Chapter 1

The Outcast

Scarlett's POV

I took a look at the mess on the floor and knew instantly that I was dead. Not dead like physically dead, but still dead.

"What was the noise?”I heard the head of the kitchen shout angrily

Before I could answer, she was behind and shoved me away roughly so she could get a good look at what had caused the noise.

"What is the meaning of this? How did this happen?" she asked, anger slowly rising in her voice.

I stared at the mess on the floor and could not find any words to explain. Twark! She slapped me.

"Are you deaf or something? Did you not hear me asking a question?" the kitchen chief asked again, raising her hand to give me another slap if I still chose to remain silent.

"Ma'am, I don't know, it fell from my hands," I tried explaining while scrambling backward.

I was sent to bring down the pot of hot stew from the fire. The food was made specially for the Alpha and his Luna. I had succeeded in removing the pot of stew from the fire while using a kitchen towel to hold the hot handle. But luck was not on my side this morning because I still don't know how it happened, but somehow one of my fingers accidentally touched the hot pot.

What happened was reflex action because my body reacted to the pain and the pot fell from my hands.

"It fell from your hand, you lazy, stupid, wolfless Omega!" she retorted.

"She is useless . In fact,I don't think there's anything she's good at," said Laura, the daughter of the kitchen chief.

Laura was my worst enemy and bully in the entire wolf pack. She and I used to be friends until we turned ten and she shifted to her wolf form while I could not shift. She was still relatively nice to me until we both turned twelve, when my parents were killed, and the whole village started seeing me as a bad omen. Gradually, she distanced herself from me and started joining the others in bullying me.

It still baffles me how someone I once called my close friend could turn her back on me and become one of my worst living nightmares.

"I guess the fact she's so useless is the reason why she's wolf less because what wolf would want to bind to someone like her," Rose, one of Laura's gang members, added.

I was so engrossed in my situation that I did not know when Rose entered. It's funny the way they treat me like trash because we are all Omegas, but I was considered an outcast because I have not been able to shift like the others in my community.

"You will be severely punished for this!" the kitchen chief said, and holding my ears, she dragged me outside the kitchen.

In my community, we have a special field known as the field of punishment,and anyone brought into that field often came out with in injuries as the punishments were usually very severe.

The Gammas were the ones in charge of the field of punishment and they were always ready to punish any offender brought there.

"What is her crime?" the gamma in charge asked the chief in charge of the kitchen

"She let the pot of stew that was made for the Alpha slip from her hands and it spilled on the floor," she answered.

'Oh no!' She made it sound like I deliberately did it. The worst crime anyone could commit in my community was to be negligent with anything that had to do with the Alpha, be it his instructions, personal belongings, or his food!

"It was not deliberate, please. It was a mistake," I tried to explain what really happened.

"Shut up!" came the harsh reply from the gamma in charge. "Your low life had the privilege to serve the Alpha and you messed it up. You must be punished!" he said with disgust on his face.

"Take her to the Whipping Pole and give her fifty strokes of the cane!" the head gamma ordered his followers.

"I'm sorry, it was a mistake. Please forgive me!" I shouted, pleading for mercy as they dragged me to the Whipping Pole.

"The only mistake here is you! You should never have been born, you wolfless trash!" the kitchen chief mocked as she watched my hands being tied to the pole.

I tried to prepare myself for the pain, but nothing could prepare me for what I experienced immediately when the cane landed on my back. I screamed in agony, begging for them to stop, but it seemed the more I begged and pleaded, the harder the force of the cane. Each lash was more painful than the last.

I cried and shouted until I could no longer hear my voice. At some point, I stopped counting, when they were done, they released me, and I fell to the ground feeling very weak.

I thought my torture was over until I heard Laura speaking. "I don't think this punishment is enough. Let her be taken to the Stoning Pole," she wickedly suggested.

I raised my head to look at her with tears streaming down my face. I was so weak from the pain of being flogged, but I felt a strong force within me trying to come out, but it seemed as if something was preventing it from coming out.

"Please, please don't," I tried to beg, but my voice was barely above a whisper.

They dragged me to the Stoning Pole, not caring about the injuries on my back.

You may wonder why I am being treated this way, and I will tell

you.

My name is Scarlett, and this is my story.

Grab your popcorn.