Realization

{ Nukea }

My first instinct when I see Theodore in my house is to turn around and run… and then just keep running until I manage to get away from this man who is obviously here to, not only take back what I stole, but to let out his big grey wolf so he can rip my head off. And then eat it, like a psycho. I’ve heard he’s done that before.

But I can't actually run away because this is my home and my brothers are in here. So, all I can do is face what I did. And pretend to be sorry.

"I am so deeply sorry, Sir," I say immediately, as soon as my brothers leave under his command. I look down to show respect, "It was a lapse of judgment, not representative of who I am as a person. I’ll give everything back.”

Including the three and a half thousand dollars I just made after pawning his Rolex, even if that money was going to improve my life exponentially.

"What I want is..." he starts, taking a step towards me.

God, he wants to kill me right here, right now? He’s totally insane.

"Please have mercy, Mister Enforcer," I blurt out and I tell myself there's no room for pride when there's a chance of dying, so I fall to my knees, "I'm just a little girl in this big world, trying to survive.”

"Stop that," he growls. Oh no, he's angrier now, "I'm not going to kill you, Nukea, for fuck’s sake."

How does he know my name?

"You’re not?" I ask, looking up at him at last. He's looking at me like he’s wondering what's wrong with me, "But that's what you do. You kill people and then you eat them.”

"Oh my fucking god. Get off the floor," he replies, sounding tired and annoyed, so I do. I stand up on shaky legs and then I dare to look him directly in the eye.

As soon as I do, Theodore’s frown gets even deeper and for almost two full minutes, he just stares at me.

"What's wrong?" I ask, looking all around me trying to find the reason why he froze like that, with his eyes on me. Suddenly, his big shoulders start to rise and fall hard and I can see his nostrils flaring as if he's taking big breaths, "Are you… having an asthma attack?"

"Nukea," he blurts out my name, in a much deeper voice and taking a step towards me. He said he wasn’t going to kill me, but he lied. I can see his eyes are dilated now and I feel a strong need to bare my neck, so that means this is his wolf. He’s out to get me, "Come here. Come to me.”

He’s not forcing me yet, but he really wants me to do that.

"No way," I mutter under my breath and I take a step back as he gets even angrier. I can feel him emitting his alpha pheromones to subdue me, but I do my best to refuse.

I'm not just an animal, I have a brain. And my brain is telling me he wants to kill me, so I have to fight this need to submit to him. Even if it’s getting harder and harder.

"Nukea, you’re my..." I can clearly see the second Theodore starts fighting his wolf’s presence right in front of me. He’s fighting for the control of his mind. His whole body stiffens for a couple of seconds until the atmosphere feels calmer and I know it's just Theodore again, "I'm sorry. I... fuck."

"What's going on?" I ask, confused and still freaking out. This guy has gone through like a million emotions in a couple of minutes and it's very weird.

"Nothing, don't worry about it," he lies, swallowing and looking down, "Uh.... I want my wallet. You can keep the money, I don't care about that."

"You just want… your wallet?" I repeat, just to be sure. Theodore nods. Does that mean he doesn't know I stole his Rolex, too? "Are you totally sure that’s all you want?"

"Yes. There's something very important to me inside that wallet. Also, I don’t want to run a million errands to replace my cards and IDs," he replies, closing his eyes and taking a deep breath, as if trying to keep himself clam.

I'm really, really surprised and confused. I literally broke into his house and robbed him. He shouldn’t be trying to contain himself, he shouldn’t have been sitting here with my brothers, eating and waiting patiently for me, that’s weird.

All I’ve heard about The Enforcer is how ruthless and merciless he is, how evil, how he eats people (Poor Ones) who dare misbehave.

But right now he just looks like he's thinking deeply about something else, like he suddenly remembered he has somewhere more important to be. Or like he’s realizing how much of a waste of time this is when he could just call a patrol to take me away instead of doing all this.

He hasn’t looked me in the eye again, he’s shifting his weight from one foot to the other anxiously and his whole body language says he wants to leave now.

"Okay," I reply and start thinking. The last time I saw that wallet was on the couch, so I walk over to it.

"It's not there," Theodore says, "I already looked."

I frown and think more. Last night my father came home really late and he passed out on the couch, then he left this morning before I did. He probably took the wallet. He probably tried to get money out of Theodore’s cards.

