CHAPTER 37: THE GOLDEN HAIRPIN WITH RED GEMS.

Without wasting a moment, Victoria pushed the girls out of the back of the truck, just before the thieves could reach them.

"Ohhh... Looks like we don’t just have one now...we’ve got four of them," one of the thieves barked with a twisted grin. "Enough to go around!"

Cassandra, Celine, Anna, and Racheal winced as they hit the ground, dirt and gravel scraping their skin as they tried to recover from the fall.

Victoria stepped down from the truck a few seconds later. Yet not a single thief even spared her a glance. Their greedy eyes were fixed entirely on the four vulnerable girls sprawled across the earth.

"You... why do you have the hairpin with the blue rose?!" Cassandra shouted, confusion and terror sharpening her voice.

But before she could speak another word, one of the thieves slammed his palm across her face in a brutal slap. She gasped in shock as he yanked at her dress, tearing it open and exposing her chest..her medium-sized, well-rounded breasts now bare under the open sky.

The other three thieves followed suit, violently ripping the dresses off the remaining girls. Screams echoed through the forest as fabric was shredded, dignity stolen.

From the shadows, Victoria’s sharp eyes landed on a figure partially hidden in the bushes...an unfamiliar man. His posture was tense, but he didn’t move closer. She could tell instantly...he was the one who brought the thieves here, working under the orders of the girls...probably promised something in return.

But it was clear from his distance he couldn’t see what was truly happening.

"I knew it," Victoria thought bitterly. "A beast will always be a beast."

Without sparing another glance, she turned and ran.

She didn’t look back.

The girls had brought this misfortune upon themselves.

****

At the Training Center

"Alpha Darius! Instructors!" Victoria screamed the moment she burst into the training compound, her voice hoarse and frantic. Her clothes were torn slightly by the arm, soaked in mud from head to toe. Twigs clung to her hair, now filthy with dirt and leaves.

But the hairpin the twins had given her was no longer displaying red gems. It had changed. Now, the blue rose shimmered visibly at its crown.

Footsteps echoed rapidly.

"Victoria?!" came Miss Ameera’s urgent voice as she rushed out of the training hall, followed closely by Alpha Darius and Zephyr. All three of their faces were etched with concern.

"What happened? Why are you like this? Are you hurt?!" Miss Ameera cried, rushing toward her with panic in her eyes.

Victoria collapsed to her knees, gasping. Tears welled in her eyes, streaming freely as her hands trembled.

"Thieves," she choked out. "We were ambushed by thieves on our way to the forest. They attacked us. The truck was hijacked. I....I managed to escape, somehow... but the other girls... they didn’t."

Her voice broke at the end, her body shivering as her breath hitched between sobs.

"Thieves?!" Miss Ameera exclaimed, stunned. "That’s impossible! How could they get in?"

Her gaze immediately snapped toward the guards stationed at the gates. Her tone hardened.

"What are you waiting for? Hurry! Get to the forest! Rescue the girls!"

Without hesitation, the guards sprang into action, grabbing weapons and disappearing into the woods in a bus.

Miss Ameera turned back to Victoria and gently guided her to take a seat. Her hands were steady but full of care as she cleaned the scratches and tended to the wounds along Victoria’s arms.

"Only you managed to escape?" Zephyr asked, his expression skeptical. "That’s incredible... especially for a weak omega."

Victoria raised her head slowly, meeting his gaze without blinking.

"Yes. I’ve lived on the streets all my life," she replied, her voice rasping. "I’ve learned little tricks to survive...ones you can’t teach in training halls. I wanted to save the girls, I truly did, but I couldn’t. They’re not omegas. I believed they’d have been strong enough to pull something off... anything to protect themselves."

She coughed again, her lungs struggling for air. Miss Ameera quickly handed her a cup of water and gently patted her back.

"Breathe slowly, Victoria. You’re safe now," she whispered soothingly.

Moments later, a voice echoed through the courtyard.

"They’re here!" one of the guards called out.

Everyone turned toward the compound gates.

A flatbed stretcher was being carried in. Four girls. Cassandra, Celine, Anna, and Racheal lay upon it. Their once-beautiful blue gowns were stained in deep red, blood and shame soaking every inch of fabric. Their hair was tangled. Their faces were pale, eyes brimming with tears.

Their bodies trembled silently.

The man Victoria had seen earlier, hiding behind the bushes was now on his knees at the training ground, surrounded by guards. Alongside him were the four filthy men who had attacked the girls.

