The water was scalding hot.

Her hands were red and pruned into an old lady wrinkly look from having them emerged in water for hours, it had become a constant for her. Either doing dishes for hours or doing laundry. She was not allowed to do ordinary cleaning because that would put her in the possible path of the Alpha who had explicitly ordered her out of his sight.

That part she did not mind.

Fucking prick.

She would rather do dishes than breathe the same air as him.

In all fairness she liked doing dishes and laundry because the water was warm, the laundry room was humid and cozy warm. It was a nice change from the drafty shed she had to spend the few hours she was not working in.

Sleeping on the cold floorboards with a sorry excuse for a blanket kept her close to the cold ground, most times she sat in the corner uncomfortably against the wall with her feet curled under her for warmth.

Washing in the lake was like being stabbed by thousands of needles from the water being so cold, she did it as fast as she could. Though she did sneak a little extra washing when doing the laundry. Sure, the water was dirty from the washed clothes, it was warm and had soap in it.

It worked for her.

"Go help the pathetic dog," Rina hissed at some poor Omega somewhere not too far from the sinks in the dishwashing area.

Thea had learned the hard way to not loose focus on what she was doing. Rina had a trigger-happy finger for the remote to the collar. The number of times she had been writhing in pain on the kitchen floor in front of everybody she could not count anymore.

Only bright light in her darkness was the fact that she was not being molested by the males. None of them would want to touch her because she was human. If she had to be thankful for something it was not being raped by savage wolves on a daily basis.

"Hi," a soft voice sounded next to her. "I'm Beth."

It had taken a few weeks with everybody being hostile and hating on her on principle alone, for them to look beyond what she was.

A human.

It had been stacked against her from the start.

There were only about 4-5 other humans in the pack but none of them were on house duty. They slaved away outside or did maintenance. Where they slept, Thea had not figured out yet, they did not come near her humble abode. It would have been nice with somebody to lean on in the same situation.

To her amazement the kitchen Omegas had slowly softened up to her. Maybe not because they liked her, more because they disliked the way she was being treated.

The grueling work hours compared to theirs, the lack of proper food, the innumerable public beatings and sessions with the shock collar had them sympathizing with her. Some had handed her scraps of food when they could, others had secretly helped her with her chores to give her a little extra time to rest.

"Hi Beth," she whispered, knowing she was not allowed to speak let alone say her name or think of herself as a person.

She was 'Dog'.

Pain and the need for food could make people do things they did not want. She was no exception.

"I'm Th..."
"I'd better not hear you finish that," Rina coldly stated from behind her, venom dripping from her words in that usual self-entitled way she always spoke.

There was no time to gather her thoughts. The shocks from the collar surged through her making her loose grip on the plate she had been cleaning as she dropped to the floor. Crying out in agony she waited and waited for the shocks to stop. Hoping for mercy.

Never getting it.

"What are you? What's your name?" Rina had stopped pressing the button waiting for an answer.

'I'm Thea. Thea. I'm a person. I matter.' she kept chanting in her head to not forget it.

"Thea." The word came out forced between raspy gasps.

The button was pushed without mercy.

It felt like an eternity before darkness took her. Blissful painless darkness.

How long she had been blessed, she had no idea of, she was cruelly pulled back to reality by half a sink of dirty dishwater being splashed over her.

"I'll ask one more time. What's your name?"

Beth, Thea assumed, a pale girl about her own age stood to the side of Rina wringing her hands mouthing for her to say it. It was clear in her eyes she did not want Thea to suffer any more.

Take a dive and get through with minimal pain and humiliation. It had become her mantra. She could handle a bitch on a powertrip, one day hopefully Rina would get bored or get a new toy to torture. All she had to do was survive.

'Mom. Dad. For you.'

"Dog."
"Good slut. Get back to work."

Scrambling to her feet, Thea got back to doing dishes.

"I'm sorry," Beth whispered and pushed something into Thea's pocket in her uniform under the apron.

Not wanting to tempt fate, Thea nodded appreciatively and gave a tired smile, then they both focused on doing the impossible stack of dirty dishes from the unending eating frenzies in the pack dining room.

