Chapter 1: You do as I told you so!

"It was the last order of the day. We can clean up now!"

Giselle said as she paddled through the crowded kitchen to the staff locker room. Giselle untied her white apron hurridly. At that time, she just wanted to get home. Her back was hurt. Her feet were swollen. And to top it off, she also had a terrible headache. It was pretty uncommon since her heat had just ended. Giselle did not know what had caused her to be in this stage. In all honesty, she did not want to know either. It never came with good luck.

She opened her locker. Suddenly, she noticed that her phone was drowning with calls from her father. By the look of that, it seemed like her father was a little bit rushing.

Giselle let out a sigh. She blandly looked at her phone. She did not want to call back or even send him a text. To her, her father was merely a stranger. A stranger who happened to be the Alpha of her pack. Nothing more, nothing less.

She took a pill, hoping for her headache to die down. But before the meds could take effect on her, her father called again. She sighed for the hundredth time of the day, picking up her phone. Before she could mutter out anything, he spat:

"Where the hell are you? Why did you not pick up my call?” His voice sounded piss.

She did not care: “What do you want?”

Her voice laced with tiredness. She felt an exhausted wave washing through her body by just answering her father's call.

“Come to the house. We need to talk.” - He ordered.

“Tell me now. I won't go to that cage.” - She said, nonchalantly.

However, her father wasn’t going to give up. He lowered his tone said in a demanding voice: “Omega, you do as I said!”

His Alpha tone made a shiver run across her body. Her wolf jolted in horror. Both her feet were shaking. Giselle gulped, but before she could say anything, her father snorted:

“You do as I said, or else that tiny restaurant of yours will be taken down!”

She clenched her fingers to fist in anger. That bastard!

***

Giselle pulled up at the main gate to her father’s mansion at eleven pm. She looked at the car clock, almost midnight. She used to call her mom at this hour, reminding her mom to take her meds before her mom went to bed. Her mom had just had surgery a few weeks ago and still had not recovered from it yet.

However, her mom did not pick up her call. That was weird!

Her inner wolf started to feel uneasy. Her instinct told her something was wrong.

She tried to call her mom again and again but to no avail. Her mom always answers her calls. But that time, she did not. At that moment, Giselle believed something was wrong. It started with her unusual sickness, although her heat was long gone and had yet to come. Then there were loads of missed calls from her father, and him using his Alpha tone of speaking, ordered her to get to his mansion, which he never did.

Something was going on there.

Giselle turned on the engine, thinking of driving home when the main gate suddenly cracked open.

There stood her father, the Alpha of the Brownson pack. He stood behind the opened gate. His eyes slowly narrowed so that only his two wicked pupils showed. In the courtyard of his mansion, the garden lights shone dimly, sprang over him, stretching his skew shadow over the hood of the car, onto the car glass in front of Giselle. His appearance screamed wicked and cunning. He was a merciless beast who would kill for his throne. That moment, he stood there, his hands in his pockets, his head slightly tilted silently at Giselle. As if he was silently judging her. As if he was ordering her to get out of the car without bothering to open his mouth.

The pressure admitted from that man constantly coming out. His narrowed pupils turned red in sudden. He also used his power of an Alpha on her, making sure she would not run away. Under the force of an Alpha, no one from the pack could run away. No one.

Giselle swallowed her saliva down her dry throat, trying her best to calm her raging inner wolf. At the same time, a group of nearly ten men showed up from behind her father. They were heading straight for her car.

One of them walked to the driver's seat side. His one hand placed on the hood of the car, his other knocked on the car door, shouted:

“Get out!”

This man is Tery. His face was square-shaped. He had a cleft chin, and a scary long scar started from the bottom of his right eyebrow dragging to the side of his right cheekbone. Tery had aggressive eyes and darkened eyebrows. To Giselle, Tery was not different from a scary monster. He was a monster, a nightmare of an assassin. 

Tery was reckless and short-tempered.

He was the right-hand of the Alpha of the pack, Edsel Brown. And since he was the closest lackey of Edsel, Tery had that arrogant attitude that no one could bear it. When it came to sickening psychoses, after Edsel Brown, Giselle would name Tery down immediately, without the slightest hesitation.

His demanding tone fumed her anger even more. But still, all she could do was obey.

The Alpha of the pack stood there, ordering her to come out. If she refused, those followers would rip her off. They were that loyal to their Alpha.

Giselle breathed in a few deep breaths before shoving her phone into her bag, taking it with her, and got off the car.

Tery stood outside of her car. He then backed down a little bit to make a space for Giselle to get out of her car. He smirked, looking at Giselle with a mocking expression. To him, Giselle was the underdog, a weak wolf of the pack, a burden that he wanted to get rid of, just for the sake of this pack.

