Chapter 41
I quickly looked down at my feet.
“Good evening.” I greeted.
I could feel her gaze on me.
I could tell how much she hated me.
There was no distinguishing factor.
“What are you doing alive?” She asked me.
I looked back up at her.
She seemed shocked to see me.
Then I remembered what Xaden had said.
I had been poisoned.
Was she the one who had done it?
She just gazed over at me.
“How did you get out alive?” She asked me as she caught my dress. “You’re a latent wolf, aren’t you? So that wolfsbane should have killed you.”
I just looked at her and wondered how she could so comfortably tell me that she had tried to kill me.
“I didn’t die,” I said.
She twisted her face, and her beauty was replaced with a harrowing feature.
“So because you probably managed to get under Erik’s skin to fuck me, now he is your ally, huh?” She asked me.
I was insulted by that comment and drew myself away from her.
I was angry because she had insulted Erik.
Erik, whom I had seen, was loyal to Xaden and would never betray him.
Moreover, the time Xaden had wanted to force himself on me, it was Erik who had intervened and stopped him.
I was grateful to him, and seeing her insult him gave me a sudden surge of emotion.
I looked her in the eye for the first time, facing someone without cowering.
“Why would you suggest such a thing?” I asked. “He saved my life. And I owe him that. Not everyone would have to do something to get something else in return.”
The slap landed on my face instantly and sent my face to the side.
“You stupid bitch!” She spat at me. “You have grown wings, huh? You don’t know where you are, do you? You have so conveniently forgotten who you are.”
Then she grabbed me by my dress and hauled me to the wall.
“Let me just get this straight into your head. You are here to suffer. And it hasn’t even begun. Xaden gave me the power to make your life miserable.” She said. “And I will do that. I will make you pay for everything your family did to me. No one here likes you! We all want you dead! And the pain I’ll give you will be so much worse that you will beg for death.”
Then she pushed me to the ground, and I fell.
“Filthy Latent.” She hissed.
And then she kicked my tummy, and I held it and howled in pain.
She turned on her heels and walked away, leaving me holding on to the pain that she had inflicted on me.
I managed to rise to my feet and lean against the wall, taking in deep breaths.
I had received worse punishment.
A single kick to my tummy wasn’t going to kill me.
And what was wrong with me?
Why had I faced her that way?
I had never answered anyone back, but why her?
I sighed as the chains clanked together as I walked on.
Then I went out to the land mass, which was the farm.
I was given a hoe to weed.
I greeted the others working there, but they all ignored me.
I sighed and started my work.
I raked the fields, hoed the weeds, and planted the new fields.
“You are going to be assigned a plot of land.” The instructor told me.
He looked like he didn’t want to talk to me.
My entire presence was revolting against him.
He was a man in his late forties and buff.
“You will clear the land and home and ensure it’s good for planting.” He said. “You are to finish hoeing the land before preparations for the new planting before the end of today.
When he took me to the land, I gasped in shock.
The land was massive, wide, and filled with weeds.
He flung the hoe at me.
“You start now,” he said.
The others started laughing at me, and I knew I had been given an impossible task.
“If you don’t finish before the end of the day, you will be whipped thirty times.” He said that, and he went away.
Without complaining, I went ahead with my chores and began.
I worked dutifully, as it was not the first time I had farmed.
I cleared the weeds and hoed the soil to prepare it for planting.
I worked tirelessly without stopping, and then a loud whistle rang in my ears.
“Water break.” Came the announcement.
I sighed in relief.
I had been so tired that I had toiled under the sun without stopping.
I cleaned off the sweat on my brows and saw all the workers forming a queue to receive water.
I could feel the stares on my back when I joined the line.
Worse, my chains made it clear who I was.
“Look at how ugly she is.” Someone said.
“Breathing the same air we breathe.” Someone else said:
“I heard she is a prostitute and sleeps with three men every night.”
“Just look at her! Incarnate of her father.”
“I hope Alpha Xaden mutilates her body and hangs it for decoration.”
I heard the side comments and insults of those around me.
These people didn’t know me but judged me, just like the guards and Aurora.
I sighed as they didn’t even bother to lower their voices.
When I reached my turn to collect the water, the man frowned.
“There is no water for you.” He said. “Get out!
I looked at him, hurt and surprised. “Please, I am thirsty.”
I said to him: “Please, just some water.”
“I SAID THERE IS NO WATER FOR YOU! YOU ABOMINATION! GET OUT!” the man yelled at me, and those behind me pushed me out of the queue.
They were jeering and laughing at me.
I felt the tears behind my eyes as I returned to my plot to work.
I watched as others drank to their satisfaction, and I dejectedly resumed my work.