Echoes of Hate

ARIA.

My heart was beating violently as I ran, feeling like it’d tear me in half. I wasn’t running out of the house, I was running in order to dodge the reality that was threatening to crush me alive.

I didn’t bother undressing and just threw the reins over to my wolf. My body launched off of the cliff, bones rearranging mid-air, as Thea surged with silver fur was shimmering through the night. The wind howled in her ears, as though it were warning her.

During a single heartbeat, we were light as air, untouchable. Free. Nothing else existed.

Then the impact of the ground reminded us that freedom was nothing but false. She shot forward like a missile. We both clung to the speed as if it could save us, but I knew better. We were not running away to safety. We were rushing toward an inevitable wreck, and I simply didn’t know if we’d survive it.

I let her focus on the run while my thoughts consumed me.

Helpless. That was all I was. Had it only me involved then I’d have no problem going rogue. None at all. The irony was laughable. I’d prefer to go to the death sentence than to follow up what my father told me to do. That was what it was after all. Young females didn’t last long. The majority of them were left bleeding to death in the mud, names forgotten like the wind. The rest…well, they found themselves wishing they had.

Perhaps, I could manage if Thea and I were fighters, but we weren’t warriors. She was quick, but quickness didn’t rescue you when teeth sank into your neck.

And my father had made sure of that. My father had been adamant that I wasn’t to attend additional training past the mandatory bit that all pack members were given. It was just one more way for him to control me. He didn’t want me capable of fighting back because then he’d lose his leverage. 

‘He only wanted control. Not family,’ Thea snarled.

Father. I found the phrase bitter and tainted. A laughable title.

Warden. Boss. Ruler. Tyrant. Any of those fit better.

I had no idea why he hated me so much. Not a single damn clue what was so wrong about me that I was barely considered to be his own flesh and blood. It had been years since I gave up hoping that he would one day see me as his daughter again. His love for me evaporated when Mom left, leaving three children behind.

Jory was twenty-six, I was nineteen, and Piper was six years old. She hadn’t even been a year old when Mom left. It fell onto me to raise her because our father couldn’t be bothered.

There wasn’t anything that I wouldn’t do to protect Piper. It was the precise reason that she made the perfect trump card for him to wield. Oh, it was a weapon that he had perfected, one that could leave me yielding no matter how asinine something was. Case in point, what he informed me would happen.

I, Aria Morgan, was going to be mated. Whether I liked it or not.

Who was the lucky guy? Dane Holden, Alpha of the Shadow Vale pack. We hadn’t even met before, but he delivered up a contract to my father to ensure that it happened, as if my life was nothing more than a business arrangement. I couldn’t understand what would make a powerful Alpha seek me out, offering up a contract instead of courtship?

I didn’t have an answer but did have a fresh bruise for asking the wrong question— what my father stood to gain. His voice was not responded to by his hands. He bestowed upon me a deadline. I had until midnight to sign or to face the consequences.

And Jason Morgan wasn’t a man who made idle threats. The broken rib I was now sporting was the cost of me telling him I’d prefer to be a runaway than to be bound to Alpha Dane.

My father was bad enough, but Alpha Dane was worse. Cold. Cruel. Vindictive. That was what he was known for. He took what he wanted, when he wanted it, and how he wanted it.

‘Everything a mate ought to be’, Thea said in disgust.

I agreed with her. It was the opposite of everything I’d dreamed of. Like every girl, I’d once imagined my mate. A gift from the Goddess. The other half of my soul. My fated bond, unshakable and true. I never even entertained the thought of a chosen mate. It felt like blasphemy to me. I wouldn’t ever judge a person who chose to go that route because it was their own personal decision just like it should’ve been mine.

That was a dream that had been turned into ashes. Because solidifying a chosen mate-bond would permanently sever any chance of one finding their fated mate. Everyone had one, but a variety of factors might keep them apparat. Distance, age, death, etc. IF Alpha Dane took me as his mate and marked me then it would be game over.

If I refused, he promised to hand her to rogues and let nature take its course.

Not a threat. A promise.

He didn’t give a shit about us. Instead, only caring about what we can do to benefit him.

The fucked-up part was the fact that Jason Morgan was revered within the community.

It benefited our father that he was a believable chameleon, able to alter his persona to fit whatever he needed to. It also helped him that the pack despised me. They chose a life of atonement for me because of what Mom supposedly did. The believed that she was the mastermind behind a rogue attack that got pack members killed. With her going MIA five years ago, their ire fell onto me. They didn’t hold my father accountable at all, and he was more than happy to let the pack hate me.

To me, Jason Morgan was nothing short of a demon sent to make my life a living hell.

It was shortly after ten when Thea made it back home. She padded over to the tree where we kept extra clothes for shifting. I pulled on a pair of shorts and t-shirt before heading inside. I snuck into the house, and the dread was pushing down on me like a burden.

“You can do something right at least.”

I bit the inside of my cheek to keep myself from responding to the man who was sitting in the kitchen, partially hidden in the shadows. There my father sat with a glass of whiskey tipped against his lips. He swallowed the contents before setting the glass down on the counter.

The silence between us stretched on. It had never felt so deafening before.

“May I read the contract before I sign it?” I asked him, keeping my tone as neutral as possible.

A triumphant grin slowly curved his lips. He didn’t respond but simply pointed at the pile of papers lying on the counter. Before my thoughts had time to realize it, my hand was reaching out towards them, and I already hated myself because of it.

The document was fairly straightforward from what I could see. Obviously, I wasn’t an expert in legal jargon, but I got the gist of what it said. It was a contract between Alpha Dane and me. It didn’t mention a time frame, which suggested a permanent arrangement. There were dos and don’ts that I was expected to obey. I wasn’t allowed to tell anyone about this contract. I was to present myself as a Luna. No venturing around the pack alone.

My eyes skimmed through the ridiculous approved or disapproved list until I got to one that made me sick to my stomach.

‘Aria Morgan will give birth to Dane Holden’s heir. She agrees to undergo testing to ensure her body is capable of carrying and birthing said heir.’

I couldn’t breathe, couldn’t think. Not a person. Not only was I being forced into signing my life away but would also have to provide an heir…

“What will you choose? Your life or the little bitch’s?”

The word struck harder than a slap. It took a considerable amount of restraint to refrain from snarling at him. How could a father call his own six-year-old daughter a little bitch? Not to mention selling off his other daughter.

This life was a fucking mess.

He knew that there was really no choice here. That was how he had planned for it to go down – make me choose my own well-being or choose hers. Either choice resulted in losing something significant. However, there was only ever one choice.

Piper above all else.

It felt like I was holding cement as I signed the documents. I could be signing on for anything. Who knew what Alpha Dane had in mind for what he expected of his mate. That, in and of itself, was a terrifying thought.

I placed the pen down once the last page was signed.

The saddest part was the loss of myself, and the realization that I had sacrificed away the last of me.