Saving my abused mate

7. Cruel and unusual punishment

Cara - 5 years ago

I was woken up by a blast of ice cold water. I got out of bed as fast as I could, just to find the woman in charge of the omegas glaring at me.

"You were supposed to be awake when we arrived!" she shouted at me. Since they had taken me to the basement, I had to work for them. At first it wasn't much, but as time went by I was in charge of more and more stuff. The job that before me took three to four people to do, became my sole responsibility. I needed to be awake before sunlight and give the omegas in charge of the upstairs rooms the ironed clothes of the people living in the Pack House so they could deliver them to the people upstairs. I was tired because I had to stay awake way after midnight preparing all the outfits, ironing and folding them. Everything had been ready already, my only crime was not to be there to give the clothes to the omegas.

I went to my knees in front of her to show I was sorry, I pointed to the clock that was dark, the batteries must have died and there was no alarm to wake me up. My eyes felt full of sand, I was so tired, and right on cue my stomach growled betraying my hunger. I didn't dare look up to her, but she was a true wolf, and I knew she had heard my stomach.

"Well, you know what that means, not being on time for your chores means you will have to miss breakfast." Food was only delivered if I fulfilled all of the duties they piled on me, but most of the time it was impossible, so it was often that I had to go to bed hungry. It was hard to communicate, and no matter how many times I tried to show them it was too much work for me, they either didn't get it or chose to ignore me. "Well, don't stay there doing nothing, soon the maids will start bringing the clothes from yesterday, you need to start sorting them and start washing them, we don't have all day, move!"

I got up and went to the base of the stairs where the maids were dropping the bags with clothes and started dragging them to the other side where the washers were. I started sorting by colors and fabrics. It always surprised me the amount of clothes they went by in a day, I even suspected that some of it was from people not living in the Pack House, but there was no way for me to ask about it. I was never upstairs so there was no way for me to know exactly how many people lived there.

I got lost in work, feeling tired and hungry. I needed to hurry up or I wouldn't be able to finish in time to get something to eat. The noise of the washing machines was loud, but I was so used to it that it was making me sleepy, something I couldn't allow or I would be in trouble, so I kept moving, ignoring the hunger and the pain of my empty stomach.

I was loading the dryers when the maids started bringing the napkins and tablecloths. One of the maids gave me a sandwich, and I knew it was all I was going to get to eat, so once I was alone, I started going through the tablecloths and even the napkins looking for scraps of food. I couldn't help the tears. It was so unfair, I had done nothing wrong, but the Alpha hated me even before my parents' death, and he just refused to let me explain.

The omegas just ignored me and my attempts to communicate, if I gave them notes they left them behind, ignoring my messages. They were even punished for reading them, so I stopped even trying. Not that I had given up, I needed to do something to change my circumstances or I would end up the rest of my life living in the basement, washing and folding clothes, working myself to death, tired and half-starved.

My parents have been the Alphas' betas, and I wasn't sure who had taken their place, but I was working on finding out. They were the only ones who could help me, the only ones with the authority to face and question the Alphas. I was in charge of everyone's clothes, and once I found out which ones were their clothes, I would send a message explaining what had really happened. I had a small cache of things that I got from what people left in their pockets, I had some change that I was saving for something important, some paper and pens.

No matter what happened, I wasn't going to give up. I kept working, but I wasn't going to finish on time, it looked like I would have to spend another late night ironing and folding. I was glad that they remembered to bring me something to eat, not that it wasn't much, but anything was better than nothing, and it usually was nothing what I got.

This was no way of living, and I needed to do something about it.  It was too late to recover my voice, but I needed at least my freedom.  I was sure that I could find a place to live, somewhere where no one would accuse me of things I haven't done.  First, I needed an ally, someone to learn my story and believe in me.  There was no way everyone could believe that I had killed my parents, surely someone would see how ridiculous that was.

I needed to contact someone with power, but that was a task for another day, a day when my stomach was aching and my legs and arms weren't trembling out of tiredness, for a day when I wasn't feeling so... defeated.  I wasn't going to give up, but I needed some rest.

The chance presented itself just a few weeks later.  I found some letters addressed to the female beta in one of the coats sent to the basement.  I knew this was my chance, maybe the only one I would have.  I had already prepared an account of what had happened that day and put it with the rest of the letters.  It was a plead, for my future, for my life.  I send everything back, and the next day it was hard to focus, I was just waiting for something to happen.  And when it did, it wasn't what I expected.  

It was the Alpha who came down the steps into the basement a few days later, holding the piece of paper with my story, not the beta female I fantasized coming to my rescue.  I knew immediately I had made a huge mistake.

"What do you think you were doing?  Spreading lies and trying to get someone's pity.  Do you think you can escape your penance?  My sister is gone because of you, and you want people to have mercy on you?  Luckily my betas are not that dumb, they know they got their job because you killed the ones there before them, and they won't fall for your stupid trap, they are not that naive!" he was mad, his eyes looked crazy, and I could tell he wanted to hurt me. 

I knew trying to explain was useless, even if I had my voice, he wouldn't listen to me.  All I could do was hope he would not make things worse for me, I was barely surviving as it was.  I went to my knees in front of him and trying to show I was sorry.  I heard him moving closer and then I felt him kick me on the side of the head, I got dizzy and the world went black for a second.  Before I could move another kick, this time on my stomach, left my grasping for breath.  He moved even closer, grabbing me by the neck and punching me everywhere.  He wasn't holding back, and I could tell he was finally doing what he had wanted to to from the start.

I'm sure I passed out at some point, and when I came back, I couldn't move, couldn't even open my eyes all the way, they were so swollen.  There was not a part of my body that wasn't hurting, and from the sticky feel over some of my skin and the coppery smell, I was sure I was bleeding from multiple points.  I managed to drag myself to my corner of the room and fell into bed.  I wasn't sure what was going to happen, because there was no way I would be able to work, that meant that I wouldn't get to eat for a few days.  Was I gonna die?  Were all my efforts to survive and look for help end up with me bleeding to death, alone, in a basement?  I wished once more for my parents, for things to be different.