Chapter 1 | Haunting Dreams

FIFTEEN YEARS LATER

~Ari/Kendall~

Lightning bolts, thunderclaps, and colossal waves.

Rain was pelting down relentlessly. I was caught in a raging storm, with my body swaying back and forth at the whim of the waves. I tried to scream, begging to be rescued, but ended up swallowing a good amount of water.

"Mamma..." I cried out, coughing and trying to stay afloat.

Salty water stung my eyes and nose, filling up my lungs as I struggled to stay conscious. Darkness engulfed me now and then, and I could feel my body drifting off out of control, caught in massive tidal waves. Everything was pitch black, but I woke up again to find myself in the same situation. Angry waves were colliding with raging winds, throwing my body at high speeds into random directions. The only difference was that it was now night instead of day.

Something didn't make sense. A shiny blue tail kept presenting itself to me. I thought it was some large fish following me, or more like it was attached to me. The tail fought with the blue waters, rescuing me from driftwood blown far into the ocean by strong winds. A voice inside me told me it was okay to submerge myself in the water.

I didn't want to trust that voice. It must be the part of me that wanted me to give up and die. I fought to stay afloat for as long as I could until darkness took over me again.

My head was pounding with pain when I opened my eyes. The rain had stopped, and cold clear skies greeted me. My arms were clinging to a piece of dead wood while my toes were buried in damp sand and some pokey things. I looked around to find my companion, the beautiful brilliant tail, but it was nowhere to be seen.

Gathering bits of energy, I lifted my gaze to look around. I was lying on a pebbled beach with tiny patches of sand and a lot of driftwood strewn all over. Pushing a sharp piece of seashell from under my knee, I hoisted myself up on my shaky legs. 

Tiny droplets of rain kissed my face as I looked up at the sky, pleading for it to stop raining so much. I lost balance the next moment and fell on my face, crying my lungs out, wondering where mom and dad were.

I cried until I was exhausted. Closing my eyes and listening to the pitter patter of the raindrops falling over the millions of tiny seashells, I fell asleep, only to be woken by a shrill noise.

"Ugh! Stupid alarm." Kicking the warm covers off my body, I groaned before rolling over and getting out of my bed.

I hated waking up early, but for once, I was glad to have woken up from that terrible dream. Bits and pieces of this dream had been haunting me for as long as I could remember. But it was the first time I saw it in so much detail... the full picture of me fighting the storm to laying on the beach.

The beach in my dream was Palm Beach, which was only two miles from where I lived. I lived on a peninsula with water on three sides. The place had no dearth of beaches, but Palm Beach was my favorite place to go to collect sand dollars and conch shells. Never in my life had I seen so many shells liter that beach as they did in my dream. 

Grandma used to say there was a huge storm some fifteen years ago. It was so impactful that a piece of new land was created after the waters had receded. Old Jimmy's seafood restaurant and pier were built right on that "new earth".

Grandma died without telling me that I was found on that beach the morning after the storm. My parents led me to believe I was their biological daughter until I turned thirteen. Life was good till then.

I don't remember what my real parents called me, but my name is Kendall now... Kendall White. The White family were proud warriors while I was a weak human they detested. Well, it was too early to get worked up over the negative things in my life. The sun hadn't even risen yet.

The cold wooden floor creaked beneath my bare feet as I walked up to the only window in my room and pushed the drapes apart. The lush green trees outside were still bathing in darkness. I could hear a wolf howl not too far from where I was.

Howls and growls were nothing new to me. After all, werewolf parents adopted me and expected me to be one of them. This peninsula, called the Two Harbors, was where the Thunder Bay Pack lived. It was my pack too, even though I was just an Omega and had no say in anything pack-related.  

"Kiki... where's the newspaper?" I heard my dad's impatient voice as I was brushing my teeth and lost in my morning musings.

My dad, Zeta Archer, was one of the higher ranking wolves who had the privilege to recruit and train several young pack members under the Alpha's command. He loyally served Alpha Dimitri all his life, and now he was a trusted "General" of Alpha Kayden, Alpha Dimitri's son. Alpha Kayden had been sworn in last month when he turned twenty one.

