1. The Need To Leave

Jessy’s POV:

“She still doesn’t have her wolf?”

“How sad is that?”

“I wonder how she can walk with her head held high when she clearly doesn’t belong here.”

The whispers around me were enough to drive me crazy and I blinked quickly to stop the tears that were threatening to fall, while increasing my pace towards the field where the rest of my family was gathered.

This has been happening for years, since the night of my eighteenth birthday where I was supposed to unite with my wolf but that had not happened. It had driven the entire pack crazy and the rumors and conspiracy theories had began circulating and never stopped till this day.

I was after all the golden girl, the daughter of the mighty Alpha Greyson and Luna Freya. Two of the most powerful people in the world, it was a wonder to everyone, how I had Alpha blood and instead of a strong powerful wolf I was left with nothing and every day since that night, living in this pack had been hell.

No one touched me, they wouldn’t, not unless they had a death sentence, and no one ever tried to assault me either physically or verbally, but the dirty looks that I got when I had to be outside, the whispers that were loud enough for me to hear, the pointing, the subtle sneering I heard whenever I had to walk down the streets, they were enough to send a clear message and that hurt more than any physical or verbal assault could.

“Jess! Hurry up, we’re losing! Dad and Kyla keep cheating.” Kevin my brother yelled as I walked into the field and I sniffed once, running a hand through my face to make sure no tears had slipped past my eyes.

My entire family was overprotective of me, from my father to my mother to my twin brothers and I loved them for it but it only strengthened the whispers that said I was weak so a part of me resented it. I wasn’t necessarily weak, even though I didn’t have a wolf, I could still hold my ground thanks to my father’s trainings but sometimes I did feel like I was weak and it was one of the saddest things ever.

“Did you get it princess?” My father asked and I nodded my head still unable to talk for fear of breaking down in tears.

“Are you alright honey? Did something happen?” My father asked once more, taking the bottle of water that I offered him.

“I’m fine, but I think I’m going to leave now, Lila just called and wants to hang out and I think I’ve had enough boys around me today.” I teased, trying my best to sound okay.

“What do you mean? You love us!” Kevin chirped from the side stealing Kyla’s snack. The latter let him do it and I rolled my eyes at the sight.

Kevin was the problem twin, in fact he was the problem child out of the three of us while Kyla was the sweet boy that everyone fell in love with, the twins had different physiques and different personalities, but they loved each other dearly and it was fun to watch them together.

While Kevin was big and already quite muscular at sixteen, Kyla was the complete opposite, he could easily pass as a girl with his shoulder length hair and his smaller frame and while Kevin was loud boisterous. Kyla was quiet and calm.

I gave each of the twin a kiss on the head before kissing my dad’s cheek and picking up my bag to exit the field. It had become a tradition for us to come down here every once in a while and just hang out, we had been doing this for as long as I could remember and although it was usually always fun and I genuinely enjoyed spending time with my family, it was starting to get overwhelming for me.

Everything was starting to get overwhelming the longer I stayed within this pack. I wasn’t happy, I didn’t feel as fulfilled as I had always dreamed, it didn’t really feel like there was a future here for me anymore or if there was then maybe I needed a long break from it and then I could return to it at a later time. When I was in a much better headspace.

I made my way home, plugging in my earplugs to drown out the noise and distract myself as I went. I couldn’t hear the noises around me but I could see the frowns and sneers all of which I ignored till I was walking through the large gates of my home.

“Mom, I’m home!” I announced, heading towards the stairs.

The only thing I needed at the moment, was a hot bath and sleep.

“Welcome honey, come in here, Lila is here.” My mother called from the kitchen and I frowned slightly.

I know I had said I wanted to hang with her but that had been an excuse to get back home so I could sleep. I made my way into the kitchen surprised to find Lila dicing some carrots beside Christie, our head maid who kept adding more washed carrots to the stack. My mother was at the other end, stirring something over the stove.”

“Hi Jess. I left you a couple of texts that I’d be coming but I don’t think you saw them.” Lila said and I nodded.

“Sorry, I haven’t really been able to check my phone. How are you?” I asked, pulling out a knife and another board to assist her.

“I’m alright. I’ve missed you.” She responded and I gave her a small smile.

Lila was the only friend in the entire pack I had managed to get and actually keep since my only other friend disappeared completely from my life. We were complete opposites with the things we liked and with our personalities but somehow we made it work.

