Chapter 2

6th of October, 2014

I crawl through the hole, feeling the soil push back against me. I can only hold my breath for so long. I can hear the thumping of the warrior’s boots against the ground as the fight for victory in the war.

A war I caused.

A beam of light shines in my direction and I almost cry out in relief. My knees move quickly, racing towards the beam of hope.

I’m almost there.

A few more inches.

My fingers reach out to grasp the opening-

Then it’s all gone. There’s no war, two hundred warriors didn’t meet their demise because of me.

It’s the fourth time I’ve dreamed about the war in the week, and it’s only Wednesday. The sun peeks through the white curtains, blasting my eyelids with heat. Groaning softly, I drag myself into the real world, listening to the chirping of birds and a few dogs barking. The strong smell of bleach fills my senses, making me scrunch up my nose in disgust.

It’s time to get up.

Waking up is my least favorite part of the day, because it means that work has begun. It isn’t like my dream are any better than my reality though, but at least they don’t leave me with scars. My eyes haven’t even fluttered open when a voice booms through the walls of my room without remorse.

“Runt!”

I shoot up from my room, the kitchen floor, with wide eyes and a racing heart.

Thalia, the beta’s sister stands in front of me with a smirk playing at her lips. She is taller than me by a few inches, so I step back a bit and lower my head, making sure to keep my voice low and respectful. “Yes, my future Luna.”

She smiles at the address. After the war, she demanded that I start calling her that, declaring that she was going to be Alpha Xavier’s mate, and no one dared to question her, as her older brother is the Alpha’s right-hand man. It wasn’t impossible that they already knew that they would be mates.

“Everyone wants hand-made pancakes for breakfast” Her voice brings me back to reality, even though I was hardly even listening. I stare at her beautiful black boots my heart clenches. I can’t help but like her. I can’t help but want to be like her.

She is perfect.

From the few glances I’ve had, she has beautiful blonde hair and blue eyes; exactly what all the guys are crazy for. Mine is a dyed a dirty blonde that my siblings force me to re-dye every few months because my real hair makes me look too much like my mother.

The only time that they tolerate being even a few feet next to me, is to make sure I don’t look like mama.

I have no idea I’ve zoned out until a zing of pain shoots through my body and I realize her nails are digging into the skin of my jaw.

Thalia grips my jaw and pulls it up, forcing me to look up at her. On instinct I close my eyes, unwilling to make eye contact with her. The last time I accidentally did, I had to sleep in the shed for a month.

Even after six months I still smell the cow dung.

My eyes grow hot as tears threaten to spill out of my eyes. I fight to keep them at bay because I know from experience that crying never makes anything better. While some torturers like to see their victims in tears, wailing on the floor and begging for mercy; mine… they like to see me try to control the pain.

They like it when my jaw is clenched, my teeth are grinding and the veins in my neck pop out so hard it looks like they’re ready to pop.

“When I speak to you…” She gritted out, her grip tightening on me. “I want an answer.” I grip the marble counter beside me hard, so I don’t scream out. I can feel her hand shaking with the force she’s squeezing me with. “Understood?” I don’t have to look at her to know that her teeth are clenched together, her blue orbs blazing.

“Understood.” I reply quietly, my voice shaking slightly. She lets me go and I hurriedly start with breakfast. Pans fly out of the cupboards, and I grab the flour, sugar and other ingredients. Thalia watches me rush around for a few more seconds before she walking away with an expression of glee. They never let me use pancake mix, claiming it’s a lazy way of doing things. So, I always have to start from scratch. At least, unlike other packs, ours is divided into sections. So instead of having to feed five thousand mouths, I only have to feed about thirty.

I turn my head to glance at the wall clock that hangs on the kitchen wall, staring at me. It reads 6:12. Why has Thalia given me so much time to prepare for breakfast? Usually, she tells me what is requested a couple of minutes before, so I have to scurry about like a lost mouse, in a hurry to do everything to perfection.

As I mix the ingredients together, girls run around with outfits in their hands and make-up scattered across their faces like they are preparing for something. The kitchen has a large opening that serves as a door and leads to the dining room, so watching them run around as I mix the batter is quite entertaining. Curiosity burns through me though, and I take the opportunity to satisfy it when one of the girls, Amira, rushes past me with a worried expression. She is civil to me when the other girls aren’t there, so I make slight eye contact with her in an attempt to call her over.

She turns around and walks over to the kitchen cautiously with a small smile, looking behind her to make sure no one is here to notice her talking to me, and I take the opportunity to whisper my question to her. “Uh, hey, why is everyone in a hurry today?”

“Don’t you know?” She smiles excitedly. I shake my head, no. “Today is the first of October.” The tone of her voice tells me she expects it to click, but I nod my head slowly, still not understanding why she is excited for a normal day. “You still don’t get it, do you?” I shake my head again, no. “It’s the first full moon after Alpha Xavier turned eighteen and became the Alpha.”

“Okay…” I trail off, still not understanding the meaning of her statement.

“Today is the day he finds his mate!” She squeals. “Which means also-”

The date stands out to me for some reason, and when I figure it out, I stop and my eyes widen in realization. Today is the first of October. The day Alpha Xavier will find his mate, our Luna. It is also an important day for me.

