Dreary Days.

Blaire White

It's been a month since the Beta meted out our punishments, and I'd like to say that it's been hell, as every day was bloody exhausting.

I got up every day by 3 a.m. and worked my ass nonstop till 10 p.m. for the past weeks, and trust me, it was horrible because each night that I retired to the small, dingy room I called "home" for the meantime, I could hear my bones creaking and cracking in protest as exhaustion hit me like a ton of bricks.

My feet would ache from the hours of standing and running around they had been doing, and my mind felt like it had been through a marathon from the different orders I was given daily.

All I wanted to do was remain in this tiny room forever, but that was impossible as my freedom didn't belong to me again.

I don't know how long I will be stuck here, but I know it will be a long time because the pack tightened their security after I managed to enter without them finding me out.

Eliza worked me to the fucking bone. She had been all over me these past weeks. It was always "Blaire, do that. Blaire, wash that. Blaire, clean that. Blaire, take that. Blaire, go there; Blaire, come back here," and it was exhausting hearing her high-pitched voice squeak commands.

Hearing her voice made me more tired than the actual work I was given. Oh, you have no idea how many times Hera has contemplated ripping out her vocal cord just so we can stop hearing her goddamn voice!

Urgh!

Eliza was of Gamma descent. According to the fellow workers, she was a great warrior but couldn't become the Alpha's Gamma because of her gender and something else, which I found stupid. She was tall, with a certain aura of eloquence attributed to her. Her auburn hair fell over her shoulders in lustrous locks, and she had piercing green eyes that seemed to suck life and truth out of you within seconds of looking into them. Too bad her voice was a major turnoff.

She was really a woman fit for war, and I was sure her voice alone could make thousands of the enemies on the battlefield deaf.

Since she couldn't become the Gamma, the Alpha placed her in charge of domestics, and I do not know if she has taken a liking to me because she's always sending me on errands that, most times, exceed my routine and line of work that I was initially placed in.

It annoyed me to the core, but it allowed me to memorize the whole pack route as I secretly found a means of escape for the future.

However, to top it up, with all the errands that she sends me on, I still haven't gotten a glimpse of the Alpha again, and a part of me was both happy and sad about this. Truly, getting a sighting of that man was harder than the north pole being as warm as Hawaii, and it added to my frustration.

It was like he disappeared and was no longer existing in this pack, which I doubted.

Another bane of my existence has been the constant waist pain, back pain, and nausea. I barely got enough to eat, and it was very, very frustrating that I ended up flushing down the drain the little I got to eat—that's if my body was feeling benevolent enough to eat.

The loss of appetite has been driving me crazy, along with the contrasting urge to eat weird shit. Imagine being hungry but not hungry at the same time. Urgh!

I wished Eliza would let me off the hook because, most times, the dizziness was out of this world. I cannot count how many times I've nearly let go of the stuff I was carrying because I felt my head spin and stomach churn, nor how many times I've thrown up on the floor while working.

Luckily, not many people get to witness the sight except Emmett, because she got paired with me. I felt sorry for her, though, as I was adding more torture to her already sad life.

"Again? You should really see Anais, the pack doctor, for your symptoms. You might be really sick, and I am afraid you might die, Blaire." Her warm voice came as she held up my hair and patted my back while I emptied my bowels into an iron bucket in the corner of the room.

I replied with a gag as more nothings came out of my throat. I was seriously perspiring, and I felt strangely cold. My hair stuck to my face as I took greedy gulps of air through my mouth, nearly choking on the vomit stuck in my throat.

"This is the fourth time today you are doing this, and you don't seem to be getting any better. If anything, you're getting worse." Emmett added, "If this continues, you might seriously get in trouble with Eliza because it's infringing on your work. Plus, you're running a fever, and you need more rest."

I struggled to control my breath as I listened to her talk. I wiped my mouth with the back of my hands when I felt my raging stomach settle. I was seriously regretting eating that cold leftover mashed potato and sauce last night because today was worse than other days.

I gently picked myself up with the help of Emmett. The scrawny-looking blonde looked disheveled in that worn-out floral gown and messy hair. Her skinny hands carried two buckets, one filled with dirty water from cleaning the left wing and the other carrying the cleaning apparatus.

She looked worse than I did, and she had it worse than I did. Without orders from Eliza, she got to be sent around by fellow workers, who most times felt like ditching. She barely got any sleep; I knew because she was my roommate. Most times, I found her sleeping in the storage room, but I couldn't report her even if I wanted to because, over the days, she has become my friend.

