Isabella POV
“Shit.” I say to myself. The second I walk out of the changing room and smell the nauseating over-sprayed perfume scent on Serena and her four minions walking this way, they are just two meters away from me. I am in no mood to confront them now. It would be such a waste of energy after a long day at school, and I need to attend the audition at the school theater right away. But I know that they can already see me, and they wouldn’t dare miss this perfect opportunity to tease me. Even so, it’s too late for me to get back in the room and wait for them to pass.
“My, my, my, look at the wolf girl’s new dress,” Serena mocked with her high-pitched voice. She’s the leader of a squad of mean girls here at Moonlit High. The spitting image of a Barbie doll, she has the face of an angel, but the personality of a devil. She’s also the daughter of the mayor of Moonlit. Her three minions here at school follow her everywhere, and they are all beautiful with voluptuous figures. Naturally, they are extremely popular. With her long, luscious blond hair, blue eyes, and beach-tanned skin, Serena stops her catlike stride in front of me and laughs at my dress with her three minions.
“Tell me, who bought you this? Your crazy mom? ” It hurts me when Serena emphasizes the word crazy, “How dare you wear this color? Don’t you know only I can wear it at this school?” She suddenly gets angry and comes up to me, pulling on my dress and exclaiming, “Take it off!”
“Please.” I beg her, “Please leave me alone.” I am cornered by them, and I can feel all the students in the hallway staring at me. Why do I have to be in this situation again? Most of the students are flooding out of the classrooms at this hour, and I stupidly thought I could hide among them and secretly attend the audition. My face is burning with embarrassment. I just want to escape and run off for good, but I try to not let her damage my dress as I pull it back hard from her grip.
Serena is acting even more aggressively after she hears my begging. I shouldn’t beg again, it’s a bad habit of mine to say “please” as a reaction to mistreatment, but I always utter it without thinking. I have to remember not to beg next time they bully me.
I’m wearing a beautiful sky blue chiffon dress today that once belonged to Lily, my stepmom, the luna queen of the werewolves. She gave it to me years ago as a gift, before father even died. She once said that the ocean blue color really flattered my dark skin, and would make my pale gray eyes pop. It was designed and sewn by the most notable dressmaker, Lady Valentine. I have never worn it before, because I usually don’t have the guts to strut around the school wearing a beautiful dress like this. I’m not that crazy. I choose to wear it today simply for the musical auditions for a play at the school theater club. Theater is my only hobby and emotional support now.
“Beg again then.” Serena shouts at me with a cocky sneer. “Beg again on your knees.”
One of the minions, Kate, with a curly chestnut bob and tanned-pinkish skin, is the daughter of a high positioned major in the army and the leader of Moonlit jurisdiction. She grabs my hair hard and says to my face, “Kneel, you smelly wolf.”
I can hear giggles from the people watching who are very much enjoying this, not to my surprise. I’m already used to the constant bullying from the humans at school. Sometimes even a few hateful werewolves will participate in their little nasty games and attack me, even though I am the princess of the werewolf race. I can understand their hatred towards me. The only princess and potential future heir to the werewolf crown, their rightful future leader, can be bullied and abused by humans like this. They have no confidence in me, no confidence in the royals anymore.
The werewolf race has been at a nightmarish disadvantage since my father, the King Atwater died. He sacrificed his life for the peace against humans, to stop a war that we could not win, to protect me, his queen, and save thousands of innocent lives. Therefore, he chose to surrender after years of constant war, and agreed to our inequality. Now, even though peace had been made between the two races, humans have been dominating the Earth in every way possible. On the surface, according to the New Cross-Race Laws and Regulations, which was sarcastically made by them, humans would have to make peace with us. But in reality, no severe punishment had ever been implemented for abusing werewolves. Humans would secretly hunt us, torment us, sell us on the dark web, and keep us in dungeons as sex toys. Some even kill us and collect our sacred blood for rejuvenating medicine.
Packs of werewolves were in hiding and living in the shadows since. We lost our blessed King, and all the power we used to have was lost along with him. It seemed like the Moon goddess had abandoned us, as for the last fifteen years, we could no longer feel a connection to the moon. Even mating was only a legend now, it only existed in folklore. Werewolves are no longer a powerful race. We are like beggars, living like rats, pleading for mercy from humans. Lurking in the inferno, starvation is a normality for werewolves civilians. We’re living on the verge of going insane.
