AVA
Over the past few weeks of my stay in the Alpha Aiden's mansion , especially after he made me his closest maid and put me in charge of his personal belongings and personal care, the other maids especially the younger and prettier ones who had been trying to worm their way into his bed and affection had taken to showing their displeasure by accidentally bumping into me and causing to either drop everything I was holding or fall on my face, once after being accidentally bumped into by Selena an extremely vicious maid who took pleasure in telling everyone who cared to listen that her mission in the alpha's mansion was to become his bride, I had sprained my ankle and had to walk with crutches for a few days, of course not even that was enough to make the alpha relent in his maltreatment of my person.
All this had forced me into walking on the edge of the passageways, nearly hugging the walls. As much as I hated the younger women for forcing me into such an uncomfortable habit, in later days I would realize that I owed them heartfelt thanks, as if not for their actions I would never have overheard the conversation I heard that afternoon when I left the alpha's room with tears in my eyes after my apology had turned out to be futile.
No sooner had I turned down the corridor that would take me to the servant quarters where I intended to crash on my bed and cry my eyes out than I heard hushed voices coming from one of the storage cupboards spread around the mansion where the maids kept their cleaning tools to avoid the stress of carting them around when there was a need to use them. It was the individuals in the storage cupboard( whoever they were, were in the middle of a heated argument under their voices)
" Who could those be?" I wondered out loud making sure to keep my voice low, so I wouldn't attract attention.
Quietly taking off my shoes I slowly crept forward till I could press my ear to the cupboard wall quietly enough to avoid arousing suspicion.
( Yes, that's me the queen of inquisitiveness)
" Cut out the crap and tell me how you want to be paid?" I heard a female voice say. It took me a few seconds to recognize the voice as Selena's. I quickly clasped my hands over my lips to mask my sharp intake of breath and waited with bated breath to see if I had been found out.
Thanks to the goddess, they were too engrossed in their conversation to hear any little noise I might have made.
" I've told you Lena." A male voice I didn't recognize started. " But there's nothing I can do." He added.
" Of course there is." Selena snapped.
" You've done this for me before, you got rid of Valerie remember?"
Valerie? I wondered. Who the hell was Valerie? Some other maid that had threatened Selena's position as the queen bee of the servants quarters? And what did she mean by get rid off? Had she killed the poor girl? And who was she trying to get rid of now? I wondered. " Valerie was his mistress, this girl is his mate. Two different things." The male voice replied. " Mate?" Selena shrieked, forgetting for a moment that she was supposed to keep her voice
low. " There's no way that girl is his mate, she's wolf-less, a weakling for cripes sake." She continued in the same low voice she had been using all along.
Wolf-less? Did she just say wolf-less? I thought I was the only one considered wolf-less in the entire pack? Who was she talking about? Poor girl, to think that she had to live with the stigmatization of being wolf-less, and now this witch was trying to take her mate away from her.
I wasn't going to let that happen, I decided. I had to find her and warn her, I would even sneak her out of the pack if I had to. I had no idea where this new found courage of mine was coming from or if I would ever be able to put this plan of mine into action. But at this point none of that mattered.
Imagine my surprise when my name found its way into the conversation I was eavesdropping on.
" The Alpha may not want to admit it, but Ava is his mate." He assured Selena.
WHAT! WHAT IN THE NAME OF THE MOST HIGH MOON GODDESS WAS HE TALKING ABOUT? Me? Aiden's mate. That was impossible, wasn't it? Surely he wouldn't treat his mate with such hatred and contempt.
" But his wolf recognizes her and cries with joy to be in her presence." He continued. " I don't care." Selena told him.
" I don't f*ck*ng care! Just find a way to get rid of her." She added.
" I can't Lena, please you have to understand." He pleaded.
" I can't poison her because she doesn't eat alone, I'll end up poisoning the other servants or even you, and I can't use physical force on her because the Alpha's wolf is attuned to hers and will come running whenever she shows the slightest sign of distress." He finished.
" What do we do then?" Selena asked.
I didn't wait to hear the unrecognizable voice's reply, gripping my shoes tightly in my sweating and slippery palms. I continued walking, my head reeling with all the information I had just uncovered.
What should I do? I wondered. Do I confront Alpha Aiden?
Don't you dare!!! My subconscious ordered.
How do you even know that whoever he was, he was telling the truth.
" But he sounded so convinced." I protested out loud.
" Besides, why would he lie about such a thing?" I asked.
Perhaps he was pranking Selena or they knew you were there all along and were just pulling your legs. My subconscious replied.
Fortunately or unfortunately, any way you might look at it,I didn't have the time to continue arguing with my mind or brain or whatever the hell harbored the subconscious.
No sooner had I stepped into the servant quarters than Xena, a preppy young girl with a paintbrush-looking profusion of hair which alternated between pink and green, grabbed my hand and pointed to a pile of clothes in the far corner of the room.
" The Alpha wants you to wash that." She announced.
Sighing heavily in frustration, I scooped up the clothes and trudged into the laundry room.
AIDEN
( THE NEXT DAY)
Contrary to what the fairy tales and myths would want people to believe wolves and werewolves are not nocturnal creatures. Just like every other creature of the supreme being, we go to bed by night fall and wake up the next day. Right from when I was a mere pup I had
never had trouble sleeping, most times I fell asleep as soon as my head touched the bed and slept through the night except on rare occasions when Krystal (my late mate) came to me in the dream and woke me up.
Too night however, for the first time in forever, I couldn't get to sleep but rather spent the night tossing and turning.
Whenever I closed my eyes, rather than the blank slate or peaceful views I craved, my brain choose to present me with images of Ava, on the first day I met her when she held her head eye and challenged me justapoxed with the most recent image of her when she came to plead with me yesterday.
You did this. You did this. My brain kept hammering into me over and over again.
You broke her spirit and turned such a spunky and high-spirited girl into a sniveling mess. " I was only trying to discipline her." I tried to protest. " Teach her respect."
" No you weren't." My wolf insisted. Unlike other people who were one and the same with their wolves, my wolf and I had a symbiotic relationship but we're still two different people with different minds of their own, most of the time our minds were in accordance but there were times like this when we ended up on opposite sides, and we were both so stubborn that neither of us would ever admit we were wrong and would continue to be on opposing sides until something forced us to work together.
" You were scared and you dealt with it the only way you knew how to, by lashing out." It continued that fateful morning.
" Scared." I said with a soft chuckle.
" Why would I be scared of such a weakling?" I asked.
" Would you please stop calling her that?" My wolf demanded.
" Fine." I agreed raising my arms in supplication and decided to be the bigger person. Perhaps if I gave in to my wolf( or pretended to) over some minor issues it would do the same in the future and most importantly let me get some sleep tomorrow night.
AVA
I had heard people say they looked forward to mornings and it was their favorite part of the day. I had never been one of those, not back home with my parents and certainly not here in Aiden's home.
My mornings were full of being ordered around and piled with chores upon chores.
Most morning I was awoken by furious knocks on my door and a list of chores, so imagine my surprise when I woke up this morning to find Xena in room with a tray of breakfast telling me some incredible story about how the Alpha had ordered her to bring me breakfast and tell me that I had the next three days free to do whatever I wanted