Chapter 4
Dorothy's POV
I started the car and left the house. I let out a loud cry as I drove, my tears were filled with regret, fear and pain. As the car drove out for a while, my mood calmed down a little. I took the car to a back alley and stopped to open my phone.
As Dad said, my news was the headline of the Night-fall Pack, with eight photos, all of them unsightly, showing me kissing gigolos, being held in gigolos' arms, and one showing me putting a pill into a glass of drink, which I couldn't remember doing, as I must have been very drunk.
There were thousands of comments below: we don't need this addict as our future Alpha, Dorothy should be disinherited from the throne, Dorothy should be banished from our pack... I was too scared to read any further.
I came to a shabby little motel at the end of a secluded street because I didn't want to be recognised. Many of these motels pay for prostitutes by the hour and wouldn't be very strict about checking IDs.
I entered in my sunglasses and hat, and a bearded old man was sitting in the dim light at check-in. Instead of asking for my ID, he handed me the room key with a blank face.
"Do you want condoms? Ten dollars a dozen." he asked.
I hastily said no, took the key and left quickly. I stepped on the creaky wooden stairs and went upstairs, then found my room. The room was small and simple, but fairly clean. I closed the door behind me and slumped on the bed.
I wanted to be left alone, but from time to time I heard the noise from the next room, even the sound of that person turning the tap on and off, and the sound of that person sighing, damn it!
How had my ears suddenly become so sharp! I covered my ears with a pillow and tried to force myself to sleep.
I stayed in the room for three days. On the fourth day, I went online and saw there weren't as many people commenting on me. I decided to sneak home and check it out.
I parked the car two blocks away from the house and walked towards it. It was 5:30 p.m. Mum Zoe should be in the kitchen cooking at this time. I felt my stomach growl.
I hadn't eaten properly in three days, and I missed Mum Zoe's delicious beef stew. Tears were falling again as I thought about this; I missed Mum Zoe, and my family.
I quietly slipped into the backyard outside of the kitchen and I heard a man's laughter coming from inside. It was Jacob! How could he be in my house?
I stopped and hid in the rose bushes far from the kitchen to eavesdrop. My hearing was now so sharp that I could clearly hear the conversation in the kitchen, even from here.
"Dory's such a retard, but she's lucky. I had originally planned to let her take kill herself with the drugs, and just say she had overdosed, and no one would suspect. She ended up being saved by someone, but luckily, I got someone to take those photos. Although she did not die, now her reputation is in tatters." This was Zelda's voice.
"You are the smartest, thank you for figuring out a way to get rid of her, that stupid bitch is pestering me all the time, if not for the fact that she is the heir to the Alpha, I would have ignored her! Now we can finally be together, Zelda, I love you!" Then Jacob kissed Zelda.
I was stunned by their conversation, Jacob liked Zelda, how come I never noticed it? And that night at the bar was Zelda's plan. I was shuddering as if I was standing in the freezing cold. I so hoped it was a hallucination and not real.
"Honey, I know how painful it is for you to pretend to be with her! Just like me, I obviously hate her, but I have to pretend to be understanding and give in to her at every turn, why? Why should I not be better than her, why is she the heir to the throne and not me?" Zelda's tone was full of resentment.
"Don't get too excited, you guys! We have to get this stupid girl out of our pack, or one day your father will have a change of heart and let her come back, and then our whole plan will go down the drain," urged Mum Zoe.
Jacob replied, "Yes Luna Zoe, I agree with you, we need to nip this firmly in the bud. Now we are allies, we will make a fortune together."
At this point I was baffled by their conversation, too much information! At first I was angry and shocked, later I felt scared and afraid, what was the plan they were talking about?
Zelda and Jacob left the kitchen and went upstairs. The shadow of their embrace cast on the curtains of Zelda's room, and I felt a stabbing pain in my heart: the two people who were once the closest to me had betrayed me.
Soon I heard the front door of the house open, and it was Dad coming home.
Then I heard Mum Zoe pouring him a drink while talking to him, "Edward, I heard that King Theo is very concerned about drugs these days, and he has removed several officials who are suspected of having ties to the drug trade, even Elder Mike was removed by him and sent to jail."
"That's why I'm so angry with Dory, this time she is bang out of line. I was planning to retire next year and hand over the pack to her." Dad sighed.
