Taking Power With The Alpha's Daughter

Chapter 6: Useless

***UNKNOWN POV***

    “Natalina Valeria Nhabokhova, get your useless f*****g ass in my office right now!” came a roar I had been expecting since I got home.

    Teaming up with Monica and Lucas O’Neill had been a bad idea.  I couldn’t stand either of those two werecougars.  I couldn’t stand how Lucas treated Monica, wanting her to wait on him hand and foot.

    But most of all, I hated the fact that my dad was in hoc to Lucas O’Neill and his den of werecougars.  That made him a failure as a man in my eyes.

    I desperately wanted to have an open mind about that species, and I did.  I knew that if I were in a position of leadership, I’d desperately want to make sure that my pack was taken care of and could expand the best way possible.

    I also knew of the perspective that werecougars needed to evolve their ways of thinking, but I didn’t think that it was 100% necessary.  So much of their culture was inviting.  There were aspects of the way they lived their lives that I found encouraging, mainly because of what I had to deal with.

    As the eldest of the 7 daughters of Fabian Nhabokhov, I was looked at as damaged goods.

    I was an Alpha by birth, the logical one to take charge of my pack when my father was inevitably arrested for crimes against supernatural beings.

    And I could not be recognized for it.

    My father wouldn’t let me.

    He had planned on fathering sons and lots of them.  He didn’t.

    He had planned on teaching his boys the ways of the underworld, the seediest of the seedy.  He couldn’t.

    He had girls.

    And somehow, that was my fault.

    The number of days where my father looked me square in the eyes and wished that I would magically turn into a boy were far too numerous. Rumor amongst the Delta warriors of the pack was that he had actually hired a faerie to come in and try to transfigure me into a boy somehow. That didn’t work.

    I eased myself out of my desk chair and started walking to his office, still feeling the ache in my left knee from my last visit.  It hadn’t healed completely--and according to the pack doctor, it never would--and whilst I am forced to act like nothing's wrong, I fear he will still hone in on that same injury, making it worse. The dark purple and black bruise on it was a dead giveaway.  I closed my eyes and fought back the tears that weren’t far behind.  I didn’t want to be the punching bag for my father, and I didn’t want to carry the brunt of everything he said or expected of me.

    The stress was starting to get to me.  As I ran my fingers through my hair, a single strand of grey hair fell at my feet.  I closed my eyes and fought back the tears of stress that seemed to eek out of me every chance they got.

    I wanted to be in charge of this pack and to live my life together with my mate, whoever he was, and find peace.

    Somehow, with my father, that was too much to ask.

    I had been gathering intelligence about my father and his illegal doings with organized crime, black market trading, and bookmakers on and off for some time, but I hadn’t done anything with any of it yet. So I wanted to make sure that there was some way that I’d be both safe and that the individual to who I turned everything over to could do something about it.

    Thus far, I hadn’t found that person.

    I slowly trudged over to my father’s all-concrete, 1940s-bunker-style office in the basement of the Phantom Grounds packhouse.  When I got there, I saw that his Beta, Lev Nikolayevich, and his Gamma, Julius Krupski, as well as their sons, were waiting for me.  I looked at all of them with a feeling of worry in the bottom of my stomach.  This whole situation felt like something terrible was about to happen.

    “You promised me that the bugs that you planted in that damned office in Louisiana were well-hidden.”

    That accusation surprised me.  Ordinarily, my tech knowledge was brilliant.  During my college years, I had interned at a computer manufacturing company that got a bunch of defense contracts while I was there.  I learned all sorts about hacking, tracking movements, and keystroke logging, explaining how I managed to get ahold of so much incriminating evidence against my father and his tactics so far.  It was something that I actually found really entertaining and relaxing, and I wished that my father would let me update the entire pack’s equipment.

    “I did,” I replied, taking a seat in front of his desk.  “I knew exactly where in the hell to put everything, and I knew that the intel you were going to get was perfect.”

    “DID I f*****g TELL YOU TO SIT DOWN?!” my father roared.  I immediately stood back up and bowed my head slightly.

    “Stupid, useless girl,” Father snarled.  “You did not get my permission to sit down, and you never will in my presence.  I don’t care if your legs hurt from my punishment.  You’re just not tough enough.  Pain is weakness leaving the body, and you have a long way to go.”

    I closed my eyes, begging my tears to leave me the hell alone.  I knew that I’d get hit by someone in this room if tears ran down my face.  This meeting had gone from bad to worse; I didn’t need it turning into a nightmare.

    “As I was saying,” Father continued.  “You promised me that the bugs you planted wouldn’t be discovered until the Phantom Grounds flag was flying over the Crescent Woods packhouse, and that piece of s**t, Bartholomew, was dead.  Not only did you completely fail in that regard, but Crescent Woods is down there now, and they killed Jimmy in the process.”

    “Jimmy Goodwin is dead?” I asked, completely astounded and hurt.  Jimmy acted like he was a go-getter for my dad and was always willing to tow the company line, but in reality, he was on my side.  He wanted my dad out of power as well.  One of my biggest allies was gone.

