Hurt (Book One of the Fabled series)

Chapter One: Mila

Chapter One: Mila

The six-hundred and twenty third time it happened was the worst she had ever experienced. Even now, the pain reverberated through her veins, causing her breaths to be short and painful. Mila burst out of the Chambers as fast as she could stumble on uneven footsteps, each step sending a jarring wave of pain through her body.

She supposed she should be used to this, after seven years of this torture. But each time, the marks went deeper and deeper, both physically and emotionally. Mila saw her one and only friend Abby approach from the living room quickly, as if sensing her friend’s access. That is, she probably did, considering what she was. Mila chose to ignore her and limped over to the coat-rack/mirror and picked up her jacket, ignoring her friend’s questions.

Mila shrugged into her leather jacket quickly with the familiar gasp of pain, before sweeping her hair out from the collar, letting her long red locks flow out behind her. Abby sucked in a breath from behind her.

“They really got you good this time, Mi.” She breathed, pulling back her hiar to expose the red welt appearing on her face.

She turned her head away, not wanting to be reminded, “Yeah.” was all she said.

Curiosity finally took over as her friend fired off questions about how she was feeling. Mila tuned her out, and raised a hand to touch her cheek gently, hissing in a breath as even the lightest touch send a wave of pain echoing through her head. She quickly pulled her hand away and turned her head stiffly, giving Abby a sad smile.

“Are you alright?"

Mila just grunted, and pushed her hair back over her face, her only barrier between the world and herself. Abby looked at her closely. She leaned in to give her a small hug, and it took all of Mila’s willpower not to pull away, both from pain and the fear that her only friend would turn on her, like they all had. She knew it would happen eventually, whether they both wanted it or not. They just had to spend their time away from all of that, and not think of the future days. Mila pulled away silently, her ribs aching from the unwanted attention. Most likely a few were broken or cracked. Normal.

Mila looked into the mirror, afraid of what she might see. Yeah, this was what she expected. The red welt covered much of her cheek, and she could see the coming of a big bruise. She gently peeled her jacket off of one shoulder, spying claw marks down one shoulder, and a large bruise already turned yellow, black, and purple surrounded her whole collarbone. She turned, lifting her shirt to look at her back, which had a rather disturbing array of scars scattered around the proximity. Mila felt bile rise in her throat, and quickly pulled her shirt down to cover the markings.

She resituated her jacket and kept her head down. “Can we go now?”

Abby nodded, taking her hand gently, “Sure.”

Just in case you were wondering at the beginning what “it“ was, I‘ll explain it to you now.

“It” was the beatings. All six-hundred plus within the Chambers, and yes, she counted. But this was life, and Mila had been chosen for a ‘great honor’. Although how being the Omega was a ‘great honor’ as her parents had called it, was beyond her. Being the Omega of the pack meant that on a regular basis Mila was expected to appear into the Chambers and allow each of the pack to beat on her to relieve their stress. It was terrible. Mila had scars all over her body, her face had a thin scar lining down from her right ear to the corner of her mouth, interrupting the constant stream of freckles that dotted her face. But you had to look closely to see it, thank God. Her legs and torso had most of the scars, littered with bite marks, scratches, and little scrapes. The worst was on her hip, and that one pained her without relief, it stretched from the middle of her right thigh all the way up to her navel, at least two inches across. Being part of the Night Pack was hard sometimes. Especially when your parents are the brother and sister to the alphas. But even that doesn’t get you special treatment. Mila’s parents had known this was her fate from birth, but rather than save their daughter from a life of pain and misery, they had shoved her upon her uncle and aunt as soon as she turned twelve, (Happy birthday.), and literally given her to her to Hell on Earth. They hadn’t looked back at their screaming and crying daughter as they walked hand in hand out the door. They had however, returned for the first beating administered right after her initiation into the pack, or her thirteen name-day. They had sat, again hand in hand, their faces never changing as they watched their only daughter beat unmercilessly by those they cared about. And when it was done, they had deserted the room after staying to laugh and joke with Auntie Deb and Uncle Mark for a little bit. No comforting words, no gestures, no glances her way. Her parents had just sat there, and not made a sound. Mila could feel the tears welling hot in her blue eyes, and she dipped her head, watching her feet move as she walked. Abby quickly got in her car, and reached over across the seat to open Mila’s.