"Ptui!" A guard spat into the cell, disgust evident in his voice, "She truly is a curse to our pack. This worthless, wolfless trash seduced the alpha's son and then killed the alpha all to satisfy her pathetic ambitions. If her death sentence wasn't already set, I'd kill her myself by strangling her to death!"
A flash of lightning in the sky illuminated the dark cold cell, in that split second a ghostly figure, bound by sinful chains was illuminated within the rusty cell.
The stone floor was cold against her cheek. Blood had dried along the curve of her throat, stiff and flaking, and her wrists burned beneath the weight of the chains. Iron, cold and cruel dug into her skin where her arms were bound above her head, the cuffs biting into already torn flesh.
She couldn't feel her legs anymore.
Somewhere far above as rain thundered against the roof, water dripped. One drop...two...echoing like a clock she couldn't escape. She couldn't remember how long she'd been down here, was it a day or two, it didn't matter, it had been long enough for her to forget the warmth of the sun, long enough to forget the sound of her own name being uttered from someone's lips.
Her lips parted, broken and chapped it stung terribly to try to speak, "So this is love's retribution...this is what I get for loving you."
A cold sneer lifted her broken lips, every physical pain from the jarring red and purple bruises to the deep cuts that marred her body felt numb compared to the sharp pain in the left part of her chest. Her heart felt hollow, yet it ached immensely. If she could dig into her chest and pull out her heart, if only it would stop hurting...she would.
But it didn't matter since her death was already set.
She looked out the tiny window inside the cell, seeing the lightning flashes that brightened the sky for a single second.
Tomorrow she would die... tomorrow she would be executed for a crime she didn't commit.
All because she had trusted a boy with the eyes of a wolf and the smile of a saviour.
There was a time...her story had been just like Cinderella's. Redthorn pack had been her home, a place she grew up in with her mother and lovely little sister.
But the devastating part of her Cinderella story kinda life had begun the moment she turned fifteen, where every werewolf in her age group had shifted but she hadn't, instead what she'd gotten was a single streak of red hair among her long blonde waves.
"She doesn't have a wolf, she hasn't shifted yet." Alaine, the beta's daughter and her classmate at the academy had whispered in a gossipy tone. They used to be friends until this point, when she'd been declared wolfless.
"I heard anyone without a wolf is either cursed or unfavored by the moon goddess." Another girl added.
Such words hadn't dampened her spirit, because Rosaline believed deep inside that she would someday get her wolf. But news about her being wolfless soon spread across the pack.
Everywhere she went she would be pointed at, the whispers and gossips soon became people throwing rotten fruit at her to send her away from anywhere near their vicinity.
"Move, don't rub off your bad omen on me."
The humiliation had been intensified at the academy. One morning when she walked into the halls, someone suddenly shoved her back till she hit the nearest wall with an inhumane force.
The power of a werewolf's shove was different from a human's, Rosaline had felt like her bones had cracked immediately after the hit, she struggled to move after that as a crowd of students gathered around her.
"Runt, where do you think you're going with that attitude. Lower your head when you're in front of me, kiss my feet if I order you to." Alaine squatted in front of her til they were at eye level.
This girl she used to consider a friend had now become the bane of her existence. Rosaline's unusual cobalt blue eyes were shimmering with unshed tears she wouldn't let fall.
Alaine's mouth twisted upward in a sadistic smile, "Because you and I aren't in the same level. In this pack...a wolfless bitch is nothing but a loser."
With that Alaine stood up and walked away. When everyone left her there laughing as they strode past her, Serena ran to her frantically. Worry drawing her delicate brows together.
"Oh goddess Rose! Who did this to you?"
Rosaline didn't want to see her little sister worry, though they were half sisters they had a bond that tied them closely together, Rosaline adored her beyond anyone else in the world.
Back then, there had been no one in her heart other than Serena...until he came along.
Serena was petite and delicate, in a way that awakened one's protective instincts, and Rosaline had always pampered her sister. She would never show her if she was in pain, she would nurse her own wounds by herself just so her sister wouldn't have to worry.
"It's nothing Serena, I'm fine." Rosaline had smiled and swallowed the harsh pain in her bones.
In Redthorn academy, Alaine became queen, rising in popularity among her peers giving her an edge over others. Rosaline's time at the academy became a nightmare after that.
"Look what you did little runt, you messed up my shoes. Clean it!"
"Come here! Whenever I call for you, run to me or I'll make sure your little wolfless body is designed by bruises that won't heal easily."
It wasn't an exaggeration to say in the whole Redthorn pack, Rosaline became a servant ordered by all, pushed around by everyone, all because the alpha had declared her an empty wolf.
She wasn't even among the ranks. The alphas were superior, betas right behind the alphas, gammas also held some level of respect and the lowest were the omegas, the slaves but she hadn't even qualified to be classified among the omegas, she became the lowest being among the werewolves...the absolutely lowest, even omegas could treat her like trash.
At eighteen she'd learned to accept it quietly, learned to bow when told to bow, learned to kneel when told to kneel, orders became ingrained in her mind, something she would absolutely follow instinctively.
