Chosen By The Lycan Prince

What if I put an end to it? An end to the grief, the suffering, the pain, the shame, the humiliation?

I tried, I hoped to see the light at the end of the tunnel, but this tunnel has no end. My tear glands are empty, my soul is shattered and my heart can no longer bear the agony.

I cringed and shut my eyes tight in readiness of the alpha's fist coming down to smack my face. My daily dose of punishment for the simple crime of existing. Many seconds passed and my eyes started to flutter open slowly when I didn't feel his fist on my face, but I should have just kept them shut. I should have known he only hesitated because he wanted to take me unprepared. I saw the smirk on his lips before his hands landed on my face in a flash, smacking my head to the left and almost completely blinding my vision.

I screamed, but my screams didn't deter him, instead, they were like fuel to a fire, angering him the more. His other hand smacked me on my left side, the effect making me dizzy.

"Lie on the floor," he commanded. I knew better than argue with him or plead for mercy. Nothing I said ever worked. Pleading will only make my situation worse, so I did exactly as he commanded, laying on my stomach on the dirty floor, with my hands spread vertically on the floor as was the usual routine.

I bore the pain of his whip as it came down on my back twenty times, screaming uncontrollably as it tore into my skin, each stroke more painful than the last. But the alpha wasn't satisfied. He continued whipping my back, putting more strength into every stroke. On some days, he'd stop at twenty and let me go, but I guess today isn't one of my lucky days. He's angry, and I happen to be his major means of relieving anger.

"How many strokes now, Slave?" He paused to ask, tapping my head with the sole of his shoes.

"Ah-" Not only had I lost my voice, but I'd also lost count somewhere around twenty-eight.

"Are you deaf?" He roared, kicking my head with his shoes again.

"Forty-three," I lied. "Forty-three," My eyes stung with unshed tears, tears that wouldn't fall free.

I cursed my parents silently. I was in this mess because of them. Why did I have to be the one to suffer for their sins? Why didn't I just die along with them? Why did I have to be the one to bear all the humiliation? Hell, why did I have to be born to traitors?

"I counted thirty-five!" He hissed "You dare to lie to me? You dirty slave,"

I felt his whip on my back again, and this time, the tears poured to my cheeks. "You fucking traitorous liar. You good for nothing peasant! You dare to lie to me!" His whip came down faster on my back and unable to maintain my lying position any longer, I rolled to my side, wrapping my arms around me and screaming some more. But the alpha did not stop. He continued whipping me all over my body and cursing me as he did.

Maybe he'll be happy if I died. Maybe everyone will be happy when I'm finally out of the way, but they wouldn't even let me die. They derived pleasure from seeing me suffer, they'd rather I lived long enough to suffer the consequences of my parent's actions.

"That should teach you never to lie to your alpha!" He finished, stretching to his full height once he was done. "Sometimes I wonder why I ever agreed to make you a member of my pack. I should have left you for death at your former pack, but no, I saved you, I brought you here and you think I'll let you run down this pack as your parents did with Silent Moon pack? I'm not anything like your former alpha, you little moron," he hissed, spitting in my face before turning on his heels and leaving me there.

I watched him leave with blurry vision until he was no longer in sight before bursting into loud tears. I could feel blood from my back slowly soaking my shirt, itching me. I cried for many minutes, screamed, cursed, and cried some more, but the tears didn't do anything to soothe my aching body or cure my wounds.

Thunder struck, lightening flashed in the sky and the sky darkened as the heavens threatened to open up. I tried to get up, but I only made it to kneeling position before I dropped back to the ground. It will take my wolf many minutes to heal me before I can stand back fully on my feet, and I don't think I have that much time before the rains start coming down. I'll not be able to get myself to shelter.

I slumped on the floor and curled into a ball as much as my injured skin will let me as it started to drizzle.

My life is anything but a bed of roses. I closed my eyes, my mind drifting to my old pack. Life wasn't any better in Silent Moon pack than it is here. Alpha Thane, my present alpha will take every opportunity to remind me how he'd saved me from my former pack, but I'd have even preferred to be there, maybe the alpha would have killed me by now like he killed my parents. But he had to sell me off to the Silver Moon pack to slave away.

