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Home / Werewolf / THE SLAVE WHO REJECTED THE ALPHA / Chapter 1 - Chapter 10

All Chapters of THE SLAVE WHO REJECTED THE ALPHA : Chapter 1 - Chapter 10

73 Chapters

1

Melany's POVCrack!The heel came down on my palm, and pain shot up my arm so fast that my breath caught in my throat. My knees hit the kitchen floor a second later. The tiles were cold and greasy under my skin, and for a moment all I could do was curl my fingers against them and try not to make a sound. I knew from experience that screaming only made them laugh harder.“Bitch.”“Slut.”They had called me worse things before, so the insults should not have hurt anymore, but every time they said them, I remembered what I was in this house. Not a girl. Not even a servant.Victoria grabbed my hair and pulled my head back. My scalp burned as she forced me to look up at her. She looked beautiful, as always. Golden hair, clean dress, soft pink lips, and a face everyone in Black Moon admired. If a stranger walked in, he would probably think she was kind.“You know very well why you are getting beaten,” she said, looking down at me as if I had dirtied her shoes by bleeding near them.Her fri

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My fingers tightened around the edge of my apron. I wanted to tell him that Victoria had done this. I wanted to say I had made his breakfast with one good hand because no one else would. But people like me did not explain things to people like him. Dominic pointed at the floor. “Now you made a mess too. Clean it before someone comes in.”I bent down for the broken pieces first. My right hand screamed the moment I forgot and tried to use it, so I tucked it against my chest and worked with my left. The shards were slick with egg, and one cut into my thumb. I watched the blood bead there, small and bright, then wiped it quickly on my dress before Dominic could complain about that too.When the bigger pieces were gone, I took the mop from the corner and dragged it across the tiles. My ribs hurt every time I leaned forward. My legs felt weak, and the kitchen seemed to tilt slightly when I moved too fast. I knew I was not cleaning well. After a while, I was not really using the mop to cle

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I should have apologized. I should have lowered my head. I should have done anything except what I did next.But then someone behind him muttered, “No wonder. Witches are dirty bitches.”My mother’s face came into my mind so clearly that it hurt more than my broken hand. Her fingers combing my hair. Her voice telling me not to show my eyes. Her arms holding me on nights when thunder made me cry. They had taken everything from her, then spent years trying to make me repeat their lies.I moved before fear could stop me.I lunged at Alex.It was a stupid thing to do. I knew that even as I did it. He was taller, stronger, and surrounded by wolves who would never take my side. But I threw myself at him anyway, hitting his chest with my left shoulder and shoving him back one step.“My parents were not traitors!” I shouted.Alex grabbed me by the arm, but I twisted hard, ignoring the pain, and swung my left hand at his face. My palm struck his cheek with a sharp sound that seemed to crack th

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“Washing clothes,” I answered, because the truth was already humiliating enough and I had no better lie.His eyes narrowed slightly. “In that?”Heat rose to my face. I gripped the basin and tried to stand, but Dominic reached for it before I could move away. I held on by instinct, even though there was nothing in it but dirty fabric and river water. For one ridiculous second, I fought the Alpha’s son for the only clothes I owned.Of course, I lost.He pulled the basin from my hands with almost no effort, and the force sent me backward. I fell hard onto the stones, pain shooting up my spine and through my palms. Before I could recover, a gust of wind swept across the riverbank and blew my hair away from my face.Dominic went still.My whole body turned cold.No. No. No.I raised my hand to cover my face, but it was already too late. His eyes were fixed on mine, and the silence between us changed so sharply that I could barely breathe.He had seen them.I tried to scramble back, but Dom

5

Dominic pushed me away and I was surprised that I lost thought because of his action. He told Victoria, "Amo has a keen sense of smell and he hates the smell of women's blood."Victoria was not quite convinced by Dominic's explanation, still, she wrapped her arms around him like she was showing off. To say "wrapped around" might be a bit of an understatement, as she pressed her breasts against Dominic's arm and whispered petulantly in Dominic's ear. "Let's go watch the game."**I stayed in the kitchen until the moon was high. By the time the last plate was washed and the last table was wiped, my fingers had gone numb from the cold water. The maids had left long ago, laughing and talking about the game Victoria had watched with Dominic, and of course no one had thought of taking even one piece of work from me. My broken right hand throbbed under the ugly splint I had made, and every time I moved too fast, pain shot up my arm until my eyes went black for a moment.I was reaching for

