Chapter 1
Txälina
When my mother was still alive, she taught me a lot of things, how to make a good breeder, how to please men. But what she never taught me was how to be slow to anger, how not to have the urge to stab men when they make me angry.
And right now, my anger is rising.
"What are you doing?" Kaluen demands. His breath reeks of alcohol.
"What does it look like?" I mutter, brushing the dirt off the floor. "I'm cleaning your room."
Frowning, Kaluen jerks the broom from my hand, nearly striking my face with it. "I still see dirt on the ground."
Then maybe your eyes need some cleaning, I wanted to say. I bit my tongue, instead. "It's clean."
"I don't like the way you're doing it."
I really wish I had drunk more wine before coming to his room. It makes me less eager to gut him. But females here don't have the power to speak. We are trained to serve men. We are trained to see them as gods, while they treat us like slaves, like breeders. They care little about us.
My dear brother is the close friend of the Beta, Mätxin. He's only five years older than me, but he sees me as nothing more than an object. A slave. He looks at me with disgust.
When he was born, they took him from my mother. That was the law of the Säli pack. Males are always taken from their mothers at birth to prevent them from forming bonds.
Many years ago, women held the upper hand in the pack. Säli women fought wars and ruled the pack. They were the closest beings to the moon goddess, Säli. The women did everything, and the men were viewed as weak by other packs. Not that the Säli women cared, they still loved their husbands even with the power difference. But the men grew jealous. With the help of other packs, they defeated the women and turned us into slaves. They made us breeders and viewed us as objects. That's why every time my brother stares at me, hate flashes through his eyes.
Since the age of ten, he was trained at the warrior camp, and the males fed him lies. They made him believe we were slaves. And when he visited us after many years, he came back full of rage. I hate him. I hate him so much that I want to stab him.
But he's stronger than I am. With his werewolf strength, he could defeat me easily. I don't have my wolf. I lost her during my first shift, when they gave me wolfsbane to drink. They rip our Werewolves from us during the first shift. Other females could not shift even at ripe age because of manipulation from the males, making the moon not bless them with wolves.
"Maybe it's that pretty face giving you ideas. A scar would fix everything," he says, walking back to his bed.
On his bed are three females. He calls them his pets, and every night until dawn, they pleasure him in every way they can. Sometimes, he whips them with a lash if they fail to please him the way he wants.
"You're boring me," he says to the red-haired female, with pale skin. She's his new pet. "Get out."
"Of course, my Lord," she bows, trailing her fingers along his chest.
But Kaluen only frowns and push her away.
And I frown too. There's no way she wants to seduce him. I don't blame her. They've been groomed to think they always need to please men.
He slaps the other two females on their asses and shoves them. "All of you, get out of my room now. I'm done with you for this morning."
They quickly get up from the bed, naked, and walk out of the room. The first two have hair like bird nests. The others have makeup smears all over her face.
I just finish sweeping and I'm heading out of the room when he calls me.
"Not you," he says.
I turn around.
Kaluen is only dressed in black trousers. His chest is on full display. He's beautiful, tall, and I hate that I look like him.
We took after our mother, brown skin, curly hair, and full pink lips. Dark freckles dots the upper part of my cheeks. Our eyes are deep gold, just like other Werewolves.
"What's with the frown?" he asks. "Is this how you thank me after everything I've done for you?"
I fight hard not to frown and replace it with a stiff smile– just what he was expecting.
"You do—"
"There are slaves in this pack right now, living on the streets and stealing to survive. And you sulk like a brat?"
He might be a little right. Even with the series of beatings I receive every day, I still have a roof over my head, unlike most Säli females. My situation could be much worse. Being a female in the Säli pack... who knows what would have happened to me? I could be living with an Elder male, carrying his seed, and getting beaten every day.
But that doesn't stop me from hating him.
"Go to your room. We'll meet tonight."
"Tonight?" I ask.
"Yes." He rises from his bed. "Beta Mätxin is paying a visit."
It takes a lot of control not to say something. I hate Kaluen, but Mätxin? I hate him even more. He's a cruel warrior, brother to Alpha Wyränkla. He uses his powers on women. He treats them even worse than Kaluen.
He and my brother have been close friends for years now.
"Oh," was all I could say. Mätxin would want to see me. He has some sick obsession with me that he doesn't even try to hide.
His obsession makes Kaluen even more possessive of me. Kaluen sees me as a treasure, something he could use to gain massive wealth from Mätxin.
When Mätxin is around, Kaluen brings me up around him. And Mätxin's eyes flash like he's seen a new toy to play with. But not just to play. He does worse things to his women. Things that make my skin crawl.
"You'll have dinner with us," he says, and I force my head to nod. "Now leave my sight. Make sure you wear something good to impress him."
I stare at him.
"Bow," he says.
I bow my head.
"Soon you'll call me Alpha," he says. "Now go."
Kaluen's obsession with becoming Alpha started when he became friends with Beta Mätxin.