My dad had high hopes for me when I was young. I went to the training grounds with him and did everything girls and boys of my age did to excel. The two best trained warriors among the lot were selected at the age of sixteen to become an Eta—the fiercest and the best warriors of the pack—and I wanted to be one.

I had trained hard and was as good as anyone my dad invested his time in. I was even better at a few things because my dad doted on me and paid special attention to my skills. All that changed when a bunch of us turned thirteen, and I was the only one who couldn't shift. Years passed, and with each year, the wolves got stronger while I failed to turn.

Within three years, I was the weakest and slowest, and not shifting even by sixteen meant there was no hope for me. I was demoted from a potential lethal warrior to an omega. That was almost a year ago.

"Kiki, did you start making breakfast?" My mom, Astrid, was hustling around to get everything in order before leaving with my dad for the training grounds. They expected me to prepare breakfast for them by sunrise.

"I'm on it."

I handed the newspaper to my dad. He was so old school and struggled to use smartphones even in this day and age.

Running into the kitchen, I made coffee for mom and dad the way they preferred. No sugar or cream for dad. Two big heaps of sugar for mom.

After frying some bacon and poaching two eggs for dad, I scrambled the eggs and placed some toast on the plate for mom. With thin lips pursed to express their deep disapproval, they stared at me like I was the nincompoop of the century.

"Forks." Mom tapped on the edge of the plate while gritting her teeth.

Ah! I ran back into the kitchen to grab some cutlery. My stomach growled at the delicious smell of greasy bacon. Gulping down the saliva, I went to the basement to start the laundry first, and then I walked back to my room to get dressed for work.

I worked as a pickup truck driver to transport merchandise from the mainland to our pack. While we had stores that sold fresh produce and stuff, we didn't grow them. I was the one who brought them over to the stores to maintain a constant supply for everyone. It paid me eighteen dollars an hour, and I wished they allowed me to work longer hours instead of just a few in the morning.

Not only was the money good, but working longer hours driving around meant doing fewer chores at home. No such luck though, because there was only so much produce the pack needed. The Franchise manager expected me to make fewer trips and bring back extra stuff, especially on weekends, when I took my sweet time as I didn't have any classes to attend.

"Kiki, what the fuck?"

And that's my younger sister, Megan—A royal pain in my neck. She was about eight months younger than me and acted as if I owed her a kidney.

"I told you to not move my cactus around. Why is it on the left side of the desk instead of the right? Can't you just give it some water without using your brain?"

I told her many times cacti and succulents weren't the same. She killed so many by overwatering them and exposing them to too much sunlight. The older she was growing, the nastier her behavior towards me was getting.

I made eggs with the sunny side up and placed them on the dining table along with the grits while she ranted on about something I didn't care to pay attention to. I was starving and running late.

"Wait. Why is the yolk in my egg not jiggling at all? You should do better heat control."

"You said sunny side up, Meg. What you are asking me for right now is over easy. It shouldn't jiggle for this."

"It should jiggle for a sunny side up and run for over easy!" She got up from her chair, raising her voice.

"No, it should not jiggle. It has some super subtle movement and does not get jiggly jiggly."

"It jiggles. You fried my egg instead."

"It does NOT jiggle!"         

"Kiki, what the hell is happening here? What are you? Ten? Do the dishes and get out of here." My mom intervened while Megan scoffed at me.

"What are you still doing here? Move your ass! We are leaving." Megan got up reluctantly and followed mom after stuffing her mouth with breakfast.

I walked over to the kitchen in peace, excited about eating some hot breakfast. The knob of the main door turned and mom came back.

"Kiki, I forgot. There are some ripe bananas that nobody wants. Your baking skills suck, so don't make any bread with them. Just eat them off, okay?"

She left me staring with two eggs in my hands. She was a stingy woman who counted everything. Not wanting to get in trouble, I put them back in the egg rack.

Oh well, you only get bananas with brown spots on them for not being one of them.

Something is better than nothing. And I should be grateful for the shelter. I cheered myself up with some hot chocolate in a sipper mug and set out for the day.