Four.

Irina’s POV

I had hardly slept and the bags under my eyes were a huge giveaway.

A mixture of annoyance and stress about how mom was keeping secrets from me. The questions I had were slowly burning a hole in my brain and I needed answers!

As I head downstairs I was surprised to hear that my mom was still here, she would normally be at work by now and as I round the corner I almost walk into her, sending her morning coffee flying and making her jump

“Why are you not at work?”

“Excuse me? I am your mother, do not talk to me like that”

“I am just saying you are normally at work by now”

“Day off” she mumbles, cleaning up the spilt coffee but she looked a mess this morning, her long blonde hair tied up in a messy bun and she looked like she hadn't slept either

I sit at the table and fill my cereal bowl, but I couldn’t eat, I had so many questions but I had no idea what the chances are that she would actually answer me so I had to be tactile as she sits opposite me

“Why did you go to the war?”

“Alpha asked me too”

“Father asked you?” I was completely surprised because he had told us to stay safe but when I think back over the conversation, it was me who he told to be safe, not my mother. Had they already planned that she would go?

“He maybe your father but he is an Alpha first”

I just nod my head thinking of my next move but I was starting to see the strangeness in their relationship. Rarely did she call him by his first name, always calling him Alpha but they were supposed to be in a relationship??

“Whose blood was on you?” It didn’t matter to me that she was an omega, my father loved her and I knew she could fight, she trained in secret, the same as she was the one who trained me

She doesn’t answer me, instead she smiles and tells me that is it nothing to worry about but how could I not worry, what would this mean for our family.

“Mom, why would Alpha ask you to go to the war, we are omegas?”

Again she doesn’t answer me but instead tells me that the Alpha’s son protected her from the rival packs Gamma, that’s whose blood it was but I didn’t believe her, she had one tiny wound. Surely she would have more than that if she was up against a Gamma and besides I have seen higher ranked wolfs with more wounds.

The Alpha’s son, my half brother had saved her, had somehow known where to bring her and had stayed to make sure she was okay. I wanted to ask her questions, she knew exactly who the Alpha’s son was but she doesn’t say anything and I wonder if she is trying to be as tactile as I was.

"Aren't you going to be late for school?"

She was deliberately changing the subject.

"I'm going now," I hiss.

We both fall silent, I knew I wasn’t going to get anymore information from her, she had said what she had to say and that was it. Instead I decide to give her some space and grab some fruit as I head off to school, I will try again this evening.

School is my least favourite place because I would have to deal with Vivian again. Every single day was pure torture, Thursdays less so because we had hardly any classes together and I was thankful, it was almost the weekend and I would be free to do as I please.

I don’t drive to school like most of the other kids, I enjoyed walking and it gave me time to think of ways I could overthrow Vivian, not that it would ever happen, I just didn’t have the confidence.

Our school was smallish in comparison to human schools because it was just for kids of the pack but as the pack had grown, they have had to extend it and in my year alone their were about a hundred of us, the biggest year group in decades apparently. We go to school until we are nineteen here, because we don’t shift until we are eighteen, the Alpha likes us to have an extra year so we can be prepared although we can leave the pack as soon as we turn eighteen which made no sense to me.

Vivian made my life hell, if I wasn’t being slammed into a locker, she would be finding ways to torture me and I was certain the teachers knew, they just ignored it because as far as they were concerned, I was no one special.

The name calling was the worse because she would call me some of the most disgusting names on Earth and her posse would join in. If only they knew that I was the Alpha’s daughter.

Thankfully today, we didn’t have many classes together and I managed to avoid her, even at lunch when I took my food off to the library to hide from her but in the final class I had to stay behind and clean the classroom. After all the commotion last night and the sleep deprivation, I had forgot to pack my homework. Normally the punishment would be a lot stricter but as I was an A star student, it wasn’t like me to forget such things and the teacher decides to let me off.

As I start sweeping, I catch that familiar scent from last night, its not overly strong but strong enough to know it was different to the others, with an almost minty smell and I knew instantly that my half brother was nearby. Peering out the classroom into the corridor, I spot him but he is not alone. His hand is linked with that bitch Vivian, who was showing off an engagement ring! While the other girls surrounding him were batting their eyelashes like he was the most wonderful thing in the world. In that moment I decide that he must be as much of an asshole as she is.

I hated every moment, watching them together and yet I couldn’t take my eyes away, it was like my insides were being squeezed by the very thought of them being together, my breath was slowly being cut off from my body when he catches sight of me, his deep green eyes focussing on mine when Vivian sees me, an evil grin appearing on her face and I leave as quickly as I can.

I had to get away quick!!!!