2. Do It Yourself

“Correct.” I sighed. “I have my own homework to do. If you did yours, then maybe you wouldn’t be failing.”

With how she carried herself, you would think that Rebecca was the oldest. She was a bully and the true delinquent in the family. However, she was three months younger than I was. Hanna, my mother’s younger sister, had her three months after I was born. When the news broke, the scandal nearly tore two packs apart.

Our pack, Dawn Claw, was neighbors with another pack. Usually packs didn’t stay too close to one other but there was the huge river between us. It was nearly a lake in certain places but the river was the territorial barrier. On the other side was the Moon Shadow pack. A lot of times, our packs were interwoven and wolves would find mates from either side of the river.

Mother and Hannah had been from Dawn Claw, their father being the Gamma of the pack. Dad had been the second youngest son of Moon Shadow’s Beta. My mother and Dad were fated mates. So, since the position of Beta was already filled by his older brother, Dad came over and stepped up under the previous Beta. That had been under our current Alpha’s father’s reign.

No one knows how the affair happened, or when. My mother might have but she didn’t tell anyone. She didn’t even tell Luna Ember until the very end that my dad had been sleeping with her younger sister. That Rebecca was the product of their infidelity. People said once I was born, my mother’s health started to decline. Luna Ember told me that it had nothing to do with me but everything to do with Hannah having her child, the apparent love child.

Either way, when my mother died, not many were surprised. Especially since my dad wasn’t really even home with my mother or I. He never visited my mother when she was in the hospital, or on the day I was born. Hannah likes to rub it in that he was with her the day I was born. That she needed a date to the Yule Festival and he obliged.

I was born on Yule, the longest night of the year. It was the reason I was named Winter. It was definitely better than the other options, but it still tended to be a bit too on the nose. Rebecca was born three months later, actually looking like a mix of my dad and Hannah.

Though, Hannah looked nothing like my mother. They did both have blonde hair but hers was the golden not strawberry. My mother’s green eyes were inherited from our Grandmother, weren’t even passed to Hannah. She had our Grandfather’s blue eyes. Hannah was beautiful but in a very different way from my mother.

Rebecca was also born with my dad’s Beta genes. She got her wolf at fifteen, as many leadership wolves do. I didn’t. I was the carbon copy of my mother, through and through. While I could shift, I still didn’t have my wolf and wouldn’t until I turned eighteen. Along with every other regular wolf my age. It meant that I had very weak leadership genes.

Dad was appalled. Before we found out, I was already being alienated. I was being pushed out because I wasn’t Hannah’s daughter and I was a reminder that my mother existed. When my fifteenth birthday rolled around and went by without my wolf appearing was when the abuse started to get worse. No longer was it a slap here or a verbal berating there. It became broken bones and black eyes.

“Bitch! Where the hell are you spacing off to? I said you need to do it! That’s all you need to be focused on.” Rebecca looked like she was about to shift with how angry she was.

“No. Do your own homework for once.”

I thought she was going to take a swing at me but she thought better of it. Instead, she threw open my door and started to wail. Immediately, Hannah was up the stairs consoling her baby.

“What happened? What’s going on here?” Hannah glared at me. “What did you do?”

Rebecca shook her head and tried wiping the fake crocodile tears. “I-I just…I just asked if Winter could help me. S-since…she was getting a better grade and I wanted…to learn. But she just…she pushed me away. Telling me I was stupid. T-that I was never going to be as good as her.”

I wanted to roll my eyes. No one would fall for that shit. No one but our parents. They only saw their little angel and that it was everyone else’s fault that she was a stupid bully. Alpha Damian wasn’t even giving her a second glance as Dad’s successor. It was her own fault but Dad usually blamed me.

“Winter! You help your sister out! She asked you for help! How dare you!”

“She asked me for to do her homework for her, not to help her with anything. I told her that she needs to do the homework herself so she can learn. Maybe then she wouldn’t be failing the class.” I shook my head. “I also didn’t touch her. I know better than that.”

Hannah narrowed her eyes at me and then kissed Rebecca’s head. “How about I help you? You wouldn’t want Winter to infect your studying anyways. She won’t be anything once she graduates. Not like you.”

They moved away from my door and I took a step to close my door but froze. My dad stepped into the doorway. He didn’t say anything; he just stared at me. Once he stepped out of the doorway, he shook his head. My door slammed shut and the bolt on the outside of the door locked.

Great, no dinner. I collapsed on the bed and rubbed my eyes. I only had a few more months of this left. That was it. When I turned eighteen, everything would change. For the better. The problem was that I had to hold out. No matter what.

My mother did leave one more thing to me, but it was buried in mounds of paperwork when she died. Something that Luna Ember had given me a hint at but it took me two years to find out what it was. My mother left me this plot. It had been passed down to the eldest of the Cyrus family for generations.

It had been under my mother’s name and then when I was born, my name was added instead of going to Hannah. Since I was underage, the temporary holding went to my dad. So nothing seemed out of the ordinary when the will was signed and distributed. However, when I turn eighteen, this house would be mine and so would the land under it. I could do with it what I wanted and I confirmed with a lawyer last year that I was within my right to kick my family out.

There were stipulations though. I had to be living in the house for one. So no matter what was happening, my residence had to be here. After that, I needed to prove that I was my mother’s daughter. I needed to prove I was competent enough to take care of the land. Then finally, I couldn’t have a mate from another pack. If I was to leave the pack with my mate, the land would go to Hannah and then Rebecca.

Originally, when I was little, all I wanted my dad’s approval. His love and acceptance were the reason why I stayed quiet. He was the link to my mother that I thought I needed. I didn’t. I knew that now. Now, I would uphold my mother’s legacy and her family. Our Grandmother, who hated my dad, made sure that the house would follow the line of woman in our family. In my locket was a photo of her and my mother on one side, and me with my mother on the other.

I needed to hold on. No matter what. Without having to worry about a place to stay, I would be able to go to college on a scholarship. Maybe train under Gamma Maddox. While I wasn’t the strongest Gamma, I hoped when I turned eighteen and got my wolf, we would be able to make up for our lack of strength with knowledge. It’s why I studied so hard and still wanted to go to college even though most wolves stopped education after high school.

Falling into bed after pulling on an old shirt, I curled up in a ball. I could grab a snack from the cafeteria if I could get out early enough. My morning class on Tuesday was a block of Biology and then the rest of the day was pretty chill after that. I’d already done my homework. Plus, the extra credit for Statistics.

Sighing, I was lucky despite everything that happened at home. I was in the best school in the pack. The option was provided to us to have higher level classes and they worked closely with the colleges that were either within or just on the outskirts of our pack territory. For now, I needed to take advantage of the opportunities given considering I was still Dad’s blood. No matter how much I needed to endure in the meantime.

I just needed to survive until the end of December. It was so close now. So close and I could finally be unchained. Bringing up my mother’s necklace, I pressed my lips to it. It always felt so warm and while it didn’t bring me the same protection as her, it did make me feel better. My mother wouldn’t be avenged but at least I could make sure her legacy survived.