{~Aphrodite Malhotra~}
There was one motto that I kept with me throughout my lives, always trust your gut instincts over your heart and brain. I’d like to say it has led me down the wrong path, but that would be a lie. However, if you’ve been reincarnated four times already like i have, you learn to make some changes.
Let me introduce myself. I’m Aphrodite Malhotra. Nineteen, and the only alpha wolf female in my pack. I’ve lived three lives prior to this one. I was once a slave to a cruel vampire king, then one of the first lycans to ever grace the planet, and next I was a guardian to another lycan wolf. Now I’m starting afresh, again, as a simple girl. This is by far my most mundane, and I hope to live a normal life. Because I’ve never had one.
I’ve never dated. I struggle with understanding emotions, I have a quick temper and a lot of trust issues.
My new family doesn’t know about my past. No one does.
So they don’t know how hard I’m trying not to dislocate someone’s neck whenever they think they can out-alpha me.
Staring at the mirror, I tilted my head and tried to understand exactly what that guy was saying. Even though I want a normal life in the White Lotus pack, I’m an outcast. I had no clue that alphas were only interested in omega females, or beta girls. How could I have ever known that when all my life I grew up with vampires and Lycans? The rules of lycans aren’t the same as the rules for werewolves. I’ve had to learn things from scratch. People look at me strangely, and because of my temper, the guys in this pack are too afraid to approach me.
I have two sisters who are both omegas, and they get on fine with everyone.
I’ve become a bit of a loner, and I have learned to like it. People irritate me. I do want to have a love life, and some friends that don’t want me to play sports with them, but being an alpha means my friends are mostly alpha guys. And they are just stupid.
They think with every testosterone that they have.
The guy I mentioned earlier was one of my older sister’s ex-boyfriends. He made a comment that I didn’t know would affect me, but here I am in my room… struggling to see myself differently.
I’m not upset by my appearance, I’m just wondering what the hell he meant by his comment.
‘You’re five foot five, you have a body guys lust after, but the attitude and aura of an alpha male. The only thing you’d been good for is taking some guys' virginity, but certainly not as a life-long partner.’
He said it with a joking tone but I could see the looks the others passed around. They agreed with him.
I don’t know why his words struck a nerve. I’ve been hearing it throughout my whole new life. Aphrodite, you’re pretty but not the kind that an alpha needs. Aphrodite, you scare the betas and omegas. Aphrodite, a girl has no business being an alpha… did you offend the gods in a past life?
I have had enough of it. It’s just frustrating. I’m getting tired of people constantly telling me I’m cursed, or that I’ll die alone. I have died alone, twice!
There is literally nothing else they can do to surprise me.
I groaned and kicked the pillow next to my feet. My purple hair was a mess. I never figured out how to straighten it. Full curls that almost cover my face can be a nuisance. In my past lives, I was nearly seven feet in height, maybe even taller, now I’m reduced to being five feet five. Ugh! What an insult to the woman I used to be!
The tattoo of bear claw marks on my neck, and the piercings confuse a lot of people. The omegas I know are girly. Perhaps it’s just my pack but they are very stereotypical. They can’t fathom or accept the idea of a female alpha. It’s unnatural to them that I can pick up with the boys. Not like they make it hard anyway.
And my sense of style is almost ridiculous. I just wear whatever I want. Like right now. A pair of sweatpants, and a baggy grey sweater. I wore these out for the whole day. These clothes practically swallowed my body. And the jokes I heard… it takes great strength to not kill someone. And since violence is always my first answer, trying to contain my rage is not going so well.
I rubbed my face, taking one last look at myself.
Only good for taking someone’s virginity. That is so rude. I could be many things.
I turned around and flopped onto my bed. I stared at the framed picture on my wall. My older sister is one of my best friends. Clion is who I wanted to be, but I don’t hate myself. I just figured the goddess would make me like her so it’d be easier for me to go through this life.
She’s not too tall, curvy, with dark smooth skin, and long black hair that is always in braids. I wish she were here but she’s off at a fancy university on a private island in the middle of the Pacific Ocean. The Inferno Peak Academy.
I’ve applied there too, and my acceptance letter arrived last night. I don’t think I wanna go. I applied because of her. Everyone loves her. She’s sweet, she’s funny, she’s caring and never violent. She dates douchebags because she thinks she can change them. She’s this pack’s definition of an omega.
I want to be at the same school as her.
I miss her. She’s been gone for two years. She hasn’t visited once. But all of her stories make me think the Inferno Peak Academy is the dream school.
Still, my mind isn’t even on going to college now that i’ve had time to think about it. The school takes only thirty people per year, and its been around for fourteen years.
I just don’t think my anger issues can survive a fancy school. And going to a school so far from home for the sake of my sister sounds like a bad idea.
“Aphrodite?” my mother’s voice came through the door, and I sighed. Rolling my body, I lay flat on my back.
“Yes ma’am?”
“Have you heard from Clion today? Martha wants to know if she’ll be around for this year’s Christmas.”
