A Moon for Alpha

Zara

The bright yellow sunlight woke me from a horrible sleep, even though I hadn't slept, but had passed out, after all the punches, slaps and kicks I'd received from my father, yes, my father, the one who was supposed to love me unconditionally, look after me and protect me, he was the one who beat me every day, I'd lost count of how many times a day he found an excuse to come down to the basement I called my room and beat me.

I forced myself to stand up, my whole body ached, the old wounds hadn't even healed and there were already new ones, as I wasn't yet a wolf my body didn't heal like other werewolves, my healing was still faster than a human's, but it was still slow compared to other werewolves, it couldn't keep up with the pace of the beatings I suffered on a daily basis.

Even though I was in pain, I got up and put on a pair of worn-out jeans I had, which had faded a long time ago, their blue hue gone to an odd grayish color, but it was the only one I had, so it would have to do for a long time, and I grabbed a long-sleeved shirt from the small box next to the old mattress I was sleeping on, my father didn't like me showing the marks of his aggression to those who visited the pack house, I tie up my brown hair with a piece of cloth, it was the only thing I had to tie up my hair, I survived on the bare minimum. Dragging my feet, I climbed the stairs until I came out near the kitchen. Few people knew about the existence of that basement, I'd rather it was like this, because fewer people would harass me.

I got to the kitchen and the old cook was already there. When she saw me coming, she gave me an angry look while she was making the coffee.

"You think you're on vacation, Zara," she says, placing the bottle of coffee on a tray, "do you want Alpha James to know about this?"

My eyes widened in terror at the mere mention of my father's name.

"No Mara! Please don't tell him," I said, kneeling down and holding the hem of her dress, my body still hadn't recovered. If my father hit me again, I probably wouldn't even be able to walk the next day, Mara had a scornful smile on her face, I knew she didn't like me, nobody did, I often saw her laughing at me while my father beat me.

"Let's see how you behave today," she says, kicking me with her foot and knocking me to the ground. I put my hand to my chest, feeling one of my wounds open with her blow.

"What are you still doing there?" he says, kicking me again.

I took the tray from the table and went into the living room to serve Alfa, my hands were sweating with every step I took, I couldn't make any mistakes or I'd be severely punished, when I got to the living room my father was reading the newspaper and I approached him with the tray in silence.

"Do you want Alfa coffee?" He had long forbidden me to call him father, it was on one of the occasions when he was beating me that I begged for my life by calling him father, he had slapped me across the face telling me that a bitch like me didn't have a father, from then on I would only refer to him as Alfa.

"Yes," he said without looking at me, which was a relief. I poured his cup and put the bottle on the table, waiting further away in case he called, I wasn't allowed to eat with them, my food was what was left over from the meals they made, everyone ate before me, even the other servants in the house.

"Daddy! Daddy!" Paola, my sister, came in, beeping, and from the look on her face she wasn't happy. My father put down his newspaper and looked at her with affection.

"What's wrong, darling?" Paola was a year older than me, and we were very different in appearance, while I had straight brown hair, she had curly blonde hair just like my mother had, her skin was fair and mine was dark, I had brown eyes and she had inherited my father's blue eyes.

"Dad, I want a new car," she said, crossing her arms over her breasts and tapping her foot on the floor.

"What's wrong with yours?"

"It's old, my friends will laugh at me if they see me driving around in that old thing" Palo's car was new, a black convertible, it wasn't the latest model, but it was better than many in the pack.

"Your car is fine, darling, we bought it last year" she tried to bargain with my father, but it was no use, he always gave her exactly what she wanted.

"Please Papa." she says, hanging onto his arm "Alfa Fenrir is coming to visit the pack, I want to call him for a ride, go if he's my companion" her eyes light up as she fantasizes about Alfa Fenrir.

"Okay," says my father with a sigh, surrendering to Paola's words, have your coffee first, then we'll go to the neighboring town."

"Thanks, Dad," I said, kissing his cheek as I jumped up and down beside him. I see when his eyes turn to me, and a debauched smile opens on his face.

"Today I'm so happy that I think I'm going to get you some new pants, little sister" I don't say anything, I knew that look well and I knew she must be up to something. Paola got up from her seat and picked up a knife from the table, her smile was that of a predator when it corners its prey.

"Look at you, you're so unattractive." Her hands went through my hair, which was tied up, and down to my threadbare clothes.

"I think I can help you look prettier," she says, digging the knife into my leg as she cuts my pants.

"Please Paola" I beg with tears in my eyes "You're hurting me."

"See how ungrateful you are," she says as she cuts the other leg of my pants, and I feel the blood trickle down my legs and I collapse on the floor without any strength.

"Please," I beg, crying.

"Enough!" says Alfa "I don't want you to be stressed out at this hour, darling, come on" says Alfa smiling and holding out his hand.

