The Disgraced Daughter & Her Sigma Mate

Chapter 9: Apollo,The Sigma

“Scrub the toilets! We have to make sure all beds are turned and rooms are cleaned before the evening! Prep the kitchen for dinner tonight! We need more wood for kindling! Pack member so-and-so needs an errand to be run!”

Had Royce not spent over six months of her life in a prison for delinquents, this would have been too much for her to deal with. She’d have most certainly not made it through the day, and she would have assuredly been punished.

Yes, punished.

There was another difference between the serfs of the packhouse and the collared drudges, outside of the name of their titles and the fact that one wore a pet collar while their counterparts did not.

This was a punishment, what Royce was doing. This was her sentencing for the indirect death of two innocent people.

Unlike the packhouse serfs, there was a certain time in which they were permitted to leave for the day. Drudges waited hand and foot till every last pack member was serviced the way that they desired. Sometimes rest didn’t arrive until the sun ascended the next morning.

There were other things that Drudges were forced to do that serfs did not have to suffer through; things that…were less than savory. This work was a form of slavery after all and if you didn’t do what you were supposed to do then the whippings would follow.

Royce had been barely two days into her sentence when she saw a he-wolf-weak and lanky, being dragged away through a door that would lead to the packhouse dungeons below.

She hadn’t intended to see that guy later. In fact, after Royce saw the guy get carted off she didn’t think anymore about it. That is, until she saw him again.

His face was swollen, lip busted and nose crooked. His clothes were torn and he was sporting a limp. He could hardly walk.

“Oh my gosh-” Royce quickly rushed over to the injured guy as his legs gave out from under him.

She reached out to help when she was aggressively snatched back and her way was blocked from him. The young lad fell to the ground.

“You are not permitted to engage with another Drudge!” the pack member snapped at Royce.

He was one of the frontline guards as well as an officer of the pack. Royce remembered his name, but that didn’t mean that he was worth remembering. In fact, it was the complete opposite.

Larry was his name. A name that Royce wasn’t too fond of but one that she felt fit him perfectly.

Larry was large in stature just a powerful he-wolf stereotypically would be. He had spiked blonde hair, which made Royce feel like he was trying too hard to be cool when it only made him look more like the douche bag that he was. This guy was the type who thought that every woman wanted him and every man envied him.

“Do you want to go to the dungeon?!” he hissed at Royce with his hand gripped tightly around her arm.

Royce didn’t answer quickly enough. Not that she had planned to in the first place. Not verbally anyway.

“Do you?!” He hissed in a lower tone than before, yanking her closer to him. Somehow, it was at that moment that his whole demeanor changed. “I know who you are,” he grinned. “You’re the disgraced daughter of Delta Caulder…the one who let in the feral…got that lady and her kids killed.”

Royce gritted her teeth and clenched her jaw. “I’m innocent.”

“And yet here you stand…picking up crap behind the alpha and his followers. Not looking so innocent to me, little girl.”

“Would you please release me?” Royce asked. She wasn’t going to continue to engage with this loser. In all honesty, the Drudge who had struggled to get up from the ground and limp away was far more interesting to her than this Larry guard.

“I don’t know if I want to,” he said and then leaned closer to her. “I’m starting to think that I may want a visit from you later, little outcast. I remember you when you were a kid. You were odd looking, thin, and shapeless, long flat hair…but I always saw the potential. Now look at you…” his blue eyes surveyed Royce closely. If it was possible, Larry would have devoured Royce with his eyes right then and there. “You’ve grown into those looks ten-fold. And that body too.”

Royce started to snatch away but knew that doing so would only give Larry more ammunition to actually get her to visit his room that night.

“I think I’m going to schedule a little play time with you-”

“My father will not allow tha-”

“Your father is dead,” Larry said callously to Royce. “Oh! Or are you talking about the alpha? He may have adopted you but you most certainly are not a Preston.”

“I never wanted to be,” Royce said before she could think better of it.

“What is that supposed to mean?” Larry took offense to what Royce said. “Are you insulting the Preston name? Are you saying you think you’re better than the family who took you in after the death of your dad?” he scoffed, not even giving Royce a chance to respond before he squeezed her arm tighter. “Don’t stop talking now. Keep digging that grave, little outcast! I’m gonna teach you a lesson tonight that you won’t soon forget-”

“Am I interrupting something?”