I have been a member of the Silver Moon pack for the last ten years, but it still doesn't feel like home to me. The torture has become a part of my daily routine in the last ten years, but I'd been stupid to think it will be better in Silver Moon than it was at Silent Moon pack.

Silver Moon and Silent Moon packs are sister packs. The alpha's of both packs, Alpha Thane and Alpha Ronan are brothers, and my father had been the stupid beta of Alpha Ronan that thought he deserved the alpha's seat, and he'd almost dethroned the alpha. I was only eight years old then.

My life had been close to perfect in my first eight years. I lived like a normal kid. I went to school, I had friends, but after what my father did, my friends became enemies. I was never really close to my father because he'd wanted a male child in my place, but my mother was always there for me.

She did bear him a son after me; Leander, my younger brother who didn't even live to see his third birthday. More tears poured from my eyes as I relieved the memory. Of all the things life has taken away from me, Leander had to be the most painful. I don't care if my father got killed, I was never close to him, and besides, he had it coming for trying to usurp the alpha. I'd been close to my mom, but she was my father's greatest cheerleader. He'd have listened to her if she told him not to go on with the war, but she'd been power thirsty too.

I shivered as the rain continued to pour heavily from the heavens, washing away the blood from my shirt. My wolf was starting to heal me, but I still needed a few more minutes to be able to get to my feet and make it to the pack house.

A stray bullet had hit Leander while we hid at the back of the pack house from the whole chaos. My little brother had died right in my arms, and I'd watched him bleed to death with the silver bullet lodged in his heart. I cried, screamed, and called for help, but no one came to our aid.

A warrior found us not long after, but my father had sealed my fate the minute he decided to do the unthinkable. I was labelled a traitor, caged and made to suffer. He lost the battle of course, and I was the only surviving member of the family. I was left to face the consequences of his actions.

Alpha Ronan treated me worse than an animal, and when he got tired of me, he sold me to his brother, the alpha of Silver Moon pack, Alpha Thane.

In all of this, I held on to the hope of finding my mate. Maybe then I'll have a reason to live. I'd thought that if I found my mate, I'll have a feel of what it means to be loved. I planned to run away with him and start a new life, but how could I even think that something good will ever happen for me, a servant girl with a traitor's blood flowing through her veins. Even my mate was a torn in my flesh.

I pulled myself up to standing position just in time to see a red SUV park in front on me. I dabbed my eyes with the back of my palms as I realized help had come.

"I have been looking everywhere for you Ray!," Ailana, the only friend I have in the whole world came rushing towards me, wrapping a blanket around me "Alpha Thane did this, didn't he?"

I didn't give her a response as I settled in the back seats of her vehicle. I closed my eyes and continued to sob.

I'd thought over the years that it was possible to overcome pain, but I was wrong. There was no overcoming or getting used to the agony or the soreness in my heart. My physical wounds will heal eventually, but nothing could make up for the void in my heart.

I didn't flinch as Ailana cleaned my wounds. Same wounds that had been inflicted on me by her father, The alpha of Silver Moon pack.

Ailana is the only one who calls me by my name in this pack, it feels like she is the only one that remembers it. If others did, they pretended not to. They'd rather just call me Slave. I was a slave to everyone in this pack, even to the Omegas and latent wolves.

"Your wolf is healing you, but you still need to rest. I'll tell Zella to let you off for the rest of the day," Aila says with obvious distaste.

I shook my head vehemently "No. I can work, I'm strong enough," I protested. Zella is in charge of the kitchen duties here at silver moon pack, and I believe she has a special type of hatred for me. I never did anything right to her. If I washed all the pack dishes by myself, she'd complain I didn't wash a spoon right. If I scrubbed the floors with extra effort, she'd make sure to trample on them just before they dried up. If every help and omega ate twice a day, she made sure I ate only from their remains.

