Ariel

7

Luckily for her, he walked past her like she does not even exist. She was sure he had something to do in his room, if not, he would have stopped to hit her and for the first time, she was grateful for the fact that someone ignored her. Maybe he was storming to the room to look for her, her subconsciousness said. She quickly hurried to the kitchen.

As she got back to the kitchen the feeling of dread at what awaits her befell upon her. She was still in pain over what he did to her and she knew that there would be more work awaiting her as she got there.

And she was right, as she stepped into the kitchen she saw the heap of plates awaiting her return and the head maid was ever so kind to point it out.

"You have to finish up the dishes. I asked one of the girls to begin the work after your little fiasco" she said sneering as she obviously believed that she had no reason to have fainted upon hearing their great alpha's name "After you're done with them, let me know so I can compile the list of chores you are to do for the rest of the day" and then she left making sure to mutter insults that she knew Ariel heard. Ariel was used to this but the thought of the work always made her very tired.

She didn't want them to catch her slacking off or they would get so angry. Even the other maids got angry when she wasn't doing work. If she wasn't so tired she would have found the situation very funny. She immediately got to work with the dishes.

"How many times do these people eat in a day" she grumbled in her mind. "It's as if they have like houses of people in their stomachs". But no amount of complaining could make the dishes go away, so she did washed them with a heavy heart making sure to wash them well.

When she was finally done with the dishes, the head maid having already come into the kitchen to scold her about not washing the dishes fast enough.

"How lazy you are. You're not fast enough, you've been slacking off haven't you. Better finish these before I give you another punishment" she yelled out and stormed out of the kitchen. She also left behind for her a list of chores to do.

"Time to get to work" First of all she was to clean out the kitchen pantry, then she was to clean out the whole rooms in the southern part of the house. She was also instructed to clean out some of the dusty rooms down in the basement area. She didn't even know why she was cleaning the basement, it wasn't like anyone ever went downstairs except people who need to get stuff or people who've lost something or the other. The basement was like a maxi lost and found, once something is found and the owner can't be found it's just tossed there until the owner is ready to get them.

She was at least grateful that her punishment had been lifted and she would be given something to eat after her chores. And besides compared to her other chores, these ones were considered menial to her. She had once cleaned the whole building in a day. She passed out right after which made them reduce the chores they gave her just a little.

In their own words "we wouldn't want her dying just yet".

She finished up her work in the kitchen pantry as most of the place had been cleaned a little by someone else then she proceded to the southern part of the house. Now this was actually the only thing she was dreading more than anything else.

There were exactly ten rooms in that part of the house. And each of them was a en-suite, having a bathroom and toilet in each one, each also being as big as a person's three bedroom apartment. She had cleaned here a couple of times but always when the rooms were inhabited. So it wasn't so pleasant for her as they would blame her for everything bad and take out their frustration on her. She wondered where everyone else had gone to. Her best guess was that they all had work to do somewhere and oh was she happy about it.

The whole floor was empty but was very unkept and a dirty. Pieces of trash here and there, sand beneath the feet if you were one who walked around without shoes on, rotten pieces of food in almost every hidden corner,empty food boxes in high places that she had to climb chairs to reach. The place looked like it had been trashed especially for her to clean it and it made more sense to her.

She got to work as fast as she could so that she could complete the other chores as she wasn't ready for any beating or punishment of any sort.

By the time she was halfway through the rooms in the attic the sky was already darkening little by little. So the attic was really dark and eerily quiet as nobody ever came down there. It gave her time to be alone with her thoughts and she hated it. Her mind was such a scary place full of intrusive thoughts that would do her no good to dwell on so she decided to pick the safest one there. And that was the Beta of the pack her father destroyed would ever defend her.

She tried to think up reasons why he helped her but fell very short on ideas. It wasn't like he ever talked to her before today but at the same time he wasn't ever involved in any of her toture sessions, he just stood there and watched every single time not speaking a single word. And he was always there, every single time like a hawk. Until today atleast when he spoke up to his alpha for her. She almost never paid him any attention because she had her own problems to deal with and other reason being that he was almost like a ghost following his alpha around. For her, no one had ever helped her like that and she was getting so emotional about it.

She finished the work and went back to the kitchen to see more dishes. At this point, she was ready to starve these people for the next few days. It was as if they intentionally ate every two minutes so as to increase the number of dishes she had to wash.

Barely five minutes into washing the dishes a maid came in to give her an important message

"Several pack Alphas are coming tonight for an important dinner to see our Alpha and you have been instructed to set the table for their visit. Everything you need has already been taken to the dining room for you to arrange them" she said curtly and left the kitchen. It seemed as if every other maid in the pack were on a vacation. They didn't have to do anything at all because she was there.

At this point she was so frustrated cause she hadn't even finished with her current work and she was supposed to go do another one.

"Oh great goddess" she cursed internally. When were they ever going to go easy on her. She would die if she could and she wanted to but it was as if she was immortal at this point. If she dropped dead one day they would all be happy but sad because they hadn't finished getting their revenge. She hurridly ate the little food she was given that she was supposed to have eaten a long time ago and then rushed to the dinning hall before anyone would notice her absence.

As she got there, her eyes shone like diamonds as she saw the dining area. The hall was so huge it would fit a thousand people and still have space to fit another thousand. The chandeliers shone so brightly that it made her entire being sparkle. The ambience they emitted was so cool. Anyone who was under their gaze would immediately feel like royalty. Just being under their light made her feel like Cinderella. And they were made of gold. Her eyes then slid down to the floor which she stood upon and she immediately felt unclean. Made from undoubtedly the finest marble that any floor could ever be made out of, it shone so much that she could see her reflection so clearly in them. Looking upwards again she could see the windows endowed with the finest curtains money could buy, made from obviously the finest silk and embroided with gold pieces.

The whole place was so marvelous that she stood admiring the whole room for a while forgetting that she had work to do. By the time she got herself, she realized that she alone was meant to set the whole room by herself, without any help from anyone. She immediately got to work to avoid meeting anyone from the other packs while she was still getting everything set and ready. That would just make everybody involved very angry and would incure more punishment. Something she direly wanted to avoid as possibly as she could.