Alora.
"He's dead." Lana said, making my eyes widen in surprise.
Ares had a brother?
Older or younger?
He played the piano and now he was dead? When? How?
A thought question ran through my head as I dropped my feet to the floor shyly looking at the food whose scent wafted off my nose.
Lana let out a soft laugh and I looked at her.
"I can hear your stomach growling from here. You can eat if you want." She said, pushing the plate closer to me.
A part of me was scared to take it. What if she poisoned it to get back at me for upsetting her twins?
Another part of me knew Lana wouldn't do that.
Why? Because she gave you a few smiles and a jacket to cover your scars?
I almost nodded at the thought as I looked away from the food. That little trust that I had for Lana had crumbled away from the incident earlier and I suddenly wanted to be back in Ares' room to hide under his bed away from everyone.
"I won't force you to eat but you should. You look thinner than the first day you came in. Alora." Lana said and I looked up at her, my eyes watered immediately.
"Camilla was wrong, the way she spoke to you was mean and rude and I do not accept it. I hope you forgive her."
"She said to go back to where I came from." I whispered softly, picking the grasses under my feet with my toes, the tears dropping to the grass falling against a group of ants.
Even my tears caused someone else pain.
"A lot of people say things in anger. It's our decision if we listen and take it to heart or ignore it." Lana said from beside me.
I said nothing to that. Her words confused me, my mother had insulted me in anger, and I knew she had meant it. They weren't just angry words. She had meant every word she said to me in her fits of anger.
"I should have told you about the west wing. And I'm so sorry about it. It totally slipped my mind because of all the preparation for the full moon ceremony in a week." Lana apologized and I felt my heart swell at the first time someone apologized to me.
"Ok." I said softly and Lana sighed heavily.
"Thank you. I thought you might not have accepted my apology."
"Why? I've never had anyone apologize to me. Living as a slave for years makes you accept anything, good or bad. I have never been apologized to so in my eyes, no one has ever done anything wrong. It's the first thing I learnt." I said, hating myself for speaking so much about myself.
There was something about Lana that made me want to speak. After years of being locked up in Jax's room. I haven't had any conversation except when I screamed in pain.
I whined at the memories clouding my head.
"You were a slave before coming here? I should have noticed, your wrist has shackles marks. Your ankles too." Lana pointed and I looked at my wrist, they were badly bruised, turning a deep shade of purple and I glanced at the marks on my ankles. They were fading a tiny bit.
"The Alpha has never had a slave before. So don't think you're a slave here. You're a maid and there's a huge difference between the two."
"But I don't see you being chained." I answered before I could stop myself. I half expected Lana to hit me for speaking freely but she only burst out in laughter.
"Trust me, the work here is almost the same as being shackled. Both are draining." Lana said between laughs and I found myself loosening a bit at the happy sound that escaped her lips.
"I have to go back to work. Make sure you eat or I'll force it down your throat." She smiled before rising to her feet and started to walk away.
"What was the Alpha brother's name?" I found myself asking curiously causing Lana to freeze in her tracks but she kept her back to me.
"Zeus. He was the oldest and Ares adored him with all his heart. He looked up to him as the one who would be the Alpha. The person who's supposed to be the Alpha is Zeus not Ares." Lana replied before she continued walking off escaping into the kitchen.
So Ares had an older brother. I didn't know about that but that must been because I've been locked up for a long time and probably because he must have died at a young age before he could be a threat to my pack.
Ares must have really looked up to him, he was younger and Zeus must have been a hero in his eyes. And he played the piano for him too, Ares must have been trying to forget about him that was why he had locked the music room and probably the other rooms in the west wing.
Because it reminded him of his dead brother.
I sighed resting my head against the bench as I looked up at the bright sky, I closed my eyes against the shining sun.
That was the reason for his anger. I had interfered with his healing process, playing something that meant so much to him and his childhood. In the process, I had awakened the past he had been trying to forget.
I suddenly felt terrible for what I had done and wished I could make things right.
To satisfy my curiosity I had ended up hurting everyone. While this was the first time I was ever feeling guilty, I knew I had done wrong and could blame no one but myself.
I lifted my feet off the floor, drawing my knees to my chest as I turned to the food once more. My stomach growled and I reached for one of the vegetables, throwing it into my mouth.
"At that rate, it would take forever before you finished eating." I heard Raya say and I looked up to see her standing in front of me.
She sighed, pressing a button on her phone before she flopped beside me tiredly.
"I finally had the guts to break up with my boyfriend." She said, looking up at the sky.
I said nothing to that. I didn't even know what it meant to have a boyfriend. The only man I had ever known was Jax.
"I've been drowning myself in calm music all night long. My ears are starting to hurt, but it helps me not to think of him." Raya chuckled, touching the device hanging off her neck and I found myself being curious as to what it was.
Growing up in the woods and being locked up in a room had disconnected me with the new technologies in the world.
"What's that?" I asked and Raya's eyes opened in surprise, turning to me suddenly and making me jerk backwards in discomfort.
