I was trying to wake up at the same time as I was trying to register what my mother was yelling at me. I didn’t understand at first. She was screaming at me about some wedding. But then Alpha James’ name came into it and I flew out of bed. I didn’t even bother getting dressed, I darted for the bedroom door and straight down three flights of stairs until I got to the living room and my father was casually sitting there with Alpha James.
“Oh. Here she is now.” Dad said with a smirk on his face. And Alpha James stood up with a beaming smile that made me want to puke.
“What the hell is going on?” I asked breathlessly. And my father started walking closer to me rubbing his hands together.
“Well, today is your lucky day. You said that your mate rejected you at the ball so chances are you never will never find another one. You don’t go anywhere or leave the packgrounds at all so Alpha James has stepped up and offered to make you his Luna.” Dad announced.
“I don’t want to be his Luna. I refuse to be that old creep’s Luna. Why the fuck did you think I would go along with something like this?” I growled in dad’s face. Even though all the usual emotions came screaming back to me, fear, terror, anxiety. I was also feeling angry. More than that, I was furious. I know that I’m not wrong about this. He has hit me plenty of times, but I’ve gotten up, swept myself off and moved on.
But that didn’t stop him from slapping me across the face again, and when I slowly turned back to look at him I realised that my eyes were black, not green. My wolf was fighting to get control. I was struggling to keep her at bay. She wanted to rip my father’s head off for hitting me again. But I was doing everything to get her to back off so that I could regain control of myself and my father stood there looking at me, with slight concern in his eye. But not too much that anyone else would notice. He wouldn’t let anyone else notice that he was scared of my wolf. And there was good reason for that.
“Nova. I have this under control. Get back.” I demanded of my wolf.
“He hit us. Again. I am sick of him. He needs to be taught a lesson.” Nova said through gritted teeth.
“And he will be. But not by you. Get back.” I demanded. And she finally retreated to the back of my mind and my eyes returned to their normal color and I looked at dad again. He looked slightly relieved and then took a step closer to me.
“Did you really think I wasn’t going to find out about last night? About Alpha Ethan Embry?” He asked.
“You can’t come between mates. The werewolf council will hang you. Alpha Ethan will rip you to shreds.” I insisted.
“What the hell makes you think he wants to be mated to my daughter anyway? I’m doing you a favour.” He says.
“He wants me dad. He is coming to get me.” I say. And his head snapped back at Alpha James and then back at me.
“Well, I guess it’s a good thing that the ballroom is being prepped as we speak.” My father said in a scarily calm voice.
“What are you talking about?” I asked.
“The wedding is happening this afternoon. Whether you like it or not. And tonight, you will be marked by Alpha James and there is nothing that Alpha Ethan can do about it.” Dad demanded. And I ran to one of the large windows in the living room to see people in the backyard setting up for a huge party. I couldn’t believe it. They had the whole thing planned in a day. There were dozens of people setting up a wedding in a day.
“Summer.” My mother gasped. Knowing that there was nothing that she could do either. She wasn’t from Alpha blood so she had to obey my dad’s orders and bow before him. She didn’t have a choice.
“You stay right there and don’t say a word.” Dad ordered her. And dad started hitting me again, and again, and again. Each time I didn’t even have a chance to react. He was hitting me so fast and so many times that my head was basically a bobble head going from side to side. I could feel the blood pouring out of my nose and out of my mouth. My dad was determined to make me bow before him, but it wasn’t going to happen. Not this time. I wasn’t going to give in to his demands. I would take every beating he had to dish out before I married that old creep. I could feel myself starting to shake, uncontrollably. My canines were starting to recede from my gums and I knew that Nova was forcing her way to the front.
But I was in luck. That’s when Ryker ran into the room and he grabbed dad by the arm and yanked him away from me and I dropped to the ground sitting out blood from my mouth.
“What the fuck is going on? What the fuck are you doing to her?” Ryker asked running over to me to make sure that I was alright. But I could already feel my face swelling up.
“Well son, your sister is getting married this afternoon. To Alpha James.” Dad said proudly.
“You have got to be kidding me.” Ryker said standing up and facing dad head on. I knew that Ryker would try to stop the wedding as I well. He hated James as much as me. He knew what a creep he was. Ever since the first time James tried to touch me before I reached middle school, Ryker has always tried to protect me from him.
“Mind your own fucking business. This has nothing to do with you.” Dad growled in Ryker’s face.
“Like hell it doesn’t. She’s my sister and I am not letting you hand her over to this dick.” Ryker growled.
I knew that dad wouldn’t hit Ryker, but I wasn’t expecting what was coming next. I saw dad’s canines and claws start to extend. I was scared that he was really going to hurt Ryker right now. But Ryker saw it as well and he did the same thing. He was ready to defend me with his life.
I managed to grab onto the furniture to help myself up and my dad lunged at Ryker before I was even on my feet and the two of them started throwing each other around the living room.
They didn’t look to be showing each other any mercy and they were fighting with everything that they had. They were both Alpha wolves, dad was just older and a full Alpha. Ryker wasn’t a full Alpha yet. But he was just as strong as dad. We had good family genes in our house.
That’s when the command on my mother finally fell because dad was distracted and she ran straight into the living room screaming at them to stop. But once a wolf gets into a fight, there’s no stopping it until one surrenders or is dead.
I was scared that my mother had run into the room. She hadn’t shifted and she was in human form screaming at them to stop. I know that they hadn’t fully shifted either, but they weren’t in their right minds. Their wolves were partially in control.
My mother got too close to the fighting and as I heard tearing and snarling at each other my mother screamed for the last time, and I turned just in time to see her fall to the ground.
I ran around dad and Ryker who had finally realised what they had done and I ran to my mother who had her stomach and torso ripped open by claws. From her chest all the way to her navel. There was blood everywhere and no matter what I did, I couldn’t stop the bleeding. I could tell that they were dad’s claws. They were bigger. And Ryker would never hurt me or my mother. There was nothing that we could do to fix that. No doctor in the world could fix that damage.
I kneeled down beside her and as soon as I saw the wounds, I knew that she wasn’t going to make it. My father had just killed my mother. That son of a bitch. I felt like my heart had been ripped out of my chest. I couldn’t breathe properly. Why couldn’t he be the one to die? But with her last few breaths she gestured for me to come closer to her.
I leaned down to hear what she was trying to say to me.
“Nicole Everstone.” She whispered in my ear. But I didn’t understand. I had never heard of that name before. And before I could ask her about it, her head fell to the side and I knew that she was gone. A great sadness swept over me.
As I was crying over my mother’s body, I couldn’t hear any fighting behind me anymore. I knew that they had stopped but then I felt a sudden pain in my neck. I turned around and my father was standing over me with a syringe in his hand and he had injected something into my neck. I started losing my vision and everything sounded echoed to me.
I looked over and Ryker was just getting up from the ground with his own wounds when I fell down beside my mother’s dead body and I lost consciousness.