Giselle might be Edsel’s biological daughter. Yet, Edsel did not seem to like her much, nor did he ever feel any sympathy for her mom. For that reason, anyone closed to Edsel was pretty harsh to those two. Those people did not learn how to respect Giselle and her mom. They did not want to, either.

To those people, the Alpha of the pack was Edsel Brown. Edsel had a wife named Brenna Brown. She was the one and only Luna of the pack. Tina Brown, the daughter of the two, was the princess of the pack.

Meanwhile, Giselle Stephern and her mom Catherine Stephern were strangers to the Brown family. Members of the pack did not have to respect them two.

Giselle used to think that living in this pack was not much different from being two lone-wolves. At least, when they were two lone-wolves, they could still live happy life without anyone judging them or belittling them.

How sad!

Giselle stepped out as she walked by Tery, a familiar scent attracting her. Giselle quickly turned her head, getting close to Tery to sniff on that familiar scent on him. Mixed with his stinky fishy smell of him was a faint lavender scent of her mom.

Noticing her behavior, the smirk on Tery’s face deepened.

Oh, how Giselle wished she could tear that rotten filthy smile off of Tery’s disgusting face. Normally, Giselle would certainly never want to approach this filthy man. However, things were different then. She could scent her mom's lavender scent on this savage man.

“What have you done?”

She gritted through her teeth, showing off her fangs. Her anger flamed up, burning her guts. In her head, her wolf was restless. Her wolf wanted to kill that filthy man in front of her.

“Kitty, what do you mean?”

Tery retorted, his voice sounding amused.

“What have you done to my mom?”

Giselle roared, ready to jump into Tery, tearing him apart. Even though her strength was weak compared to Tery’s. But still, she would do it no matter what, even if it cost Giselle her life.

“No fighting in front of my house! Now get in so we can get things done! Your mom is safe. But it's depended on your behavior!” Edsel Brown, her father roared.

After that, Edsel turned his back, walking toward his large mansion.

Giselle huffed but chose to follow him. She needed to know her mom was safe or not. And most importantly, what did this perfidious want?

Edsel’s mansion was just like what she remembered: large and flashy. The decorations in his mansion screamed rich.

Giselle had just walked inside when she heard her step-mom’s voice coming from the second-floor hallway: “What’s taking you so long?”

Giselle looked up at the upper hallway. There stood her step-mom, the Luna of the Brownson pack – Brenna Brown. Brenna Brown might be a woman in her fifties, but her skin and her physique were no different from anyone in their young ages. Brenna looked full of energy and lively due to good care. Giselle’s devilish step-mom gave off the demeanor of the finest lady who never had to do hard work in her life.

What a contradiction to her mom!

At the moment, Brenna Brown stood in the second-floor hallway, looking down to Giselle, her tone of voice full of discontent and sarcasm. Brenna's attitude toward Giselle was no less than condescending. She scolded:

“Quickly get in. Let’s get this thing done and you can go home. Seeing your face is such a torture to me. So annoying!”

The feeling was mutual.

Giselle rolled her eyes at Brenna’s words. She followed Edsel to his office without saying a word to Brenna.

Brenna also came. Not only her but her daughter Tina Brown also present. She comfortably sat on a couch. Her phone in her hand, constantly typing away. Her facial expression was indifferent. When she smelled Giselle's scent, Tina looked up from her phone, rolling her eyes, weary. Tina pouted and then looked back down to her phone, continued typing away. Brenna followed suit. She sat next to her daughter.

Edsel walked to his desk and said: “Be prepared! You’re going to get married!”

“What do you mean?”

Giselle asked, confusing. She could not believe what she had just heard. She? Getting married? To who? And why?

“Our pack needs to bond with another pack to secure our benefits and our strength. Marriage is a great way to start a bonding relationship between the two packs. You are the Alpha’s daughter. The blood that runs in your vein is mine. You and your mother can live a worry-free and full life is because this pack gives you guys shelter. You should be thankful. It’s time you pay us back. The only perfect way to do that is married to another man of another pack. I’ve also chosen a suitable fiancé for you. It’s Marcus Bailey, the soon-to-be Alpha of Bailey’s pack. You surely can’t find…”

“Have you lost your mind?” Giselle did not let him finish his words. She shouted out, angrily.

Her headache started to get worse as every second passed by. The unbearable headache plus Edsel’s unreasonable request made her more frustrated than ever.

Not giving anyone a chance to say anything more, Giselle continued: "I should be thankful? What did this pack do for my mother and me, huh? They did nothing but looked down on us! And you tell me that I should be thankful? What an audacity you have there, mister! Don’t you have any self-esteem? Are you shameless now?"