The Supreme Alphas Unwanted Mate

5 - No one cares

Jenna

“Jenna, you get back here right now!”

I sigh while rolling my eyes.

Not a moment’s peace have I had since I got out of the hospital. Anna is making sure I make up for the time I lost working as her slave.

It doesn’t bother Anna that I was in the hospital for two days recovering from almost being drained of blood. It seems the woman has no compassion at all.

She doesn’t know the truth about what happened to me; the Dalgaard’s covered it up, but I expected nothing more. Anna was told that I’d fallen and banged my head, knocking myself out, which meant I needed time in the pack hospital to recover. Not that she gave one tiny shi.t, she didn’t visit me once, but I didn’t expect her to.

Since being released a few days ago, I’m not sleeping without nightmares, and I’m scared of my own shadow. I keep thinking that Lorcan is going to pop out of the shadows and kill me.

I don’t want to think that, but what else am I meant to believe when the man tried to kill me?

I feel sorry for Luther and the things he must go through each time Lorcan regresses into his mind. Not only that but everything Luther has to endure whenever Lorcan wants to hurt someone. It’s not Luther’s fault, but it helps me understand a little more why Luther won’t claim me.

It hurts, but what can I do?

I don’t believe that anyone knows that I know about Lorcan. No one mentioned him, and I didn’t bring him up either. It means that Luther is willing to take the blame for what happened, and it hurts that Luther thinks I’ll blame him.

Luther has no control over the things that happen with Lorcan, so how can I blame him?

My heat hasn’t hit yet, which is unusual. But I can’t say I’m not grateful because I am. I can’t afford to be bedridden and trying to tear my heart out because that would cause all sorts of problems.

People would find out and want to know who the hell my mate was. Philip would strangle me if he thought another man would touch me. Thinking about what Philip would do should I be in heat makes me shiver. The monster that he is would take full advantage of the situation, and he’d finally get what he’s always wanted from me, my virginity.

Would Luther feel Philip’s touch as I would?

It’s said that once you find your mate, claimed or not, they will feel each time you’re with someone else. While in heat, those touches are magnified tenfold and cause unsurmountable pain for your mate.

But if that were true, wouldn’t Luther have felt each time Philip has touched me since we realized we were mates?

Then I think that maybe Luther just doesn’t care. He doesn’t want me, and he isn’t bothered that my foster brother molests me each chance he gets.

That thought hurts my heart because I realize that I mean nothing to anyone on this earth. I never have, and I never will.

I’m still not fully recovered a week after Lorcan’s attack, but that hasn’t stopped Anna and her brats from abusing me every chance they get. I’m trying my best to stay out of their way and carry out my duties. But neither is easy when my body still aches with every movement I make.

It would be easy if I weren’t an Omega. If I were higher up in the food chain, I’d have the ability to heal much faster. As it is, I don’t.

Since being released from the hospital, Anna has hit me three times. She twisted my arm up to my back two days ago and almost broke it. Thankfully, she didn’t, but she warned me the next time I spilled milk on the floor, she’d make me lick it up like a dog.

Philip has also been a bastard to me. His wandering hands always make me sick, but what can I do when I can’t fight to stop him?

Jessica has left me alone, but that’s only because she hasn’t been around me lately. She’s been working at the salon in town, which takes up most of her time. That also means she’s too tired to beat on me when she gets home.

It’s a sad state of affairs I believe that to be the best thing that has happened to me in forever.

At the moment, Anna has me taking dirty clothes to the laundry room on the mansion’s lower level. Apparently, that’s not all she wants, and she has called me back.

“Yes?” I ask, aspirated with a basket full of clothes in my hands.

“Check your tone, girl,” I try not to sigh and roll my eyes. If I did that, she’d gouge them out. “There are two baskets, not one.”

“I can’t carry both at the same time,”

I try not to sound childish, but the one I have is heavy on its own. I don’t have my full strength yet, which is pitiful at the best of times.

Anna slams her hands on her round hips and glares at me. “I beg your pardon?”

I swallow hard.

Anna doesn’t like me answering back, though I have a few times in the past. If she wanted, she could take her belt and beat me right now. I hope she doesn’t; my body couldn’t take any more punishment.

For a woman in her fifties, she’s incredibly strong, and she could snap me in half with one hand if she wanted to.

“I’m sorry,” I whisper around a hard swallow. “I just meant that I was going to take this one,” I lift the basket slightly. “Then I’d come back for the other one.”

Anna’s eyes narrow as she grits her teeth. “You’ll take them both now, or I’ll make sure you can’t sit down for a month. Do you understand?”

I swallow again while nodding my head.

I’m not trying to disobey Anna; I’m merely expressing that I can’t manage both baskets. However, I can’t refuse what Anna wants, not if I want to make it through the day without a beating.

Anna forcefully drops the second washing basket on top of the first. The weight makes my arms sag slightly, and my knees strain not to buckle. I bite back a groan because Anna will batter me into next week if I should make a slight noise.

“Get this lot in the washing machines, then get back here so you can help with dinner.”

“Yes, Anna.” I walk away as quickly as I can.

The laundry room is down a flight of stairs along a deep corridor. My limbs are shaking, my mouth is dry, and I can feel beads of sweat at my temple and down my back.

My arms strain to hold the baskets, and my stomach clenches. I won’t make it to the laundry room; I just know that I’m not. If I drop these washing baskets, Anna will skin me alive. With her Wolf hearing, she’ll hear me drop the baskets. I know that Anna is listening right now to see if I fail.

