His Hidden Luna

Five

Rose's Point of View

Despite my quick trip down misery lane, I decided that today was going to be a good day. The weather looked absolutely glorious outside and I decided that the way I dressed and my mood should follow suit. I chose a casual blue summer dress with small daisys printed onto the fabric. It was fitted at the top and flared at the bottom, and the color seemed to liven up the dullness of my brown hair and eyes. I pulled my hair into a dutch braid and slipped my feet into some flat sandals. That was me ready to go.

I headed down to the kitchen to grab myself a quick juice and a bite to eat before heading off to school. I was grateful that the only people in there were the kitchen staff.

"Morning Alice," I called cheerily to the Omega in charge.

"Morning Rose, up early again? You look lovely, by the way." I loved Alice, she always had something kind to say.

"Aww thank you, it looks so lovely outside it's put me in a great mood." I reached for the cranberry juice, which still remained my favorite until that day.

"I don't know how you can drink that stuff, Rose. Honestly, I tried some once and it was bloody awful." Alice made a disgusted face and I laughed out loud.

I spent the next half an hour or so in the kitchen with her and the other girls. The wolves that worked in the kitchen were always pleasant to me. I didn't need to worry about them giving me a hard time. I munched my way through some peanut butter on toast and washed it down with more juice. I looked at the clock. s**t! It was 7.45! I was always out of the Pack House by 7.30 to avoid the other Wolves.

Alice saw the panic on my face. "You can use the staff door in the back kitchen."

"Life saver!" I thanked her, getting out of my seat. But the kitchen door swung open and even though my back was turned I immediately knew who it was. The scent of over-ripe bananas filled my nostrils. Damn it, it was Lisa! I turned to face her with my head down. She was a ranked wolf and insisted that I do that whenever I was in her presence.

"Aww, it's the little Trash Can kid and she's all dressed up." I kept my head down and said nothing. Whilst Stacey was always awful to me, Lisa tended to get physical.

"Are you dressed up for the Alpha? Did you think you were going to be mated to him?" She sneered and then laughed. It was nasally and more like a cackle, and it made me physically cringe.

"Make me a coffee!" She ordered. Alice started to move towards the machine. "Not you - Her!" She yelled, pointing at me.

"Yes Gamma," I said with my head down. I grabbed a mug with a shaking hand and filled it half with coffee and half with milk. I spooned in two sugars, which was exactly how she liked it. This wasn't the first time I'd had to do this and I doubted very much it would be the last. I walked back to her, eyes still cast downwards, and handed her the coffee.

"Curtsey!" She demanded. I put my right foot in front of my left and bent my knees. It was humiliating, but again, nothing she hadn't made me do before.

She flung the entire contents of her coffee across the front of my dress. It wasn't hot enough to scald my skin, but the temperature wasn't very pleasant either.

"Oops, I'm so sorry, she said," Her voice completely saccherine. "I tripped."

I still had my eyes down and all I could do was watch helplessly as the brown sticky liquid soaked into the skirt and bodice of my dress.

"Oh dear, I do hope it's not ruined?" She continued. "Such a shame that there is no time for you to change before school either. I guess you'll just have to go as you are." She sniggered and turned to the kitchen staff. "If I were you, I'd forget that you even saw the Orphan this morning. Just the Gamma's daughter having her morning coffee."

Satisfied that she had humiliated me, and was going to get away with it, she flicked her hair over her shoulder and waltzed out of the kitchen like she owned the place.

As soon as she was out of sight, I broke down into tears. Alice rushed to my side, "Don't worry Rose, we'll get this out in no time at all."

"No it's ok," I sniffed, feeling completely deflated. "I need to get out of here before anyone else comes down."

Alice looked at me with sad eyes. She had witnessed things like this happen so many times she'd probably lost count of them all.

"Alright then, let's get you out of here." I followed Alice out into the back kitchen where the food for the entire Pack was prepared. The smell of bacon and eggs filled the air and made my mouth water. I never had a full breakfast because I never ate with the rest of the pack, but I never went hungry. Alice always made sure of that.

When we reached the back door, she turned to me.

"Here" She said, handing me a brown paper bag. "Sandwich and a soda for lunch."

I took the package gratefully, trying my best not to start crying again.

"You know, we have a lot of guests arriving this afternoon, Rose. Ranked wolves from the neighboring packs are heading here a day early so that they get to meet the future Alpha before his birthday party. I think you're probably going to have a restful afternoon and evening." She smiled at me, knowing that the information would make me happy. No one would dare act out against me when we had others staying at our Pack House. They were too afraid of what the other wolves might think.

"Thank you Alice," I said and surprised her by throwing my arms around her neck. "Please do as Lisa asked and don't mention earlier, she could make your life a real misery.

"Pfft she could try!" Alice replied, clicking her tongue. I looked at her pleading with my eyes. Eventually she sighed. " OK, I'll do it because you asked me to.

I exhaled in relief and headed outside. With any luck, the rest of today would pass without further incident.