Ghost of the Alpha

Chapter 8-Orange Lilly

Three months have passed. Unfortunately for me, I have gained more weight than I would like. That is not to say I don't want to be skinny, or fear of becoming fat, it's the looming threat of being declared healthy enough for the Alpha to start breeding me. He calls it making love, all the time when he has to hold me, or join me on my daily walks in the garden. Always going on about children, birthdays, family game nights, baby clothes, and playing ball with all the sons we shall have.

Because of this, I have taken to wanting my meals alone in my room. Only eating half before flushing the rest down the toilet. I have no fear of being caught, the Alpha took to heart my not entirely forced display of fear of cameras. Now, only the private areas in the mansion have been stripped of all surveillance devices. But, I still have to act wary out in the main halls and rooms. Although, it is not hard for me, not with the Alpha refusing to let me go anywhere unless he escorts me either by carrying me or holding my hand.

The only slight reprieve I have from anyone, is when I'm in my room or the gardens when the Alpha is busy plotting new ways to make the lives of humans in his quadrant far more oppressive than they already are. Today I have gathered flowers from both the hothouse and gardens to form a lovely bouquet. Remembering the weekly broadcast the Alpha has projected onto all wolf and human screens, I had asked to make an arrangement to place behind him. I gave my reason, to add a little color and beauty to the background to make him look even kinder than he already was.

Thinking of those words even now, makes me want to puke up the soup I had for lunch all over the pristine white flats the maids had me wear. I shake my head, breathing in the warm summer air as I remove the remaining excess leaves and dead flower heads from the arrangement. It is a lovely array of flowers, a bundle of geraniums, some columbines, a spattering of purple hyacinth, a ring of snapdragons, all placed around the three black eyed susans in the very center.

Removing the gardening gloves, I grab a small cloth and wipe off the dirt from the purple vase I selected for this bouquet. It's not my finest work, I have been out of practice for so long, but it will have to do. Picking up the vase, my grip wobbling just a bit, I head on inside the mansion. My eyes down cast, the pale blue dress hem fluttering around my still somewhat scrawny legs. Before heading down a side hall to the Alpha's office, I catch a look at myself in a small decorative mirror place above a side table decked with hibiscus plants in porcelain holders.

I appear far healthier than I once was. Cheeks fuller, skin darker from being outside so much. My hair reaches down to just above my shoulders, the locks no longer dirt brown, only rich as oakwood. But, my eyes still look haunted and even with a light dusting of makeup powder, the dark circles under my eyes still push their way through. I sigh, adjusting my grip on the vase in order to trace a finger down a hibiscus petal.

"Everything will be fine," I whisper to the girl in the mirror. The beautiful girl I once was. The girl that has long since died and replaced by something else.