked behind me and wait for the female Alpha, but it looked like I was in for a beautiful conversation.

"Why?" He asked again.

"Dathan, I think we should go." The other brother said.

I couldn't blame him. An acne ridden stranger who was to become a maid in their palace held not so much fancy.

"I think we've got a couple more minutes." The brother replied to him. The one whose name is Dathan. "Damon, come on!" He said, calling after his brother who'd begun to ascend the gold rimmed steps they descended earlier.

I watched their conversation so intently, maybe too intently, I didn't hear the footsteps behind me.

"Stupid girl!" I felt a thud on my head, a warm liquid trickled down my face, and that was all I remembered of that afternoon.