Chapter 2

|Everleigh| (Every) Have you ever heard of living corpses? I've heard, but I never knew what those were. Or who they were. And my caregiver used to call me a 'living corpse' while saying how I was turning into an actual living corpse each day. I didn't know what she meant by that; I was only seven years old, and I was new to the Blue Crystal Pack. Saying I was scared at that moment was an understatement. First of all, I didn't know where I came from, nor did I know where my caregiver brought me to. The only thing I knew was... I couldn't talk. So I tightly hugged my bunny plushie on my chest to feel a bit safe within the unfamiliar surroundings. "Alpha Jackson, this is Everleigh. The girl I told you about yesterday," my caregiver said to an old man who looked around in his early forties. I looked at him with a questioning gaze. Who was he? They asked me to stay where I was and moved aside to talk about who knows what. I perked my ears and tried to listen; "Because you are an old friend of mine, I have to say... That omega girl won't be safe here. We don't like to have them freeloading on us, and we take actual use from those weak creatures." alpha Jackson said as I silently gasped. "I know." "Then why are you leaving her here?" he asked. "She's mute, and I have better things to do than take care of a mere mute-" my caregiver started saying. I looked down at my feet, not knowing how to express what I was feeling inside. It was as if the only person who took care of me turned their back on me. I never knew she disliked me. "Sad much?" a voice asked me from behind. It was a boy around my age... maybe a few years older than me. He had a basketball hug to his side. When I looked at him, he was staring back at me with a smirk. I slowly nodded at his question. "You are an omega, aren't you?" he asked. I nodded again. "So you are a toy." he pointed out. I tilted my head when I didn't understand what exactly he meant. "You can be my favourite toy then." He said again with his smirk growing wider. The only thing I understood for my age was that I loved toys. Toys were there to make people happy. Everyone knew that. So I nodded. Ten years later, I stared at my reflection in the mirror to realise I looked like an actual living corpse. My whole face was swollen due to the numerous slaps from the Luna; it was evident in the mirror. My hair was damped in sweat; due to the hours I worked outside in the yard. The fact I was a girl or an omega didn't matter at all. Every bruise around my ears was for the times I got dragged by my pack members when I did something wrong. The scars on my hands were for the times alpha Jackson's belt made contact with my skin, scraping at the flesh. The darkness around my eyes, the bags under my eyes, was when I had to work during the night as punishment. I looked away from my reflection and stared at the girl next to me. She was no different from my state; one thing was, she had fewer scars on her hands than I had. But I wasn't in a place to compare anyone's pain with mine. I looked at the other ones in the large room. Who mainly were drifting off to sleep or staring into oblivion. It was our favourite thing to do. I took a deep breath and started walking out of the room. I opened the door and closed it behind me as I made my way through the dark corridor of the basement. I walked past many glum omegas who had the same expression as me, but I had that one ray of hope inside me for my eighteenth birthday, which was only a few days away. For some unknown reason, I was so excited to turn eighteen... Actually, it wasn't for an 'unknown reason'. It was for a known reason. I was looking forward to turning eighteen because I wanted to find my mate! So I skipped up the stairs to the kitchen in my mildly happy mood, where I found a few senior omegas washing dishes. I offered them a sweet smile which they returned back to me. "Good you are here, love. Can you give us a hand with the dishes?" one with blond hair asked. I quickly nodded and walked over to help her with the dishes. I wore a pair of rubber gloves and took the drying duty since no one was there to do it. I took a napkin and wiped every dish they washed and handed over. While helping them with the dishes, I listened to their conversation but was unable to add my ideas since I was mute. "No, it was a total disaster when I was seventeen... no, when I was eighteen. Like, when my pheromones are triggered. I was screaming my lungs out, but he didn't care. He completely ripped my clothes apart, and... it was a total mess-" the omega with short hair said. She stopped talking when she caught me staring at her. "I heard you; Everleigh doesn't have a scent, do you?" she pointed out. It was really funny that she knew my name, but I didn't know her name. I nodded at her words. "You are quite lucky, aren't you?" the tallest one among the girls asked. I tilted my head in confusion. I used to call it unlucky. It would only complicate the process for me of finding my mate! "Now, now. Don't you scare the kid! I am sure she's not even eighteen right now." the blonde hair said. "I am not scaring her. But she should know when she is living in this pack. Worse could happen after an omega turns eighteen. Bang! Eighteen is when you get your scent and when you can mate. Eighteen was also when most of us got raped. Correct?" the tallest one bluntly spoke as she wiped the plates next to me. I froze as I slowly kept the dried dishes on top of the counter. I didn't let the senior omegas know that their words scared me, but they did scare me. So much. And they were right. I did know my pack wasn't the safest place for an omega. But I never knew it was that much unsafe. "See! You scared her!" the blond hair screeched. "No! I was just warning her! She should know about these as well! Shouldn't we warn about the ones who-" "Shut up!" I slowly walked out of the kitchen as they argued on that topic. I shouldn't have been happy about my birthday. And the last ray of happiness faded away from my heart.