Chapter 3 Alpha's Plaything

Rachel's POV

I guess my wolf was just too stubborn to die. Thankfully, a passing patrol smelled the smoke and pulled me out of the wreckage before the fuel tank blew.

When I woke up in the pack clinic, it was already the next morning.

"Fractured right arm, mild concussion and multiple soft tissue tears from the metal," the pack doctor looked over my chart. "Your wolf's healing is sluggish. Anything else uncomfortable?"

I shook my head as my good ear strained to catch his words. I picked up my phone and checked. Not a single call from Daniel.

Daniel that had never shared anything personal for once on the PackCircle, a private social feed for high-ranking members, had just posted a photo.

The focus was on Elena. She was wearing a Bohemian dress that flowed like water, her elegance made her look more radiant.

Four years in Daniel’s shadow, and what was I to him?

Nothing but a temporary fix.

---

I returned to my tiny apartment in the Omega quarters after my discharge and took a heavy dose of pain-relief herbs before falling into a dreamless sleep.

After sleeping through a whole moon cycle, I finally felt like a functional wolf again. I dragged myself back to the Vance Group headquarters.

I needed my internship stipend. Without pack credits, I couldn’t buy my way out of this territory.

"Did you see the Alpha’s post? He's totally claimed! He never shares his private life, but he made an exception just for Lady Elena!"

"I know! He’s the perfect Alpha. All these years, he kept his distance from other females. He was clearly just waiting for his true Luna to return!"

The moment I stepped into the office, the gossip filled the air.

Daniel loved Elena. But "kept his distance from other females" That was a joke.

"Ms. Vance, this is a restricted work area…"

Suddenly, the scent of aggressive pheromones flooded the floor and my blood ran cold instantly.

Cassidy had arrived.

"Get out of my way!" Cassidy stormed in and walked straight up to my desk.

I shrank back with my head down and my neck exposed in a forced submissive posture. The shadow of her freshman year cruelty never really left me.

"Rachel, Daniel’s coming back today," Cassidy whispered in my ear and her voice dripped with venom. "He and Elena are finalizing the mating bond. It’s over."

She let out a mocking laugh that made my wolf whimper. "Four years ago, I told you that the day Daniel get tired of you is the day I will finish what I started..."

I froze. Four years had passed but Cassidy's hunger for my suffering hadn't dimmed.

Smack!

In front of the entire office, She backhanded me across the face. Her Alpha-blood strength sent me stumbling against my desk.

I didn’t fight back. I didn’t even growl. I couldn't as she held a higher rank. The pack laws were stacked against me.

I felt like sinking my teeth into her throat and take us both to the grave. But I have to survive until the 13th.

"Remember that slap?" Cassidy sneered. "Back then, Daniel disciplined me because of you. The first time in my life my brother ever laid a hand on me!"

She grabbed a lukewarm cup of coffee from a nearby desk and poured it slowly over my head.

"You think being the Alpha’s plaything meant you had won? Look at you. An orphaned Omega. That’s all you’ll ever be. Do you really think he’d ever put a Luna’s mark on your neck?"

She shoved my head down. "Get out of the Vance Group. If I see you here when Daniel returns, I’ll leak the footage of your 'initiation' from freshman year to the entire pack and everyone will see the 'virgin' Omega in all her glory."

I kept my head down.

The "initiation." When she and her friends had pinned me down, stripped me and mocked my lack of a scent before my first shift. No one in the office dared to speak up. Cassidy was the Alpha’s sister. To cross her was to cross the bloodline.

After Cassidy had left, a coworker cautiously whispered, "Rachel, how did you get on the wrong side of the Vances?"

I forced a smile and wiped the sticky coffee off my face. "Just old drama from our school days."

In the restroom.

Hiding in the last stall to fix my clothes and mask the scent of my distress.

Back in my freshman year, I would’ve howled at the moon about the unfairness of it all. Was it my fault that my parents died in a rogue raid? Did having no pack lineage mean I should be bullied?

My phone buzzed. A notification from the pack bank. Daniel had wired 50,000 credits to my account.

The scene Cassidy caused must have reached his ears already.

Wow. Fifty thousand credits for a slap. That was the going rate for my dignity these days.

"I already spoke to Cassidy. She’s been reprimanded. Go buy yourself something to help you heal."

His voice message came right after. The same dismissive tone he used for the wounded scout.

"Thank you, Alpha Vance."

I accepted the transfer. I earned every single credit through blood and humiliation and I would need it for my flight.

I stared at our chat for a moment. A foolish part of my wolf was still sniffing for a trace of concern. Hoping he would ask if I was okay after the crash. If I was scared when the car caught fire.

But there was nothing.

I shut off my phone and walked straight to the Office of Pack Affairs to file my resignation. Since I was just an unranked intern, the process was a mere formality.

Tomorrow is the 13th. The night I would meet Alpha Gabriel Silas at the Dawson Estate.

I would finally get out of Crestwood, out of Mia's and Daniel’s reach.