Royce felt his presence before she heard his scratchy deep voice. It was him.

“Uh, n-Alpha what are….what are you doing here?”

“That’s the best response you have?”

With every word he spoke, Royce could hear him getting closer. Feel him even.

“I..I meant no disrespect, Alpha,” Larry began to bumble out like an i***t. It was clear that he was intimidated.

“What has this Drudge done to warrant your aggression?” he asked, completely ignoring the useless apology of Larry the guard.

“Sh-she was trying to engage with another Drudge, sir. I was only correcting her!”

“I see.”

Why was he afraid? Royce wondered as she knew that Drudges weren’t to be respected. No one really cared about them or what they were used for. It was as this Alpha stepped closer that she began to realize that it was all due to the energy that resonated from him.

Royce glanced to the side and saw Larry look her way. It was only when he noticed her intrigued expression of the large brute standing before them did he try to poke his chest out further than already was. The man was big but even he didn’t compare to the mass of the Adonis standing before them. It was evident that he felt small and that he suddenly felt a need to impress.

“I was actually thinking,” he snatched Royce closer to him. “Of giving her a little…personal correction this evening.”

Royce grimaced as she felt Larry push himself against her backside for extra measure; as if the Alpha didn’t get what he was intending in the first place.

“Ah,” said the Alpha. “She is a looker, isn’t she?” added the Alpha in a dismissive manner. “A long ways from the little ugly duckling that I’ve heard about.”

“She’s always had potential, though.”

“Hm, is that right?” Further disinterest.

“Yup.”

“Well, as interesting as that may sound, this Drudge will not be visiting your chambers tonight.”

“Why is that?” asked Larry boisterously.

A little too boisterous for the Alpha’s liking, it seemed.

The Alpha walked past Larry with his hands behind his back. “You ask a lot of questions, Larry. Question authority a lot, it seems.”

“I…that wasn’t my intention to offend, Alpha Apollo!” He quipped.

Apollo, Royce thought. The name most certainly fit him; that much was certain but it also sounded familiar.

He returned back to Larry’s side and stood there, staring down at him. “Yet, here we are.”

Larry had very little else to say as Alpha Apollo towered domineeringly over him.

“You do realize that she is the Alpha’s daughter,”

“Y-yes, but-bu-but, she’s a Drudge! And she’s not even his blood!”

“But she is the blood of the great Delta. That alone should be respected-”

“Yes! But, she doesn’t live up to the name! She is a disgrace to the Marsh! She-”

Before another word could be spoken, Larry’s oxygen was being cut off by the large hand placed to his throat.

“Usually…when an Alpha says, no…an inferior subordinate answers, yes alpha. Or, in this case…yes, Sigma, Alpha.”

A Sigma?!

Sigmas were rare. And there was only one rumor even close to the territory and he was almost thought of as a legend.

Sigmas were a one-wolf army. More powerful than Alphas and had no need for anyone outside of their own company. A true lone wolf. Apollo…was the name of the wolf whose name use to ring through the Marsh when Royce was a youngling. Apollo was a myth. Royce watched him as he continued to handle Larry.

“The next time, I tell you that something is off limits…it’s off limits.”

Larry struggled to nod his head as he could hardly speak. He tried to mouth ‘yes, Alpha’. Then in one fluid movement, Apollo snapped his neck, released him, and turned away from him as the guard crumbled to the ground.

They eyed one another for a silent moment, Apollo watching her and she watching him. Then he finally spoke.

“This doesn’t mean anything.”

“You’re right…it doesn’t,” said Royce. “Hope you’re not expecting a thank you.” She started to walk away when he grabbed her arm.

“As a matter of fact,” he dipped his head down toward her ear. “I was.”

Royce looked at him defiantly, then her expression turned into something mocking. “Oh thank you, gracious Sigma, Alpha. What would I ever do without you?” she said in an even monotone. “We done here?”

Apollo was so taken aback by her disregard of him, he found his grip of her arm loosening.

Royce took that moment to leave.

“Sigma.” Katya said in the back of Royce’s mind. “Our mate…is a Sigma?”

“Not for long.” Royce was adamant on this and then she went to go look for the injured Drudge from earlier.