The Pack Outcast (The Fae Omegas, #3) [SAMPLE]

Chapter 4

Amelia

After a hard day's work completing pack cleaning duties meant for myself and a couple of pack omegas, who ran off leaving their duties to me, I hummed as I walked deep into the woods heading back to my cottage where Hazaiah and I were planning to wait for Isaiah to wake up from his hibernation together.

I plucked a peppermint leaf and pushed it into my mouth as I walked past a peppermint bush. As I moved closer to the cottage, a strange restlessness kept urging me to walk faster and I couldn't help wondering what was wrong.

I had been restless all day, and that wasn't a good sign. Although I had no prophetic magic, I often had ominous feelings. And since the same ominous feelings had saved my life more than once, including when Evelyn had given me a drink with Wolfsbane just after my parents' deaths, I had learned to trust it.

By the time I got to the clearing of the cottage, I saw Evelyn, her crew and some of the young adults training to be pack enforcers coming out of the cottage.

My heart stopped beating for a second and then started beating at 5 beats per second.

I had no coherent thoughts as I rushed into the cottage.

The carnage of the cottage didn't bother me. And the fact that some of my mother's priceless medical books were torn and thrown around carelessly didn't bother me. What bothered me were the two snakes lying dead in the cottage.

Their bodies had been cut in various areas, and Hazaiah's head had even been sliced off.

They had tried to fight, but somehow they had gotten to Hazaiah first before dealing with Isaiah, who definitely woke from his hibernation before he was murdered.

The smell of the drug that had been used to incapacitate two smart and powerful animals like Hazaiah and Isaiah still lingered in the air as I stared at the hole where Hazaiah's gallbladder had been dug out of him.

A scream involuntarily left my mouth.

No, no, no.

Those two were supposed to leave here after I went to Camdine Academy and go deeper into the woods to live together forever.

How could this happen now?! How could this happen?!

What were these idiots even doing here? No one came to this part of the woods except in wolf form and only once in a while.

I looked around at the young adult pack enforcers staring at me, engraving their faces into my heart. If killing them wouldn't warrant tarnishing my parents' image, I would have sacrificed my future to kill them all here.

Did they know it was a Supernatural Council crime to kill animals that had awakened their soul wisdom like these two snakes had?

Did they know how rarely it occurred, how hard it was, and how long it took for an animal to let go of dull animal thought, gain sentience and soul awareness, and begin to think and react to situations with human-like wisdom?

When my eyes met Evelyn's eyes brimming with malicious amusement, I knew she was the one who had led them here. After all, she was the only one who even knew that there were snakes in here because she'd tried to sneak in while I wasn't here, but had been scared away by Isaiah just before he went into hibernation.

Without saying a word, I rushed out of the cottage to where Evelyn and her crew were standing talking about me.

"She's so creepy. I can't believe anybody would keep such enormous snakes as pets."

"I read an article once and the writer said that only psychopaths liked reptiles. There's no doubt now that Amelia is just a psychopath and a freak."

Before they could react, I was standing in front of Evelyn. In a smooth movement, I punched her in the face and the satisfying crunch of her nose breaking was the best ASMR sound I had ever heard. I followed the first punch with a simultaneous punch in her gut.