"You can speak! You are actually talking to me right now?" She asked in bewilderment and I nodded once, blush staining my cheeks.
"Wow. I was almost starting to believe Camilla that you might be mute or deaf or something." Raya said absentmindedly and my eyes fell to my toes.
Hearing Camilla's name sent a wave of guilt and hurt through me as I was suddenly reminded of the incident a few minutes ago.
Raya noticed it as she reached for her hair, scratching it nervously before she smiled. "Uhm, this. Yeah!" She said, taking off the device away from her neck as she pressed a button on it making it flash blue lights.
Wow. I almost whispered as I drew a tiny inch closer to Raya, straining my neck to see what she did with the strange device.
"It's a headphone. It's like little private ear speakers. You use it to listen to music." She said, taking out her phone and tapping it.
"Aren't you familiar with it?" She asked and I shook my head immediately.
My parents only had a small phone so I knew what that was and occasionally they let me watch the TV. And I knew a few more technologies but that was as far as I knew.
"How does it work?" I asked as Raya pressed something on her phone again.
"It's easy, you put on your Bluetooth on your phone and then connect it. You then place it over your ears." Raya said as she drew closer to me and raised the device towards me.
I cowered away fearfully thinking she was going to use it to hit me.
"Hold on. I'm not gonna hurt you." Raya laughed and I eyed the device as she placed it over my hair.
I shook away, leaning away from her but Raya only laughed as I tried to look at what she was doing around me.
But she didn't hurt me like she had said. Instead she placed the device gently on my head with both sides covering my ears softly. Then she moved backwards making me sigh in relief.
"Then you press play." Raya said but I didn't understand and she pressed her phone once more before a mischievous grin filled her face but before I could ask what was about to happen next a loud sound filled my ears and I jerked, rising to my feet fearfully.
I couldn't hear anything else except the loud sound from the headphones. It was like a thousand drums playing at once in a weird strange way and someone was telling enough to hurt his throat.
My face twisted in horror as I tried to make out whatever the person was singing.
Was this music?
This sounded so different from the sound the piano made.
I wanted to ask Raya so I turned to her to see her laughing. I couldn't hear her but the way she slapped her knees and her mouth opened in fits of laughter I knew she was laughing at me.
My head started to bang to the rhythm of the sound and even my heart beat to the loud noise in my ears and I couldn't hold on anymore. I touched Raya lightly, pointing at the headphone for her to take it off because I didn't know how to.
Raya finally stopped laughing as she reached for it, taking it off and tapping her phone once more.
I finally felt relief for the first time, soothing my ears with the sound of swiftly blowing leaves and the chirping sound of birds. But it was interrupted with Raya laughing again.
"You.." She laughed, wiping her eyes. "...should have seen.." she laughed harder this time and I stared at her confused.
What was funny?
"..your face." Raya fell forward in laughter, rolling on the grass as she held until her stomach and tears ran down her face.
I haven't seen anyone laugh so hard before and I looked around just in case I must have missed a joke or something from someone when I had the headphones on. But there was no one in sight and I looked at Raya once more who had finally stopped laughing as she pulled herself to her feet.
"Gosh. You should have seen your face when you had the headphones on. Metal music is definitely not to your taste." I frowned.
So that's the type of music I had listened to. I didn't peg Raya as the type to ever listen to such loud, disturbing music and even call it calm!
"You listen to this as calm?. To help you not think of your boyfriend?" I asked, my brows raised as I started at Raya in confusion.
Raya nodded looking at her phone proudly. "Yes, metal music calms me and I love it. It's loud but it's soothing to the ears." She said and I frowned, not understanding how loud and soothing could be in the same sentence.
"Is that the only sound you have there?" I asked, despite the loud noise from the headphones, I still liked the idea of a sound in my ears.
"Yeah. But you already don't like it so I can d o w n l o a d other songs you would like. How about something of Ed Sheeran?" Raya asked and I frowned, cocking my head to the side.
"What is that?"
"Not what." Raya laughed as she drew closer to me, pressing her phone as I looked into it curiously. "You mean who. He's a musician and he has nice songs where he uses the piano."
"Really? He uses the piano?" I asked and Raya nodded.
"Should I d o w n l o a d them?"
"Does it mean that I can listen to it from the headphones?" I asked, confused.
"Yep."
"And you can download it now?"
"Yep."
"Ok d o w n l o a d Em Shriram." I said, feeling excitement in my veins for the first time.
Raya laughed as she typed her phone. "It's Ed Sheeran, Alora."
"Ok, d o w n l o a d him."
Raya laughed again and I found a tiny smile creeping into my face.
I was smiling for the first time in years.
Ok so the first chapter of the exclusive chapters is available on my buymeacoffee at buymeacoffee.com/janesamuel and guess what it's on Jax POV! So if you wanna see what happened after Alora left Jax check it out and support by buying me a coffee if you wish😉 Make sure to check it out using the link, just type "buymeacoffee.com/janesamuel" in your browser or visit my instagram @chimdi_jane_samuel and the link in bio to read the free chapters!
~Jane♥️