The conversation going on inside the brightly lit room broke me in a way nobody would be able to mend.
One of the voices belonged to my long-term tormenter, Mike, the alpha's only son who was meant to take over his father's office in a few days when he turned eighteen.
Mike had actually been quite close to me at one point when we were younger.
But that was before my father's set-up and execution.
My father had been the strongest warrior in the pack and the pack members respected him greatly.
He was a man with a big build but he moved with the speed of a cheetah.
His strength was only matched by the alpha and in every battle, his presence guaranteed victory for the pack.
Until one day when an enemy pack attacked without warning and a good number of wolves in the pack died.
But my father had fought as he usually did, and killed most of the attacking wolves while the others escaped with their tails between their legs.
Then came the following morning and the alpha led his beta and gamma to our house and arrested my father with the charge of betraying the pack and opening their territory borders for the enemies to attack without a sound.
He had cried his innocence, but an overwhelming amount of evidence collected all pointed to him.
No matter how much he defended himself, no one believed him.
The people who had once worshipped him now cursed him.
Mothers who had lost their sons and daughters wailed. Fathers wiped silent tears silently.
Husbands or wives who had lost their mates collapsed and children who had become orphans stood aside with blank expressions as if they didn't understand what was happening.
My father stood in the middle of the training grounds.
The ground on which he had turned most of the pack members into real and feared warriors.
The ground on which through his blood and sweat had made their pack the best in the region and closed his eyes.
A single tear fell from his eyes and when he opened them again, he no longer pleaded his innocence.
He said one sentence, which would be his last.
"If my death can calm the grief of everyone here suffering, then I will accept it, but I am no traitor." His usually deep and loud voice lacked its usual vigor.
At the time, I was ten years old and didn't understand most of what was happening, but I knew it wasn't anything good when I saw my father in silver chains and my mother collapsing in tears.
I had grabbed my mother's skirt and cried along with her.
When my father's head fell to the ground, my mother collapsed to the ground as well.
She hadn't lived long after that. Losing her mate completely shattered her and she died a month later.
I became an orphan everyone scorned.
I began facing humiliation and was forced to move out of our previous big house and into a dark utility room in the pack house.
I had been turned into a slave everyone could step on whenever they were in a bad mood.
Mike, who had been like a brother to me and was trained by my father from a young age had also distanced himself from me.
At first he didn't bully me like the other children did. But as time went by, he began tormenting me more than anyone else.
And at this moment, I was listening to a conversation that made me realize that my previous suffering was paradise compared to what Mike had planned for me.
"The bet we made three years ago is about to come to fruition. Mike, you better have my reward ready." Came Karl's voice.
"Are you sure she will agree?" Mike asked, uncertainty and doubt clear in his deepening voice.
"Of course she will agree. She trusts me more than anyone and believes that I have genuine feelings for her. As long as I ask to make love to cement our feelings, she will agree without hesitation." Karl bragged, his voice that I usually found soothing now grating to my ears.
I stood outside the window and didn't know who they were talking about, but something inside me made me feel an unknown fear.
I wanted to escape from that place to prevent myself from hearing more. I didn't want to confirm my fears.
But it felt as if my legs were filled with lead and wouldn't budge.
So, I was forced to listen to the rest of the conversation.
A conversation that changed how I interacted with other humans in the future. If some people could be called human at all.
"Well, you will have to get in line for this one." Mike spoke with the authority of an alpha this time.
I didn't understand why but this was the first time since I was thirteen that I trembled from the fear of an alpha wolf.
Ever since my wolf awakened, even when facing the alpha, my fear and trembling had always been a pretense to prevent myself from torture for showing disrespect.
Now feeling the natural urge to submit made my stomach churn.
I had no desire to show respect to such a person.
"What do you mean get in line, Mike? I have had to pretend to care for her for three years.
I held her disgusting and calluses filled hands and spent precious time teaching her stuff she had no business knowing. I am practically traumatized, and you are telling me I can't get the prize? How is that possible?" Karl's angry voice tore the last shred of hope I had been holding onto.
One could tell from the small almost unnoticeable growl in Karl's voice that he was not affected by the alpha power Mike was emitting.
How could he be affected? He was an alpha himself too.
In their region, it was normal for packs to send their alpha in line to inherit the throne to other packs for training.
They usually took turns and in the generation of Mike, it was Karl's pack's turn to send their future alpha out.
That was why Karl, a future alpha from another pack, was raised in Valerie's pack from the age of fifteen.
"Relax champ, I didn't say you wouldn't get to sleep with her, you just have to do it after I am done with her." Mike placated carelessly but those words felt like thunder to me as I stood below the window.