Chapter 2

Brooklyn-

Bile rose from the pit of my stomach. I had one more day of hell to endure until I will finally be finished with school. Not that I didn’t like school, I just hated the constant torment I received on a daily basis. The only solitary I had was when I was home. It wasn’t much of a home, but it offered me a little security.

At least here I could be away from everyone else and not be beaten constantly. Living in an abandoned house just on the edge of the territory wasn’t ideal, but here I was left alone. The house was barely a shell of what it once was. There were no doors or windows and holes were scattered all throughout the house.

I had no heat or electricity, which made winters brutal. Luckily the house had a basement, even if it wasn’t much but a dirt hole under the house just big enough for me to crawl around, sleep and do my homework in peace.

After years of ridicule and torment from my pack, I was finally eighteen today and after school, I planned to run away. I had no money or anywhere to go, but once I received my final grade, maybe I could figure something out. All I knew is I had to get away from this place. My grades were good enough to get me into a university and I could always find a job somewhere.

I had no intentions of finding another pack to live in, especially after the way I have been treated here. Technically if I left the pack I would be a rogue, but I was okay with that. No one even knew I had a wolf, so hiding amongst the humans shouldn’t be that difficult. At least with them I wouldn’t be classified as an Omega and treated like a slave.

I hadn’t been able to get a wink of sleep all night, thoughts of finally being free of this place had me tossing and turning all night. Looking over at my battery-operated alarm clock, I saw that it was fifteen until four in the morning. The rest of the pack wouldn’t be up until at the earliest six. Maybe if I get to the packhouse now I could get breakfast finished and cleaned up before anyone woke up.

One of the tasks the Alpha had given me, out of many, was cooking breakfast and dinner for everyone at the packhouse. I was usually good at getting out of the house without being seen, but the few times I was caught hadn’t been pretty. The Alpha’s son, who was also my biggest tormentor, had a tendency to give me a thorough lashing any time he saw me.

At least at school, it wasn’t as bad. Because as the future Alpha, he had an image to uphold. Though he was good at still making my life a living hell without the adults finding out. Unless they knew but just didn’t care. There wasn’t a wolf in the pack that cared what happened to me, so I guess they might just be turning a blind eye.

Sitting up, I stuffed my few belongings into my bookbag. I didn’t own much, just a couple of changes of clothing, a worn-out book, an alarm clock, and a flashlight. It wasn’t much, but it was all I had. Taking one last look around my crawl space, I said one final goodbye. It hadn’t been the best place, but it had been my home since I was five years old.

“Happy birthday Brook.” My wolf said, sounding oddly chipper.

“Thank you, Skye. You think we will find our mate today?” I asked as I made my way towards the small flight of stairs that would lead me to the rest of the house.

“I hope not. We can’t let anyone know you have a wolf.”

I still didn’t understand why I had to hide my wolf, if I had been able to show everyone that I did have a wolf, maybe they wouldn’t have treated me as badly. Most wolves shifted on their fourteenth birthday, but I shifted when I was ten. Skye had told me that I wasn’t able to tell anyone and I had to keep it hidden.

When I was around anyone, she would disappear so others couldn’t sense her. She was a beautiful wolf, I don’t understand why she wanted to hide. But I hadn’t questioned her reasons. Skye was a large black wolf with vibrant blue eyes and she had a white crescent moon on her left hip.

It was similar to the birthmark I had on my hip, except mine was light brown. We had the same color of eyes and my hair was raven black and when it hit the sun just right, I could see a hint of blue in it. I wasn’t sure how tall I was, but I couldn’t be much taller than five feet.

I was shorter than all the others my age and was bullied for it. Then again I was rather small in general. For as far back as I could remember the only time I was able to eat was at school. Or when I was able to sneak a few scraps of food when I cooked for the packhouse.

Then there was the whole thing with finding a mate. Don’t get me wrong, I would love to find a mate that could save me from this hellhole, but I knew it was a fairytale. Who in their right mind would want a mate that as far as they knew, didn’t have a wolf.

Once at the top of the stairs, I slung my bag over my shoulder and made my way out of the house. I felt a chill run up and down my spine as the brisk morning air hit me. Living in the mountains of Colorado, it didn’t matter that it was May, we still experienced snow this late in the year. Wrapping my arms around myself, I headed out of the barely standing house and made my way to the packhouse.

Sneaking in through the back door, I was careful not to make a sound. The last thing I wanted was to wake anyone up. Dropping my bag by the back door, I kicked off my very old and very worn sneakers. Bending over I grabbed a change of clothes out of my bag and made my way down the stairs just to the right of the back door to try to sneak in a quick shower.

No one ever used the shower downstairs and it was the only place I was able to shower. The Alpha made it perfectly clear he didn’t want my filth in his house and told me that I could use it. It wasn’t much of a shower, just a cement slab with a drain and a hose coming out through a hole in the wall that had been shoved through from outside.

Taking off my clothes, I stepped into the makeshift shower and had to prepare myself mentally. Grabbing the cord, that would turn the water on for a total of five minutes, I held back a yelp as the freezing water hit my skin. As quickly as I could I stepped under the water and let it wash over me as I grabbed the bottle of body wash.

Since this was all that I was supplied, I had to use it for my hair and body, but at least I would be clean. Living in a dank basement surrounded by dirt, I was covered in filth every morning. As soon as I was wet enough, I made quick work to lather the soap all over my body and wash the dirt from my long silky hair.

I had learned the hard way many times that I couldn’t take my time, since I was under a time limit and not to mention the water was cold. When I was lathered up enough, I stuck my head back under the water and rinsed off as fast as I could. When the water stopped running, I hoped I had been fast enough to rinse off fully.

I reached over and grabbed an old raggy towel that hung on a hook on the wall and dried off. I was shivering and I could hear the chattering of my teeth. This was my life, as much as I was used to the way things were, it still sucked. As soon as I was dressed I made my way back upstairs.

Reaching the top of the stairs, I shoved my old clothes into my bag. I found a discarded pencil wedged in between the floor and the wall, so I pulled my hair back and shoved the pencil through the base, and twisted. When I felt like it would hold, I secured the pencil and dropped my hands.

With my hair now twisted in a bun, held in place by the pencil, I headed into the kitchen to start cooking. This was going to be the last meal I would ever make here and as much as I wanted to skip out on it, I knew if I did there would be hell to pay on my last day. Tiptoeing around the kitchen I gathered the supplies I needed to make bacon and Denver Omelets for everyone.

Eleven members of the pack lived in the house, but after years of doing this, it didn’t take me long to whip up the omelets. When I had just finished putting the last plate on the warmer, I heard the sound of someone moving around upstairs. Crap, I had to hurry up, I didn’t want to be here when they came down.

Glancing at the clock on the stove it was now a few minutes after six, I had just enough time to get to the school and get a little time to myself before the rest of the students showed up. Grabbing a piece of bacon off one of the plates, I gathered my book bag and slipped my shoes on. I heard the sound of someone coming down the stairs and my heart started to beat wildly in my chest.

Slinging my bag over my shoulder I opened the door and stepped outside. Just as I shut the door, I heard the kitchen door open and I made a mad dash away from the house. It was my objective in life to try to avoid as many encounters with the Alpha’s family as much as possible.