"Let's go," she said, dropping the knife and going with him. My heart was racing, my vision blurred and the darkness swallowed me up.

I wake up when a bucket of cold water is thrown on my body. I start coughing violently, my lungs burn with the water I just inhaled.

"Wake up!" I see it was Mara who had thrown the water on me. "It's not time to sleep, you have work to do."

I get up with difficulty, the pain in my legs was unbearable. I go to my room and change clothes, now the only one I had since Paola had ruined the other. I put on the old dress and clean my wounds with a piece of an old rag. I tie a cloth around them to stop the bleeding. I climb the stairs with difficulty, but I knew that if I showed weakness, Mara would accuse me of slacking, and that always ended in more punishment for me.

I don't remember a single day when things were different. James had always been cruel, and that was no surprise. He liked to see me suffer, as if my suffering gave him pleasure, and in fact, it did. He smiled when he beat me, and the few times I didn't scream or beg for my life, he would hit me until I passed out.

He was my father, but he didn't act like it. To him, I was just responsible for the death of his beloved wife, as if I could have done anything about it. And the fact that I looked almost identical to my mother didn't help much.

I finish cleaning his room quickly. James didn't like arriving and finding me there cleaning. He had a drawer with some photos of my mother. Once, I caught him looking at them, and to this day, I have marks on my body from that encounter. But soon all this would end; as soon as I got my wolf, I would simply run away without looking back. It was better to be a deserter than to continue being his slave.

I hear a whistle and go to the window. When I look down, I see Diana's brown eyes. She shows me a piece of cake and asks me to come down. I smile, grab the cleaning materials, and go downstairs. I hadn't eaten anything the night before, and it seemed like Diana knew that.

"Where are you going in such a hurry?" says Mara grumpily, stepping in front of me.

"I need to wash the cleaning rags, Mara," I say, showing her the rags in the bucket.

"Go on, and I expect those rags to be sparkling white," she says, stepping aside. When she's not looking, I stick out my tongue and walk away. It was one of the few acts of rebellion I allowed myself.

I go to the back where the cleaning tanks are, open the door, and find Diana hiding in a corner. She comes over to me and hands me the piece of cake.

"Eat it all, it was hard to get," she says, watching me devour the piece of cake. I hadn't realized how hungry I was until I put the cake in my mouth.

"Thank you, Diana," I say, giving her a hug. Diana had saved my skin several times. Despite being mistreated like me, she wasn't usually beaten like I was, something that intrigued me.

"If I manage to get anything else, I'll leave it in our hiding spot," she says, smiling. We had a hiding spot for food; it was outside the house, in a hole in a tree. We didn't always get food, so when there was extra, we saved it.

"I'll do the same."

"Has the alpha left?" she asks.

"Yes, apparently Paola's car is old," I say, making air quotes with my hands. Diana laughs.

"I bet she's excited to meet Alpha Fenrir."

"Yes, she believes he is her mate," I say, shaking my head.

"I bet he's not, but I'll love to see her face when she realizes it," Diana says, laughing.

"I just hope she doesn't take it out on me," I say, sighing.

"It's close, soon you won't have to endure this anymore," Diana says, placing a hand on my arm.

"Come with me, Diana. There's nothing here for us," I say, grabbing her hand.

"I'm not as brave as you, Zara. I wouldn't survive out there."

"We'll have wolves, of course we'll survive, and it'll be much better than here." I had no doubt that my life would change the moment my wolf awakened. I would leave this pack without looking back, and if other packs didn't accept me, I could still go to the human world.

"It's better if we go back before Mara shows up," Diana says, giving me a hug and leaving. I turn, grab the rags in the bucket, and start washing them in the tank.

My hopes were few. I just wanted the pain to stop, the insults to stop. I didn't want to sleep in fear and wake up in fear anymore. Up until that moment, I had only received bad things. I wanted to be strong; the Goddess knows how much I've tried to be strong, but the exhaustion was starting to take over, and I knew I couldn't take another year living under the same roof as James and Paola.

I finish washing the rags, fill the bucket with water, and return inside. The day would be long, and I'd have to be grateful if James didn't visit me at night, something I doubted wouldn't happen.

I finish cleaning the upper floor and go downstairs to set the table for lunch. Even if James and Paola didn't come for lunch, the table had to be ready. The sound of the door opening catches my attention, and when I turn around, I see Paola's cynical smile.

"Come see my new car, little sister." It wasn't an invitation; she grabs Zara's arm and drags her outside the pack house. A beautiful red convertible gleamed in the sunlight. Zara could see that the car was immaculate and must have cost a fortune.

"It's beautiful, Miss," Zara says, her head down. Paola didn't like being called sister, and she only did it to mock Zara.

"Take a good look, because you'll never have anything like this in your life," Paola says, pushing her towards the car. Zara hits her head on the side of the car and falls to the ground, already feeling the warm blood running down her forehead.

