SCARLETT'S POV~

It was happening again. The horror. The humiliation. It had begun again.

I stood there, frozen, as I watched Derek, my mate, the man I was going to pledge my life and love to for eternity, mate with another woman right in front of my eyes.

My body seized up in shock.

My wolf groaned in agony, her cries echoing in my mind. She felt the betrayal keenly like I did but there was nothing I could do.

Physically my body convulsed, the pain coursing through me like venom. I felt my world crashing right before my eyes. I gritted my teeth trying to stop the tears blurring my vision but no matter what I did, I kept staring, the images painting themselves inside of my head. The moans they made, rendered me deaf for some seconds.

I watched him continue to piston in and out of Cora's sex like a jackhammer, the whole of the bed shaking, her breasts jiggling alongside the movement while she loudly moaned. Each moan a dagger to my heart.

He looked deep into her eyes, a look of love I've never seen him throw my way as he bent to kiss her lips, and let out a satisfied groan. “You're mine. This cunt, you and everything that pertains to you." He vowed to the female wolf and another quick bile rose to my throat.

My stomach instantly knotted when Derek threw me a look, his eyes drooping as he released another deep groan as he kept violently thrusting into Cora.

He wanted me to see, wanted me to realize he would never want me the way he wanted Cora.

And instantly I looked away. Not wanting to keep on giving him the satisfaction of seeing me break.

Two fat angry, hot tears dropped to my feet where I was bound, hands and legs and made to watch them.

“Shit!" I heard him curse.

My eyes snapped open in alert when I heard his feet begin to pad toward me. I saw him stand right in front of me within seconds, naked. His eyes devoid of love and filled with loathe and fury.

“I ordered you to fucking watch me while I make love to my woman! How dare you shut your eyes!" He yelled at me and I shuddered. “I'm going to deal with you, you useless Omega." He spat the word like it was poison.

My eyes darted toward Cora in panic only to see a sinister smile crawling to her lips and directed toward me as she sat up.

Before I could protest, in a flash, Derek was before me. His hands wrapped around my arms with bruising force. I tried to struggle, coupled with the restraint on my legs. I almost tripped but he held me tighter. His grip was like iron.

He dragged me toward the center of the room, where I could see the whip hanging on the wall.

“I'm going to make sure you bleed, you little bitch!"

And within the next few seconds, he threw me to the ground, my knees slamming against the cold marble. I let out a cry, but he didn't care.

He picked up the whip, as he swung it back and forth. Then he struck.

The whip came down on my back, biting into my skin, like a thousand tiny teeth. I screamed at the top of my voice, my body jerking in agony as the whip tore into me again, again and again.

My back turned raw and bled from the whip as I cried out.

"Why don't you break this bond, you animal?!" I spat at him, my entire body shaking. "I'm tired of being a slave in this pack, a slave who's even denied the chance to go to school!" More frustrated tears fell. This was the last effort to save myself.

“You talked back to me?" He asked, a wicked smirk on his lips. " Don't you..." Whip. "Ever speak..." Whip. "To me like that again!" Whip.

The whip came down again and again, each blow landed with a devastating force as though he wanted me dead. My skin torn open, exposing raw flesh and blood. The blood dripping to the marbles.

I watched as Cora lifted herself from the bed, her seductive smile disappearing as she threw a look of utter disgust in my direction, while Derek glared at me.

"Derek," she groaned, "I thought you were going to reject this trashy thing? Why still keep her?"

Derek turned to her, shaking his head. "You forget the rules, Cora. The Lycan King's command is that Alphas can't reject their mates unless our mates betray us first." He sneered, turning back to glare at me.

Cora's lips curled into a deadly smile before she hummed, tapping her long red nails on her lips as she stared down at my broken self. "Then stop hitting her. Since the Lycan King will be visiting tomorrow, she has to appear without a scar or a wound."

Derek bared his fangs at me before snarling, throwing the whip in my direction. The metal handle struck my forehead, drawing a sharp cry from me.

"Make sure you clean up all the condoms in this room, wash the bed sheets that have my cum and Cora's squirt on them. I want everything in place before I get back," Derek barked orders at me before turning to Cora, his eyes softening. "Come, my beloved, get dressed. I want to take you out for lunch."

The sounds of Cora giggling while Derek carried her out in a bridal style felt like a knife twisting in my heart. I could feel my world crumbling before my eyes.

As usual, whenever Derek punished me and had me tied up, he would leave a sharp object for me to claw at and free myself. He wanted me to realize that he had complete power over me.

I began to crawl towards the sharp dagger placed at the end of the bed. My entire body was weak and trembling, my vision blurred by tears, and my nose stuffy.

At least I kept surviving and I was grateful for that. I knew what a cruel man like Derek could do. Releasing a pained sigh, I began to deeply struggle on how to get myself freed.

~ ~

With my body battered and bruised, each step was a struggle. I forced myself forward, fighting the pains and weakness. I had to get to my safe place, my solace. The place I could cry without judgment, where I could find a little peace in this cruel world.

It was what used to be my home before Derek's reign took over as Alpha.

The once beautiful house was now a shell, engulfed in a thick layer of dust that seemed to hold the weight of years within its particles.

My eyes traced the green slime crawling its way across the walls, a sickening trail of decay. The stench of mold assaulted my nostrils, reminding me of how long the house had been abandoned.

I watched as rodents scurried across the floor, darting in and out of holes they had chewed through the walls.

The roof sagged, sections of it open to the sky like gaping wounds. The door, once a symbol of security, hung from its hinges, broken and defeated. My eyes stung, and I felt my legs give way as I slid to the ground.

Several years had passed since our pack had been wiped out by a strange disease, leaving me as the sole survivor. Sometimes, I wondered what would have happened if I had died alongside my parents.

I picked up pieces of wood lying on the ground and clenched them in my palms, watching my tears drop to the dirty ground filled with wood-eating insects, and I gulped.

"Mom... Dad..." I croaked, my mouth shaking, my clenched fists trembling. "I swear to you this day, I won't die. I will live on, seek revenge against everyone who has harmed me, and rebuild our pack."

My teary eyes glinted with a dark resolution.

Knowing that the Lycan King would be visiting, my lips curled. I had tolerated enough; it was time to expose Derek's hypocrisy for the world to see .