I am woken up by the feel of metal pressing into my skin. This time, I was well aware of where I was and what I had been through.
As I opened my eyes, I practically got blinded by the sunlight beams shining directly on the cage. I was also made aware of the fact that my metal cage had been heated up already and the top felt hot to the touch, so I had to lie down in a strange sitting - ish position.
I was really tired of staying in this small metal prison, and I was also tired of complaining about it too. In total honesty, all I actually wanted was a good long sleep and some water— preferably chilled.
That would feel like heaven. And maybe, just maybe some meat too.
Suddenly, the sound of the door of the metal cage I was placed in opening broke me out of my reverie. I looked up to see someone trying to position himself in front of my cage. My heart beat a little bit too fast as I thought that Kyle and Kylie's father, the alpha of the Paz pack had sent for me again.
"W-what? What is it that you want?" I asked with a straight face, doing my best to put up a brave front.
The young man did not answer me. He only grunted as he reached for my hands.
"No!" I said, snatching my hands away to the best of my ability.
"I do not want this to be stressful. I just want to drop you and go." He said to me, raising both of his hands.
"Then if you don't want any issues," I gritted my teeth at the man in a mock show of bravery. "Then you would have to just answer my question."
"What do you want?" I asked again.
"I am only following orders. I was ordered to drag you out of the cage and into the slaves' quarters. The laundry slaves' quarters. So please, do not delay, I also have to go and eat my lunch." The man said, and it was then that I noticed that he was just another servant.
"I want to walk on my own." I insisted.
"No." The servant man shook his head. "I was given specific orders to drag you out. But do not worry, I will try to drag you gently. I will try my best." He said.
Well, it was not like I wasn't used to this treatment already, was it? So, with a sigh, I got out and gave him my hand, allowing him to degrade the little ounce of dignity I had left as he dragged me to the laundry slaves' quarters.
Although, he did try his best, but I think that there is no way in hell that anyone would be able to describe dragging as gentle.
Soon, he had arrived at the quarters and the main grounds were full of different slaves, each looking sick, or underfed scrubbing and washing clothes.
"There, you can go inside now. Enjoy." The servant said to me before making his way out.
I stood amongst slaves who were moving in and out of the tiny rooms allocated to them, I guessed, each of them holding a washing item in their hands. I looked lost, because I did not know what to do, when I was a slave, I belonged to the ones that did hard manual labor.
"Excuse me." I called out to a female slave hurrying in my direction.
"Sorry, sorry." She said in a small voice as she hurried past me. That action did not surprise me in the least, slaves knew that they were to be seen and not heard. And if it could be helped, they were not to be seen at all.
"Rachelle!" A voice shouted my name. I turned around in the direction it came from.
"Rachelle! Oh, thank the goddess! I am so relieved." The voice came again.
Violet!
Almost immediately, a weight knocked against me, and I almost fell down. She wrapped her arms around me.
"Oh Violet! You are alive." I said, touching her face.
"Yes, I was brought here on the third day. They had locked me inside a cold room and then they brought me here to work!" Violet said as she took a good look at me from head to toe.
"And what on earth did they do to you? You look even worse than me, and that is a lot!" Violet asked me with worried eyes.
"Just wait until my brother gets here, then they would know what it is like to get a good ass beating! You'd see, I promise you!" Violet said.
"Of course he would try to get you back home, do not worry Violet, I am sure." I smiled weakly at her, dusting my face of sand.
"He would come back to get us home silly! Not just me, and the Everett that I know would never leave a partner behind, not to talk about his very own mate!" Violet laughed. "Here we are facing life threatening issues, and you're having boy problems. You are so cute, Rachelle."
"Don't say that." I said, covering my face with my palms in embarrassment. "What do I do now that I am here though?"
"First of all, you would have to get a uniform. There are a lot of spares, so I would just grab you one." Violet said, looking at me.
"I think that you would prefer a bath first though." She shuddered as she plucked something from my hair.
"I would take you to the bathroom. There is some detergent here, wait, let me get some." Violet said and left quickly, returning soon after with a detergent and a piece of nylon.
Ah, yes. Our bathing materials, how could I ever forget? I thought sarcastically, thanking Violet as she handed them to me and led me to the bathing area.
After taking a cold water shower, and changing into the uniform dress which Violet had given to me, I headed back to where she had pointed out to me as the laundry room.