"Oh! You filthy thing, you got my car dirty," she says, running inside. Seconds later, she comes out accompanied by James, who looks at Zara with clenched lips.

"Look, Daddy, I wanted to show her the car, and look what she did," Paola says with tears running down her face. James approaches me, and I already knew what was coming, so I just brace myself as his heavy hand descends on my face.

My head spun with the slap I received. Before I could react, I found myself being dragged to the cells. James had no mercy; his pleasure was causing me pain, and I knew he wouldn't stop until he saw me on the brink of death. I felt it when he chained my hands to the ceiling in one of the cells. I knew that place well; it wasn't the first time he had taken me there, and while he didn't see me dead, I knew it wouldn't be the last.

"You filthy animal!" I heard James's voice behind me. I knew what was coming next, and my body curled up at the memory of the pain that would soon cut through me. James ripped my shirt, exposing my back. I heard the sound of the whip as he picked it up. I knew he would probably dip it in aconite; it was his way of making me suffer more. That way, I wouldn't be able to use what little healing power I had left.

"I wish you were dead!" he said as I felt the first lash cut through my back. I clenched my teeth not to scream; it was useless, he would beat me anyway. My skin burned because of the aconite, and I felt my body growing weaker as new lashes struck my back.

"If that damn woman weren't dead, I would kill her myself," James said, enraged. I could feel the fury radiating from him, making my body tremble. I had always thought James beat me because I resembled my mother, but now, hearing him speak this way, I wondered if I had been wrong all along.

As the minutes passed, I felt my body go numb, probably due to the blood loss. I hadn't fully recovered from the other wounds before he beat me again. I held back a sob as I thought about how miserable my life was. I was treated like a slave, living only to be the alpha's punching bag. I wondered if things were the same in other packs, but I didn't have that answer, and the way he beat me made me doubt I would ever find out. Slowly, my vision began to blur, and I collapsed into darkness. I liked the darkness because no one could reach me there. I would be safe and wouldn't feel pain. I simply let go, with nothing to hold onto.

I woke up feeling my entire body ache. My eyes were sensitive to the light when I opened them, and I wondered how long I had slept in that hanging position. My arms were numb, and my mind was confused. I felt my back burning and knew it was because of the wounds that hadn't healed. A noise alerted me to the arrival of someone, and my body tensed.

"Good morning, bitch," Paola said, entering my cell with a guard beside her. She nodded at him, and he dumped a bucket of water over me, but it wasn't ordinary water; it was salt water, and I couldn't hold back the scream of agony that erupted from my chest.

"I thought you needed some encouragement to wake up," she said, laughing, as tears streamed down my face. I just wanted it all to end. I couldn't stand going through their torture sessions anymore; my body couldn't take it anymore.

"Don't make that face, little sister," Paola said, looking at my face. "If you weren't such a slut, you wouldn't be going through this."

I clenched my teeth. I wouldn't give her the satisfaction of seeing me beg, not anymore. If I had to die, I wouldn't allow her to make me beg.

"What's the matter? Aren't you going to beg for your life?" she asked, laughing. When I didn't respond, I saw her come toward me and grab my face roughly. "Beg, you filthy animal!"

No words came out of my mouth, and with pleasure, I saw Paola's eyes turn red with rage. She let go of me and went to the back of the cell, returning with a bamboo cane in her hands.

"Let's see if I won't make you beg," she said with a terrifying smile on her lips. I couldn't do anything, so I just let my mind wander to another place, a place where I wasn't beaten by my family, a place where I was loved. I felt the first blow on my legs. I clenched my teeth to endure the pain. More followed after the first, and with each new strike, I felt my legs grow numb, but in my mind, I was in a happy place where Paola's insults couldn't reach me. I don't remember how long it lasted, but I knew the exact moment I passed out, gratefully welcoming the darkness that had been my friend for so many years.

As soon as I woke up, I felt my mouth dry. I didn't know how long I had been down there, but I was sure I hadn't eaten anything during all those days. I could no longer stand; I just let my body hang from the chains. It felt as if my life was being drained from me. I could feel my end approaching, and to me, that was good. The thought almost made me smile. I would embrace my end with joy; I would give death a big hug if I saw her. She would be my salvation.

"Finally awake," I heard James's voice behind me. I was so weak that I hadn't heard him arrive, but that didn't matter anymore. Soon, I would be in another place, and he wouldn't reach me anymore. And with that thought, I did something I doubted myself capable of.

"James," I said, calling his attention. When he stopped in front of me, I smiled at him. "Go fuck yourself!"

His expression darkened, and the next thing I felt was his fist slamming into my face. It hurt like hell, but I didn't let it shake me. Looking into his face, I began to laugh, and it felt so good that I couldn't stop. I saw his eyes widen at my behavior, but I didn't care. If I was going to die, I would die laughing in his face.