Erased by Blood: The Alpha’s Lost Daughter on Trial Chapter 07

Erased by Blood: The Alpha’s Lost Daughter on Trial Chapter 07

From a room in the Omega Shelter, low cries of anguish leaked out now and then.

They were my pleas for help. No one cared.

My adoptive mother stood in the yard and shouted, “Keep it down! There are a lot of people listening outside.”

My adoptive father snapped, “Shut up. Be a good girl and you’ll get a lollipop. Don’t — and I’ll kill you.”

I didn’t want a lollipop. I just wanted to live. To live with some dignity.

But I couldn’t. I really couldn’t.

The day they brought me back to the Blackberry Pack, the Moon Goddess knew how happy I had been. I thought someone would finally stand up for me — my family, my pack. They looked so wonderful: good parents, a brother named Declan, and a kind, lovely sister.

I was almost ready to tell them everything, but the stain in my bedroom shattered all my courage. After that, I never got the chance.

That was when I learned that my new home, my new pack, was not a paradise. It was another kind of hell. There was no one to rely on, no one to turn to.

Worse, my adoptive father actually found me.

He demanded money and wanted to keep tormenting me. I refused him outright. He threatened me. “If you don’t behave, you think I won’t go to the Blackberry Pack to find your parents? Let’s see if they still want their dirty daughter.”

I gave up.

Because I knew they wouldn’t want their dirty daughter.

They hadn’t wanted me when I was spotless; they certainly would not want me after they learned about my filthy past.

I thought that had to be the worst of it. I was wrong. Misfortune didn’t pity you just because you were pitiful.

That night my father got drunk, coughed up blood, and ran a high fever.

I spent the whole night taking care of him. I almost asked Helena for help, but she sneered, “He isn’t my biological dad. If he dies, he dies. I don’t care.”

So I did it myself.

I wiped the grime from his face, helped him to bed, rifled through the first-aid kit for the right medicine by the instructions, and used a hot towel again and again to bring down his temperature and make him more comfortable.

I cared for him until dawn, and when his color finally improved, I let myself sleep for the first time all night.

When I woke up, my father and Helena were sitting at the kitchen table, smiling and eating breakfast together.

He looked at me, disappointed, and asked why I hadn’t checked on him last night, why I had left Helena to handle everything on her own.

I stared at Helena’s smug face and understood everything. I wanted to speak up, but I knew he wouldn’t believe me, so I stayed silent.

Then, by accident, I overheard Helena on the phone in the kitchen and fell right back into hell. She said, “That bitch Hazel pissed me off again. If I hadn’t been clever, she’d have won our parents’ favor today. I want you to come find her tomorrow and teach her a lesson. Give her a good beating for me.”

At that moment I realized she had set my father on me. How could she be so cruel?

I went straight for her. Helena didn’t look scared at all. She opened a cabinet, took out a couple of lollipops, and mocked me, “What? You dare come at me? Want a lollipop?”

Something inside me finally snapped.

I don’t know what I expected, but in that second, I wanted us both gone. I wanted to drag her down with me.

I hadn’t even landed a handful of slaps before my father stormed in. He beat me, then forced me to apologize to Helena.

But the nightmare wasn’t over.

That night, Helena came to me with her face red and swollen where I had hit her.

She glared at me like poison. “Hazel,” she hissed, “you… you actually hit me.”

Her voice was full of hate. “To punish you, I’m going to stage another suicide. I’ll make sure your beloved family finally throws you out of the pack for good.”

Her words landed like a physical blow. I had nowhere left to go.