"Okay, Mister Theodore Heiden," I start and approach him trying to force myself to look like an innocent, submissive omega who wouldn’t hurt a fly. Theodore takes a couple steps away from me when I try to approach, so I stop. He’s probably remembering what I did last night when I approached him like that, "My father has most likely taken it. I have no idea when he’ll come home, but I really appreciate how kind you are, so I promise I'll get it back."

"Listen, the most important thing to me is a ring that’s in there," he says and my eyes widen in horror. If my dad saw it, he's probably already pawned it just like I did with the Rolex, "I need it, okay? It's not worth much, it's not even a real diamond, but it has a lot of sentimental value to me because it was my late mother's ring.”

Fuck my life. Luna Lidia’s ring.

"I promise I'm going to get it back. I promise, Sir."

"Okay, thank you," he says and takes another couple more steps away until he's near the door. He opens it, but he suddenly stops and pulls out his phone, then he stretches it out to me, "Give me your number. Once you find my wallet, we can schedule a time to meet so you can give it to me."

I nod and approach carefully because apparently I stink or something because every time I get close he makes a disgusted face that he can't control.

I save my number there, then I call myself to get his number too. And then he leaves.

I just watch him as he briskly walks to the fancy motorcycle hidden between the two houses across the street and as he gets on it, driving away like he’s being chased.

This was absolutely bizarre. But, hey, I'm not going to complain when something finally works out for me.

I have to celebrate.

And today, I have a lot to celebrate.

"Boys, come here!" I yell. They both immediately run out of their room. I know they heard everything because in this house the walls are thin and cheap, but as usual, we all pretend nothing happened, "Like I said before all that, I have good news."

"What is it?" Beau asks with beautiful green eyes full of excitement. That doesn't happen very often, so I bend down to carry his body and twirl him around until I make him squeal with happiness.

"I got a lot of money today, so I'm going to take you both for a day out with the Rich Ones," I tell them and both my brothers gasp in disbelief. Knox is looking at me with wide eyes. I set Beau aside and walk over to him. Knox is only ten, but he's already almost my size so I can't carry him, I just hug him, "Go take a shower and then we can go."

“Me first!" Beau shouts and runs off to the bathroom while Knox just stares at me.

"Are you serious?" he asks, I nod with a smile, "It's the money… from Theo’s wallet?"

“Nope, I stole his watch too, but apparently he doesn’t know it’s missing. Also, he is the next Alpha, Knox. Don't call him Theo like that," I gently scold him, "So, go and take a shower, because we're going to have a fun day today."

"Okay," he replies with a smile and nods, "I’m happy, Nookie."

"I’m happy too, baby. Today will be a lot of fun, so hurry up,” I say and push him into his room while I go to mine to find something nice to wear.

The times I've gone to the rich part of Greyhound it has always ended badly. Fortunately, no one has caught me stealing, but that doesn't stop them from assuming I'm a thief just because I look like one.

And because, at this point, most people already know us well. We are very popular thanks to my father always being the loudest voice of our people. And yet, a lot of 'our people' slowly gave up the fight and ended up accepting Alpha Robert. And now they are part of the Rich Ones.

I’m always envious of them, but I do understand my father’s anger and reluctance to accept him.

Once I finish getting dressed, I walk to my brothers' room to pick out clothes for them as well.

They don't have a lot of stuff, but that's going to change today. I'm going to buy them nice things.

"Buba! Stop running around naked like a wild child," I complain when my little brother has spent more than five minutes hopping from bed to bed completely naked like a monkey, "Come here."

"Catch me!" he yells and then I run to him, laughing when I finally catch his crazy body and force him to get dressed.

Beau is only six years old, so this life at Greyhound is all he's ever known. Knox is ten and although he lived in the happy times, as I call them, I think he's forgotten what it was like.

While we lived at Hughmount, our life was different. We weren't rich, but Mom and Dad both had jobs and we had a nice life. My dad used to spend most of his time working at a factory, but he was still a good father.

Everything fell apart when Alpha Robert decided to conquer our pack. My dad grew bitter, he threw himself into alcohol and decided to refuse obeying the Alpha, making us all so incredibly miserable that my mother had no other option than to end her own life.

So now, here we are. Struggling to survive.

At least this time I stole something good. And I'm definitely not going to give this huge amount of money to my dad, he would spend all of it in alcohol and god knows what else.

So, I'm going to spend most of it on me and my boys.

And it's all thanks to Theodore Heiden.