"We've known that Dory was not smart since she was a child, and she always failed the exams. I thought this little girl had no mother from birth, so I spoiled her and was afraid of her being wronged. Now it's my fault that she's turned out like this. " Zoe's voice was a little choked up.
I have never found Zoe's acting skills to be Oscar-winning.
"Zoe, don't blame yourself, it's not your fault. You have always treated Dory as your own daughter, everyone knows that. Who dares to blame you, I will never forgive him!" Dad said, comforting Zoe.
"But now that news of Dory's drug use has spread around our Pack, soon King Theo will know, and we will have to urgently punish Dory to show that you did not cover up for your family. If you don't, King Theo may banish you from the Throne," Zoe advised Dad.
I felt danger closing in on me, I had to leave right now! But at this moment Jessy, the family dog, came to me; he jumped on me, barking and barking. I held my hand up to him, but he barked even more.
Soon Dad and Zoe came to me.
I made my last stand, "Dad, I know I'm wrong, please give me a chance!" I begged my Dad pitifully.
Zoe was standing beside my Dad with cold eyes, as if she didn't even know me.
"Dory, you are responsible for what you did, I can't cover for you just because you are my daughter." After saying that Dad mind-linked his men.
Soon I was driven away by group of guards.
"Dorothy, Alpha Edward has banished you from the Night-fall Pack, and you are now Rogue." After the lead guard had made his pronouncement, he left me in rogue territory and drove away.
Rogues are werewolves that have been either kicked out of their pack or left on their own free will.
I was surrounded by silence, only the rustling of leaves blown by the wind, and owls hooting in the trees, some spooky. I was exhausted and found a tree to sit down against, ignoring my fear.
Suddenly I heard a noise around me, and I looked around warily. A skinny girl was limping up to me. She had a small, pale face, her eyes strangely large in the moonlight. She looked 14 or 15 years old.
"Who are you? What are you doing here at this late hour?" I asked.
"My name is Sophie, I am the rogue here, I am going to look through the garbage cans and find some food and supplies," the girl answered in a small voice.
"My house is not far from here, I live alone, and if you don't mind, you can go to my house, it's safer than staying out overnight." she said with some hesitation as she looked at me.
I brightened up, a bit incredulous that I was so lucky to have someone take me in.
"That's great, thank you. Just call me Dory," I gratefully said.
"So you're Alpha's daughter?" Sophie asked in a whisper.
I remembered that I had been in the news headlines for the last few days, I must have become notorious in pack, there was nothing to hide, I nodded.
We were all silent.
After a while, Sophie asked me, "Have you eaten?"
I shook my head in embarrassment, so much had happened today that I hadn't even eaten, but I only now felt my stomach was empty, as if my stomach was stuck to my back and I might faint at any moment.
"I'm going to find some food, so you can come along with me, and we'll go home when we're full," Sophie said, smiling.
Sophie led me along a rugged dirt road to a fence crawling with ivy. She cleverly parted the branches of ivy, exposing the stone wall, and then she slowly moved two of the large stones out of the wall. A two feet wide hole opened up in the wall.
"I'm the only one who knows the secret, we'll drill through here into the Night-fall Pack," she said proudly.
I was shocked - so had she said to pick up garbage, but she had planned all along to slip inside the pack to pick up garbage, which is illegal.
"We are all poor in the rogue territory, so there is no valuable garbage, you'd better hurry up!" Sophie saw me not moving and urged me on.
I squeezed myself through the tiny hole.
We soon came to a residential area, and I felt like one of two rats stealing food, rummaging through the garbage cans on the street. The smell of rotting food coming from the garbage made me gag, but Sophie didn't seem to care, she was like a child on a treasure hunt.
Soon she had found several pieces of treasure - half a bag of expired bread, a small jar of marmalade jam, and half a pepperoni sausage.
Then she found a plastic bag with a hamburger in it, but it had already been partially chewed. Sophie broke off the part that had been chewed, and then divided the rest in half.
She handed me half. I hesitated as to whether to eat it or not. Sophie had already put her half in her mouth.
"There is life, there is hope, no-one is unlucky all the time, my Gran used to say this all the time," She wiped the grease from her mouth and spoke with her cheeks still bulging.
"Where is hope, I can't even see it." I looked around with a wry smile.
"Hope is invisible, but it can be felt, the same as air, just by breathing. Take a deep breath now, you can feel how much hope you have. It's also what my Gran told me." With that, she took a deep breath.
