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Chapter Two

Lillian

I open the door to their home and enter with a grimace. The pungent smell is already reaching my nose, causing me to press my hand against my mouth and nose as I desperately try to block out the smell.

Corbin walks in behind me, his boots thumping heavily against the pine flooring.

“Does someone have a weak stomach today?” He asks with a hint of teasing in his voice.

His hands push against my back as he shoves me into the living room fully. A mere touch is all it takes for my stomach to roll with nausea.

“No, there is just an unpleasant smell coming from the floors and it caught me off guard.” My stomach churns again as hot water boils at the back of my throat. If I keep smelling this for too long, I’m going to be sick.

Corbin leans in close, his horrible breath blowing right in my face. Sadly, it is almost as unbearable as the smells coming from the room. “You will start in this room today. There’s a bucket and a mop in the usual spot by the door, so get to work. I expect it to sparkle when you finish.”

I look to the left out of the corner of my eye to where he points one long finger at. When I toss a glance over my shoulder to look at him, he grins. My gaze moves to the bucket, only to realize I don’t have a mop to use. It’s a scrub brush, which will require me to get on all fours to use.

Of course, he expects me to clean on my hands and knees like we used to. It’s a punishment that he likes to use often.

“Okay, I will have it done in no time,” I whisper. “Even without the blasted mop, which would make this so much easier.”

My throat constricts as I reluctantly move my hand from my nose and mouth and search for a spot to place the basket on my arm. Once I find a safe spot, I look up at the wall and find a place to put my cloak, so it won’t get dirty. I cherish it above all else, for it is all I have left of my mother.

I reach down to where the bucket and scrub brush wait before walking across the room. The corner near the fireplace on the opposite side of the room is where I normally start and work myself backward into the kitchen. As I kneel on the floor, I can feel the weight of his gaze following my every move.

Carefully reaching into the mop water, I feel the brush bristles pricking my skin before I pull it out and start cleaning the floor.

I glance behind me when I hear the heavy thud of Corbin’s boot beside me. His harsh gaze meets mine.

“What do you want, Corbin? I’m obeying your orders and cleaning the floors, just like you asked me to do.”

He squats down and reaches toward me. His fingers slip under my chin as he roughly forces me to look up into his orange eyes. “I like you like this. Did you know this is exactly where you belong? That’s right, granddaughter of the fallen alpha. You belong on your hands and knees, serving me.”

I jerk my chin out of his grasp and spit on his leather boots. “Not in this lifetime or any other life. Maybe in your wildest dreams, but it will never happen in reality.”

He stares at the toe of his boot where my spit landed and grits his teeth in frustration. “Clean that up before I make you use your tongue to do so. I have better uses for it than cleaning my boots, but if I must make you obedient, then I will do it.”

With one swift movement, I take the scrub brush meant for the floor and scrub it right across the toe of his boot, leaving a trail of foamy suds behind. “There, all better. My spit is not on your boot.”

He lets out a low growl as his gaze shifts to meet mine. “That isn’t what I meant. Now, look at the mess you have made. You have scratched my boots.”

His lips pull into a snarl as he reaches for my hair. Once he has most of it in his grasp, he holds me there, demanding my full attention.

“You may come from a long line of alphas, but that doesn’t make you anyone important. Remember, you are nothing. Not even your wolf wants to be with you. You don’t even have anything to fight back with, so you better behave and do as I say.”

“Enough!” Nigel’s voice echoes through the room as he comes from the kitchen to where we are. “Leave the help be, son.”

Corbin lets go of my hair, causing my head to bob because of his harsh movements. Despite this, I keep my gaze low because I don’t want to provoke his father’s anger toward me. It is one thing to have Corbin after me, but I never want to make his father angry. If he becomes enraged, then there is no telling what he’d do to my grandmother to make me fall in line, and that is the last thing I want.

Corbin stomps his way across the room toward the kitchen, making each footfall sound like thunder and leaving mud across the floor.

“Corbin, get out of there before you do something stupid. Lillian has plenty of work to do without you bothering her or making more of a mess. Don’t you have somewhere else to be? Maybe you should clean your room for once or practice your alpha commands.”

He pauses at the kitchen door and looks his father directly in the eye before glancing at me. For a moment, it feels as if he might come over here and punch me, or at least fake it. I’m so used to his behavior that I don’t even react anymore because it’s become expected, but he typically won’t do it in front of his father.

Instead, both he and his father leave the room without another word, so I resume scrubbing the floors.

Over the next thirty minutes, I work myself backward across the entire floor. The cleaning solution has made a great difference in the smell of the room, but I still wonder what caused the smell to begin with.

When I finally work myself into the first corner, I notice a mysterious puddle of liquid that I can’t even begin to identify. I reach out to touch it with my bare hands, but yank my hand away when I get close.

“No, I’m not touching that.”