I hummed and sat up. Reaching for my phone on the nightstand, I keep forgetting to take this thing with me whenever I go out. I should change that.
“Oh yeah, I got a text three hours ago. Let me text her back and I'll let you know.”
“Alright, sweetheart. Dinner will be ready in four minutes.” that’s mom slang for twenty four minutes or more. There’s setting the table, and some more things she’ll make Martha do. I love being the middle child.
It’s like I’m the problem, and people have to deal with it. I pressed my thumb to the chat icon, and it opened up Clion’s message.
Clion: Hi Aphrodite, I know this might be a shitty thing to do but I have no choice. I know it’s a Thursday, and it’s one of those days where you don’t bring your phone with you and you play games with the guys. Which is why i’m sending you this now. Because if you called me or responded I wouldn’t be able to go through with it.
I’ve been lying to you for the past two years. My life at the Inferno Peak Academy isn’t perfect, it isn’t great, it isn’t all I painted it to be. It’s actually a nightmare. I made two mistakes when I first got here.
1) I joined the Sweetie-pie sorority, and 2) I tried to befriend one of the five demons that run this school. Their bodies may say that they’re werebears but I know better than to believe it. These guys are devils. They hated me right off the bat, and have since been making my life a living hell. My sorority is full of snobby girls, and the hazing I went through left scars on my body that will never heal.
I’ve attached some photos, and asked the headmaster to mail my items to you.
I’m writing this as my apology. The white lotus pack made me believe that omegas would be treasured by the world, but at this academy, it feels like an omega wolf- specifically- is furiously hated. I was one of six omega wolves, and I haven't been allowed to return home since I set foot here.
I’m sorry I wasn't as strong as you. I’ve always envied how you stayed confident and true to yourself despite all the hate the pack seems to give you. I think that’s why they hate you even more. They’re chickens afraid to brace change. But not you, Aphrodite. You kept me going for two years with your texts, and phone calls. I wish I were as strong as you. But as I type this, i’m getting closer and closer to the edge of the cliff. That’s the only way this nightmare will end.
I’m hurt, I've been called names, beaten, used as a servant in a school that was supposed to make me the best.
The only way for me to be free…. Is by taking the road down.. I know this is wrong. I know you could stop me with a text, and some part of me is praying that this is the day you actually have your phone with you to guys night.
But the more determined part of me can’t live another day here. I know you applied to come here, so here are my last words as your big sister.
Don’t come to the inferno peak academy. Werewolves are the prey here, and I know you’re not an omega but being a woman wolf would make your life here a living nightmare.
If you don’t listen to my first warning at least do me a favor, avoid The Nileborn brothers. I am aware that my sorority wounded me physically, and they made me out to be a slut. Trading myself so they could get free items. But those boys make the girls look like saints.
I have never been a guinea pig to anyone but they stripped me off my free will, and are determined to make me regret being born.
They have succeeded. I do regret it. I regret many things.
Stay away from them, Aprodite. They will only hurt you.
I’m here now.
Staring at the sharp rocks, and currents splashing against them. I don’t feel fear, I feel like I can breathe again for the first time in two years.
I love you all. And I hope you can forgive me someday.
My jaw was on the floor. What the hell did i just read? I immediately tried to call her line but it went straight to voice mail. It didn’t even ring long enough. Oh my god.
I jumped out of bed, and rushed downstairs to the kitchen where my mother was.
“Hey, you’re down early- what happened?”
I gave her the phone, and dropped to my knees. My heart was thudding hard against my chest.
“Aphrodite, what is this?” my mother threw the phone back at me. I clutched, and just stared at Clion’s message.
The words on the screen blurred before my eyes, forming an incomprehensible jumble of letters. My heart sank like a stone in my chest, replaced by an unbearable weight that seemed to suffocate me. It was as if the world around me had dulled to a grayscale, every color drained, every sound muted.
A hollow ache settled in the pit of my stomach, spreading its tendrils through every fiber of my being. I clutched my phone tightly, as if hoping to find some semblance of reality within its unforgiving surface. My breath came in ragged gasps, each inhale stinging like a raw wound.
My limbs felt heavy, anchored to the ground by an invisible force, unwilling to move. Time seemed to stretch and contort, the seconds feeling like eternities, the minutes like lifetimes. Every heartbeat was a painful reminder of the absence, a cruel echo of what once was.
Tears welled up, blurring my vision even further. They flowed freely, unbidden, each drop a testament to the profound loss echoing through my soul. It was a storm, a tempest of emotions that threatened to drown me, an ocean of sorrow that I feared I'd never emerge from.
In that moment, the world became a cruel, unfeeling place. It felt like an unwelcome dream, a nightmare from which I longed to wake. The ache in my chest seemed insurmountable, an abyss that threatened to swallow me whole. I yearned for just a glimmer of light, a whisper of solace, but found none.
Grief was an all-encompassing force, an unrelenting wave that crashed against the shores of my heart, eroding away fragments of my soul with each pass. It was a journey through a desolate landscape, where every step was a painful reminder of what had been taken from me.
My sister had killed herself, leaving just a message for me to hold on too.