Chapter 2

Nova POV

Two hours later I was patched up and back home in my room. I still had an hour before I had to be at the pack house for work. I needed to have a shower and clean all of this blood off me, from my nose before I could present for my kitchen shift.

Working in the packhouse kitchen was hard work but I loved it. I wasn’t allowed out the house much and my parents had banned me from the packhouse a long time ago. When the Alpha noticed I never attended pack events they made excuses that I had social anxiety and couldn’t cope and all sorts of bullshit.

All of it to keep me at home so no one could see the damage they were causing me, the bruises, how sleep deprived and painfully thin I was. Then when I turned 16 the Alpha ordered I had to contribute to the pack and work in the packhouse. My parents were not happy as they had to be more careful in how obvious their damage was to me. To me it was a lifeline giving me a few hours a day away from my bullies.

They were going to be fuming with Ella when they saw she had bruised up my face. After my shower I stood looking in the mirror and it was not pretty. My left eye, cheek and nose were various shaded of angry looking red and purple and even though I had invested in some heavy duty theatre makeup for such injuries, tonight, even that wasn’t covering it well.

Sighing at the best I could do, I dried my long red hair and left it down. It was a mixed blessing growing it long. Long gave people something to grab onto when they attacked but it also gave me something to feel like I could hide behind when I needed to. My hair was it’s own kind of sanctuary.

Putting on the black trousers and polo t shirt of my kitchen uniform ,I wished again I was taller. I wasn’t short at 5 foot 5 for a human but by werewolf sizes I was tiny hence the name runt. These trousers were too long and I always had to roll them up. Luckily I was always given a wide berth in the kitchen and left alone.

Arriving at the packhouse just before I started work was always a relief. I knew when I walked through those doors that I had 4 hours of safety. Between 5 and 9 I was there chopping, peeling, cooking, cleaning and running around. No one hurt me, no one yelled at me and I didn’t have time to stop and feel sorry for myself.

Then, occasionally there was the highlight of my day. Alpha-to-be Leo. He had been my best friend in childhood and we had drifted apart for various reasons but once a week he would come the kitchen at the end of my shift to say hi and ask how I was. It was probably nothing more than a reflex, a habit to him or something his dad told him to do but to me, it meant everything.

I had loved him so much as a child. We had done warrior training together, school, we spent all our free time playing in the forest around the pack or watching films or building lego in his house but when I hit 14 everything changed so drastically.

My parents pulled me out of school. They banned me from seeing friends. They told everyone lies about me, that I had a breakdown and didn’t want to leave the house. They had said I was unstable and out of control.  The abuse began then. I never knew what happened. Why they changed or why my life was overturned. It was almost overnight.

I never knew why no one intervened or asked more questions. No one came to see if I was okay. No one asked if they could help. I was abandoned, locked inside that house until the Alpha ordered me to start working.

I thought this was going to be a kind of freedom but every night when I finish, my father is outside waiting for me, making sure he gets me home and back in his control safe and sound. Well, as safe as I can be in the hands of a monster.  

I was glad Leo had already done his weekly pilgrimage to the kitchens to see me as I didn’t want him to catch me like this. Bruised and broken. Do you think he’d really care? The voice in my mind asked no one else does so why would he? I couldn’t disagree. I went about my designated work thinking of nothing but what I needed to get done and the rhythm of the kitchen.

“Nova!” yelled one of the kitchen porters “The Alpha wants to see you in his office now!”

My head whipped up at this request and everyone in the kitchen was staring at me. With shaking hands, I untied my apron. Everyone was staring at me, and I was so nervous I couldn’t quite get the knot at first. Third try lucky, I freed myself and hurried up the two flights of stairs to the Alpha's office.

Stood outside his door my heart was beating rapidly as I tried to take deep breaths but panic was threatening to overtake me. Did the clinic tell him? Was I in trouble? I realised with his hearing he would know I was still out here so I ripped off the band aid and knocked on the door.

“Come in” the Alpha called

“Alpha Jeremy, you called for me” I said entering the room with my head bowed.

“Yes, I did Nova” he said his tone sombre “Take a seat please”

I looked up to find a seat and was startled to see Leo was there, but also Ella and my mother. The unease I was feeling was ten times what it had been before I walked in the room. Trying not to hyperventilate I took a seat. As I raised my head up to look at him Leo must have seen the bruising on my face. I realised too late that the makeup had rubbed off working in the kitchen.

“Shit Nova” he said, his voice concerned “What the hell happened to you?”

I tried not to look at Ella or my mother and just moved my face away from him “I fell “ I lied. I didn’t like lying to him more than anyone but with my mother and Ella there the truth was never passing my lips.

Leo didn’t look like he believed me and looking at Alpha Jeremy, he didn’t seem to buy it either but shrugged it off. He sat stoic in his chair glaring at me with his icy blue eyes.

“Do you know why we are here Nova?” the Alpha asked me

“No Alpha I don’t” I said because really, I was clueless. Bile was rising in my throat as I tried to contain my panic. I looked at Leo out of the corner of my eye, but he looked away like he couldn’t face me

“Nova” said the Alpha “Your mother and sister have come to me to tell me about come of your recent behaviours and you are being arrested for treason”