Ashes of an Omega’s Heart

Dirt and slime coated a dining room’s floor that was from accidentally spilled beverages and dropped food. Within the fast room, only one woman cleaned it, and had to clean it multiple times a day, just like any other room within the mansion that’s supposedly her “home.” As an omega, it was natural to be treated like a servant or a slave. But Dawn is the daughter of the Frost Howlers’s Alpha King, and that made her an even bigger disgrace, making her lower than dirt. And yet, Dawn doesn’t protest or fight back, she simply does what she’s been ordered to do. 

Just as Dawn is almost halfway finished cleaning up the dining room floor, from where she was crouched on her knees with a single rag, she jolts in surprise when sloppy food is splattered onto the floor right in front of her. Dawn looks up and finds none other than her sadistic cousin, Jessica, with her group of friends who enjoyed endlessly hazing and bullying her. 

“Oops, sorry, my hand slipped.” Jessica uses the same excuse with the same chosen words for the thousandth time. Her friends cackled at this, the line never seemed to get hold of them. As for Jessica, it was more annoying instead of humorous because, as usual, Dawn didn’t say anything and proceeded to clean up the new mess along with the rest of the floor. Jessica’s annoyance turns into aggravation and this time she takes her drink and then dumps it onto Dawn’s head, soaking the omega’s white hair. Jessica’s followers whistled or laughed when she took it to the next level.

Jessica throws her thicker, silkier white hair over her shoulder with a mocking smirk. The omega’s dominant cousin was only halfway satisfied. Because they were kin, they both inherited royal blood of being a part of the Alpha King’s bloodline. Though everyone in the Frost Howlers pack has very pale hair, only those of royalty have hair as white as snow. The look in Jessica’s blue eyes showed that she wasn’t done with her quite yet. 

“Aren’t you tired of all this cleaning, cuz? Why don’t you come to take a stroll with us?”

From beneath her dripping bangs, Dawn looked up at her confusedly. Jessica was at least pleased that she had caught the Alpha King’s daughter’s attention and continued. 

“It’s near the river, it’s such a beautiful place to go sightseeing.” Jessica’s smile has a hint of malice. “And no, I have no plan on pushing you in.”

One of Jessica’s friends snorts when she realizes what she is referring to. “Jess, you’re so bad!”

Jessica holds a finger to her pink lips as she shoots her friend the stink eye and then continues to smile at her dirty, soaked cousin on the floor. “But you have to make sure you stay close to us, OK? If we lose you, then there’s a chance that ‘they’ will find you.”

Dawn doesn’t ask who she means by “they” but the look in her dull, silver eyes clearly says that she is a little curious to know. Jessica’s fake, sweet smile starts to stretch from ear to ear. 

“The savage, rogue wolves that live outside the Land of Raia who kidnap helpless she-wolves and sell them off to thirsty freaks or humans wanting to experiment on our kind. Or worse.” She leans in closer and whispers, “Sex slaves.” 

Dawn’s body stiffens up with fright as Jessica giggles at her reaction. The thought of being kidnapped and forced into things like those would leave a chill up any werewolf’s spine. This time Dawn willingly went back to cleaning up the disgusting floor, the last thing she wanted was to hear the rest of these gruesome rogue wolves. The omega has been through enough harassment from her cousin to know that she would drag her out into the forest and ditch her just for fun. 

What would’ve happened if she did get captured by rogue wolves? Would she still be laughing? Would anybody care? Despite being the daughter of the Alpha King, Dawn was considered dirt that other wolves get to walk upon.

Since Dawn looks disturbed by her cousin’s words, Jessica finally feels the satisfaction of dominance that she’s been seeking and walks away from the omega. “Let’s go, girls.” Jessica’s followers either gave her a scornful look or smirked with humor as they followed after her.

Dawn kept her dull, silver eyes down on her hands that scrubbed the floor the whole time as they walked away. It was always like this. She accepted nothing was going to change. Dawn couldn’t even allow the peace of death to claim her, after all, there was so much work piled on her shoulders to do. 

