6: Mother, the Bitch Isn't Dying Fast Enough

"Assault! Assault!" Ara shrieked, before beginning to weep effusively (and I must admit to my credit now, that Ara had always been this dramatic). The blatant desecration of my liberty shook even her out of her silence as she gagged with repulse. The truth was I did not despise chamomile. Ara did. It was her hate of it coupled with Flourescent's preference for it that had conditioned me to never desire to drink it.

Reflexively, my throat seized up, but it was already too late. Maude placed the now empty cup on the table, a victorious glint in her eyes. "Oh, I'm sorry, do you want more?" She taunted as Riza chuckled, and let me go, moving away from me.

Since they both wanted me to drink the tea so bad, they must have put something in it.

"Arsenic!" Ara shrieked again and continued to persistently gag.

Riza and Maude were trying to kill me. It was official — there would be no more playing safe with their feelings, for I was past the point of no return.

"YOU BITCHES!" I cursed.

"If I could make you deader, I swear to the moon goddess I would!" Maude seethed, clearly insulted by my name calling. "I did not spend four years of my life on Ferdinand just so you can waltz in here like a trollop and try to claim him."

"I agree," Riza lent her voice. "My daughter has made a lot of sacrifices. She rejected her mate for Ferdinand's benefit. If he leaves with you, who's going to marry her?"

"This isn't between you and me. This is between you and Freur," I argued. "You've know him much longer and far more intimately. I'm sure it won't be a problem to convince him to stay with you. However, that's his choice. And I want him to know for the rest of his life that he missed out on something good and goddess given if he chooses you. That awareness should be on him, not me."

Maude bowed her head and sighed. She began to massage her temples. Was she beginning to see reason with my theory? "Mother, the bitch isn't dying fast enough. I think she needs more tea."

"I agree."

"No, no, no, no…" Ara and I protested in unison as Riza once again held me down while Maude poured another teacupful worth of tea and forced it down my throat. This portion was even hotter. My throat was numb; and my eyes burned.

Suffice to say, there was only so much I could take.

BLERGH!!!!

Out came the whole contents of my belly— everything I had consumed since the day begun— shooting out of my mouth in a projectile fashion. Ara whooped as my vomit contaminated everything on the table. A substantial amount splashed in Riza and Maude's clothes. Half digested goo landed on Tristan's tablet, interrupting his initial concentration.

"EWW!" Tristan yelped with acute disgust. There and then, he went into a customized fit of rage— hurling the tablet to the ground and smashing it underneath with his feet. This went on for about five seconds wherein we all watched him in stunned silence. "I FUCKING HATE ALL OF YOU?" Tristan declared before taking his exit, slamming the door so hard I thought the mansion trembled.

"No swearing young man!" Riza belatedly called after him.

"Hey! This isn't my fault!" I followed Riza's example, seemingly shouting at a door, imagining Tristan's ear was glued to the other side (pure wishful thinking). "I mean, it's my vomit, but your mother and sister tried to force feed me with what my mind and body can simply not accept. And you could have just given that tablet to a maid to wipe off."

"Shut up," Maude snapped at me.

"Haven't you done enough?" I retorted. "Do you want to force feed me more tea, because I gotta warn you beforehand I still got last night's contents in my stomach. I'm going to tell Freur, one way or another, about our fated bond. I am going to tell him that you and your mother are 'attempted murderers' and 'aggravated assaulters' and 'vile bitches'. It would do much good for my resume. And this?" I grabbed the tea kettle and brandished it. "This is evidence; which I will be taking with me as I now respectfully bow out of your presence." I turned towards the door Tristan had not so long ago exited through.

"The sheer effrontery," Ara complained, thorough aggrieved. "Imagine going home and having your dad and Flou gloat cause you didn't tell Freur. After all that bragging you did to their faces."

"Imagine not getting home at all!" I exclaimed, not minding Riza and Maude overhearing.

"Imagine they preferred that!" Ara howled and laughed.

I managed to crack a smile. "That's fucking morbid Ara, let's get out of here."

"Oh no you don't!"

I wasn't sure what Maude meant by that statement until I felt a sharp pressure on my hairline.

"What the hell?" I cried. Maude was pulling me by the hair. "Bitch, that does it!"

I retaliated and pulled on her hair back. Then I slammed the side of her head with the almost empty tea kettle. Maude screamed; and I bet you to the moon goddess that I would have won that battle if I wasn't so sadly outnumbered. Riza yanked me backwards and knocked me off my feet, delivering a swift punch to my solar plexus that momentarily blinded me. My vision bled from white to red.

Then, much like how Tristan had demolished his gaming tablet, Maude would not decline in violently kicking me with her sharp stiletto heels; she was like a maniac, relentkessky kicking my gut with all her strength; her shiny blonde hair flying all over her face.

"Fucking trollop," she cussed at me.

Finally, she stopped, but only because she was tired. I was stationary on the floor, exhausted and in immense pain. I coughed out blood. I think Maude broke a few of my ribs. Ara had retreated farther backwards into my consciousness for self preservation, and for the uncertain chance that I would survive this ordeal.

Ara and I weren't really skilled fighters since we had been exempted from countless physical trainings due to our social status.

"Oh Audeline," Maude mockingly kissed her teeth. "You shouldn't have come here."

"Trust me, I wouldn't have if I knew you were here," I managed to weakly say.

Maude laughed.

"No difference would have been made even if you had succeeded in informing Freur," Riza casually said. She picked her nails as if she was not just accessory to my attack. "Think about it Audie (can I call you Audie? I feel like we know each other well enough already!), really think about it. I've heard all about you. All those years ago, how only your sister was showing up in the scans and how only your sister's birth was prepared for. How you shot out of your mother, consequently ending her life. You hid for the whole nine months. And frankly, that's what you should have done now, you should have hid. It's either I don't care what the moon goddess says; or you must be wrong; or both. Freur Ferdinand can never be your mate. You don't even have anything to offer. And I am exhausted by this neverending feud between our packs which can only conclude when my daughter marries Ferdinand. You are a simple complication that can easily be taken care of, Beta's daughter or not."

"Freur will never be yours," I muttered.

"Did you say something trollop? Mother, she must be talking to her fantasies."

"Don't worry Maude, I'll send her to them forever."

Riza rolled up her sleeves. She knelt down beside me. She pressed her slender well aged hands to my neck. She squeezed.

Maude was cackling, standing above me. I tried to bat Riza's hands away but I was to weak. I could not even struggle nor kick my legs. I could not breath. Black spots dotted my vision. The pain disappeared as numbness took over.

"Nobody would miss you, Audeline Palmer," I heard Maude say, before everything was deafened by the sound of rushing blood in my ears; the heavy thud of my rapid heartbeats. I could feel Ara fuming in my mind even as she retreated deeper and deeper into my consciousness that I feared I could never again retrieve her.

"Freur is ours," Ara growled.

'I agree,' thought I, since I could no longer speak and Ara could not hear my thoughts. 'I agree,' a tear rolled down my eye.

My mother, Elena Palmer, had been very popular in the Sanctuary. She had not been fated to Zale for whom she had rejected her own mate. She used to hold the coveted rank of Ultima until her death, a rank that would now be Flourescent's upon her twenty first birthday. the Sanctuary's Ultima made anyone who held it prior and entitled to all the alpha's secrets. The stories I heard about my mother were that she'd give up her life for any cause that benefited the pack.

Flourescent was a cause. I wasn't. My mother gave up her life for me. My heartbeat slowed. Then it stopped.

'What a waste,' was my last thought before I finally let the clutches of cruel dark oblivion snatch me away from an even crueler reality.