chapter 2

Isabella's POV

My adoptive mother's slap had come unexpectedly, sending a striking feeling of pain across my face, I stood up in alarm and shock, staring blankly at her as my fingers gently brushed my fresh bruise.

“Mom…why?” I choked out, she had never laid a hand on me before–so why out of the blue?

“Don't even try playing dumb, you ungrateful wench! What was the point of raising you if you were going to turn out like this–”

She was about to slap me again but her hand hung midair and she slowly brought her fingers to massage her forehead instead.

“Your things have been packed, just get out of my house so I don't have to see your face anymore,”

My adoptive father was behind her, but I didn't even bother looking at him for help. The poor man was scared of his own wife without a backbone in sight to speak of.

“Mom I–”

“Don't call me that, you–”

“Mom, what's going on?” Kyle appeared in the living room, wearing casual clothes and not looking one bit like a brother whose sister had disappeared since last night.

When he saw me, a nasty grin tugged at his lips.

“So you actually came back? Can't say I'm surprised you've never had any shame before, so why start now?”

Every word that came out of his mouth pushed me further into a well of confusion. He was there with me last night, he was the one that had taken me to the bar and left me there after I passed out so why wasn't he defending me?

Why was I in trouble and not him for ditching me?

“Kyle, please tell Mom what happened last night I think there's a misunderstanding–”

“Kyle already told me everything,” my adoptive mother snapped at me, “He told me how you snuck out to go to a rundown bar and when he found you and tried to bring you back you were plastered and flirting around with older, disgusting men…”

The more she narrated Kyle's version of last night the more I understood just how deeply he despised me.

While I felt my whole world crumbling all around me I saw his satisfied smirk and something snapped inside of me, my feet rushed past my adoptive mother and I reached out and grabbed his collar.

“You jerk!” I screamed at the top of my voice, “W-why did you tell Mom those horrible lies?fess up right now or else–”

“Isabella!” My adoptive mother's roaring voice was followed by her waving the wad of cash I'd taken from the hotel room and staring at me with rage.

“Where did you get this money?”

My grip on Kyle's collar subconsciously loosened as my mind grasped for an explanation then Kyle spoke up, “That must have been her ‘compensation’ for last night, Mom,” Her face grew redder, “This…this is what you took as compensation?!”

“Mom please–”

“Why don't we take her to the pack hospital now to check if she is still a virgin? That should clear everything up,” Kyle heartlessly suggested then lowered his eyes at me, “Well, what are you waiting for?”

I tried to speak, but tears flowed instead.

“Kyle, I'll never forgive you for this…” I whimpered out as he dragged me out of the house. My adoptive parents confiscated my ‘compensation’ and didn't even let me pack my few belongings so I was about to be thrown out into the cold cruel world penniless and alone.

“I never forgave you for trying to replace my sister so now we're even,” he said when we were out of earshot of others. “I also had some gambling debts to clear off, so in a sense I killed two birds with one stone,”

That was how just a week after I turned 18 I was kicked out of my ‘home’ left to fend for myself. The rumors about me spread like wildfire and for a conservative pack like Greystone anything that attached is she–wolve’s name to promiscuity meant she deserved nothing short of social death.

For weeks I slept on the streets huddling into the warmest corners I could find, and wondering why…just why I had to suffer like this. Even if I met my mate now, he would reject me on the spot because of the rumors sorumors was so I was sure to die alone.

I was begging for change one hot afternoon, dressed in rags and a familiar, expensive car parked abruptly next to the sidewalk. The windscreen came down and a high pitched voice rang out.

“Ella!” It was my best friend, Linda Duffy, the alpha's niece and only heiress in line to inherit the title “My goddess what happened to you? Do you mind not coming too close? you stink right now,”

She got me a meeting with the Alpha, I explained everything to him hoping I would get justice. His response was a far cry from it.

“So what you are saying is…” he began and took a pause before he continued, “... None of this would have happened to you if you didn't go to that bar dressed like that and gotten carelessly drunk,”

I couldn't speak, just gave him a wide eyed stare.

“Nothing we do can change the past, for now we should focus on your future. The rumors will die down on their own until then you can work here as a maid,”

With a lump in my throat, I nodded.

Several cycles of the moon passed, working as a maid turned from a temporary way to get by to my full working condition before I knew it 8 years had passed by.

And nobody had forgotten.

I entered Linda's room to grab her laundry but I was grabbed instead by my freind jumping up and down like a kid, her smile too big to be contained by her face.

“Ella, the Blue Moon banquet is coming up and you won't believe what I heard from my Uncle!”

With some artificially infused enthusiasm in my voice I asked; “What did he tell you?”

“It's actually still kind of a secret right now, but listen…” She leaned closer, “...the Lycan princes will be coming,”