The Women Between

Prologue: Too Far

Warning: This chapter contains violence. Although it is brief, I ask that you skip it, if you are unsettled by it.

“Come on,” a sixteen-year-old girl pleaded through gritted teeth.

           Her light brown hair curtained her reddened face that hid the tears stinging her cold, pale skin. Her midnight blue eyes are clouded over by them blurring the stain before her. They streamed down the round curves of her cheeks and the tip of her round nose to drip into the suds foaming her fingers. They are white with her hand reddened from the pressure and the length of time she has been scrubbing the floor. Her grey shirt with brown stripes is shaking with her movements as she tries to clean this stain. She did not know what to do to get it from the grey carpet, hoping and praying that it is not blood.

She chooses to believe this dark brown stain is chocolate and not blood. It is one of the three things she cannot clean away easily, but this is the future alpha’s room or twin one, as she called them. It was mostly likely some poor virgin girl’s blood from where he took her, she told herself, feeling a pang of sympathy for her. 

           The twins are not kind alphas-to-be. She would know as she had been on the receiving end of their brutal bullying. She would call it something else, but it is a mix between punches and making fun of her even though she is the beta’s stepdaughter. It has been like that, since her mother became the fated mate to the beta. They do not like her, even though she has tried to be nice and proved that she is useful around the packhouse. 

Now, the only thing she wants is to avoid them and get out of Twin One’s room before he returns. He will definitely ensure that she is punished for being in it, again, when she is ordered to clean it. 

The Head Omega is being cruel, she told herself feeling hurt by that nice woman. Then, she suddenly started treating her like a thing. It is more like she is mold or a rat needing to be exterminated somehow. Some of the omegas even called her a cockroach because she has survived their brutality. Maybe she is with the way her head jerks every little bit startled by the creaks breaking the silence. Sometimes, she would mistake her thudding heart as thumping up the stairs by one of the twins. She even calls herself twitchy because of this. That is what this pack has done. They have made her twitch at the slightest things, but she knows it is to keep herself safe.

           “Come on,” she whined some more with a squeak in her voice.

           One time, they permanently dyed her hair blue, claiming that it looked too gray and needed some color. They laughed at her when she started crying and especially when one of their cohorts called her a Smurf. Her skin had been dyed that color, too, since it was put in her shampoo. They did not even bother about her bruises that they saw when she had come out of the shower refreshed and dressed. Or maybe it was hidden by the dye? She had not been concerned about that while feeling humiliated by their wolf calls.

She knows that was a lie. Her hair has a golden gleam to it while out in the sunlight. Many people have commented about its uniqueness. She had even looked at it to see what the fuss was about. The only thing she saw was the same as her father’s hair except longer. It is brown with golden streaks that like to be bright in the waves that formed in her hair. There was nothing dyed about it, but right now, thinking about that will not get her out of this problem. 

She has been scrubbing for two hours to get rid of the stain. It does not budge while the carpet is getting torn a bit. 

Just when she was about to give up, darkness covered her sight, followed by a searing pain. It filled her entire head and face, making her release a blood-curdling scream. She could not see even when a force made her fall onto her back with a thump. Liquid started to pool into her hands that covered her nose that she instinctually covered, but she did not know why. It was not until she was able to hear the voices calling to her that she realized what exactly happened to her. 

Derek, twin one, had kicked her in the face. 

           “Cassandra,” Jamie called worriedly as he tried to pull her hands away from her face.

           “The dumb b***h deserved it for being in my room!” Derek snapped loudly.

           Her body trembled at the rage sounding in his voice and the power oozing out of him to show his anger. Her heart is hammering between him and the pain that seemed to sear into her brain. She knew that she had to get out of there quickly before she dies from his attack. This time he had gone too far with her.

           “She is human!” his brother argued with his muscular, lean figure marching to him from her side.

           She could only see a piece of them over the bed. His curly black hair to Jamie’s shaved down head. Something is causing them to keep closed, but it, at least, lets her estimate where they stand. This time, though, she is not going to lie there and let them get away with this. The pain is brutally hurting her head. She is sure that he broke something on her face, causing this massive headache and her vision to blur a bit. 

She pried her eyes wider, finding the tears blurring her vision, too, to see them standing in the doorway. Tears had blinded her, first, until she blinked them away while still crying out her agony. Derek’s bulky figure is towering over his brother as his red muscular face is practically in Jamie’s face. Both are almost equal in muscles, hair color and facial structure, but only one is shorter than the other by a mere few inches. 

           “Get out of here and I’ll take care of her!” Jamie ordered sharply, sounding really mad.

           Why? It is not like he cared or stopped any of the violence against her. He did not do anything to help her or defend her. He has even joined, at times, in making her feel worthless.

           Like hell you will, she thought sharply, finding her anger there mixing with her fear. Her breaths went from ragged to short and sharp, making her chest hurt. She wanted to breathe in through her nose, but it was not working, so she took a sharp breath in through her mouth.  The taste of blood tainted it which let her know that she was definitely bleeding somewhere.  However, it is like her airway is restricted, making it hard to suck in a decent amount of air. She is sure that it is broken and that is why she cannot breathe right. She is not going to let that stop her from running for her life. Her determination would not let her lie there much longer. 

           “You didn’t have to kick her like a football, Derek,” Jamie continued, yelling at him angrily. 

           Like you would care, she thought, wishing that she could voice it, but she saw her opportunity to run. The lean twin had been pushing the other out of the room. It did not matter that he had stopped him from causing a lot more broken bones. She hates them, hoping rogues will kill them. They have tormented her for too long, now. 

           Quickly, Cassandra leaped to her feet and started to run out of the door, hearing Jamie’s call for her to stop. He is even using the alpha’s voice, but she does not care. She is not a wolf nor his mate, so it does not work on her. She is not letting those evil bastards touch her or hide the truth from anyone. Even as she ran down the stairs, he called for her to stop with others leaping out of the way. Still, she did not care even for those that she had to knock out of the way at the bottom of the stairs. 

She did not care that people were looking at her as she ran to the door of the packhouse with gasps and cries. It followed her all the way like her blood dripping from her hand. It did not register in her head that everyone is watching her run away from the alpha when she should have obeyed his words. It is the biggest taboo to do in a pack, but she did not care about the punishment that might follow it. Her crying in front of them is enough of a punishment for her. 

All she could do now was run as fast and as her aching legs could take her. 

Then suddenly, a light blinded her vision, knowing that she had made it out of the packhouse. Her heart had stopped its pounding at the fresh air cooling her heated skin. She did not hear anyone anymore, even as blips of leaves and branches flitted in her vision. She has no idea where she is going, but she knows that she can no longer go to the packhouse. It is too dangerous for her to even stay within the pack confines. She must leave this place. 

It is the only thought in her head as she reaches her stepfather’s house and drops onto the porch. It is more like she trips on the stairs of the off-grey colored house slapping the wood with her palms and cheek. The sting sent more pain into her head that she could no longer fight. The energy she had used to flee the twins left her succumbing to darkness…