The fate of the Rejected Alpha

THE GENUINE ALPHA’S DAUGHTER

The dining table was full. On the dark stone walls of the great hall, every fifteen meters there was a torch lit with the dancing fire on them and the last rays of sunlight illuminated the dining room. The genuine couple was the first to feed, when they were finished, it was the betas couples’ turn and then the omega couples’. When the table was practically empty, with not much left, it was released for the last one’s meal.

“Now you can help yourself, Bloodstain,” ordered the genuine to his cub, who kept her eyes on the table, her mouth salivating and her stomach growling every time she saw someone chew on any piece of meat, but waited patiently for her turn.

“All right, papa.”

“I told you not to call me that!” cried the genuine, interrupting the small hand of picking up one of the bones on the table. “Go to your den, you won’t eat today!”

“But…”

“You want to get beaten up?” Bloodstain felt her body tremble all over at the murderous look her mother cast upon her.

It has been three days since the little one ate. The first day was because she transformed and ran through the hidden forest, she was caught lying on a tree with large roots that protected her from the snowflakes. The second was because she didn’t clean up the blood in the torture room after the genuine one had fun slicing up a middle-aged human, and now this. Tears cascaded through the little girl’s almond brown eyes, her belly growling, but the fear was much greater.

“You know I don’t like it,” Kratos pulled her black hair, almost pulling it out of Bloodstain’s scalp, causing immense pain and forcing her to lift her head. “Don’t make me lose patience with you, you disgrace!” He shouted and spat in the girl’s face, who closed her eyes and swallowed her crying, unable to control some sobs that came out of her mouth without her permission and she knew that this was irritating the genuine even more.

“Sir, she…”

“Stay out of it!” He growled at the luna cimex who tried to intervene on the girl’s behalf.

With disgust stamped on his face, Kratos pushed Bloodstain into the ground, banging her head. She was dizzy for a few seconds and felt the blood drip down her eyes. Taking a deep breath, she gathered all her strength and rose from the ground, looked around, and only received looks of disgust and contempt from almost everyone in the hall. The only different look came from the cimex luna called Guila. Bloodstain bowed to the genuine couple and left the dining room. With faltering steps, leaning on the walls, she descended the stairs that lead to the basement of the castle, where her den was. Alone, again. It hurt her, she hated being alone, but loneliness was her greatest companion.

Bloodstain, like the other pack’s members, blasphemed against herself, saying that if it were not for her existence, her brother would be alive and would be loved by all for being the next genuine alpha.

Bloodstain didn’t die as a puppy thanks to luna cimex Guila, who was the only one who took care of her. Guila was the one who remained in her lupine form to warm and protect the puppy. The hardest part of all of that was when the little one was hungry. The genuine lunam refused to feed Bloodstain; the most she did, and just because it was her mate’s order, was to pump her milk and put it in a clay pot.

Guila would wet a cotton cloth with the milk and put it in the little one’s mouth, over and over again. She had to do that in her human form, but soon afterwards she would return to her lupine form and nest the little one in her warm fur so that she could sleep peacefully.

The genuine’s daughter’s den was always cold and not at all illuminated, there was no bed of straw covered with bear skins. There was only the icy floor to lie on, so as not to freeze to death, Gulia could only sleep in her lupine form on the cold floor. When Bloodstain positioned her hands to take off her battered and torn dress, her ears detected the sound of footsteps approaching. It was Guila, the only one who cared about Bloodstain.

“You shouldn’t be here…”

“I know,” Guila replied softly. She entered the den and sat on the floor next to her. “Here, take it.”

From inside the pocket of her dress, Guila pulled out a small piece of dried meat, it was the rest of the food destined for human slaves. But that was better than letting the girl starve to death.

Bloodstain’s eyes flashed, she had to control herself too much not to let the drool drip. With eyes fixed on the small piece of dried meat in Guila’s hands, she lifted one of her hands and, with her fingers trembling from the anxiety of finally being able to eat something in days, the young woman took it and ate it in just a single bite. It wasn’t enough for her hunger to pass and her stomach growled asking for more. It hurt Guila’s heart to see her like that.

“Thanks so much, Guila. You saved me as always.”

Bloodstain thanked her with her head down and a tear trickled from her eyes. The blood on her forehead was still dripping, but the pain of that didn’t compare to the pain she felt inside.

“Why don’t you treat me like the others? I know I shouldn’t have been born, that because of me, my brother…”

“Don’t talk nonsense, girl. The goddess is never wrong. Everything that happens is because…”

“What goddess are you talking about, Guila?” Bloodstain looked at her in confusion.

Talking about the moon goddess was forbidden. Nobody believed in her anymore and the genuine alpha would even kill anyone he saw thanking or talking about the moon goddess.

“The goddess of the moon. It’s thanks to her that we exist. She’s our absolute goddess, she’s the one who dictates our fate,” Guila said quietly.

“And why are you almost whispering? You can’t talk about it?”

“Your father doesn’t like us talking about her.”

“Why?”

“You don’t have to know now, you just need to know that the goddess has a purpose for you.”

“Then why did she let my brother die? She made me born just to be hated by everyone and what’s the point in that, Guila? I’m sure she doesn’t care about me.”

“Stop with this blasphemy. They don’t treat you like that because of her! The Lycan race fell into disgrace because they so wished, because they didn’t listen to her. They changed their own path. She has nothing to do with the wrong decisions of our kind.”

“Then why, Guila? What’s the point of living like this? I don’t want to suffer any more!” she cried. .

“In time the answers will come, child, one day, I’m sure, the goddess’s plans for you will make sense. Until then, don’t talk anymore nonsense, and always ask her for protection. She’ll listen to you. She’s fair!”

“I want to know more about her,” Bloodstain said as she wiped her eyes. Her head throbbed, the cut on her eyebrow burned.

“You better transform, so you can heal this wound,” Guila said gently and so the girl did.

She got up and took off her dress and transformed; in her lupine form she was still a puppy. Transformed, she was almost the size of Guila’s wolf. That was another proof that Bloodstain didn’t look any weaker than a cimex luna, even though she was treated worse than one. The girl was a noble Lycan.

Bloodstain lay down beside Guila, who patted her fluffy head.

Bloodstain’s fur, in Guilla’s eyes, was beautiful, so white. Guila could see beauty even in the small red round patches scattered across the back of the cub wolf in her lap.

On the rest of her limbs, those stains represented her brother’s blood. That’s why they named her Bloodstain. From Latin, it means bloodstained.

“Sleep, my little one.”

Guila said and took the girl’s head from her lap. Her heart ached every time she saw the pitiful way in which the genuine’s daughter was treated. The girl didn’t have any privilege, being treated worse than a servant. And it hurt so much not to be able to do anything. Guila’s heart hurt for her. The most she could do was watch and hope that the goddess would rid her of the cruel fate that this poor girl’s father had prepared for her.

And the goddess had been watching all along. Her trial was already in progress.