Chapter 04

CARISSA POV

*Possible trigger: Violence towards the FL, Abuse and Murder*

What was inside, however, was my mother, with a snide expression of annoyance, and my smirking sister, Brittany, and Ryan Davis, our future Alpha.

"What the hell took you so long, man?" Ryan hissed in a bored tone.

"Princess here wanted to freshen up with some fucking lipgloss." Matthew spat with an eye-roll for punctuation.

"What?" Brittany laughed darkly. "Dear sis, you can't pretty up a pig for the slaughter." She crouched down and spat her words of hate. A gleam in her eyes sent a chill down my spine.

"Why are you all doing this? What is all of this?" I steadied my voice, attempting to push myself back up to my feet.

Matthew leaned forward, not to help me, but to push me back down. The group laughed as I cried out, startled.

"You ruined everything." Our mother finally spoke. Her face twisted with disgust.

"You did, dear sis. A stain. A blemish on our family." Brittany added with a flip of her blonde hair. She was identical to our mother in every possible way. Inside and out. "With Matthew taking over as Beta soon and Ryan stepping up as Alpha, I can't be expected to be respected as Luna with a filthy bastard sister around. No one would respect me."

"And I need a fresh start to be a great Beta—a Beta like a dad used to be before your presence crawled out of our mother. You ruined our family, and with changes in the pack moving ahead, it is time to take out the trash." Matthew added. "I don't need a constant reminder. You need to leave the pack, CC. Your weak, watered-down, filthy rogue blood is a stain on our family name. Rogues like you are nothing more than lambs to the slaughter. Stay around, and find out what that means!" my brother hissed. He was trying to intimidate me, and it was working. I did want to leave our pack. I was scheduled to go in a few more months. I doubt they realized that, though. They never took any interest in my life, so how could they? They missed my graduation last week and probably thought I was starting high school. I was undersized, but my intelligence was one of the highest in the pack for a reason.

Brittany laughed whimsically, as though this was a performance on stage. "Yeah, dear sis. You need to go. Sorry, not sorry."

"I hate that saying," I mumbled. It was always the same line Brittany gave when she tormented me around the house. It was always sung in a smug tone that irked me.

"Your father was a filthy rogue, so you will die like the filthy rogue blood you are." Their mother spat. "Tony is willing to forgive you, but not me." She yelled angrily. Her fist came out of nowhere, crashing into my face with unrelenting wrath. "He actually wants to adopt you with that useless wolfless whore. He says he is concerned that you aren't being treated right and wants you to have the best chance at life. He wrote us out, and you now get everything." The point of her heel made puncturing contact with my ribs.

I couldn't help but cry out, but no one flinched. They watched, void of any concern or empathy.

"I don't care about the money, but if Father adopts a filthy creature like you while still under the title of Beta, then it becomes the stain we all carry into our futures. I can't have that following me, and I won't let Ryan take that one as the future of this pack." Matthew growled. His eyes flashed with his wolf.

Not concern, but anger. His wolf has long rejected us as family.

"Please. I didn't do anything wrong. I am leaving at the end of summer; I promise not to return here." I kept my hand wrapped around my rib. I was sure that our mother had broken one.

"That's not good enough, bitch!" Kim spat, taking another swipe at my face with her sharp claws. Skin broke on contact, and the streaks of blood dripped eagerly.

Ryan walked over to the nearby table and grabbed a baseball bat. There was only a split second of hesitation and something else when we locked eyes. Was it regret? No, it would never be. Quickly, his face was back to his typical dark and sinister smirk.

"Before we start having fun, I must say something to you. I, Ryan Davis, future Alpha of Trinity Falls Pack, reject you, Carissa Carter, as my mate and future Luna of the Pack." I watched as he pinched and gripped his chest with the discomfort of breaking the bond.

Was I his mate? I wouldn't know until I had my wolf, but this rejection was more for him than me. It would allow him to watch the abuse that was about to happen to me.

At that moment, I realized I wouldn't be able to leave the warehouse alive.

"Don't you see that upset you've caused, CC? It's time to fix the mistakes made seventeen years ago. As I always say, sis. Sorry, not sorry." Brittany smirked. She took the bat from Ryan's still trembling hand. His wolf was still fighting the rejection, and for what was about to happen. I could see the flashes in his hazel eyes.

His wolf didn't want this, but the rejection was said out loud. The fight was pointless. I had no wolf to reject the rejection for his fighting wolf.

The crunch to my face when my sister swung the bat stunned me. Everything was fuzzy but not yet black.

No, I had to suffer a few more hits for that.

I had no wolf, no friends, and no one to reach out to find me.

I was left in a battered state, lying on the floor, surrounded by my own blood.

The laughter and baiting still echoed around the warehouse despite me being left alone now. I felt the chill take over my body. It wrapped around me like a sheet in the cool night.

I welcomed it. I welcomed the darkness. I welcomed death. All I prayed for in the end was vengeance. I wanted them all to pay. At my words, the chill of darkness deepened within me. Weaving through my soul.

Goodbye, Father. That was my final thought before everything went still. Black.