My hair is being pulled so hard by Kate that it feels like she wants to rip it out. She demands again, “Beg us, you nasty little creature.”
I resist the urge to say the word “please”. I am the princess, after all; I can not let humans abuse me like this, not in public, and especially not in front of the few werewolves in the school, as they would definitely experience the same horrible mistreatment as me, or even worse. I hate to see their chilling gaze - a mix of despair, disrespect and anger. I hold my tears and say nothing, trying to get free from Kate’s grip.
“Kneel! Kneel! Kneel!” Serena’s other two minions, the red haired devil twins Mia and Mya, start to shout the words in rhythm. Stupidly, other students are shouting along with them. I just can’t understand it, the twisted cruelty of the human heart. I glance around, and their faces are all excited, somehow, with a patronizing satisfaction. No one would step forward and stand up for me. I am devoured by their loud demented cheers. I cannot get rid of Kate, and she pulls me and smashes my head against the wall. I am completely blocked from the exits. Nowhere to run. I feel like my soul is floating out of my body, hovering above me up on the ceiling, like it is watching me in this embarrassment. I lower my head, with no courage to challenge the bullies. I just stand there, absent-minded, accepting the shame and leave everything to chance.
“Are you deaf? I said Kneel!” Serena now comes up a step closer to me, “Aren’t you the princess? So the legendary werewolves have a deaf princess?” she says with a cold sneer and slaps me hard on my right cheek. I can feel the burning hot pain, yet it is nothing compared with the trauma they inflict on my heart.
When the mean girls are finally done waiting for me to kneel myself, they kick the back of my legs, and I collapse on the floor with a heavy thump. A symphony of euphoric laughter bursts out from the crowd. My hands are pressing against the floor so my head won’t hit it. Serena is still not done, and she seizes my dress and tears it apart. A crisp sound of cloth ripping ignites the audience again.
My naked back is completely revealed in front of everybody, I hold the front of the dress tightly to my chest, but with the help of Mia and Mya, Kate still tries to snatch away the entire dress. Tears are welling up in my eyes. I crouch into a corner, bury my face in my knees and determine to not let go of my dress. This dress is the most precious memory from my mom. It represents my joyful childhood, and it is proof that, even I was once loved by my parents. But it’s damaged now, and it was a completely stupid mistake to bring the dress to school today. Maybe it was a mistake to even think of attending the auditions - such a luxury is too much to ask for. My fault, again. A strong feeling of deep sorrow is flooding up into my head, and it causes every single blood cell to bulge. I do not care about the physical or emotional abuse I received, I think I deserve it. I do not care about the unreasonable, groundless maliciousness, I think it’s my fate to suffer from it. But please, do not destroy my dress and trample on the only cherished and faraway past happiness I have left. My father’s kind face reappear in my mind’s eye. At that time, his skin was still iridescent with a healthy glow. His eyes were radiating care and love, instead of appearing lifeless and dead. My tears are accumulating inside the frames of my eyes, and I try my best to use all my energy to keep them from falling.
But I fail. Eventually, heavy teardrops smash on the floor and form a crystalline pool. I stare at the tears and the magnified floor pattern underneath the water. There it is, the first time I cried in public. I imagine how content Serena must feel when she sees my tears. It doesn’t matter to me anymore though. I tightly squeeze the teared up chiffon cloth and wait for another storm of abuse.
Then, I am suddenly lifted up in the air. In shock, for a split of a second, I think someone wants to pick me up, then smash me down on the floor. But I am wrong. In these short moments, I am in a trance. I smell the fresh scent of ocean salt in the morning. I have never smelled such a pure fragrance. It brings my whole being out of this place, out of this hell, as if a beautiful golden sun is rising above the horizon, bringing light to the dark sky. Then, I see a firm jawline, a tall and slightly bony nose, and strong and broad shoulders. I am being hugged by a pair of muscular arms. A gorgeous stranger was lifting me up like a weightless feather, and carrying me out of the monstrous crowd.
Who was he?