The rest of the day Thea made sure to keep out of trouble, she did the dishes, held her head down and was quiet. Her back ached from the half bent over position she was in most of the day and not being able to sleep laying down she never felt her body got straightened out, her muscles never relaxed.

What she would not do for a long warm bubble bath. Soaking her sore muscles, deep cleansing her skin, breathing in the smell of scented soaps and not the disinfectant soap she had to use.

That would be heaven.

Only bright side was Rina had left the kitchen to her second in command, and though as vicious a bitch as Rina she did not have the control to the collar, all she could do was verbally abuse and assign more tasks. She had been oddly quiet that day, much to Thea's surprise.

At around 11.20 PM, Hannah, the second in command, was summoned to the Alpha's office. There had been some rogue attack somewhere and some of the warriors and the Alpha had been out late fighting. It was nothing that really concerned Thea, there had just been mumblings in the kitchen about it because of the late rush to prepare food for them. For the most part she tried to close off listening to any kind of gossip, most information about the pack was uninteresting to her.

She was safe from the vampires, if she kept her head down, she would be safe from the Werewolves too.

Beth and Thea were still doing dishes when Hannah returned.

"That one..."

Thea heard the word not really caring, that was until strong, rough hands grabbed her from behind pulling her back.

"So, you think you can get away with behaving like that?" a gruff voice growled at her.
"What? Get away with?" Her big grey eyes were turned up to meet a set of angry blue ones in and even angrier face. She had no idea what was going on. "What did I do?"
"As if you don't know."
Trying to pull herself free, Thea angrily cried out, "I have no idea what you're talking about, Schwarzenegger!"

The two steroid bombs grabbed her tighter and began pulling her through the kitchen. That time she knew she had done nothing wrong and began kicking and screaming. Pulling at them to stop them from dragging her with them wherever they were taking her.

Never had she been that scared in her life, something was definitely wrong. Something she was not supposed to be a part of.

"Let go of me!" The shriek in her voice clearly told how she for once was afraid. The brutes did not seem to want to let her go.

They dragged her out of the kitchen while she was wailing like a banshee. That was until a fist the size of a watermelon impacted with her face and she got so dizzy she slumped into their grip and let them haul her to wherever they wanted her.

If it was that Alpha's office, he had better have a good reason for treating her like that. Doing dishes, fair, being treated like crap, not fair but acceptable. Being manhandled for something she had no idea about, no fucking way.

To her absolute horror they dragged her outside the packhouse, parading her miserable state for the warriors who were catching a breather. They all looked, none said anything. The muscle squad kept dragging her a bit off to the side and down some stairs to what she instantly recognized as a dungeon. It had everything that would make creepy serial killers and medieval torturers envious.

Very unceremoniously the brutes threw her into a cell. She landed with a thud in the dirt scraping her arms to protect her head from the hard floor. Thea was still trying to get her bearings when a steel tipped boot made contact with her stomach.

An indescribable sound left her lips when the wind was knocked out of her and it felt like her insides had been turned into mush by that one hit.

"Stop..." she croaked out in a feeble attempt to avoid more abuse. "I didn't do anything."
Another kick and then one from the other side to her thighs. "The Alpha told us to teach you a lesson, how dare you mess with him!"

The other brute was the one speaking that time.

"I... I didn't do anything?"

They laughed like what she had said was the best joke ever.

"Lying won't help you. Take your punishment and maybe the Alpha will let you live."

They alternated between kicking and beating her for what felt like ages, it did not take long for her to stop fighting. The weird taste of sweet, metallic blood in her mouth kept reminding her that she was still alive, though she felt light and numb all over.

The pain was there it was just not as bad as she had expected. The sickening sound of bones breaking she heard over the grunts of her assaulters, she did not feel them break like they were supposed to.

There was no pain, just a calming warmth.

A warmth which lasted until she was met by darkness.

Hi y'all.

Thank you for reading.

Quite the surprise Thea had coming there. Wonder what got the Alpha's knickers in a twist. What do you think?

If you like it then pop a vote and maybe leave comments.

Give me a follow too for updates. I'd appreciate that.
Love Alix