I couldn't tell my dear friend that the last time she'd tried to get Zella to let me off for the day, Zella made sure I had my rest in the confines of her cupboard with little to no ventilation and without any light. I could never tell Ailana that I had to pay for it the next day by doubling my chores and singlehandedly washing all the toilets in the pack house.

Whether I was sick or not, whether I was bruised or not, whether the alpha or any of the higher ranked wolves chose to punish me or not, I still had to report to my duties, or more punishment awaits me.

Ailana sucked in her breath, murmuring something incoherent. I wonder why she even choses to be friends with me. She is beautiful and strong. An alpha for that matter. She has a tiny waist, well rounded boobs and the right hips and backside to go with it. She carries the natural confidence and grace that a female alpha should have. Her eyes are the most beautiful shade of blue I'd ever seen, and her hair was wavy and voluminous, it's the only thing we have in common. If I ever had to describe her in one word, it will be 'Perfect'

I'd expected her to change. Maybe one day, she'll wake up and see that I'm a worthless piece of shit and wouldn't waste her time being nice to me, but she stood up for me many times, even to her father. She'd smuggled in food for me almost every day in the last ten years, and she has tended to my wounds too many times. She's the only reason I'm still holding on. She's the reason why I haven't jumped down that cliff.

"Do you want to see it? I can take a picture so you see," she offered to show me what the scars on my back looked like since I don't have a mirror, but I shook my head and staggered to my feet, rising from the stool I was seated, the only thing that can pass for a chair in the tiny space I call my room.

Ailana was seated cross-legged on my flat foam that laid lifeless on the ground. The foam is dipped in the middle and sleeping on that part of the bed is almost the same as sleeping on the bare floor so I had to sleep on either of the sides to get a little comfort, but I have gotten used to all the back pains that come with my sleeping position. I'd slept on this bed for ten years straight, and it wasn't entirely new when I'd smuggled it into this tiny cubicle.

"What good will seeing it do?" I murmured, grabbing a shirt from my small back pack on the floor. I had that bag pack as a gift from my mom on my eighth birthday, the last gift I ever got in my life. The souvenir followed me from Silent moon to Silver moon, and everything I have still fits into it.

I'd tried to escape once, but I didn't go too far. Matter of fact, I didn't make it across the pack gates. A warrior on duty that night caught me while I tried to sneak past the gate unnoticed. I remember begging him not to raise an alarm.

'I'll allow you to walk through these gates without telling anyone if you give me some money,' he'd told me.

I had some money I'd been saving up for that purpose. It wasn't much, but I willingly handed it over to him. It was better to leave stranded than stay back and endure any more of the pain. But I was a fool to have trusted him, I was a fool to think he'd just let me pass. He collected all the cash on me, smiled at me, pretended to let me pass, and then started to howl, alerting every other wolf on patrol for the night.

I was apprehended, beaten, stripped naked and paraded round the pack. I spent the next week after that in the pack dungeons, locked up in one of the tiniest cells without food or water for the first two days. How I survived that one week is something I'd never be able to understand. It was in that one week I started to hear voices in my head. One that didn't belong to my wolf. It's something I'll never be able to tell anyone, I'm not ready to add 'Mad' to the list of insults that will be hurled at me.

I couldn't wear a bra because of my wounds, so Ailana just helped me get into the shirt. It's not like I have big boobs, people will hardly notice I didn't have a bra on.

When I turned back to look at Aila, she was wiping tears from her eyes. Now Aila is one of the strongest female warriors in the pack. In all the time I have known her, she's never broken down for any reason that didn't involve me. She has cried with me on many occasions, because of my situation, but I'm the only one who has ever seen her cry.

As an alpha's daughter and an alpha herself, everyone expected certain level of strength from her. She has issues of her own I guess, but what I'd give to be in her shoes. I'll like to see how hard it is to have everyone rally around me, wanting to do my bidding and be friends with me. But Ailana didn't have many friends simply because she chooses to be friends with me. It's not like every female in the pack didn't want to be friends with her, but she chose my side. She couldn't be friends with me and be friends with them.

