Alana
“Hey monster! Catch!”
I opened my hand in an instinct to try to catch the mongrels and scraps of food thrown by Sophia from the hole in my prison in the basement.
It was a half-bitten stale bread with molds all over it but instead of throwing it back away, my mouth began watering and I devoured the bread like a hungry beast that I am. It’s my first meal for the weak. They only gave me half a glass of water for the whole day and that was only yesterday. Now, I have nothing but a growling stomach and since this morning, I’ve been throwing up acid because I haven’t eaten for days.
“Yuck! She really ate it!” Sophia laughed loud and invited her friends to take a peek at my sorry state below.
Sophia is my step-sister, a daughter from the marriage my father had with a young single mother when my mother died after giving birth to me.
“Didn’t she know it was my dog food? Hey Alana monster! You are just like a mutt! A mutt!”
All of them laughed in chorus but I was too hungry to mind it. I need to eat because I am famished. I need to survive no matter what even though I don’t know what purpose I have to keep on living.
Everybody in the pack resents me. Nobody even wants to look at me every time I am paraded in the streets like a criminal to mark my mother’s death anniversary.
“Hey Alana. Did you know that the alpha prince is coming to the mansion for dinner? He will be attending the ceremony. All of the girls are invited so he could pick a future wife from all of us,” Justine, one of Sophia’s friends and the daughter of our pack’s beta, said. “And you’re the only one who can’t go there.”
I didn’t reply and just continued munching with my food.
I already heard it yesterday when Minerva, my stepmom, boasted to me that the son of the alpha king is coming to ask Sophia’s hand for marriage and that my father prepared a sumptuous festive dinner for them.
“I… It’s okay,” I said, trembling in hunger when the scraps barely fill my stomach.
I don’t want to see whoever that is. I just want to eat real food. It’s been a year since I tasted meat and vegetables. And it came from a guest who took pity on me.
“Of course you cannot be there! I’m sure the alpha prince won’t look at you twice. You are the most horrendous-looking person in the entire world!”
“I know,” I said while getting back into my curled position on the dirty floor. I’m sure he won’t even want to look at me.
I don’t know what bath is and I haven’t changed my clothes since last month. I stink in contrast with the alpha prince whom I imagined to be a handsome fragrant strong alpha.
All I know is that I have to endure more of this just so my father would accept me. He said he will accept me back as his daughter if I behave well according to his standards.
One of Sophia’s friends regurgitated food out of her mouth and threw it at me while the other one was recording the scenes on her phone.
“Here you go mutt! Eat this too!”
The squad laughed again when I took out the wet undigested bread that’s stuck in my hair and smelled it and set it aside. No, I can’t eat it.
“Eat it! Eat it!” they chanted.
“Damn you!” Sophia shouted from above when she saw that I did not obey her friend. “Why did you throw it away! Didn’t you hear what she said? She said you should eat it! So take that again and eat it!”
But I did not move and just stared up at them. Why are they outside while I am rotting here alone? Does it mean their parents do not love them?
“Sophia, I thought she’s not a picky eater. Why won’t she eat my vomit?”
“Wait, I’ll come down and I’ll show her what will happen if she won’t obey me. Give me the key!”
The guard opened the door of my cage and Sophia with her dainty and beautifully-made fingernails dug into my hair as she pushed me into the ground where the vomit was.
“I said eat it!” she screamed while laughing as she held me down towards the ground forcing me to eat the vomit on the dirt. “Don’t embarrass me in front of my friends!”
She kicked my butt and I lost my balance as I fell directly into the vomit crying helplessly and silently.
“You will obey everything I will say you to do because I am the princess of this pack and I am the favorite of my daddy, you understand me?” she asked in a laughing tone clearly enjoying my suffering.
“N-No,” I said, trying to keep my head from not touching the ground anymore.
I moved my head to free my hair from her gripping tight hold causing some of the food bits to fly into her skin which enraged her.
“Ew! What did you do?! Dad! Dad! Help me! Alana hurt me!”
I looked up, shaking all over when she called for dad. No! He will beat me again!
“What happened?!” My stepmom came in the door.
“She spit on me!” Sophia showed her mom the food on her skin.