"Ahk!"
Adeline sprawled across the cold marble, the heavy wooden bucket toppling behind her.
Gray, brackish water surged across the floor, soaking into the hem of her threadbare tunic.
She reflexively threw an arm over her head, bracing for a blow, but her stepmother's hand froze mid-air.
"Give her fifty lashes!" Catalina's voice sliced through the air, directed at the house beta.
"No, please, Madam, have mercy!" Adeline begged, her damp palms pressed together in a frantic pleading.
"I never intended to go to the gala. Janessa insisted I accompany her. I swear, I didn't even look at the Alpha."
"She's lying, Mom. I never asked for her company," Janessa interjected, a cruel smirk dancing on her lips. "She tried to seduce Renard, fully aware that he is my fated mate." The accusation echoed off the living room of the house.
"That isn't true! It was Alpha Renard who approached me," Adeline retorted, her voice trembling as she watched the beta tighten his grip on the leather scourge.
"Whip her," Catalina commanded coldly.
Two guards seized Adeline by the shoulders, dragging her across the stone tiles toward the sun-drenched courtyard.
They forced her down onto her stomach, cinching leather straps around her wrists and ankles until the stone bit into her skin.
"Madam, I beg of you! I'll never leave this house again," Adeline cried out. "I'll scrub the floors every day. I'll do anything. Please… the welts from last time haven't even scarred over yet. Please!"
Catalina ignored the pleas, turning instead to stroke her daughter's cheek with a predatory pride. "You are destined to be the Luna of this pack, Janessa. No one will steal that crown from you, especially not this pathetic creature."
The first strike descended like a bolt of fire. A scream tore from Adeline's throat as the lash shredded the fabric of her shirt.
One after another, the blows fell in a brutal cadence.
Adeline's vision blurred through a thick veil of tears. Through the haze of agony, Adeline caught the sickening sight of Catalina and Janessa.
They stood side-by-side, their expressions mirrored in a mask of triumph; Catalina's smile was poised, while Janessa's eyes glittered with a fascination at the sight of the blood.
Adeline's mind drifted to the life she had lost. She had been only six when her mother died, leaving her father a broken shell of a man.
He had drowned his grief in cheap alcohol and spiraled into a mountain of debt, eventually turning his self-hatred on his daughter.
Every blow he dealt her was punctuated by the blame he placed on her for the accident that took his wife.
Adeline had prayed for a change, but when it finally came, it arrived in the form of a widow and her daughter. They hadn't saved the household; they had simply refined the cruelty. The house that once echoed with her mother's laughter was now her cage.
When the final lash fell and the guards unfastened the restraints, Adeline was forced to her feet.
"Enough loitering," Catalina barked, smoothing her silk skirts. "Go to the kitchen and begin lunch. My husband will be home soon, and I expect the table to be perfect."
Adeline began to limp away, her breath hitching with every step. As she passed, Janessa leaned in close, her voice a poisonous whisper.
"Like mother, like daughter. A pair of tragedies."
Adeline wiped the tears from the edges of her eyes as she stopped in her tracks.
"Do not speak of my mother," she said.
Janessa recoiled, her brow furrowing in genuine shock. "What did you just say?"
"How dare you find your tongue in front of my daughter!" Catalina hissed.
She lunged forward, her palm cracking against Adeline's cheek with a strong force. As Catalina wound up for a second strike, Adeline's hand shot out, catching her stepmother's wrist in mid-air.
"Enough is enough." With a surge of adrenaline that defied her mangled back, Adeline threw her weight forward.
She shoved Catalina back with such a force that the woman tumbled onto the floor.
"You fucking bitch!" Janessa screamed, lunging at Adeline and twisting her fingers deep into her hair.
Adeline didn't hesitate. She seized Janessa's forearm and sank her teeth into the girl's flesh.
As Janessa shrieked and recoiled, Adeline tore herself free and thought of running when their father's voice shot out.
"What the hell is happening in the grounds of my house?" Zason's voice reverberated through the air.
"Dad, she bit my arm!" Janessa complained as she hurried to her father. "Look, the bruise. She's trying to steal my mate too."
"Yes, honey. We were merely punishing her," Catalina said, stepping forward.
Adeline knew her father now ordered his beta to throw her into the dungeon. "They are lying, Dad. Both of them." Since the punishment was on her way, she didn't hesitate to speak the truth.
"How dare you speak–"
"Enough!" Zason snapped at his wife. "The Alpha King has sent an order!" He showed them a royal scroll with a royal seal. "I'm supposed to give one of my daughters to his first son as his bride."
Janessa looked at Adeline and immediately said, "Send her, Dad. She's the eyesore in this house anyway!"
"No, I don't want to marry, Dad," Adeline refused. She always feared marriage ever since her father had a second marriage. And a marriage to the Alpha Prince was something she would never do.
"Did I give you any choice? Huh?" Zason barked at her, walking to Adeline.
"You never even treated me as your daughter!" Adeline screamed when Zason struck his hand to her cheek, bringing fresh tears from her eyes.
"You pathetic girl! Didn't your mother have you with me?" Zason shouted at her. "Catalina, get her ready. The royal vehicle will be here anytime to get her."
"Dad, please." Adeline pleaded with him this time by kneeling. "Don't do this to me."
"Do you want me to do this to Janessa then? Unlike you, she's going to be the pack's luna. And I don't want her to get involved with a blood crazy Alpha!"
"Then, why me?" Adeline lifted her head as the tears had suddenly stopped on their own.
"Because you're a burden to me. And I want to get rid of you!"
"You never once loved my mother, did you?" Adeline questioned him.
"Don't bring her into this conversation. You're the reason for her demise. For her sake, I kept you in this house, fed you, Adeline. You should repay that kindness, at least."