"Please, don't cry. I'm feeling better than I did two hours ago," I assured her. It was still raining outside, but the rain wasn't as heavy.

"It's hard to watch you like this and not be able to do anything about it. I'm an Alpha's daughter for crying out loud, and it sucks that I hold this little power. I swear I'm going to train harder so I can beat my brother to the alpha seat. It's the only way I can make things better. If I'm not an alpha, then I don't get to make decisions about anything that happens in this pack," she lamented.

I smiled weakly. Her brother, Zayden, was next in line for the alpha seat. He's at least three years older than Ailana, but Alpha Thane made an announcement one day that he'd allow both his children to fight for the alpha position instead of handing it down to his first son. That announcement is perhaps the only sensible one Alpha Thane ever made.

When it comes to size, Zayden is twice his sister's size. Heavily built, and a well trained fighter. He's had many months of training at the alpha academy to make him qualified for the alpha seat, an advantage he had over Ailana. But he was a promiscuous bastard.

He was also my greatest nightmare. Even before Alpha Thane. He's the man that should have ended my suffering, but it pleased him to see me in pain. He's the man I'd hoped would save me from all of this, he's the one I'd prayed to the moon goddess for on many nights, but he brought me more pain than I ever had to endure. All the pain from the alpha's whip was nothing compared to the pain I had to endure because of him. Zayden Vaughn. My mate.

Exactly one year and twenty three days now, I'd found out Zayden was my mate. I'd just turned eighteen a week before and had my first shift. Most werewolves had their first shift at sixteen, and some as early as fifteen, but the late bloomers experienced their first shift at eighteen, and mine happened a week after my eighteenth birthday.

My first shift wasn't as painful as I'd expected. Ailana thinks it's because my body has gotten used to pain, but I doubt it. I may have developed a certain tolerance, but from what I have read and seen, nothing can be compared to the pain of a first shift.

When I didn't find my mate immediately, I started to panic. I prayed and hoped that the Moon goddess will bring him my way soon so it'd be the end of my mystery. Even if he wasn't a strong wolf, at least, that will be one more person to love me after Ailana. I had dreams of us running away together, but then the Moon goddess had something else up her sleeves.

When I finally perceived his scent a week after my first shift, I'd been overly excited, but my excitement was short-lived. The moon goddess paired me with the strongest werewolf in Silver Moon pack, second only to his father, the present alpha. Way more than I bargained for. But I took one look at my mate's face to know that he didn't want me.

'Are you going to reject me?' I'd asked him with shaky voice. Since Zayden is three years older than me, I assume he has known we were mates for the last three years, but he did nothing to show it.

As the most sought after bachelor in the pack and also an alpha wolf, Zayden was very popular, especially amongst the female gender. He was the pack player that changed bed partners as frequently as he changed his clothes. I'd served his table many times, and attended to his needs, and my back had suffered from his own whip on many occasions even before then, but I'd never one day considered the possibility of him being my mate. If I noticed all his scornful glares and resentment towards me, I didn't think it was abnormal considering my history with his family and pack. On the contrary, I'd have thought it abnormal if he'd been friendly with me.

'No' he'd replied with anger 'I can't deny not hating you or being ashamed of you, but I can't reject you either,'

I'd had hope after those words. He wasn't going to reject me. I don't know if my wolf will be able to take a rejection after all I've been through. I didn't want that. He said he hated me but maybe he'll get to know me and like me eventually.

I may not be in his league of girls but it had to account for something that I was his mate right? No matter how much he hated me, he'll still feel the mate bond, and maybe he'll get to like me. But he looked at me and saw a disgrace. He looked at me and cursed the goddess for making us mates.

'You mustn't tell anyone that we are mates,' he'd reached for my neck and squeezed it then. I nodded, tears falling from my eyes 'If you do, I'll kill you. No one has to know, not even Ailana,' he'd warned.

The one person that was supposed to end my suffering made it worse. 'You can't be my luna. I mean, just take a look at you!' He released me so hard that I fell to the ground and coughed, trying to regain my breath.