Looking at the optimistic Sophie, I took a deep breath and put the hamburger in my mouth and swallowed it. I tried not to think about the fact that it had come from a dirty dumpster, but instead thinking that it came from my favourite fast-food shop. It tasted pretty good.
Sophie led me down a quiet path to the end, and I saw an old small thatched house with dark walls that looked a little creepy in the moonlight at night. "Welcome to my humble house, " Sophie said as she opened the door.
The house was a mess with many bones of various shapes hanging on the wall.
"My Gran is a witch, so the house is strangely decorated, don't be afraid," she said as she poured me some water.
I've heard before that in the territory of rogue, there are sometimes human witches living there.
"Aren't you a werewolf? How can your Gran be a human witch?" I asked curiously.
"I am an orphan, my Gran adopted me, but unfortunately five years ago this house caught fire and my Gran was burned to death," Sophie replied as she handed me a glass of water. We fell silent.
I remembered that I had chocolate cookies in my backpack, even though they were made by Zoe, but I couldn't care less.
"I have a pack of cookies in my bag, let's share." I opened my backpack, took the cookies out and handed them to Sophie.
Sophie saw the cookie, her eyes lit up, and she quickly picked up a piece and put it in her mouth, but immediately she frowned and spat the cookie out.
"It's poisonous, it has wolf bane, water hemlock, and opium, and.... ...I can't taste it. Too bad I learned a little bit of Grandma's skills," she said with a grin.
"No way? I grew up eating this, and I seem to be in pretty good health," I said with a trembling voice, hoping that Sophie was mistaken.
"The toxicity in this is very faint, it was a very old recipe, my Gran taught me this recipe when she was alive, so I am familiar with the taste. The average person cannot tell the difference. In the short term it won't be a problem, but over time the body will become infected and eventually die," Sophie said with certainty.
"You haven't changed yet, right? It may be related to this," she added.
I became cold all over. Although I already knew Zoe's true self, I still couldn't imagine that she had been poisoning me since I was born, she was even more evil than Snow White's stepmother.
I took a drink of water and tried to calm myself down.
"Sophie, what do the rogue do here for a living?" I asked.
Sophie looked at the ceiling, thought for a moment and replied, "Many women live as prostitutes, men do some petty theft, and others, like me, live by collecting garbage."
"We have no ID, we can't find a job at all, and if we work in the dark, the pay is pathetic and we are bullied. I used to sneak into the factory to do some work, but after a month, my hands were all blistered, the boss did not even pay me, and he kicked me out. He knows I can't do anything about it." she explained with a sigh.
I was thinking of working to make money, but now my hopes were completely extinguished. I opened my backpack and took out my wallet, there were some coins and I counted them, a total of three dollars and 65 cents.
I remembered the day the gigolo left, I gave him all the big notes in my wallet. Damn it, why I was so generous?
I talked to Sophie for a while and realized that Sophie was sixteen, not 14 as I thought, probably due to stunted growth from lack of nutrition from childhood, she looked small for her age.
Sophie chatted and showed me some mythical tools and books left by her Gran.
"Dory, I am offering you a free palm reading." She held my hand out.
After she had carefully examined my palms for about 2 minutes, she began to look through a yellowed old book.
"Your right hand is bigger than your left hand, and the lines are clearer than your left hand. Your palm lines in this book state that you have a lot of potential, if you can unseal it, then you are unbeatable! " She talked like a fortune-teller.
I felt as if I had eaten a fortune cookie from a Chinese restaurant, and I was not excited at all.
"Believe me, my Gran's book always works like a charm." Sophie said with a serious face.
"So did your Gran tell your future?" I asked her.
"Of course, my Gran said I will marry a very rich, handsome husband who loves me so much, and we will live a very happy life together," she talked with her face full of joy.
We both laughed.
I tossed and turned in bed at night, unable to sleep. Would I spend the rest of my life picking up garbage for a living, Should I just forget what Zoe and Zelda did to me? I remembered the conversation I overheard today, they said something about "nip it in the bud", and I felt a sense of fear ...
Sophie was grinding her teeth beside me and making a creaking sound, and I drifted off to sleep until it was getting light.
I had just fallen asleep not long ago, but I suddenly heard footsteps and noise from outside the house, followed by the door being kicked open. A fat, dark-skinned man walked in, followed by four others.