Her family couldn't save her if they wanted to...she was different from them, different from everyone.
"If she had half the level of charm and wit Serena has, she wouldn't be suffering this way." She overheard Dane, her mother's husband and her step father say one evening as she just returned home.
"But Serena has a wolf." Her mother argued.
"So what? Whose fault is it that Rose doesn't have a wolf. Goddess knows who her father is, maybe he's also some wolfless loser. Someone like that can't survive for long in our world, they'll be killed so damn easily." The man chuckled and shook his head.
Rosaline spied a well of tears in her mother's warm brown eyes, the tears from her mother's eyes stung her heart like a prickly thorn.
Elena had never once revealed to anyone who Rosaline's real father was, she couldn't because she also didn't know who it was. Rosaline had been conceived after a night of rape, something her mother never recovered from. People said it was a miracle Dane married her since her body had been desecrated by a being most suspected to be a rogue outcasted from whatever pack he came from.
One would think Dane married the woman out of love, but his drunken remarks and the bruises Rosaline would usually find on her mother were clear evidences it was far from love.
Rosaline wanted to speak up and defend her mother from her husband's harsh words, but the woman suddenly parted her lips to say something that made Rosaline's blood run cold, she stiffened behind the wall she was hiding in.
"Maybe she deserves it all, she is cursed after all. That girl...is cursed." Elena's face was blank not revealing any emotions, she stared down at her legs as if lost.
Hearing these same condemning words from her own mother which she'd always heard from others, Rosaline slowly crumpled to the floor. She felt like paper, a sheet lit on fire allowed to burn miserably.
Turning around she raced out of the room into the woods uncaring for the dangers that laid beyond, the dangers of rogues who could kill her in an instant, she had no wolf to protect her after all but everything seemed to have faded from her mind.
There was no rationality, no thoughts but pain. Ragged and harsh scratching at her heart, tugging and aching she felt suffocated.
Was it too much to ask for her own mother's love when she lived amidst pure hatred from everyone who sees her? Was it too much to want that maternal attention?
Elena had only ever performed her responsibility of feeding and clothing her first daughter, there had never been any emotional attachment between them. Everytime the woman gazed at Rosaline, her eyes were cold and unfeeling. She'd felt giddy when her mother had defended her from Dane's remark a while ago.
Her mother cared for her after all. But maybe the care she'd deluded herself was always kept hidden had never been there at all.
As Rosaline ran, she was unfortunate to bump into a group of people she absolutely wanted to avoid. They stood beneath a cluster of trees, the paths illuminated by the moonlight. Smoke from the hand rolled cigarettes they were smoking filled the air.
"Yo look, it's the pack psycho!"
"Why are you calling her a psycho Ross? She's just trash that shouldn't exist." Alaine and her boyfriend along with his friends glanced at her. All their eyes seemed hooded by the dangerously intoxicating substance they were smoking.
Trash that shouldn't exist...that was right. If her mother hadn't been raped, she certainly wouldn't exist.
Did her existence even have any meaning, maybe if she was wiped from the picture her mother would be happier, Serena wouldn't have to constantly worry about her.
"Haven't you seen how she looks at you whenever you send her around? It's as if she would kill you if she had the strength to, that's why she's a psycho, she could kill you in your sleep if she ever got the chance." Ross said not failing to give her the disgusted look she'd been accustomed to receiving.
"Hey mutt, is that true? You actually want to kill me?" Alaine scoffed incredulously and took a few steps to close the distance between her and Rosaline.
She took out a pocket knife and handed it to Rosaline with a smirk on her lips, "Since you've been a very good servant to me all these years, I'm going to let you take out your frustrations. Stab me."
Rosaline didn't take the knife and a roar of laughter came from behind Alaine. The boys seemed to find the situation fun to watch.
Alaine leaned in towards Rosaline, the sharp smell of Nightkin, the forbidden substance they all hid in the woods to smoke sharply assaulting her nose.
"See? You've always been a weak coward, don't tell me you don't feel any anger after everything I've done to you. Hurt me, now's your chance." Alaine mocked in a provoking whisper, each word aimed to strike.
Rosaline tightened her fist and ignored the darkness in her mind. That dark part that told her to do it, that dark part that sounded like the devil's whispers.
'Kill her, ruin her, tear her apart.'
Alaine's provocation didn't attract a reaction from Rosaline. In the end she only rolled her eyes and turned around.
"Pathetic waste. I knew she was no fun. Let's get out of here guys."
Her existence...was a mistake, if she disappeared, no one would hurt, no one would mourn, they'd be better off.
Alaine felt a sudden force knock her to the floor, once her eyes focused she met a flash of blue like torrential swirls.
"If you wanted death you should have asked politely bitch!" Rosaline grabbed the pocket knife swiftly raising it up threateningly. Alaine's eyes widened, a chilling feeling crept into her, there was no hesitation in those eyes...Rosaline would truly stab her.
Before she could bring the knife down however, Rosaline was kicked off Alaine's body. The impact caused blood to trail down the side of her lips but instead of pain, she smiled. Her bloodied lips eerily raising like someone who glimpsed death coming from afar and was ready to embrace it.