เด็กเลี้ยงของภูริทัศน์

*ALYSSA*

My heart raced, beating faster than was even remotely normal for a werewolf. I could hear them. My parents. They weren't even trying to be silent. They were talking about an arranged mating between my pack and Blue Moon Pack. An arranged mating between the two Alpha families. I tried to even out my breathing before they picked up on it. How could they even be planning something like that?

Deciding that I'd heard enough, I walked silently away from their room door. Goosebumps dotted my arm as I began to search for my sister. A new Alpha had recently taken over Blue Moon pack. It had barely been a month but it had apparently been enough for rumours about him to spread like some viral disease. No one had anything nice to say about him.

A lot of people had called him vicious. Cold. Cruel. There wasn't a single bad word that hadn't been used to describe him. And my parents were considering mating my sister to him? I couldn't figure out for the life of me why they were even considering such a ridiculous idea in the first place.

I walked out of the house, quickly spotting my sister knitting something on the patio. Probably a sweater or something for a pup. She was sweet like that. My heart lurched in pain at the decisions my parents were soon going to impose on her. She didn't deserve it. No one deserved to mate with that beast.

"Jenny can I talk to you for a bit?" I heard myself asking. Her head snapped up, her eyes wide with concern. No doubt she'd picked up on the shakiness in my voice. I looked at my hands to find them shaking as well. I quickly clasped them behind my back before I spooked her.

Her legs moved and in an instant she was standing right in front of me. I took a calming breath before looking at my sister. I loved Jenny with all of my heart. More than I loved anyone. More than I loved my parents. She was only second to my wolf. She had been the best older sister a growing she wolf could ask for. "Lyssa, are you alright?"

I shook my head, attempting to speak but failing. My parents wanted to take her away from me. To that monster. What was I going to do without her? It has always been Jenny and me against the world. Our parents had almost always been busy handling their duties as the Alpha and Luna of the pack. "Mom and dad are planning for an arranged mating."

Her expression turned to one of clear confusion. She started working things out in her head. I saw her face when it all clicked. She held her midsection lightly like she was feeling a searing pain. My wolf howled inside at the pain she was obviously going through from her physical reaction. "Which pack?" She whispered.

I shook my head in apology, hating to be the bearer of bad news. Still, there was no way I could keep this away from her. She deserved to know. Her life was about to change. And very quickly if what I'd heard had been any indication. I tried to talk past the lump in my throat.

"Blue Moon pack." I managed. Her eyes widened even further and she stared at me in silence for a few minutes. Before I knew what was going on, she'd marched past me and stormed into the house. I quickly hurried after her, knowing she was immediately going to confront my parents.

My arm shot out and gripped her wrist, halting her steps. "You can't go to talk to them now," I reminded her. They were going to know that I'd been eavesdropping. They already thought of me as living in my sister's shadow and being second best to her. Though it hurt and I was trying to live with it, the last thing I wanted was to give them more reason to think less of me. "Please wait till they say something to you first."

She stared at me, obviously understanding what I was trying to tell her immediately. Angrily, she stormed in the direction of her room and slammed the door shut after walking inside. After darting a glance at my parents' closed bedroom door, I turned and followed her into her room.

She was standing beside the window when I walked in, simply staring out into space. Her arms were folded protectively in front of her and she looked so torn, my heart immediately went out to her. I took slow steps and sat down on her bed, tucking my legs under me as we both mulled things over in our heads.

I hadn't wanted to admit it but I knew that informing Jenny if everything that I'd heard wasn't going to change anything. If there was anything I didn't like about Jenny it was the way she lost her voice in front of my parents. She took it upon herself to try to be the male pup they never had like it was her fault that the rulership of the pack was now leaving our family.

The room was so silent, I wanted to scream. Jenny and I were hardly together in silence. It showed how much of a mess the situation was for us to be too occupied with other things in each other's presence. I guess that was why my parents had decided on an arranged mating.

If Jenny mated with the asshole from Blue pack, then the two packs were going to be in alliance. If the packs were in alliance, it would definitely help put an end to the crisis that was bound to occur when everyone began fighting for the position of the Alpha after my dad was no more.

I ran my hands down my face, hating the fact that they could have a solid reason to justify their bad parenting. If Jenny mated that beast, then she was going to be the Luna of Blue Moon pack and her male pup was going to be next in line to be the Alpha. That way, the rulership of a pack wouldn't really have left our family. My parents would still have a direct relationship with all the Alphas that would come after Jenny's pup.

"How could they do this, Lyssa?" Jenny asked breaking the silence. She pulled a chair out of her dresser and sat down, looking at me. Jenny and I looked a lot alike in our features. The only difference was our eyes. Where hers was a vibrant blue, mine was a fiery emerald green. There was nothing vibrant about her eyes now. She looked like someone had informed her that her wolf was dead. "How could they ask this of me?"

My gaze drifted away from hers because I hated seeing her in pain. Especially when I could do absolutely nothing about it. I hated that my parents didn't place our happiness before pack duties. They were wonderful leaders of the pack no doubt, but that was at the expense of our happiness. Hell, it was also at the expense of their happiness.

Why would someone even choose such a life over living in freedom like every other person? Because that was what being part of the Alpha's family was. A life without freedom. A life where your every decision and every move had to be made by putting the pack's happiness before yours.

"Are you going to agree to it?" I heard myself asking. My voice was a whisper, because a part of me was afraid of the answer. Jenny met my eyes but didn't reply. I stared back at her, trying to urge her with my eyes to fight for herself for once. To put her happiness before my parents'. I felt a sense of dread when she instantly looked away. Her boots sounded on the floor as she walked out of the room, her voice barely a whisper.

"I'm taking my wolf out on a run."

***

"Excuse me?" My father almost barked, his eyes practically glowing with anger. He had called for a family meeting after my sister had come back from her run. Well, a family meeting that would have excluded me if I had allowed that to happen. Thankfully I wasn't a push over and after insisting that I was going to be present for whatever he and my mother wanted to say to Jenny, they had eventually let me.

I whipped my head to Jenny, feeling a surge of surprise and pride. She was actually doing it. Standing up to them. She'd said no. She'd actually said no. I was so happy I wanted to scream. She'd said she wasn't going to let them mate her with the Alpha of Blue Moon pack. And that was on period.

"Do you have any idea what's at stake here?" My mother asked, looking at her with pleading eyes. I wanted to roll my eyes at the persuasive tone of her voice. I've become very familiar with their methods now. Immune, even. It was very typical of my parents. Playing good cop bad cop. Obviously my father was always the bad cop.

"Yeah," Jenny replied, the anger seeping from her voice now as she stared at them both with pleading eyes of her own. "My happiness." My mother had the decency to flinch. I turned my gaze to my father but he was already staring at me. He was looking at me in a way that made me realize he probably knew what I'd been up to.

His gaze trailed back to Jenny.

"Jen-"

"No dad," She instantly cut him off. I almost smiled. Another thing about Jenny, when she'd made a decision about something, she stuck by it no matter what. Even the goddess couldn't change her mind. My parents went silent, probably realizing this for themselves. Their gaze turned disappointing and though I could see it pained her to have them look at her that way, she still was not going to budge. "I've made my decision. I'm sorry."

Not waiting for a response, she turned and walked out of the room. I locked gazes with my father. He was glaring at me, his fists clenched and his jaws were ticking. My gaze drifted disappointedly to my mother. I had expected that even if my father had been ready to trade my sister's happiness for the pack then she would at least be against it. Jenny was her daughter after all. Apparently that meant shit to her.

Turning, I exited the room.