Chapter 6: The Alpha's Indifference

Rachel's POV

Daniel deliberately avoided my eyes.

He shot Cassidy a warning glare and disappeared back into his private study.

Despite how desperately my inner wolf whined, he ignored me. This was his punishment. He must have believed I brought those cookies to the estate to insult Elena.

The three of them, Cassidy, Sandra and Aaron burst into a mocking laughter.

Their voices echoed through the halls like hyenas.

"Come sit with us, Rachel," Elena said

But I couldn't move.

My legs felt heavy while my mind was drowning in horrific flashbacks of what those three had done to me during my first year at the Academy.

"Elena, isn't this Rachel? Our Academy’s tragic little Omega..." Aaron sneered as his eyes scanned me up and down with terrifying intensity.

Elena's face lit up with mock innocence. "Oh? You were classmates? Splendid, I’m sure you’ll get along beautifully."

"Lady Elena," my voice trembled, "I... I just remembered an emergency at the sanctuary. I have to leave. I'm so sorry."

As I spun around, Aaron's strong aura slammed into my back and my legs gave out after only a few steps. I crashed hard onto the marble floor.

"Let's help our submissive classmate out." Cassidy took the lead.

I wanted to flee. But I was completely paralyzed by the terror dominating my senses. It wasn't just their physical strength, it was the pain of everything I had already survived at their hands.

"What's wrong? Can't you even stand on your own?" Aaron lunged forward and yanked me off the floor like a broken rag doll. "Our campus queen isn't going to shift and piss herself out of fear again, is she?"

I lowered my head as my deaf left ear rang with a sharp pain. My face burned with humiliation as I tried to break free.

But an unbonded Omega stood no chance against a trained pureblood warrior.

"Daniel is sealing his mating bond with my sister," Aaron grinned. "Now tell me, rogue, how should the pack handle a stray who keeps trying to mark her territory on my future brother-in-law?"

I knew Aaron all too well. He never needed a logical reason to torment me.

He had pursued me aggressively during orientation week of my freshman year. Back then, I hadn't realized I had caught the eye of a true monster. I rejected him openly in front of the entire student body. That public blow to his Alpha pride was the catalyst for my living nightmare.

In the months that followed, Aaron used that rejection as a license to break me. He and his friends had stripped me of my clothes to expose my lack of a pack mark, burned my skin and locked me in a suffocating wooden crate for days. They had even forced me to sleep outside in the pack’s communal waste facilities.

And when I tried to fight back? They reminded me of the power they held over the rogue pup sanctuary, the orphanage.

I was the only wolf from that impoverished sanctuary to ever score high enough to enter the High Academy. I was the pups' only hope for a better future. I couldn't afford to get exiled or executed for striking a pureblood.

"Say something!" Sandra snapped and kicked my legs. "What's with the silent act? Daniel doesn't want your pathetic wolf anymore, understood? And if you don't start showing some respect, we can have the Alpha Council shut down that filthy orphanage of yours by sunrise!"

I lay flat on the bare ground with my heart sinking. I wanted to look presentable when I would meet Alpha Silas in this dress. I wanted to look like someone worthy of a conversation.

That plan was completely ruined now.

"What, did we make you deaf and mute too?" Sandra barked and slapped me

A housemaid walked past the courtyard and caught sight of the assault. She immediately looked away and quickened her pace.

Still, I didn't utter a sound. I never begged and I never howled for mercy. I just sat there, stubborn and detached while taking the blows.

Years ago, Aaron asked me during a beating, "What do you think about while you're lying there taking a beating?"

I had never given him the satisfaction of an answer.

The truth was, every single time they struck me, a dark voice in my head whispered, maybe I should just die. Take a vial of wolfsbane and poison all three of them. Kill them in their sleep. It wouldn't even be that difficult.

But the memory of the sanctuary pups always pulled me back from the edge. The elderly director had scraped together every single pack credit she had to send me to school. I couldn't throw my life away until I had paid them back.

Over the years, Daniel hadn't actually given me much. He had granted me a secondary pack card to spend on basic necessities but my pride rarely let me touch it. The forty-thousand-credit designer bag I had bought once was the only reckless attempt I had ever made to fit into his high-society world.

Throughout my college years, I worked three part-time jobs a day. Every single cent I earned was sent straight back to the orphanage.

"Shit, you're utterly boring," Aaron cursed and spat on the grass before leaning against the stone pillar to light a cigarette.

Cassidy glanced at me wickedly. "Daniel is done with her. You've been hunting this stray for years. Aaron, you can take her anywhere you want."

Aaron's eyes flashed in excitement, "Damaged goods. Why would someone like me want Daniel's leftovers?"

I pushed myself up from the dirt, ignoring their words and started walking stiffly toward the estate gates.

"What the hell, does she want to get slaughtered?" Sandra exploded. As they were accustomed to absolute submission, my quiet defiance almost drove their wolves insane.

Daniel was planning his formal proposal today, yet he had intentionally summoned me to the house, granting my tormentor the permission to terrorize me. m

Sandra rushed forward and kicked me directly in the spine. I flew over the stone ledge, straight into the decorative estate pond.

It was November. The Crestwood territory was already locked in a bitter freeze. The water was icy enough to shock my lungs.

"Enough."

Daniel’s voice boomed across the courtyard.

I knew exactly why he had waited this long to intervene. He didn't want to publicly humiliate Elena's family. He knew precisely what his sister and Aaron were doing but he prioritised making his future pureblood mate feel secure over protecting her.

Daniel had chosen his political match over my survival.

Elena followed closely behind him. "Oh my, Rachel! How on earth did you manage to fall into the pond?"

"She lost her footing." Sandra stepped back under Daniel's icy glare.

"Sorry... I'll head home now..." I managed to gasp out.

"Rachel .." Daniel called out, but stopped himself the moment Elena touched his arm. "I'll have the pack driver take you."

I looked back at him one final time "No, thank you..."

I swore to my inner wolf, right there, that this would be the absolute last time I ever looked at Daniel Vance with a shred of devotion.

As the Vance territory wasn't far from the borders of the Blackwood pack domain, I managed to reach the grand estate gates within fifteen minutes.

I vividly remembered the first time I laid eyes on Alpha Silas Blackwood. It was at Crestwood's most elite club. That evening, Daniel was desperately trying to secure an alliance with several royal Alphas and Silas was the undisputed leader of that delegation.

I was tasked to deliver Daniel's forgotten formal jacket to the VIP lounge and that was the moment Silas’s gaze locked onto mine.

According to the hushed whispers of the other high-ranking wolves in the room, my features perfectly matched every single preference the enigmatic Alpha Silas possessed.

Right in front of Daniel’s face, Silas demanded my contact. And Daniel, terrified of offending his caliber, didn't say a single word of objection.

Later that week, Silas summoned me to a private dinner. I panicked and refused. Because of my absence, Alpha Silas bypassed the games entirely and offered me a structured contractual mating. Terrified of getting caught in the crossfire of high-level pack politics, I blocked his number.

But tonight, the world has changed.

Alpha Silas Blackwood was no longer a terrifying predator to be avoided. He was my absolute last lifeline.

I would accept his contract. With the power of the Blackwood Pack, I would grow my own claws and secure the resources necessary to feed and protect the orphans who depended on me, no matter the cost.