“How was your hangout with your father and brothers? Sorry I couldn’t join you guys I didn’t feel so good.” My mother said and I gave her a little run down of all the things we had done and we all shared a couple of laughs at some point, before she decided that we had helped enough and chased us out so we could properly hangout.

“Are you okay? I didn’t want to ask in the kitchen cause I didn’t want your mom to get worried, but you don’t exactly look fine.” Lila said the moment we entered the room.

I flopped onto my Queen sized bed, buried my head in the pillows and just broke down. It was all too much for me, I didn’t feel happy here, I didn’t feel like I belonged here anymore and I hated the hatred that I got outside of my father’s mansion. I also hated pretending like it didn’t get to me.

“What’s wrong Jessy? You can talk to me.” Lila said, moving closer to me to stroke my hair comfortingly while I bawled my eyes into my pillow.

It took a while for me to stop crying but eventually I did and as I turned towards Lila to find the worry dancing in her eyes, I knew that I had to open up to someone about this.

“I don’t think I can take it anymore. I hate my life here. I hate the whispers and the stares and the pointing and people avoiding me on the streets like I have some kind of disease.”

“Oh honey, but you don’t. You’re perfectly fine just the way you are. Why don’t you tell your father about it?”

“That’s the thing! Running to him would only strengthen their whispers. They are not hurting me and there’s barely anything he can do about whispers and finger pointings. I think I just need to leave. I just want to meet new people, experience a different community with people who don’t even know who I am, or rather who my father is cause most of the problems start from there.

One mention of my father’s name and they already know who and what I am. And if they don’t whisper and gossip about me then they are trying to get close to me for personal gains, the cycle is exhausting.” I said, curling up on my bed and facing my window, watching the sun slowly set.

Lila remained quiet for a long time but I refused to turn towards her, she spoke again after a while.

“Well, what if I told you that there’s a pack you could go to where no one would know who you are, unless you told them.” Lila insisted and I sighed heavily, I wasn’t sure what she was hoping to achieve with this, but I really didn’t appreciate the false hope.

“Listen to me Jessy. I’m not joking about this, you know how I’ve had to travel so much in these last couple of months. I really didn’t want to mention this until I was a hundred percent sure about everything and about where I stood but I met this man three months ago on one of my trips, turns out he’s the Alpha of a newly established pack far away from here, the pack mostly accepts the rogues, the unfit and the ones who don’t belong.” Lila said and I sat up quickly on my bed now interested in what she had to say.

“How come I’ve never heard of this pack before? Every pack has to go through a list of approval from my father and then there’s a feast of the Alphas which happens every year and every Alpha has to attend. I don’t see how this is possible. What’s this Alpha’s name?” I asked, genuinely confused and skeptical.

“Arthur. He created his own pack and cut it from the rest of the world because he didn’t want himself or his people to have to be under laws that have had flaws since their very beginnings. No offense to your father. I’m only telling you about this because I’m sure it’s what you need at the moment, I can tell you’re not happy here Jess, and it breaks my heart watching you fall apart piece by piece the longer you stay here.

I can’t guarantee that you’ll find happiness in Arthur’s pack, but I swear that you’ll fit in. You’ll find people like yourself, people who understand you, people who wouldn’t try to discriminate you because you don’t fit their definition of normal and I think that might be exactly what you need at this point in your life.” Lila concluded.

She was right. That was exactly what I needed, but it sounded too good to be true. All I have known is the protection and care from underneath my father’s wing, even when the rest of the world seemed to be against me. Would I be able to survive it if I dropped that? In my heart, I knew that I wanted to move, but was I ready for it? Especially moving to somewhere so uncertain?

“Just think about it and talk to your parents about it, they really don’t have to know where you’re going, you know they’re just going to track you down eventually and that’s not what you need right now and that could also cause certain problems for Arthur. Talk to your parents about moving and I’ll talk to Arthur about letting you stay without revealing your true identity to him. What do you think?” She asked and I nodded in response.

“I’ll do that. Thank you so much for the offer, I appreciate it more than you know.” I said, inching closer to her and wrapping my arms around her in a hug.

“Girls, come down for dinner!” My mother shouted from downstairs and Lila and I shared a laugh.

I rushed into the bathroom to wash my face before coming out and heading downstairs, before my mother came up here to pull me down herself. The woman was really small, but her strength was unmatched.

Lila’s words kept playing in my head as I made my way down the stairs and the more I considered the option, the more beautiful it sounded. It really was what I needed. All I needed to do was convince my parents to let me leave and that would be it.

Viola! New life!

What could go wrong?