Six years later
Ottilie POV
"Brrrrriiiiinnngggg!' The harsh sound of my alarm rose me from my sleep and I opened my eyes slowly, not that it mattered really. There wasn't much light in my tiny room, just a few streaks of sunlight that spilled through the cracks in the limewashed walls. I watched the dust dancing in the dim light, forgetting the reality of where I was and who I was for just a second.
"Crap," I exclaimed loudly, I was going to be seriously late for work unless I got a move on. Having been demoted to an omega slave six years ago, I was mostly ignored by my pack, provided that I got on with my work and kept out of the way. Being late for work would get me a beating or worse. The head of housekeeping, Miss Dierdre hated me and went out of her way to punish me whenever she could, I wasn't about to hand her another reason to beat me.
I jumped off my thin mattress and looked for my towel. My stomach growled loudly, I wasn't allowed to eat with the rest of the pack since, well, since the incident six years ago. Instead, I ate leftovers, only 500 hungry wolves don't exactly leave much after a meal. If it wasn't for Lily, my only friend in this terrible place, who regularly saved me food, I would have wasted away to nothing long ago.
Pulling my dark curls back into a ponytail, I wrapped a towel around myself, grabbed my uniform and headed out of my little attic room towards the old pack showers outside. These were the only ones I was permitted to use and whilst only ever cold, it was better than nothing. The added bonus was that nobody else ever used them so I could shower in peace.
Hurrying so I could shower and make it to the kitchens on time to start breakfast, I crashed into something solid and fell back on to the floor, my towel falling down leaving me naked lying in the corridor.
"s**t, what in the goddess...." I tailed off as the something, no someone came into view. A pair of silver eyes looked down at me with amusement, a slow smile spreading across their face. Harry, I'd managed to run straight into Harry Silver, who along with his brothers, would soon be the next Alpha of the Silver Fang Pack.
We stared at each other in silence for a few seconds, me taking in his impressively stacked shirtless torso and the little line of soft dark hair that disappeared into the waistband of his shorts before I remembered that I was lying on the floor naked. I hastily pulled the towel around me again and stood up, bowing my head slightly in respect. A delicious waft of strawberries and cut grass surrounded me, pulling me in.
"I do apologise Alpha Harry," I whispered, shaking like a leaf. "I did not see you and...." I stopped as Harry raised his hand looking annoyed. He stepped towards me so we were standing just a foot apart.
"Where are you going in such a hurry little wolf so early in the day, or should I say, "wolfless one"," he said mockingly.
That stung, you see, I'd not shifted yet. We were meant to shift on our 18th birthday but a month ago mine had come and gone and my wolf hadn't appeared to me. It was just another excuse for the pack to hate me really.
My towel slipped slightly before I could respond and as it did, Harry's eyes darkened, the silver becoming swirls of black. He pushed me roughly against the corridor wall, making the whole place shudder slightly. His face was centimeters from mine and I could have sworn he was about to kiss me before he stepped back suddenly, inhaling sharply.
"Don't ever walk around here dressed like that again, do you understand?" he demanded roughly, staring me down, bringing his Alpha aura down over me with fall force.
I bowed and fell to my knees, "Yes Alpha, I'm sorry Alpha." I looked up to see his eyes darkening again. He shook his head sharply, as if to rid himself of some internal battle and stalked off angrily in the opposite direction.
I stayed where I was for a few seconds before letting out a slow breath. What the hell had just happened? Harry hadn't spoken to me for six years, none of the triplets had. They didn't so much as look in my direction. Whilst they didn't torment me, they didn't exactly stand up for me when other pack members abused me. As far as they were concerned, I didn't exist and although it had hurt terribly in the beginning, I'd gotten used to it over time. Don't get me wrong, it was still painful, but it didn't hurt as much as it used to.
At least I'd not given myself away yet, you see, the Alpha's aura had no effect on me whatsoever. It had been that way since I was small but as I'd got older, I'd realised quickly that even the most fearful Alpha couldn't order me to do anything I didn't want to do. Aware that this would not exactly come across well, I'd kept it a secret, pretending that I was just a weak Omega, a nothing.
Well, there was no time to shower now. I trudged back to my room as slowly as I would allow myself, unable to get Harry's black swirling eyes out of my head.
Luckily, I made it to the kitchens in the nick of time, turning on the ovens before Dierdre walked in. Spotting me she sneered, almost annoyed that I'd made it there before her so that she didn't have an excuse to beat me.
"Good morning Miss Dierdre, is there anything you would especially like me to get started on?" I asked, bowing my head as a sign of respect. Although we were technically the same as Omega's, I was considered the lowest of the low, no better than the dirt between a wolf's paw.
"Breakfast," she barked, disappearing into her office where she would most likely stay until the rest of the pack turned up for breakfast before emerging to take credit for my work.
I should probably explain why I had gone from being the future Beta of my pack to a lowly omega and why my former best friends now wanted nothing to do with me. Six years ago, my parents had abandoned me to this pack, cast out as traitors by the current Alpha and his Luna. If the stories are to be believed, my parents were plotting to overthrow Alpha Marcus and Luna Maria but they were found out and barely escaped with their lives, leaving me at the mercy of my pack. Luna Maria had never been fond of me, blaming me for leading her perfect boys astray too often and when my parents had abandoned me, she made sure to let me know what a nuisance I had become. So I became the pack slave, spending all my hours outside of school cooking, cleaning and more often than not, being used as a punching bag for various pack members. Although I'd done nothing wrong, I was still considered a traitor and nobody here would let me forget it. I had planned to run away once I'd turned 16 but without my wolf I was terrified of what I might run into outside of the pack boundaries. Becoming rogue without a wolf would be a fate worse than death.