The Beta's Daughter

"I didn't say you could leave!" I watched in horror as my dad choke slammed my little brother to the floor, so close to making contact with the coffee table. It was 10 pm, and my brother, Haddix, and I had school the next morning, but he wanted to go to a friend's house to get away from dad. However, dad told him no and started telling Haddix to go to his room, but he wouldn’t listen so they started fighting. This isn't the first time this has happened either, but he only ever did it when mom worked nights at the hospital. My name is Rhea Mitchell. I just turned 18 years old, and my father is the Beta of the Blue Moon Pack. Beta Daniel is a kind, caring man to everyone else, but behind the walls of our house, he's a ruthless drunk who beats on Haddix and myself whenever he can stand long enough to take a swing at us; my mom met him at her best friend's Luna Ceremony. Her and Luna Marie were born in the same pack and grew up together as the Alpha and Beta's daughters. When it was time for her ceremony, she brought mom with her for moral support and to help keep her nerves down. During the reception afterward is when mom and dad met. Mom had just turned twenty-three, and dad was twenty-four. When they found out they were destined mates, they didn't waste any time getting married and trying for pups. That's where my brother and I come in, and it's been a nightmare for the past decade. I jumped out of bed when I heard my alarm go off. It was 7 a.m., "s**t!" I run to the bathroom and shower before waking Haddix up to get ready for school. The fight last night between them got so heated that I had to step in, and Haddix ended up staying home. As I'm making my way to the stairs, I turn and see dad hanging halfway off the bed with a bottle of bourbon in his hand and drool coming out of his mouth. How he ever became the Beta is beyond me. I was in the middle of making lunch for Haddix when I heard the front door open and a voice scream, "Get your ass moving, Rhea, we're going to be late!" My best friend, Lily, screams from the foyer. "Would you keep it down?!? Dad's still here, and I don't feel like dealing with him right now." I say, walking towards her. Haddix comes walking down the stairs rubbing his side and a pained expression on his face. "Let me look at it." He lifts his shirt for me to see, and he has a bruise the size of a softball on his ribs. Lily audibly gasps but says nothing while she's looking at the bruise, then back at me, knowing exactly where it came from. She's the only one outside of the house who knows how dad treats us because she saw it first hand a few years ago. She came over after school to hang out and do some homework. Dad was there and was already wasted after finishing his beta duties for the day. He heard us come in and told me to start cooking dinner because he was hungry, but I told him I needed to study for a final that Friday, and I would do it later. That's when Lily saw a vodka bottle make contact with my face, breaking my nose and giving me a black eye. She was freaking out while I was on the floor with blood pouring down my face; once she calmed down, she took me to the pack hospital and pleaded with me to tell someone what really happened since I was telling everyone I had gotten into a bad fight. I refused, though, because how was I supposed to tell someone that my own father did this to me. Since then, she's been super protective and always insisting I move into the packhouse with her, since her dad is the Alpha and he'd be able to protect me. I told her I couldn't leave Haddix to fend for himself. He's only sixteen and doesn't have his wolf yet, so I had to protect him whenever I could. When dad threw him last night, my wolf, Artemis, came out and slammed dad against the wall so hard it knocked him out. "Well, anyway, where's mom?" he asks. "She's at the packhouse helping my mom get ready for the party tonight. A bunch of Alphas, Lunas, Betas, and Gammas and some of their pack members are coming here as a gesture of friendship." Lily explained while we were climbing in her car. I'm excited about the party because some of my friends from the other packs are coming too. I met them at the human school we go to. The other kids don't know what we are, though, to them we're just ordinary teenagers. Alpha James believes we should intermingle with them and be friends; some pack members disagree, my dad being one of them. He doesn't, however, want us to tell them we're werewolves because he doesn't think it would go well for us. I understand that, but maybe all humans aren't that bad...