His Redemption (Complete His Series)

Chapter Three

Azalea

I stood in the hallway bracing myself against the wall for a moment. A rogue tear escaping my eyes. I would not let myself cry in front of them.

That really hurt. Pain radiated from my butt. I may have broken my tailbone this time. I lifted my shirt trying to look at my lower back. I will definitely have a bruise this time. I took a deep breath. I couldn't stay here long. People would be coming to breakfast soon.

I made my way slowly up to the 5th floor. I grabbed the cleaning supplies from a closet and started working my way through the bathrooms going back down to the 1st floor. Pain radiated from my backside as I worked. It was making cleaning much harder.

One chore at a time…

One room at a time…

3 months and 7 days…

I kept repeating these things to myself. I can endure it. It's been worse before. Beta Damien broke my hand that one time. It was my left hand which is my dominant hand and chores took twice as long for about 4 weeks. Then there was the day that Gwen poured scalding hot tea on me. Those burns took a good while to heal.

I was on the 3rd floor when he found me again. Why wasn't he with everyone else at the lake house? Don’t they usually all go to the Lake House on the weekends when there aren't pack events going on? He walked into the bathroom with a towel around his neck and a pair of shorts in his hand, looking sweaty and dirty from training, I am sure.

I stopped when he looked at me. Immediately setting my mop aside and moving to leave the bathroom. Please just let me walk away…. I did not want any more trouble...

No such luck. I stopped in my tracks as I was soaked from behind. I turn around to look and I see Alpha Liam standing there holding the mop bucket that is now empty. I look at the floor around me… great now I'm covered in filthy mop water. "Well don't just stand there," he snips.

I turn quickly and grab some rags from my little cleaning cart. I kneel and start trying to wipe up the water. I wasn’t getting very far seeing as I was dripping over top of all the areas I was drying.

"Liammmmmm. Where are you-" Gwen's voice stops abruptly as she enters the bathroom. "Oh, I found you!" She says way too sweetly. Gwen is the Beta's daughter, Damien's little sister. And she has been dead set that Liam will be her mate since about 3 years old. She is a really pretty blonde with long legs and blue eyes. But her pretty is only skin deep. She notices me.

"You can't even clean a floor correctly? No wonder your wolf never came. She knew you were just a useless traitor," she sneered at me. She walked over me, through the water, not missing a chance to step on my fingers, and went to Liam's side.

"Come use my shower. This bathroom stinks like dirty mop water," she says clinging to his arm.

"Yea," he says as they begin to walk out of the bathroom. Gwen doesn't hesitate to knock me over as she walks out. Today just keeps getting better.

I made it through the rest of the day with minimal torment. A few usual shoves and trips resulting in a new bruise on my shin but nothing else. I relaxed slightly and I climbed up to the attic. It's not much but it is mine and no one bothers to come up here which suits me.

In the corner by a window is an old mattress with a couple blankets I have managed to acquire. I also have 2 pillows. One day in the laundry room, another house worker brought in a giant cart of pillows that were going to be recycled. I grabbed the top two thinking it a perfect opportunity to sneak a couple new pillows into my room. I came to discover they had a wonderful scent left on them.

I don't exactly have wolf senses as my wolf has basically left me and we never shifted anyway. But I do have a stronger sense of smell then average; the pillows smelled of the forest and I couldn't get enough.

I also had a standing mirror with a large crack running through it. It was good enough though.  It wasn't like I was pretty enough to worry about my appearance. I mostly used it to check for bruises and cuts I could not see myself.

Opposite the mirror, I had an old desk that was up here when I moved in. It had about 6 drawers. I used a couple to keep my clothes in, one for spare pencils and paper I was able to find for homework purposes, and one drawer held my stash. My stash was a box with change. I have been collecting this change since I was 8 years old. It is going to be my escape money when I graduate. It will help at least get started when I leave.

I pulled my shirt now with dried mop water all over it over my head and checked the mirror. I sighed at my reflection. My ginger hair was dull and flat. It usually just hung limply down my shoulders. My skin was pale, and I had dark circles under my dull green eyes. Sometimes, my eyes almost looked like they were sinking into my face. I have always been on the skinny side, but I was also very short which wasn’t normal for a wolf. Combine this with the random bruises, cuts, and old scars and I just wasn’t pretty.

I could see the beginnings of a pretty dark bruise right where my tailbone was. Now sitting was going to be miserable all week at school. If my wolf would just come back, maybe I could heal a little faster. Sometimes I felt the Moon Goddess just changed her mind and took my wolf away. She was only in my head for a short period of time. I waited for when the shift would come but it never did. After about 2 months, I gave up on trying to get my wolf to talk to me. Maybe she felt I was a traitor too. It wouldn’t be an unpopular opinion.

I remembered my half-eaten croissant from this morning and started feeling my pockets desperately. Food would be great. I never made it back to the kitchen after lunch to see if there was any unwanted food and there was nothing left after dinner. I am always hungry on the weekends because there's more people around and it's harder to get leftovers. It’s even worse when the pack house has guests from other packs. At least at school, I can always eat lunch from the cafeteria.  

After thoroughly searching my pockets, I realized it must have fallen out during one of my falls today. I sighed crawling over to my bed and burying my face in my forest scented pillow. Hopefully, I could just make a little extra at breakfast and get a few bites to eat. Tomorrow's a new day.

3 months and 6 more days…