“My birthday.” I whisper to myself, surprised I forgot my birthday, the day I turn sixteen. Most girls would be ecstatic because it means you find your mate, but…I know I can never have a mate, and even if I do, he’ll reject me. Nobody wants to be mated to the unwanted loser of the pack- so I don’t bother getting excited over tuning sixteen.

Amira stops squealing for a moment and narrows her eyes at me. At first, I think she is going to laugh at me and say something mean, but her voice turns small.

“It’s your birthday?” She asked me quietly, and I unfroze.

“Uh, yeah.’” I say softly, mixing the batter to perfection. Since there are eight burners, I set out a pan on each and turn up the heat. I slip a bit of margarine on each of them, watching them sizzle. “It’s no biggie.” I start frying the pancakes quickly, two at a time, and serve them onto plates. Amira is quiet for a while, and I think she has left till she finally murmurs something.

“Happy birthday…” She trailed off. I realized she’s forgotten my name pause for about a second. “Uh…” Everyone has forgotten my name. It has been so long since I’ve heard that seven letter word I desperately long to hear; yet everyone calls me runt, courtesy of Thalia.

“It’s Evelyn.” I quietly input, not willing to break the rare, prolonged display of affection.

“Happy birthday Evelyn.” She says. My back is turned to her, so she’s oblivious to the hot, happy tears that were streaming down my face. I forget for just a fraction of a second, that it was the first time I was hearing those words since my parents died

I also forget that I have pancakes on fire, so when it starts to smoke, I’m confused for a second. “Crap!” I whisper out. I notice people slowly trickling into the dining room, ready for breakfast and thankfully breakfast is already served. The pancake that burns is the scrap from the batter that I’d plopped onto the pan to serve as a happy birthday breakfast.

But I ruined that too.

“What’s smoking?” Thalia’s voice booms through the room. All attention is turned to her. She looks like a literal goddess as she materializes, and from the looks everyone gives her, I’m the only on that thinks so. I glance at her and notice she is wearing a beautiful baby blue dress that stopps just above her knees, with ruffles at the bottom. Her hair is packed into a tight bun, bringing out the definition in her face, and her make-up is done to perfection.

Once again, she is perfect.

“Did the runt burn something?” The sound of my name snaps me out of my daze as murmurs of agreement fly around in the room.

My heart starts to pound.

I don’t know why I even bother. Every single day, Thalia or one of her friends will find a way to punish me. For sleeping, for having a sip of water, or for chewing on the bones they left behind.

Sometimes for just being alive.

I mentally beg her to spare me, my eyes glaring at the ground. Preparing my body and mind for the punishment is essential, because I know if I don’t, my brain could go into shock.

Please, don’t come over here.

She can sense my fear. Everyone can. She smiles evilly and makes her way to the kitchen, her heels clanking against the tiled floor. She stops in front of the burnt remnants of the pancake, then grabs a spoon and gives it to me.

“Eat it.”

The silence is too powerful. I know that if I shake in fear for too long, she will get angry for the disrespect. My hands shakily grip the spoon and hover above the hot pan. I don’t dare beg. I tell myself to pretend like it’s normal food and move to grab the spoon. Before I can make the move, Thalia makes it for me. She grabs my neck in a tight grip and shovels some of the burnt food into the spoon. Then she squeezes my neck, making me gasp in pain, and forces the food into my mouth.

My senses are filled with the taste of ashes. It tastes like ashes. The tears that I had willed not to fall stream down my face, especially when I see Amira laughing with her two best friends. My siblings, Elena and Ajax.

Ajax, Elena and I couldn’t look any more different if we tried. They both had short brown hair, while I had long black hair that was dyed dirty blonde. They had blue eyes, I had green eyes. They were outspoken, I was introverted.

Just like Mama.

And they hated me for being a living reminder of everything that I took from them. My siblings made eye contact with me for a brief second and paused. For a moment, I thought they were sorry. I thought they loved me.

Then they laughed even harder.

Thalia decided she’d had enough fun and pushed me to the ground, then walked away laughing. Everyone cheered for her and left their dirty dishes for me to do. When they all left, I shakily got up, nauseous. I hated the fact that the kitchen could be seen from the living room because it made me a target for Thalia and her friends.

I thought I was going to throw up when another wave hit me, but the nausea went as fast as it came, when the most amazing scent filled my nostrils. It was so powerful I wanted to cry out in pleasure. A voice in my head was yelling something that I couldn’t make out.

My wolf?

It couldn’t be. I hadn’t heard her in about four years since she was too weak.

MOTE! MOTE! MOTE!

Mote? I asked myself. What was a mote? And why was it ringing in my head?

I heard a voice approaching the dining room and the scent got stronger. What was wrong with me today?

MOTE! MOTE! MO-

I had to lift up my eyes. I just had to. Immediately I did, I was met with a pair of brown eyes-

“Mate” A deep voice muttered, sending chills racking through my body.

Standing frozen in front of me, was the Alpha Xavier.

And he didn’t look happy.