Chapter 2: Different

"What's wrong with her hair?" The man who grabbed my wrist asks, but I keep my eyes trained on the floor in front of me. He did not address me, he is talking the Alpha Chris, and his curiosity is none of my business. 

"She's a mutt," it is a simple, true answer. My father was a wolf, and my mother a human. She is who I get my white hair from and my blue eyes. If I had gotten my father's genes of black hair and brown eyes, no one would glance twice at me, but I was cursed with my mother's genetics. The man drops my hand as though the touch had been to something infected. 

"Why do you have a mutt in your pack?" He asks through gritted teeth, and my insides swell with worry. No doubt I was going to get punished tonight for this. I take the lack of touch on my hand as my cue to leave, so I try to scurry out of the room. 

"Did I say you could leave, mutt?" The stranger's voice booms throughout the room, and I pause in my steps. Without looking up, I turn around and make my way back to his side, unsure of what else to do. 

"Her father was respected in our pack before-" Alpha Chris stops himself before continuing. My eyes glance up at him, and I instantly regret it. His gaze locks on mine, and I can feel his anger seep through me. I look down hurriedly but know I already messed up. I can't help the anxiety that runs through me at the thought of what will happen tonight. 

My heart rate spikes, and I already know everyone in the room can hear it. 

"Before what?" The stranger asks, wanting the story continued despite my discomfort. 

"He betrayed the pack. Sold secrets to a rival pack during the war," he says while chewing on his food. Without warning, the stranger beside me stands, forcing me to take steps backwards away from his towering figure. He is much taller than Alpha Chris, and when I look up in surprise at his movement, my head gets light. 

He has dark black hair that falls around his face, to the base of his neck, but not longer than that. His muscles are lean and formed under his t-shirt, his jeans are dark and tailored to his strong legs, and his eyes. His eyes trap me with one glance at them, and I am stuck staring into his gaze as he towers above me.

"Avert your eyes, mutt!" Alpha Chris shouts, forcing a jump to my shoulders as I look down at the ground instantly. 

"What about the blood?" The stranger asks, turning his attention back to Alpha Chris, who meets his question with a confused glance. 

"Why does your mutt smell like stale blood?" He asks, this time more forcefully, and I take another step backwards. Every bone in my body screams for me to run when I see Alpha Chris glare at me from his seat. 

"The other omegas don't really like her much," Alpha Chris's answer comes out through gritted teeth as he continues to glare at me, and suddenly, the world disappears. All I can see are the blue eyes and blond hair at the opposite end of the table, glaring daggers at me. He was going to kill me tonight, and that was not a guess. 

I can see it in his eyes, how they are filled with hatred and burning anger. I watch as his mouth moves, saying something, but I can't hear him over the rush of blood in my ears, building with each anxious second. 

"I said leave!" Alpha Chris's hand slams down on the table, and the words barely reach my ears as I turn to leave. My feet move quickly, despite the waver in me from the injection. I needed to get away from him, from the pack. I needed to leave before tonight. 

That is the only thought in my mind as I walk out the door of the kitchen, into the hallway. My feet echo on the empty wooden hallway, slowly gaining pace until I am running out of the pack house, into the snow. The maids' canvas shoes he had given me do little to protect my feet from the cold, but I raise my legs high to stomp through the snow anyway. 

I'm free, I'm free; I repeat over and over to myself as I tredge forward as fast as I can. The cold air stings my lungs, and just as I reach the edge of the clearing where the pack house sits, I hear the distant shouts behind me.

I'm free, I think, once more before the sharp end of an arrow lands in my shoulder. I let out a cry of agony into the growing sounds that echo from behind me, but I don't stop moving forward. Making my way into the trees, I try to hide behind them to avoid the arrows that continue to rain down.

In the distance I can hear the vicious growls that come from a shifting wolf. Panic rises in my throat while I try to pick up my pace, feeling like ice is freezing inside my lungs with every breath. 

Despite my best efforts, the growls get closer quickly, and just as I glance behind me, a large black wolf leaps onto me. His paws pin my arms instantly, and I struggle as his teeth bare in my face with a snarl. 

As if a blanket of contentment was thrown over me, I stop resisting, and I pull my head to the side. The wolf's teeth are centimeters from my throat, and I swallow in anticipation. 

"It's okay, it's okay," I tell the wolf, waiting to feel his teeth. I just wanted it to end. If I can't get away from Alpha Chris, then I'll settle for death.