It takes Dawn several hours to finish cleaning the dining room floor on her hands and knees. Her wrists ached and her knees were red but that was nothing she wasn’t used to. With a bucket full of dirty water and a single rag held in both of her hands, her walk comes to a stop when she hears high heels stomping her way followed by a furious shout.

“HEY!”

It was Jessica’s voice. By the time Dawn turned around to see what was wrong, her head was jerked to the side as a vicious smack slapped across her cheek hard enough to make Dawn fall onto her rear and spill her bucket of dirty water all over the place. When she looks back up at her fuming cousin while placing a hand on her stinging, red cheek, she sees Jessica’s fists shaking with ire that is reflected in her eyes.

“You useless piece of trash! Do you get more stupid by the day?!” Jessica snarls at her. Dawn’s confused, furrowed brows on her face was her response to Jessica’s fury. And so her cousin takes a velvet dress and tosses it at Dawn’s face. When the omega looks at the scarlet dress, she sees a giant bleach stain that has turned it into an ugly shade of pink. Dawn was in charge of laundry as well, so the first suspect would be her. 

Dawn knew that she hadn’t made such a rookie mistake, she’d done the laundry most of her life. The only explanation is that someone had done this purposely and just saw that Dawn would take the fall and get punished. The only problem is that it was hard to tell who it was. One of Jessica’s friends? A person in the pack that hates her? Or was it Jessica herself, just giving herself a perfect reason to belittle her again? 

“I didn’t…” Dawn finally spoke up. It was the first time she’d spoken all day and her throat was sore enough. She knew she should’ve kept her mouth shut like normal because her protest only made her situation worse. 

This time Jessica shouted her words out at her angrily. “The hell did you just say? Are you talking back to me?!”

“I think she’s forgotten her place again, Jess.” One of her friends says with interest. Dawn wouldn’t be surprised if she was the culprit this time. 

Jessica doesn’t even bother agreeing with her friend, she is too overcome by anger to acknowledge anything or anyone other than taking out her emotions on her cousin who still sat on the floor. Her position was perfect for a foot getting roughly kicked into her abdomen, making saliva and air eject from her lungs. Jessica’s friends gave a fake wince as they watched. 

As for Jessica, she was too worked up to find the humor in the situation as she kicked Dawn again and again in the gut then eventually went after her face, leaving her stomach full of bruises along with a black eye, busted lip, and her nose began to bleed. 

Usually, Jessica’s friends joined in on the beating but this time they backed off. Because of how frail and bony Dawn’s body was, they could easily kill her with a beating like that if they got carried away. Once Dawn had completely stopped moving, Jessica’s friends were worried because they couldn’t tell if she had passed out or was dead. Either way, Jessica finally stopped to catch her breath and then threw her stained dress on top of Dawn’s limp body again.

“Fucking useless.” She mutters under her breath as she walks away. Jessica’s friends glance back at her one last time before leaving, still unsure of the Alpha King’s daughter’s condition. 

But after a couple of hours, Dawn finally regained consciousness and winced in pain as she struggled to sit up. She could feel her muscles and stomach bruised from the vicious kicks of the pointy part on Jessica’s high-heeled shoes. Once again, her clothes were soaked with filthy water. Before she has the chance to do anything about it, she hears the strong telepathy from the Alpha King in her head.

“Omega, come to my office.” His voice is stern and cold as usual when speaking to her, even though he’s her father.

Dawn had already gotten a taste today of what happens when she speaks out of turn so she sets the empty bucket out of the water before heading to the office in the Frost Howlers estate. Despite the long walk and pain in her abdomen, Dawn makes haste with her pace to keep the Alpha King from waiting. 

She knocks at his door and waits silently until he gives her permission to enter as usual. Upon coming into his office, Dawn spots the Alpha King going through some papers on his desk with a grim look in his dark gray eyes. And that look disappeared the moment his daughter stepped into the room with her hands behind her back. Per usual, he jumps to the main topic without beating around the bush. 

“I’m selling you off to the Lycan King of the Crimson Moon.”