Miss Ameera stood stiffly, her eyes sweeping across the bruised and torn forms of Cassandra, Celine, Anna, and Racheal. Her voice trembled with restrained rage.

"What happened?!" she demanded, already suspecting the worst. Her voice dropped slightly, filled with dread. "Were you...?"

One of the guards, still shaken, stepped forward with his head bowed low.

"Yes, Instructor... They were defiled by these men. We caught them in the act. Each of them had one of the girls, and when we arrived... they were sharing, taking turns...forcing themselves on them. All four."

A gasp escaped Miss Ameera as she took a shaky step back. A wave of horror and disbelief washed over her face, her body trembling from the weight of what she had just heard.

Then, a sudden voice pierced the tension.

"It’s you, Victoria!" Cassandra shouted from the ground, her voice shrill with fury and pain. "You planned all of this! Just because Anna sold you to the brothel...you set us up for revenge!"

All eyes turned to Victoria.

Her expression was blank for a moment. Then she blinked, tilting her head as if confused.

"Me?" she asked, feigning innocence. "What are you saying, Cassandra? We were all attacked, and you’re accusing me of planning it? How could I even pull that off?"

"Then how come you’re wearing the hairpin with the blue rose, you bastard?!" Anna screamed, rage and panic tangled in her voice.

Victoria slowly reached up and removed the ornate hairpin from her hair. Then, with deliberate calm, she pulled out another one.. the golden hairpin with the red gems and held both up for everyone to see.

Gasps filled the air. The girls stared in horror.

"You should be wearing the red one?!" Celine shouted, her voice breaking with disbelief. "How could you have the blue one?!"

Victoria raised an eyebrow, her tone mockingly curious.

"What’s wrong with the red hairpin? Are you saying it’s... what? A signal? A beacon for the thieves?"

"Shut up, you filthy slut!" Celine sobbed, her voice trembling as tears poured down her face.

Victoria’s tone hardened. Her gaze swept over the girls, now pale and shaking.

"You gave me that hairpin...the golden one with the red gems last night, remember? You told me to wear it today. I did. But I also loved the design, so I had four more made so that I could gift you girls too. I placed them in your hair when you weren’t looking, back when you were leaning out of the truck. I just wanted us to match."

Her voice grew colder.

"I only tried on the blue rose one briefly because I was curious how it would look. I was planning to change back to the red gem one later after asking you what you thought. But now it seems the color mattered more than I thought."

She turned sharply to the kneeling thieves.

"Talk," Zephyr ordered, stepping forward with a cold glare. "How did you get in? Who sent you? If you tell the truth, I might spare your miserable lives."

One of the attackers began to shake violently, his face drenched in sweat as he stammered.

"I-It was the young master... He paid us," the man said pointing towards the other man hiding in the bush earlier. "He told us to... to defile the girl wearing the hairpin with red gems."

He paused, trembling. "Then when we saw four girls with the same pin, we figured the master must’ve meant all of them. There were four of us, so we each... we each took one... and then we started switching."

A pained shriek erupted from Anna as she tried to rise from the bed, her body still too weak. She collapsed to the ground with a sob.

"You mean you were paid to rape me? That hairpin was the signal?!"

Victoria’s eyes widened, disbelief washing over her features as she swallowed hard. Her hands trembled as her gaze flicked back to the girls.

"So your words last night.. when you smiled and gave me that pin... it wasn’t friendship. It was a setup." Her voice rose with betrayal, her words like knives. "You planned to destroy me again."

None of the four girls could speak. Their eyes darted away, lips trembling.

Silence fell like a shroud.

Then Zephyr turned his attention to the man Victoria had spotted in the bushes...the silent one. He hadn’t said a single word since his arrival.

Zephyr approached him slowly, eyes narrowed.

"Say something," he demanded, grabbing the man by the chin and lifting his face.

But what he saw made him freeze.

The man had no tongue.

Before anyone could react, the mute man surged forward. With lightning speed, he snatched Zephyr’s sword from his waist and drove it into his own stomach. Blood poured out as he collapsed with a sickening thud.

Gasps echoed around the training ground.

"Looks like your plan backfired," Darius muttered darkly, smirking coldly.

Anna suddenly cried out from her place on the ground.

"Someone is framing us too! That dead man....he saw us give Victoria the pin! He was trying to hurt her instead! It wasn’t us!"

SLAP!

The sharp sound cracked through the air as Miss Ameera’s palm connected with Anna’s face.

"We are not fools," she snapped. Her voice was low but laced with fury. "So keep your lies to yourself you spoilt brats."