I pick up the bucket and pour water on the floor where the liquid is, then use the brush to scrub it off. Once that is finished, I lean back on my heels and look around the room, but find more odd puddles across the floor.

“How did that get there? What even is it?”

Disgust consumes me as I stare at the odd spots on the floor.

I know they hold enormous parties here. Well, Corbin does when Nigel is busy. There is no telling what has happened in this house or the horrors these walls have witnessed. If they spoke, I don’t know that I could even listen to them.

Heels clicking across the kitchen tiles catches my attention. I turn my head slightly to the side to see who is coming into the living room.

“Hello, trash. Looks like you aren’t working hard enough, since you are just sitting there,” Ophelia says in her annoying high-pitched voice. “The stink in this house must be because you are here. Why don’t you just get these floors cleaned up and get lost?”

“Gladly,” I say with a smile. “Could you tell Corbin to quit making puddles on the floor? It must be his drool that I can’t get off of the pine flooring of the alpha house. Maybe then I could be quicker.”

She scoffs, but then she looks down and her snooty expression changes. Realization flashes in her eyes. “I guess I should tell him to calm down. He gets a little too excited when I’m here. Anyway, get done and get out. You know what tonight is.”

I dip the brush into the bucket and then slam it down on the floor. “Like I said, I will gladly get done and get out of here.”

As I look down, I hear her heels click as she walks off and I breathe a sigh of relief. It’s probably going to take me all day, but I definitely don’t want to be here tonight. Corbin usually sneaks off with Ophelia and comes home.

I just don’t want to know what they get into. Not my wolf, not my business.

My hands clutch the brush hard as I scrub the floor and think about tonight.

When the moon is at its fullest, Alpha Nigel will lead the pack on the monthly run. All of us participate, except for me and my grandmother.

In some ways, I’m glad we don’t. I personally think it’s foolish because it’s not like we can actually sprint on the path in the woods that is near the territory line. It’s been around two hundred years since anyone has done that, which is why I find the run pointless.

Instead, they run within ten feet of the woods while remaining in the village’s clearing, so nothing can reach out and snatch them.

“You are annoying, did you know that? Did you even hear what I just said?” Speaking of the devil lady, there’s her voice again.

I stop brushing and sit on my heels again. It seems like the only peace I will ever feel is when I’m dreaming or while I’m at my grandmother’s cottage. “Yes, Ophelia. I heard your nonstop screeching. The floors will be clean and I will be gone, but you have to leave me alone so I can get my job done.”

“How dare you talk to me like that? When I'm the alpha female, you won’t be here. Your time is limited.” She snarls and stomps off, her heels clicking again across the floor.

I snicker under my breath as I realize she is gullible enough to believe Corbin. Maybe if she wasn’t so full of herself, then she might know when someone lies to her. She couldn’t even tell that I lied when I said I heard every single word.

Over the next while, I frantically scrub the floors as I try to get them done as quickly as I can. Of course, I have to refrain from gagging as I scrape and scrub the puddles of liquid that seem to be hardening on the floor.

Once I work myself backward into the kitchen, I carefully examine the room and feel satisfied with how it looks. Then I toss the brush into the water bucket.

Before I can even get up on my feet, Corbin comes in with muddy boots from behind me and leaves a trail of it toward the stairs near the doorway. He heads up them with the biggest smile across his face because he knows what he has done and is proud of the mess.

“I hate this,” I whisper under my breath.

Instead of scrubbing the entire floor again, I move the bucket with me as I walk on my knees to the boot prints. I clean them one by one until I reach the stairs.

Clicking in the kitchen alerts me to Ophelia’s arrival again. She must have come through the kitchen door. The sound of her heels stops somewhere in the kitchen where I can’t see.

I finish up the last spot right as I hear heaving breathing, followed by a loud crashing sound and then a banging against the wall.

My face heats as I realize what is going on. I hurry to put the bucket in its place and stand to grab my things.

There are a few more bangs in rapid succession and I can’t get out of the house fast enough.

I throw on my cloak. “You have got to be kidding me,” I say as I tie it under my chin. “I’m still here, you idiots.”

I do one last check around the floor before considering it complete, then head for the front door. After throwing the door open, I step outside and inhale fresh air into my lungs.

Oh, beautiful, clean fresh air.

I gulp it down greedily and am so thankful to no longer be in the house with all the weird smells.

Without a second thought, I quickly race toward my small cabin in hopes that I can get things ready before heading to grandmother’s cottage. My house is only about a hundred feet from the alpha house so I make it in no time and open the door.

I take one step inside, but feel chills running up my spine. My gaze moves toward the woods, even though they seem peaceful right now. Oddly, I feel a lingering presence there, like something is watching me from them.

Something inside of me pulls, almost as if there is someone in the woods beckoning me to come to them. My eyes flutter as I fight the feeling and shove it away. “No, there’s nothing there. Grandmother is right and I’m crazy to believe the rumors.”

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