6

My face burned. With my left hand, I carefully pulled the fabric away from his side. His skin was warm under my fingers, and the muscles of his stomach tightened when I touched him. I had never been this close to a man like this. Not unless someone was dragging me, hitting me, or throwing me aside. This was different. Too different.“Your face is red,” he said.“It is the candle.”I pressed the crushed herbs against the wound harder than necessary. He sucked in a breath but still laughed softly.“Do not laugh,” I muttered.“I am trying not to.”I wrapped the wound with the cleanest rag I owned, which was not very clean at all, but it was the best I had. Then I treated the claw marks on his shoulder. He watched me the whole time, and that made my hands clumsy.“What is your name?” he asked.I hesitated. “Melany,” I finally said.His silver eyes stayed on mine, or maybe on the curtain of hair I kept over them. “I am Ravok.”I repeated the name silently in my head. Ravok. It sounded li

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“I did not bewitch anyone.”“Then what are you hiding?”Before I understood what she meant, her hand went to my dress. I tried to pull away, but two girls caught my arms from behind. Victoria searched me with rough, angry movements, and when her fingers closed around the chain beneath my collar, my heart almost stopped.“No,” I breathed.She yanked it free.The silver compass swung between us, catching the light.For a moment, even Victoria fell silent. The old metal was dark at the edges, the glass scratched, the small crest almost worn away from years of being hidden against my skin. It should have looked like nothing. Just a poor, broken thing, like me.But it did not.Victoria held it up for everyone to see. “If you are not a witch,” she said, her voice full of triumph, “then what is this?”I stared at the compass in her hand and could not answer. My mother’s voice came back to me, telling me to keep it hidden, telling me that when I was old enough, I had to follow where it pointe

8

I had dreamed of it for years. One step beyond Black Moon. Then another. Then another, until the walls, the basement, the kitchen, Victoria’s voice, Dominic’s silence, and Alpha Andre’s sentence all disappeared behind me. I had imagined the forest opening like a door.It did not.The trees stood close together, their branches twisting above my head and blocking most of the sky. Roots caught my ankles. Wet leaves clung to my feet. Every breath pulled pain through my ribs, and after a while, I had to press one hand against my side just to keep moving.The compass stayed in my other hand. Its needle pointed north without hesitation now, and it held steady as if it knew where I had to go, even when I did not.“Please,” I whispered, though I did not know who I was speaking to. My mother, maybe. My father. The Moon Goddess, even though she had given me a mate who let them drag me away. “Please do not lead me into another grave.”The compass did not answer. It only pulled my eyes back to th

9

The woman’s fingers tightened on me. “Wolves?”“Yes.”She cursed under her breath and tried to sit up. I caught her shoulder before she could tear the wound open again.“You cannot move,” I whispered.“Neither can you, if they find you.”The footsteps came closer. Leaves crushed under boots. A man’s voice carried through the trees.“She could not have gone far.”Another answered, irritated. “Alpha wants proof this time. He said if we come back without a body, we can join her in the dirt.”Fear climbed up my throat.The woman looked at the compass again. “Give me that.”I backed away without meaning to. “No.”“Girl.”“No.”“If they find you with it, they will follow the trail it leaves.”“It does not leave a trail.”“It brought you to me, did it not?”I looked down at the compass. The needle had changed. It no longer pointed north. It pointed at the woman on the ground.My mouth went dry.The guards were closer now. I could hear the low growl under one of their voices, the sound of a w

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Her eyes dropped to the compass in her fist. “Because your mother trusted the wrong people and the right ones. Sometimes they are the same.”I waited, but she said nothing else.Her breathing had changed. It was slower now, uneven. She was fighting to stay awake. I could see it in the way her eyelids lowered and lifted, in the way her fingers kept loosening around the compass before tightening again.I stared at her and she stared back.Then, despite everything, I felt something strange move through my chest. Not hope. Not trust, not yet. But the sharp edge inside me shifted enough to make room for something else.“All right,” I said. “But if Nora sells me, I will come back and haunt you.”“If Nora sells you without my permission, I will haunt her first.”I leaned closer and slid one arm behind her back. She bit down hard on her own breath when I helped her sit. Her body was heavier than it looked, or maybe I was weaker than I thought. We struggled for a while before I got her upright

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