"I'm fine." I said it hoarsely, reaching my hands for my share of the bucket, but she quickly moved it away from me, shaking her head.

"You're sick, Blaire, and I cannot let you carry this."

I smiled weakly at her, following her by the side with a hand to my stomach. My body craved sleep, and I was so glad today that I was only performing the duty that was originally assigned to me by Reece, as Eliza had gotten Beatrice to be her new lackey. I pitied the poor girl; she was in for a long ride.

I escorted Emmett to dispose of the dirty water while I discarded my vomit and went along to rinse the bucket clean and fetch a clean one at the tap, then take it inside to our bathroom. We needed the bath, and since we were both small and the bucket was huge, we decided to share and conserve energy.

While I sat, Emmett eyed me, her eyes dipping to my tummy. She said nothing and began taking off her clothes. I found it puzzling why she always did that and said nothing afterwards. It was almost 11 p.m., and Emmett was on mercy from Eliza, which meant that she could enjoy a normal night of sleep.

"You know, my mother was a seer. Not many people knew." She suddenly said and my attention was jerked away from my aching muscles.

"Did your Alpha know?" I managed to ask, and she shook her head negatively.

"She feared they'd call her a witch if word got out."

I hummed in response, taking off my dirty gown to join her in the bathroom. She smiled at me before offering me the stool while she stood behind me, offering to wash my back, and I let her because it wasn't the first time she was doing something of the sort and her fingers were so soft and delicate, just like her.

"She was the late Alpha's true mate, but he rejected her when he found out she was pregnant with her boyfriend's child. My mother's wolf awoke late; hence, she wasn't aware of the mate sensing. Her boyfriend, my father, was prepared to take her as his chosen mate, seeing as his true mate ran away one day and never came back." My heart sank from her story, and I couldn't help picturing myself as her mother because I was ready to take Sinclair as my chosen mate if he turned out not to be my true mate.

"I'm so sorry." I squeaked.

"It's okay. My father had dark blood in him, which I got a share of along with the ability to see. It's safe to say that I'm a little bit of an abomination. My father didn't want my abilities to be sniffed out because he feared I'd be misused." She said.

Misused? I was lost in this, not understanding what she was saying. How could she be misused, and why did she call herself an abomination?

"She's from the line of manipulation and sensitivity. She's a great seer, and since werewolves are not entirely creatures without magic, she can manipulate one's wolf very easily. Those with the ability to manipulate and see used to serve as priestesses many years ago." Hera chimed in, suddenly making everything make sense: "But her ability to manipulate is weak. It appears her father was the last active link."

"So she's dormant." I hummed, asking my wolf.

"Exactly. Her father might have been trying to transfer more of his abilities to her but failed. She had Orkan faintly present in her blood. Orkan is a rare plant used in conducting certain sacred rituals and performing healing. It's not something to use anyhow, and I haven't used my wolf's eye on her wolf; she's frail." Hera sniffed the air, resting her head on her paws.

"What do you mean?" I asked because, knowing Hera, she was driving at something.

"I'm saying that; I've been deeply pondering everything the Beta had said and decided to conduct a little research with fellow wolves... Perhaps her father wasn't all that clean. He might have been planning something with her. Something that might have treason written in it." Hera spoke.

"So?" I asked, and my wolf rolled her eyes at me.

"Be careful. I might be an omega wolf, but my sense of perception and observation are very high, as is my IQ. The Orkan I perceived was quite recent—say, three months ago. Orkan, when used for the wrong purposes, can mess with the mind of whoever's been taking it."

I sighed. This wasn't the first time Hera has been wary of Emmett, but today was the first time she's been this vocal about it. Hera was the most critical and rational of us both, while I chose to well, um, be less critical. And in this case, I believed Emmett was nice. Her father? Maybe not so much.

"If we want to get on our mate's good side, avoiding that girl should be our top priority." Hera said.

I rolled my eyes at her selfishness. She might have had a point, but when it came to that walking sin that was unfortunately our mate, she lost all reasonable thinking.

"I'm not staying friendless because of that goddessforsaken man! Hmph!"

Hera groaned and retreated to the deep corners of my mind.

I was jolted by water falling down my body, immersing me in cold chills that I was unprepared for.

We both paused when we began hearing bells ringing loudly. I turned to Emmett, who stood shaken up and frowning anxiously. In all my days of staying here, I've never heard a bell ring, let alone bells.

"What's going on?" I asked.

Emmett gulped before saying, "That's the emergency alarm. It's used when something serious has happened."

Something serious?

"Something serious, like what?"

"Like danger," Emmett said, and a cold, tight knot formed in my gut.