Dahlia's POV
A small smile graced my lips as Ava, the pack's doctor raised a large mirror to me and I noticed to my surprise that most of my scars had cleared off. The effects of the wolfsbane had totally waned and now I was just left with a few bruises here and there, but it was nothing too serious.
These past few days, Beta Orion had acted as an anchor for me… and the children. He's been there through it all, even at midnights when I would wake up drenched in sweat, but somewhere in my subconscious, I feared it was wolfsbane.
And he was also there when the Alpha stopped visiting.
I had been told of Alpha Zarek's blatant refusal to Orion's proposal but I wasn't surprised. If anything, I had expected it. Call me sick but I would've been hurt if he had willingly let me go… if he had allowed Beta Orion and I to get married without any disagreement of some sort.
"Can I go back now?" I looked up at her with hopeful eyes, watching her as she dropped the mirror to the side and leaned over to inspect my neck and arms. "I feel quite better now, I assure you."
Doctor Ava smiled, causing the corners of her eyes to wrinkle– a testament to her old age despite her youthful looks– and said; "You're not fully healed."
That was the same thing I've been told for the past two days and at this point, it infuriated me. I grinded my teeth together as I forced a smile up at her otherworldly beautiful face and murmured.
"Madame Berlin would keep compiling my chores together. She would have no one else do them and I would be stuck with too many chores by the time I get back." I said and as soon as I did, she nodded.
An awkward silence descended upon us as she went over to a corner of the room and soon began to crush some herbs together in a small mortar, causing the foul stench of bitter herbs to fill the air.
When she was done, she scooped her concoction into a small jar and then thrust it into my hands, her eyes soft.
She said; "This would help."
I stared up at her in confusion.
"It is a blue lily, verbena and eucalyptus mixture. Apply it tenderly on the scars that still feel sore and painful. And do not stop using it until you're fully healed."
It took me a moment to realize what this is– that she was finally letting me go– and I smiled as a sudden warmth spread across my chest. "Thank you so much, Ava! I'm grateful!" The excited squeal escaped my lips before I could help myself but Doc Ava seemed to not share in my joy because she simply smiled.
"Be careful." She said and with that, she was gone.
"Yes, I will!" I beamed even though she was no longer in the room with me.
I couldn't understand why I was so excited to leave this place that has been my sanctuary for the past few days– maybe it was because now I was free to move about, to see Amara, to see Tiffany and her father– but deep down, I knew that all of those were lies.
I wanted to see the Alpha. And that was the truth.
These past few days that he stopped coming over felt like hell to me. I felt lost… angered.. and it felt as though he had finally decided to give me off to his Beta; and that thought didn't sit well with me. At all.
I wanted him to want me. I wanted him to look at me like I was the only thing he could see… and I wanted it to hurt when I finally managed to escape with Amara.
–And that was another reason I begged to be released– the festival of lights was only a few days away.
Gathering my belongings into a cloth bag, I made my way out of the hospital and smiled when I stepped out, only to be hit with the feel of fresh air against my face– not air doused with antiseptic. Not air filled with the smell of medicines and herbs. I sighed.
It felt like heaven.
As I walked through the busy streets leading to the pack house, I was so lost in my thoughts that I didn't realize when I stepped into the palace, I didn't even realize when I arrived at the slave's quarters… at my room… to find the place in a mess.
I was only snapped out of my reverie when I felt the harsh sting of a slap on my face and I reeled as pain wracked through my skull.
I definitely didn't miss this.
"Look who finally decided to show up!" The spiteful voice of Ms Jennifer tore me out of my haze and I glanced at her with teary eyes, whilst wondering what I must've done to deserve this kind of ill treatment. "The thief!"
The...what?
My eyes bulged as I glared in her direction, a mixture of indignation and worry clawing at my insides.
I do not know where the courage to talk back at her came from– maybe it was due to fear of what I was being accused of or annoyance– but I snapped; "I did not steal anything!"
A few people had begun to troop into the room and while some of them were servants just like me, a few were holders of higher ranks– the head soldier, the head maid, and even Beta Orion himself.
My eyes darted over to him in worry and I rushed out; "I didn't steal anything. I don't know what Ms Jennifer here is talking about!"
"Liar!" She growled, "Natasha and Chiajna here are my witnesses! We found these gold coins in your bag!"
As she said that, two girls in the crowd nodded their heads simultaneously but I didn't care about them. All I cared about was the large bag gold coins now resting at the foot of my bed. Several coins poured out from it, scattering across the floor and on my bag.
I gasped. "I don't know how that got here! I've not been here in three- four days! I did not steal anything!"
"Then who did?" Ms Jennifer screamed back at me but before I could respond, Beta Orion came forward. His eyes swept through the room in confusion and then he looked at me.
"Dahlia has been hospitalized for the past four days. She cannot possibly do this while at the hospital so I think someone planted this in her room. She didn't do it."
"Oh, but she did!" Ms Jennifer growled, now appearing angrier at Beta Orion than at me for standing up for me.
"This has been missing from my stash for the past five days… and I have been secretly looking for it because I didn't want the Alpha to find out I had misplaced the money he kept with me!"
A series of ohhs and ahhs swept through the crowd and I panicked because it was obvious now that they were buying her lies. Oh gods, no.
"We've checked through all the rooms in the fortress. Including that of all the slaves… every one of them. And if you ask me, I'll say that she stole it to escape because only some days ago, she begged me to help her flee!"
Oh, no… no!
Now the crowd had broken into a series of agitated murmurs and curses, all directed at me.
My heart squeezed painfully in my chest as I stared up at Ms Jennifer, who now had a triumphant look spread across her face.
In a moment of weakness, I'd asked for her help and instead of either helping me out or turning me down, she'd spun the case out of proportion. She'd accused me of theft and used my desperate plea to back it up.
I shook my head. "I didn't steal."
"But you'd asked her to help you escape?" This time, it was Beta Orion who asked and I couldn't bring myself to look up at him, in fear of what I would see in his eyes.
He must hate me now. He must think of me as a conniving wench… one who knew she was going to leave but had strung him along for several days now. It didn't help that I knew I was Alpha Zarek's mate but had asked him to go to him to ask for permission to get married to me. And what was worse was that I had used my daughter… and his to win my way into his heart.
"Did you?!"
"Yes, I did."
"Oh."
Just then, an overpowering smell hit my senses. I didn't even need to describe it, didn't even need to turn to its direction to know what it was… who it was.
Alpha Zarek.
My heart plummeted when he stalked into the room. He cast a dismissive glance at the gold coins scattered across the floor but said nothing about them; instead he asked;
"You wanted to leave?"
The anger in his eyes was not directed at the fact that I had been accused of theft… it was because I had tried to leave.
I couldn't bring myself to respond, couldn't bring myself to look at him. During the later days at the hospital, I had wished to see him… but never like this.
Not when he looked at me like I was the most disgusting thing to exist.
I nodded. "Yes." as tears slipped down my face.