Chapter 1

“Daddy!”

I raced into my dad’s arms as he walked through the door. He pretended like he wasn’t expecting it, but he was. Nothing could surprise him. Stumbling back, he swung me around couple times before giving me a tight hug.

“Why are you getting so big, Tahlia? I thought I told you to stop growing?”

Giggling, I nuzzled into his shoulder. “I can’t stop!”

“Lies! Maybe if I tickle you, it will stop you from growing!”

Screaming, I wiggled with all my might, but there was nothing I could do. My dad was the strongest. He was our Alpha. Our pack leader. Everyone looked up to him, not just me and Brother. Even after Mother died, Dad was always strong. No matter what.

He finally let me down and I could take a breath. Chuckling, Dad rubbed my head before taking off his shoes and fluffing up his hair that had been combed back. Footsteps thundered above us before Brother flew down the stairs.

“Dad! Did you hear?”

“I did. Congratulations. I knew you were going to be strong. I just wish you would slow down to let your old man keep up. The both of you.”

Brother was older than I was by a lot. Seven years was big when he got to do all the things I couldn’t yet. I even tried to keep up with him and his friends, but I always got left behind. Still, I looked up to him. He was getting strong, strong like Dad, to take over as Alpha one day too. All I wanted to do was beat him at something though.

“How about we work on dinner and we can sit and chat about how it went?”

“Quinn’s mom actually made us food. She gave it to me when she dropped me off after school.”

Dad let out a sigh before smiling. “I couldn’t be more relieved.”

Brother cocked his head to the side. “Long day?”

“Longer than usual.”

“Anything I can…?”

Interrupting him, Dad rubbed his head like he had mine. Except that his hair stood up like Dad’s when it was shaken out. Swatting him away, Brother growled and tried to bare his teeth at Dad. Dad cocked his head to the side, smirking as he watched my brother.

“You don’t have your wolf yet. It won’t work on me.”

“I will! Someday and it will work on you!”

Dad only laughed. “I welcome the challenge. Just watch my right knee, you know it’s my bad one.”

“Daddy! It’s your other knee! The left one!” I joined them in the kitchen.

“Ah yes, I guess you’re right.”

“No! Left!”

My brother and my dad laughed before pulling out containers of food that Mrs. Laurel had made. She was nice. Her and Mrs. Rain would make use food sometimes. They had big families and since we didn’t have a mother, I think they wanted to help. Sometimes the food was good. Not always. Sometimes it had things like spinach and broccoli in it.

Dad made dinner most of the time, and we helped. He was a good cook and he liked to make things that were yummy. We didn’t do fancy meals, but we did sit around the table and eat. Something Dad made us do. No matter what was going on, we ate at the table for dinner.

“Anything good happen to you today at school, Tahlia?”

Frowning, I shook my head.

“She got in a fight.” My brother smirked and then stuck his tongue out at me.

Dad stopped what he was doing, and spun on his heel with his eyes dark. Usually that meant his wolf was forward. Gulping, I clasped my hands together and looked down.

“Tahlia, what did I say about getting into fights?”

I hummed for a moment. “Don’t get in them unless you know you are going to win?”

Brother spit out the water he was drinking, coughing between his laughing. Dad was struggling not to smile, but he wasn’t doing a very good job. I watched as his chest rose and fell before his eyes turned a serious.

“Sweetheart, you can’t be fighting at school. You’re an Alpha, just like me and your brother. That means that you are a lot stronger than the others. It’s not fair for you to get into fights. On top of that, we also talked about working our differences out with others. Fighting isn’t always the answer.”

Crossing my arms over my chest, I pouted. “Anna was getting bullied by Jason.”

“Anna, your friend?” Dad asked.

I nodded. “Yeah. Stupid Jason was telling her she needed to hand over her lunch because he didn’t like his. She told him no. I told him no. Then my fist told him no.”

Brother snorted again and Dad bit into his lip. Brother, at least, came to my rescue this time. He wasn’t in the elementary school with me anymore, but he did look out for me sometimes.

“I was coming to visit when I saw the fight break out. I stopped it, but only because Jason is four years older than Tahlia and I think his dad said he needs to be nice to me.” Brother sighed.

Dad let out another long sigh before dishing out plates with the food on them. Sure enough, there was a pile of green things on the plate, along with everything else. Wrinkling my nose, I growled at the rabbit food. Brother gave me a chop on the head with his hand before sitting down next to me.

“You need to eat your veggies. Otherwise you will never grow big and strong.”

“I am big and strong!” I looked at him, horrified.

He laughed. “No, you aren’t. You’re a shrimp. You’re the smallest out of your entire class. You can’t even wear the shirt they hand out for gym because you’re too shrimpy.”

“I’m not a shrimp!”

“Yeah huh.”

“Nu uh!”

“Yeah huh!”

“Nu uh!”

“Alright, alright. That’s enough. Both of you.” Dad sat down and handed down our forks. “Tahlia, eat your veggies. You do still need to grow if you want to beat your brother at anything. Henry, stop calling your sister a shrimp.” There was a pause before he chuckled. “She is clearly a crab.”

Brother laughed and I elbowed him in the side as I turned to kick my dad in the shins. Dad laughed, knowing I couldn’t reach him with my brother between us. Instead, I loaded my fork up with the veggies, pulled back and fired. I missed Dad’s face but hit his chest. The shocked look on his face made me rethink my entire life before his eyes sparkled.

He got up and I squealed, falling off my chair and running around the table to get away from him. I made a loop before my brother put his foot out, making me trip and fall. Dad caught me, grabbing me by the ankles and holding me up. The worst part was when Brother joined in, tickling me now that I was hanging upside down.

Screaming, I tried to wiggle out again, but Dad was too strong. Eventually, he turned me right way up and I blinked as my head felt light for a second. He kissed my forehead and plopped me back in my seat. Worse, he put another two helpings of veggies on my plate.

“No! Dad! Please! Not more!”

“Don’t worry, we will be here a while. Henry, tell me about your exam. How did it go? Who did you end up fighting against?”

My brother beamed, somehow his pile of veggies had disappeared and I wondered if he snuck them onto my plate. Frowning, I forked them and growled as I put them in my mouth. To be honest, they weren’t as bad as Mrs. Rain’s veggies. At least Mrs. Laurel made these soft and added some kind of yummy seasoning to them. That didn’t mean I would like them though.

“Since it was a joint effort between the high school and middle school, I ended up fighting a few of the 10^th and 11^th graders. So it automatically put me in another bracket. I don’t think anyone was thinking I would win though.”

Smiling, I listened as I chewed the veggies like a cow would chew grass. Dad shot me looks between Brother going into each of his fights, but he didn’t say anything else. We finished dinner and Brother finished his story, which meant we got to have ice cream while on the couch.

We did homework together on the little table while Dad sat on the couch reading a book. Brother would help me once in a while with my writing, but I was getting better. I’d seen some of his writing when he was my age and I didn’t want to be like him. So I worked hard on my letters and lines and shapes.

“Alright, time for bed you two.”

I nodded, looking up at Dad. He stretched and yawned, kicking Brother in the head while he did it. Laughing, Brother didn’t think it was funny. The two of them got into a little fight, but no one could beat Dad. No one could ever beat Dad. Not until my brother grew up, but then Dad said he would give up on purpose. Since it would be Brother’s turn to take care of our pack.

Dad said my job was to support the pack in any way that I could. As I grew up, I would find my strengths and I would help my brother with the pack. I wanted to make sure I was helpful, to the both of them. They were all I knew, my family, and I loved them with all my heart.