Apparently, the ones doing the laundry outside felt a little bit too cooped up inside, so they had decided to stay there outside.
"Do you know how to wash?" Violet asked as soon as Rachelle took a seat beside her.
"Um, sort of. Why?" Rachelle looked at her with a confused face.
"Well, looks like I am really the only one here. I do not know how to wash, but Eloise here helps me, and in return, I do the rinsing foe her. And sometimes, I do part of her drying too." Violet said gesturing to the girl behind her whose cheeks flushed pink when I craned my neck to look at her.
Then she waved. "Hi. I am Eloise."
"Hi." I responded with a smile. "I am Rachelle."
"Nice to meet you, Rachelle. You look a bit familiar though." Eloise said, squinting her eyes.
"Ah. Maybe it is because of the fact that I have been here since I was a baby. So you must have seen me once or twice." I shrugged, as the pile of clothes that I was to wash got pushed in my direction.
"Which department were you in?" Eloise asked me, her eyes widening.
"Manual labor. It was exhausting." I said with a sigh, remembering how we were asked to do the most dangerous work that required the most skilled workers.
But at Paz pack, it did not matter if the slaves did it, since our lives were not in fact valuable or meaningful to any of the others.
Shaking my head to bring my moving thoughts to a stop, I noticed that Eloise had been speaking.
"I had been among the slaves who made wears for the ordinary wolves, and even humans. We did not live here, but in the city in Madame Sophia's workshop. Eventually, after her death, they transferred all of us to this place.
And yes, Madame Sophia was a human." Eloise said and Violet and I shook our heads.
"Well, at least you did get to live a fairly normal life before you got to stay in this dump. According to what I was told, I was abandoned on the Paz pack boundaries soon after my birth, and raised to be a slave." A young boy, seemingly around my age said from the back. Then his stomach rumbled audibly.
"A very hungry slave." He said, laughing.
"My mother used to be head servant of the servants of the Paz. But then, she got set up and framed by some other servants who were supposed to be her friend." A girl with a southern drawl said with a sigh.
"I had tried to warn her about them, but she never believed me. She said that they were her friends, and that I was being paranoid for no reason. Until she was set up with the former Luna's jewelry. Then she got sent out, and her lifeless body was finally found about a week after." She stopped, her voice shaking.
"After that, I was sent down here, and I have been here ever since. And I am used to the living conditions here anyway, so I guess it is alright." She said shrugging and turned back to continue with her washing.
"My mother and father brought me here one day and asked to see the alpha." A little girl, whose face was dusted with freckles said.
"The alpha refused to talk to her, but then she insisted, saying that she had something to sell. Soon, the alpha came out and then they went inside to speak. After speaking, he gave her a wad of cash, in front of me, and my mother handed me over to him, saying that I could learn to do anything easily, and that the pay would be worth it. Then she walked out and I never saw her again." The little girl said with a hard look on her face.
My heart bled for her. "When was that?" I asked her.
"Um, I think it was last month. This is the month of November, right? Because I knew that it was in October, because my mommy told me that it was on October the third that we went out on a walk, and that was the day I got here." She replied and Violet let out a sob.
"Oh my. How old are you?" I asked.
"I am six and a half!" She smiled at me, a tooth missing from her dentition. She was adorable.
"And your name is what?" I nodded at her.
"My name is Loretta!" She said and went back to her washing.
All the slaves had sad stories to tell, and it only made me sadder. Suddenly Violet began to prod at me.
"What is it?" I hissed at her, trying to get my work done.
"I want to tell you something, and I need to tell you quickly!" She said.
"Is it a life or death situation?" I asked her.
"Would you follow me out if I said it was?" She blinked at me multiple times.
"Now that you just said that, I would not follow you, even if you said that it was a life or death situation!" I hissed at her in annoyance now.
"Well, it is about my life anyway, and I thought that you would be interested to know. I just do not want to mention it here, in case of listeners. Walls have ears, you know?" She whispered.
"Especially ears on us, listening for juicy bits of information."
"Fine." I said, following her out.
"Now you can tell me what it was that you could not keep to yourself."
"I have found my mate." She whispered. "And he is a member of the Paz pack."
I could not keep the shock out of my facial expression and voice as I shouted.
"What?"