Chapter 9 Winter Ashrise Pack!

Valeria's POV

"How is the slave with the wound in her abdomen? Will she survive?"

"I've done what I could. Now it's up to the Goddess to have mercy on her and allow her to survive. Even if she does, it's very unlikely she'll be able to conceive in the future; her womb was destroyed."

"Poor thing, so young and pretty. It will be very hard for her to find a mate if she can't have pups."

"I think that's the least of her worries right now. If she survives... it will be a miracle."

The voices came and went, but the pain never left. I heard snippets of conversations over what seemed like days, weeks, or months-I couldn't tell.

But my will to live, my refusal to die, was stronger than anything else. My desire for revenge kept me in this world.

"Valeria," I finally heard one day, the worried voice of my wolf.

"Nyra, calm down, I'm okay, we are alive," I reassured her, trying to soothe all her pain and despair. If I died, she would too.

"Water... please..." My eyelids felt as heavy as lead, and my throat felt like it had been sanded raw.

"Is anyone...?" I murmured.

"You're awake? Oh heavens, thank the Goddess, I thought you wouldn't make it! Doctor, doctor, the young slave has woken up!" A woman came close and put a little water on my cracked and dry lips.

Hurried footsteps approached my bed, and an older man began to examine and speak to me.

"What's your name?" he finally asked.

"Valeria Ru... Just Valeria," I corrected myself because that wasn't my real last name, and although I couldn't yet call myself Valeria Ravager in front of everyone, I would never again use the infamous surname of my former pack.

"Alright, Valeria, you were rescued and are now in the 'Winter Ashrise' pack," he began to explain as he adjusted his glasses. "Your body is still in very bad shape, so you'll need to stay here for more days until you recover. After that, you can decide what to do with your life."

"Am I a slave?" I ventured to ask, because I had heard about this pack.

One of the most powerful in the north, but its leader, a pure Alpha, was reputed to be indifferent and cold. There were slaves here too.

"The Beta told me you could choose. You're free to leave, or you can stay. But if you stay, you'd have to be a slave. However, here the slaves do the heaviest work, but they aren't mistreated or starved, and you aren't a prisoner. You just do the tasks you're given and in return, you get to stay in the pack with a roof over your head and food."

Stay that way, it didn't sound so bad, and it wasn't as if I had many options.

A wolf like me, out there without her power and wandering aimlessly, would just be easy prey for any scoundrel.

Maybe in this prosperous pack, I could find the Alpha who could help me. I agreed to stay and be a slave after I recovered.

I was assigned to the laundry area, where all the clothes of the nobles of this pack passed through our hands.

Here, the hierarchies were very well defined.

*****

"Did you manage to steal it?" I hear whispers from the other slaves beside me as I focus on washing the clothes assigned to me for the day.

My wounds were still not completely healed, but I had to work to eat and survive.

"Yes, yes, of course, I watched him while he was distracted and stole a shirt. I wanted to steal his underwear, but it was impossible to choose" they all gathered around the girl who pulled out a white shirt from a bag as if it were a treasure.

"Aaww, just smelling those pheromones from this distance is making my core heat up," a young red-haired girl purred.

"We have an order; I'm first to keep it tonight" another girl snatched the shirt from the one who had stolen it.

"At least let us have a sniff. Who knows what extra smells it will have when you hand it over after using it."

And they started tugging at the garment.

The air brought a cold and dominant essence to me, hot and dark; that shirt belonged to an Alpha, and a very powerful one at that.

For some reason, it reminded me of the intimidating man who had saved me and whom I had never seen again.

But I had learned to mind my own business, which did not include fighting with others over a male's garment to play with at night.

I walked slowly to get some extra soap to finish my laundry, but when I returned, the situation had changed.

"Line up, all of you, hands where I can see them, move, it's for today!" the harsh voice of the she-wolf in charge of the laundry made us all shudder.

That woman was cruel, and although I hadn't experienced it myself, I had heard of her ruthless punishments.

"I'm going to ask once, and the guilty one will step forward. One of the Alpha's shirts is missing, who took it?" she asked, and we all tensed up, including me, because even though I wasn't guilty, I was an accomplice.

I knew very well who it was, but I wasn't a snitch and wouldn't betray her as long as her theft didn't harm me, but I was still too naive for this world.

"I thought so. Brave enough to steal, but not to confess. I'll remember this during the punishment. Search them and their baskets too!" she ordered several she-wolves behind her, and they approached us, who were standing in a line, side by side like prisoners.

A black-haired she-wolf came up to me and began to roughly pat me down all over my body.

I cooperated because I wasn't guilty, but when it came time to check the basket with the clothes I had washed and was about to hang, I couldn't believe what she pulled out from the bottom.

It was the Alpha's shirt, and it was in my things!