Once I’m in the laundry room, she won’t care because she’ll know I’m doing nothing but washing clothes. I’ll be okay if I can only make it there.

‘Just keep moving, Jenna. Just a few more steps, and you’ll reach your destination.’

‘I’m trying,’ I tell Shadow, my Wolf.

It took her a while to wake up after Lorcan’s attack, but I didn’t feel so lonely the moment she did. I was so lost without her for those few days, and I was scared she’d never return. But she did, and my best friend promised never to leave me.

With Shadow motivating me, I manage to get to the laundry room and fill all six of the washing machines. Once that’s done, I make my way back to the kitchen. I then spend the next three hours flitting between preparing dinner and washing clothes.

By the time dinner service comes around, I expect Anna to let me go for the night. I’m not that lucky, though, because now Anna is forcing me to serve dinner to the family.

I look a complete mess in my Edwardian-style maid’s outfit. Why Anna forces me to wear this outfit, I’ll never know. No one else on the payroll dresses this way, but I guess Anna enjoys embarrassing me.

I’m hot and sweaty, and my hair is falling everywhere. Anna orders me to fix myself before heading towards the dining room. I do my best, but I still look a mess.

I haven’t seen Luther since Lorcan kidnapped me, and I’m not looking forward to seeing him now. I know he won’t speak to me, but I’m nervous about seeing him again, nonetheless.

When I enter the room, I first notice that Luther isn’t present when I look up through my lashes. I don’t know if I’m happy about that or not. Anna warned me not to make eye contact with anyone in the room, or she’d break my spine, so I didn’t look at anyone directly.

I push the cart holding a large intricate bowl filled with a yellow-looking soup. I don’t know what’s in the soup because Anna tells me nothing of the ingredients she uses. But I imagine it’s butternut squash; it smells like it anyway. I manage to serve the soup without mishap and promptly leave the room.

Once dinner is over, Anna has me cleaning the dining room and washing the dishes. By the time I’ve done that, I need to get back to the laundry room to finish washing clothes.

I thought I was done with laundry, but Anna handed me another basket that I know she deliberately kept behind. She smirked at the look on my face, and then she told me I couldn’t go to bed until I’d finished. I haven’t eaten yet and won’t be allowed to do so until I’m done with chores.

By the time I’m done, it’s bound to be past midnight, and I’ll be too tired to eat by then. Not that that’s anything new for me; I rarely eat because I don’t have the time. I don’t know how I manage to keep going without food, which causes me to have little energy.

Anna won’t have made anything for me; she never does. There will be a note on my mirror in my box-sized bedroom, telling me to make a sandwich, then clean up after myself. She knows I won’t do it because I’m always too scared to touch anything when she’s not around.

So, no food for me again today.

“Jenna?”

A small yelp slips past my lips, and I drop the washing basket I was holding. I bend down to pick it up when a hand joins mine.

“I’m so sorry,” I look up at Sara through my lashes. “I didn’t mean to startle you.”

I get to my feet with the basket in my hand.

Sara places a towel on top of the pile.

“That’s okay. Is there something I can help you with, Luna?”

Sara rolls her eyes with a smile on her face. “Don’t call me ‘Luna.’ Have I not told you to call me Sara? I thought we got past all of this.”

I swallow hard and nod my head.

She did tell me to call her Sara the first time we met. She arrived here a little over two months ago, having discovered Leander was her mate. We met in the kitchen but never spoke. Anna wouldn’t allow that, but Sara and I did share a smile. I don’t know what it was about Sara, but I couldn’t help getting a sense of warmth from her.

Of course, Anna caught me looking at Sara and promptly smacked me across the back of the head right in front of Sara, whose eyes widened in shock.

Though she said nothing, I could sense Sara’s discomfort. Anna simply said, ‘This one can get a little out of hand. Please excuse her insolence, Luna Sara.’

To which Sara replied, ‘A simple smile is hardly insolence.’

My hold body froze because I knew Anna would beat the crap out of me.

What Sara said told Anna that I had done wrong and needed punishment.

Being the intelligent woman she is, Sara sensed my discomfort and told Anna, ‘Though I understand where you’re coming from. Please, pay me no mind.’

Thankfully, Anna nodded with a smile on her face and went about her business. Sara left the kitchen, and I was terrified that Anna would punish me as soon as possible, which she did, but not until later that night.

The next time Sara and I met was in the flower garden. I was picking roses for Lillian; I wanted her to know I was thinking of her during her grief.

Sara instantly started talking to me. I was shocked at first, but I was thrilled at how friendly Sara was. Jessica soon came along and ruined things. She told Anna, and Anna made me sorry.

I tried to stay away from Sara, but she wouldn’t hear of it and even saved me from Sterling, her mate’s Vampire persona. Sara told me we were friends, and no one could take that from us.

I daren’t tell Anna that Sara and I have been speaking ever since, nor that Sara visited me in the hospital every day. I dread to think what would happen to me then. I have no right to talk to anyone outside of the kitchen, and Anna made that clear when I was younger.

I have no choice but to speak with Sara whenever she finds me; I feel as though I’ve made a best friend in Sara; Shadow certainly thinks so. As wrong as it is of me to consider Sara a friend, I can’t help it when she treats me as though I were someone important, in her eyes at least.