The Alphas Secret Luna

Layla

I laid awake in my bed with my younger sister Ophelia hugged up close to me. My back is still burning from the whipping I'd gotten today, but at least I saved her from the punishment. Opey is only 10 years old. She hadn't meant to break the Luna's vase. No, she shouldn't have been running through the packhouse, but it was an accident.

I had tried to clean up the mess before anyone saw it, but I'd gotten caught. So I'd told my uncle Alpha Greg Smith that I had broken the vase. He'd drug me by my hair through the packhouse and out the back door to what he called the whipping tree. Which he promptly tied me to. I had told Opey to stay in the house, but she'd followed us anyway.

She had gotten her punishment, after all, in a way. Only hers had been mental, having to watch my uncle with the whip in his hand as he delivered blow after blow. She had cried herself to sleep. I had tried to convince her that if it hadn't been the vase, it would have been something else, and she was not to blame.

My uncle's Luna, Cora, is just as bad as he is. She has hated us from day 1. She didn't want us here, and it was obvious in everything she did. I have often heard the 2 of them arguing about us. With my uncle always saying he could not put us out for the fear of the backlash he would get from the werewolf community for turning his back on his own.

My wolf ,Mekia, tries to always heal me, but the abuse comes so often, and so harshly, it's hard for her to keep up. That, and the fact that I won't allow her to heal me but just so much at a time. Because I know so long as my uncle believes that she is weak, he won't try to take her from me. Loosing Mekia is one of my biggest fears.

Opey and I have been here in our uncle's pack for almost 3 years. Our mother died giving birth to Opey, and our father, Alpha Joesph Smith, went farrell shortly after losing his mate and committed suicide. We were brought here to the Stone Moon Rising pack with the rest of our pack that hadn't already turned rogue.

I work from sun up till sun down 7 days a week, earning our keep. I am allowed only 1 hour a day of free time. I chose to spend it in the library studying. I graduated from high school last year, and since then, I've been taking courses in anatomy and genetics. My one dream is to someday be a doctor.

Being online every day is how I found the Harris House. It is the equivalent of a halfway house for humans. I read that the founder, Hope Harris, takes in, protects, and rehabilitates any female shifter of any species so long as they can pass a drug test. And abide by the house rules.

I have been thinking about how I could escape with Opey. I will not leave her behind. She is all that I have in this world. If this Harris House is for real, maybe they would help us. I could get a job. Opey could go to a real school, and I could work my way through medical school.

I sighed heavily and rubbed my eyes. I had to try to get some sleep. First thing in the morning, I was on kitchen duty, then I had to scrub the floors in my uncle's office before my 1 hour of classes. I decided to do some more research on the Harris House as well. I had a couple hundred dollars stashed away I found inside the pockets of the laundry I have to do. That would buy us bus tickets.