Chapter 1 | Haunting Dreams

FIFTEEN YEARS LATER

~Ari/Kendall~

Lightning bolts, thunderclaps, and colossal waves.

Rain was pouring down relentlessly. I found myself trapped in a fierce storm, my body swaying back and forth with the relentless waves. I tried to scream, pleading for rescue, but instead, I ended up swallowing a lot of water.

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

Salty water stung my eyes and filled my lungs as I fought to remain conscious. Darkness enveloped me at times, and I felt my body tossed about, caught in massive tidal waves. Everything was pitch black, but I kept waking up to the same terrifying situation. Angry waves crashed against raging winds, hurling me at high speed in random directions. The only difference this time was that it was night, not day.

Something didn't make sense. A shiny blue tail kept presenting itself to me. At first, I thought it was a large fish following me, or perhaps it was somehow attached to me. The tail fought against the blue waters, rescuing me from driftwood that had been blown far into the ocean by the fierce winds. A voice inside me told me it was okay to submerge myself in the water.

I didn't want to trust that voice inside me. It felt like the part of me that wanted to give up and let go. I fought to stay afloat for as long as I could until darkness consumed me again.

When I finally opened my eyes, my head throbbed with pain. The rain had stopped, and I was greeted by a cold, clear sky. My arms were clinging to a piece of dead wood, and my toes were buried in damp sand among sharp, pokey objects. I looked around for my companion, the beautiful creature with a brilliant tail, but it was nowhere to be seen.

Gathering what little energy I had left, I lifted my gaze. I realized I was lying on a pebbled beach, dotted with small patches of sand and scattered driftwood. As I pushed a sharp seashell out from under my knee, I managed to hoist myself up on shaky legs.

Tiny droplets of rain kissed my face as I looked up at the sky, pleading for it to stop pouring. In the next moment, I lost my balance and fell face-first into the sand, crying out and wondering where my mom and dad were.

I cried until I was exhausted. With my eyes closed, I listened to the gentle pitter-patter of raindrops falling on millions of tiny seashells and soon fell asleep, only to be jolted awake by a shrill noise.

"Ugh! Stupid alarm." I kicked the warm covers off my body, groaned, and rolled out of bed. 

I hated waking up early, but for once, I was relieved to escape that terrible dream. Fragments of this dream had been haunting me for as long as I could remember, but this was the first time I had seen it in such vivid detail... the complete picture, from fighting against the storm to lying on the beach.

The beach in my dream was Palm Beach, just two miles from where I lived. I resided on a peninsula with water on three sides, and there was no shortage of beaches. However, Palm Beach was my favorite spot for collecting sand dollars and conch shells. I had never seen so many shells littering that beach as I did in my dream.

My grandma used to say that there was a huge storm about fifteen years ago. It was so impactful that new land was created once the waters receded. Old Jimmy's seafood restaurant and pier were built right on that "new earth."

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

I don't remember what my real parents named me, but now I go by Kendall... Kendall White. The White family were proud warriors, while I was a weak human they didn't seem to value. But 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 to the only window in my room and pulled the drapes apart. Outside, the lush green trees were still enveloped in darkness. I could hear a wolf howling not too far away.

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

"Kiki, where's the newspaper?" I heard my adoptive dad's impatient voice as I brushed my teeth, lost in my morning thoughts. His name was Zeta Archer, a high-ranking wolf who had the privilege of recruiting and training several young pack members under the Alpha's command. He had loyally served Alpha Dimitri his entire life and was now a trusted general under Alpha Kayden, Dimitri's son. Alpha Kayden had been sworn in just last month when he turned twenty-one.

When I was young, my adoptive dad had high hopes for me. I often accompanied him to the training grounds, where I did everything boys and girls my age did to excel. The two best-trained warriors among us were selected at the age of sixteen to become Etas. They were the fiercest and most skilled warriors of the pack, and I aspired to be one of them.

I trained hard and was as capable as any of the young warriors Zeta Archer invested his time in. In fact, I excelled in a few areas because he doted on me and paid special attention to my skills. However, everything changed when a group of us turned thirteen, and I was the only one who couldn't shift. 

Years passed, and with each year, the others grew stronger while I remained unable to transform. By the time I turned sixteen, I had become the weakest and slowest in my age group, and not being able to shift meant there was no hope left for me. Almost a year ago, I was demoted from being a potential lethal warrior to an omega.

“Kiki, did you start making breakfast?” My adoptive mom, Astrid, was bustling about, getting everything in order before heading to the training grounds with my adoptive dad. They expected me to prepare breakfast for them by sunrise.

"I'm on it!"

I handed the newspaper to him. He was so old-fashioned that he 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 heaping spoonfuls of sugar for Mom. After frying some bacon and poaching two eggs for Dad, I scrambled some eggs and placed them on a plate with toast for Mom. With their thin lips pursed in disapproval, they stared at me as if I was the nincompoop of the century. 

"Forks," Mom said, tapping on the edge of the plate while gritting her teeth. 

I quickly ran back into the kitchen to grab some cutlery. My stomach growled at the delicious smell of the greasy bacon. Gulping down my saliva, I went to the basement to start the laundry before returning to my room to get dressed for work. 

I worked as a pickup truck driver, transporting merchandise from the mainland to our pack. While we had stores that sold fresh produce and other items, we didn’t grow them ourselves. I was responsible for bringing them over to maintain a constant supply for everyone. The job paid me eighteen dollars an hour, and I wished they would allow me to work longer hours instead of just a few in the morning. 

Not only was the pay good, but working longer hours meant I could do fewer chores at home. Unfortunately, there was a limit to the amount of produce the pack needed. The franchise manager expected me to make fewer trips and bring back extra items, especially on weekends when I had more time since 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 I am and acted like I owed her a kidney or something.

"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 has killed so many plants 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 some eggs sunny-side up and set them on the dining table alongside some grits while she rambled on about something I didn't care to listen to. I was starving and running late.

"Wait. Why isn't 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 sunny side up."

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

"No, it shouldn't 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 adoptive mom intervened while Megan scoffed at me.

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

I walked into the kitchen, feeling excited about eating some hot breakfast in peace. Just then, the front door opened, and Mom came in.

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

She left me staring at the two eggs in my hands. She was a stingy woman who counted everything. Not wanting to get into 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.

Having something is better than nothing, and I should be grateful for the shelter I have. To cheer myself up, I enjoyed some hot chocolate from a sippy mug before setting out for the day.