He rained curses on me that night, spat in my face, and kicked me countless times with his hard boots till blood started to drip from my nose and mouth.

Everyday after that day, I'd felt chronic pain from the effect of him being with another woman. Some days were worse than others. He'd taunt me through the mind link while he fucked another, and some times, he made me watch.

He'd tie me to a chair in his room, gag my mouth and make me watch while he had threesomes and foursomes with other women that were not members of my pack. Since he didn't want people finding out we were mates, he didn't have sex with any member of Silver moon pack whenever he wanted to give me a show. It's like my pains were a major turn on for him. He told me once that watching me suffer made his cock hard, and he made sure I suffered the pain in the last one year and twenty-three days.

I cried many nights hurdled up on the cold floor of my room, it was hard hiding the pain, and Ailana quickly noticed, but I couldn't tell her for fear of what her brother would do to me if he found out that she knew, because I know she'd not be able to hold back. She'd go straight to confront him, so I lied to her every time that it was just a stomach ache.

I hated that I had to lie to her. She'd been worried about me developing an ulcer, so she'd bring food and drugs for me, drugs that she made sure I swallowed in her presence. I took them because I didn't want her to suspect, but even her act of kindness was causing me more damage. I was taking self-prescription for an ailment I didn't have. She never suggested I went to the pack doctor because he wouldn't treat me. I wasn't allowed health benefits no matter how sick I was anyway.

After the alpha made that announcement about Ailana and Zayden competing for the alpha seat, things have been very strained between brother and sister. Zayden thought it was an insult that his father will suggest that, and he made a habit of badmouthing his younger sister and accusing her of trying to steal his birthright.

Personally, I feel like Ailana deserves the alpha seat more than Zayden. Not because she is my friend, or because of the things I know I'd benefit from her if she becomes alpha, but because she was more of a leader than her elder brother. I think Alpha Thane made that announcement to make Zayden seat up. Zayden has a record of pursuing everything in skirts, squandering pack funds, and picking up unnecessary trouble with other pack alphas.

Ailana on the other hand was very good with accounting. Many times when Zayden siphoned pack funds, she'd been the one to fish him out. Her wolf isn't nearly as big as Zayden's but it was an alpha wolf all the same. Zayden had knocked her out occasionally on the training grounds which proved his wolf was stronger than hers. Zayden had attended the alpha academy for a whole year, so that gave him an upper hand, but if she trained harder, and if she got the opportunities that Zayden had and attended the alpha academy herself, then there's every possibility of her beating him and claiming the alpha seat.

I pulled myself from my sad thoughts as I neared the kitchen. I was late to my duties as usual, but to my relief, the kitchen was empty when I entered. Only a single omega girl was present in the kitchen, kneeling down with her hands behind her back, serving a punishment.

Stacks of dishes lay heaped on the sink and several others scattered here and there on the cabinet. Spoons, forks, cups, knives, plates, pots, trays, kitchen rags, and napkins. The whole place was messy. I wondered why Zella hadn't summoned me despite the abject state of untidiness of the kitchen.

I moved to the sink with speed, not saying any word to the omega girl. It isn't unlikely to find a help serving a punishment, especially in the kitchen. I'd never understand why Zella thought the kitchen was a better place to be punished.

If I did it with speed, it will take me two hours and thirty minutes to wash all the dishes. That was enough time before it was time to start preparing dinner for the pack. But nothing ever went the way I planned.

I'd just washed a single plate when I started to feel it. My mate was having sex with another. I cursed, bent over, and clutched my stomach as the pain started slowly and intensified with each passing second. The pain on my back hadn't even healed, and now I had to deal with something much worse.

Hot tears blurred my vision and I screamed, clutching my stomach as the pain was gradually becoming almost unbearable. I swayed, and it was in the process of trying to hold myself from falling that my hands knocked over a plate from the sink. I tried to save it before it hit the ground, but I should have just let it fall. In the process of trying to save one single plate, I managed to knock down a heap of plates with my elbow. Some flew to other areas of the sink, but others went falling to the floor, one after the other, breaking into many smaller pieces.