Chapter Three: Just A Nightmare

“Get up,” he said merely two words yet my entire body shook in even more fear.

Oh, Goddess, please help me. This is it, isn’t it? My life is over before it could even begin.

I’ve heard countless stories and rumors that have yet to be confirmed true, but I’m sure they wouldn’t be too far off.

It was always Alpha Harley this, and Alpha Harley that around here. He was cold-blooded, ruthless to the point of no absolutely no mercy. If you so much as blink the wrong way at him, he’d have your throat slit in seconds.

I never understood why Victorina and the other girls admired him, almost as if they would die for him. I guess it was because he is the Alpha and he has that sort of powerful aura around him.

Or maybe it was his dark hair and slightly tanned skin, or the eyes that were the color of glacial water – clear blue with some hints of silver under the light, that made him look so… close to dangerous perfection.

Either way, none of that mattered to me because every time I looked at him, I saw nothing but the monster that he is.

When my legs finally managed to move albeit still shaking like crazy, I got up just like he said, but kept my head down.

If he was going to slit my throat like he does to others, I might as well somewhat protect it for as long as I can.

For a moment, there was just silence. Even the ones that stood around us in the hallway, I couldn’t even hear them breathe. I’m sure they were both scared and enjoying this moment at the same time.

Nobody in this Pack could be considered good, I have long known that for a fact, so to think somebody could come up and help me would be another delusion of mine.

I was waiting.

Waiting for my life to flash before my eyes when the time comes and Alpha Harley has obviously had enough of me already, but when it felt like it was going to come… something else happened that completely changed everything I thought I knew.

Out of nowhere, I felt his hand under my chin, the warmth of his skin traveling throughout my body and I tensed up completely.

He tilted my chin until I was now looking at him face to face, and there it was – those eyes that could ruin lives with just one look.

“A– Alpha…” I stuttered, doing everything in my power not to pass out from fear right in front of him.

And then something even more insane happened.

Alpha Harley, the man I thought was going to be the end of my life as I knew it, leaned forward and paused just mere inches away from my lips.

“Alessandra…” He whispered, and his breath somehow to me smelled like sweet fruit, sending shivers down my spine.

“Come back to m–”

RING RING RING!

My body jolted up and I let out a loud screech when agonizing pain progressed throughout every single nerve in my body, starting from my head.

“Ouch, fucking fuck burgers!”

I quickly held the top of my head with my palm and felt what was like an egg starting to form right in the middle of my forehead.

“How is it that you manage to always hit your head on the bunk bed, dude?”

I turned to my left, still a little groggy, but managed to make out the silhouette of who was snickering at me.

“I hate you and your loud ass alarm,” I told her as I grabbed a pillow to scream on.

“You were having that dream again, weren’t you?” Milla, my one and only friend, asked as she stepped down from the top of the bed and helped me up.

“Dream? More like a nightmare,” I said with a shiver.

She jokingly scoffed at me. “I’m sorry my alarm always stops you from finishing your wet fantasies.”

“Milla, ew!” I gagged at her before hitting her with a pillow, but we stopped immediately since time was of the essence around here.

We had chores. Lots and lots of them, and we had to finish at least most of it before Mr. and Mrs. Turner and their son would wake up. That was life under their roofs and it had been like that for years now ever since I was banished from my Pack and was found by a social worker wandering around the streets of Maple Grove, the town I somehow managed to end up at in one piece.

“You are banished, Alessandra Noone. I don’t care where you go or if you live. If I see you back here, I won’t spare any more ounce of generosity and you’ll be just like the dust that was once your mommy and daddy.”

Cruel. Alpha Lars was every bit of evil that remembering that time still made me feel a bit unwell.

After his son tried to keep me in the Pack for some unknown reason those years go, Alpha Lars found out the next day, to nobody’s surprise, and quickly denounced everything else his son said.

Before the sun could even finish rising, I was already thrown out of the Pack and left for dead.

To this day, it’s still a miracle to me how I managed to walk to another town and be found alive. Even the social worker who found and helped me find a foster home thought the same thing. She claimed she found me almost at the brink of death and I must havw an amazing guardian angel.

But then again, miracles are supposed to be something good, and sometimes I think having survived that whole ordeal is more bad than good.

“Those smell amazing. You always make the best waffles and pancakes.” Milla complimented as she passed me with a smile, holding the black coffee she had just made.

“It’s nothing to brag about. It’s literally just batter,” I said as I placed the last couple of pieces on a plate.

“There you go again, not knowing how to take a compliment. When will she just accept one, oh, universe?” Milla dramatically commented as she gazed up at the ceiling.

My dramatic best friend, everyone. No wonder she’s the favorite in drama class.

“Oh, shut it,” I shoved a piece of pancake in her mouth and we both giggled.

Half an hour later, we woke up the other kids, including Milla’s little brother, Michael, so that they could eat and get ready for school.

Amidst all the crap the Turners gave to us, mostly Milla and I, this is what kept us going. The little kids that we helped because we didn’t want to abandon them just like their parents did.

“Where the hell is the syrup, Milla?” Mr. Turner’s first words were already a demand the second he sat on his chair.

“Oh! My apologies, Mr. Turner, I’m so sorry. I– I promise to buy them after school today.” Milla quickly bowed her head in apology.

I hated when we had to do that. It was so degrading, but if we wanted them to not scold us even more, we had no choice.

“And make sure to get more cereal and milk. Our Shawn here is a growing boy and he needs a lot of it. The chocolate ones, okay? None of that gross organic crap!” Mrs. Turner commanded before shoo-ing Milla and I out of the table.

I caught Shawn’s eyes staring straight at my breasts before I turned around and swallowed the urge to stab him with a fork right in his eyes.

This is what we had to live with – the Turners’ constant verbal and emotional abuse, and their son's perverted looks, in order for us to have a place to eat and sleep, a roof over our heads.

I always tell myself that it was better than nothing. That the family that only took in kids for the welfare check was better than being in that Pack who killed the only real family I had.

“God, that Shawn is such a freaking pervert. He was having a damn boner on the table looking at the two of us! And Mrs. Turner acts as if he’s still her little boy. He’s almost twenty for goodness’ sake!” Milla voiced out her frustrations as we changed into our school outfit which was usually just shirts and jeans, the only thing we owned and even technically then they were just donations from church and charities.

Shawn is a terrible human being indeed, but Milla has no idea that I have met even worse. Ones that aren’t even human and could tear us apart in seconds.

I shuddered again at the thought of Alpha Harley, and wondered why he kept appearing in my dreams night after night.

It started a few weeks ago, but it was always the same dream, or rather nightmare. It was as if my subconscious was telling me what would have happened had I stayed in that Pack until I turned eighteen.

I shoved the thoughts away, knowing full well that there was no point of me thinking about any of that. I am here now and far far away from those monsters, thank the Goddess.

They have been long gone from my life and I plan to keep it that way forever or for as long as I could.