    “Yes, he is,” Father nodded, then turned his black, lifeless eyes on me.  “It’s your fault he’s gone.  This is now yet another thing that the Council will hold against me in my efforts to keep power.”

    “How is it my fault?” I asked, struggling to keep up with the conversation.

    “Because you’re useless, that’s why,” Father snapped. Then, out of the corner of my eye, I saw Lev nod his head in submissive agreement.

    “Shouldn’t you be working to try and have me take over?” I asked, knowing this would provoke him.

    Father walked over to me and slapped me across the face with every ounce of energy he had, putting me on the ground.  I tried to stand back up independently, but he put his meaty, tattoo-covered paw on my shoulder, stood me up again, and slapped me in the other direction.  I knew that I had matching bruises on each side of my face.

    “No one is going to take over this pack while I’m still alive,” Father stated angrily.  “I’m the most powerful wolf on the West Coast, and I have the willingness to do whatever it takes to stay in power.  Now, I’m going to give you one last chance.  In three weeks, you’re going to go down to Crescent Woods to defend yourself and explain that it was your fault that the bugs were discovered.  If that means that you end up in jail in Tacoma for it, that’s not my concern.”

    This was a new low.  Framing me so I’d end up punished as a result of his bullshit was more than I could ever imagine.  I wasn’t going to stand for that.

    “Now, let’s say that I tell Alpha Bartholomew and Chief Harrison that you’re the one that ordered me to bug Alpha Allard’s office and that this whole mess is on your plate.  How will you respond to that?” I yelled.

    Beside me, I heard the click of three guns.  On my right, Julius and his sons J.J. and Vladimir all had their guns in their hands.  I could actually feel myself start to shake.

    “Of all the children in the world, I don’t know how in the hell you got stuck with someone as worthless as this b***h,” J.J. stated, sneering at me in the process.

    “I’m inclined to agree with you,” Father replied.  “As for what response you’d get, I think you’ve figured out what the answer to that question is.”

    I nodded.  He didn’t need to say anything.  I’d get killed if I said anything. So my two options were jail or dying.  Lovely.

    Being Natalina Nhabokhova sucked 100% of the time.

    “I understand what you expect of me, Father,” I finally said.  “I’ll be more than happy to take as much heat off of you as possible so that you can run this pack the way you see fit for as long as the Mood Goddess grants you.”

    “All you need to do now is find your mate so you can be continuously filled with pups so I can get a grandson and try to get him to take my job,” Father stated.  “Then you’ll finally have a use.  I don’t even care if a male pup kills you as you try to bring him into this world, as long as he lives.  Until then, do what I ask of you without question, or my hands will continue to meet your face.  Are we clear?”

    “Yes, sir,” I whispered.  “You’re the Alpha of this pack.  Everyone here is to do what you wish.”

    I finally felt broken.  I didn’t want to fight against him anymore.  I didn’t want to gather evidence against him anymore.  I couldn’t do it anymore.

    “May I be excused, Father?  I want to start preparing my statement,” I told him.

    “Yes, you may, and thank you for finally realizing your place in life,” Father whispered and then turned to start talking about this week’s numbers racket with Beta Lev.

    I trudged back to my room and opened up my laptop.  I tried to write something down before I gave up and slammed my laptop shut.  I didn’t want to mess with it anymore.  I hadn’t asked to be born; the Moon Goddess made that decision for me.  

    I then heard a knock at the door, and I opened it.  It was my best friend Alyona, Aly for short.  She had been the person who I turned to the most whenever my dad was being an ass.  She took one look at me and immediately pulled me into a bone-crushing hug, and I started crying. Finally, I couldn’t hold it in anymore.

    “It’s okay, Nat, just let it out,” Aly whispered as she pulled me to my bed.  She held me, and I let it out as much as I could.  My father was the worst person in my life, and I had no place in his besides helping him out with his illegal scheming.  Of course, I just got my most recent marching orders regarding whoever my mate was, including the fact that he basically hoped that I would die giving birth to a baby boy.  Listening to his edicts was the last thing that I wanted in this life.  I told Aly all of this while I sobbed, and she listened and rubbed my back.  When the tears finally stopped, she looked at me.

    “I can’t wait for you to find your mate,” Aly said.  “You can run as far away from this place as you can.”

    “I want to be the Luna of this pack, though,” I whispered.  “I want to reverse as much as I possibly can that my father has done to this pack, and I hate this pack’s reputation.  I want to fix it as much as I can.”

    “That’s honorable, but you have to put yourself first,” Aly whispered.  “You’ve never known a single day of happiness in your life.  What you need to do is find a way to get your head on straight and figure out something that you can do that has nothing to do with Phantom Grounds.  Find your inner happiness first, and find it away from here.”

    “If I ever find it and my mate, I want to tell you,” I whispered.  “Promise that you'll still love me like a sister when I find him, whoever he is?”

    “Absolutely,” Aly replied.  “I can’t wait to meet him, either!”  That got us both giggling, and I felt a little better.

    My father may have hated me, but I had a real ride-or-die friendship with Aly.  She never made me feel useless.

    I just hoped my mate wouldn’t make me feel that way.  Ever.

    I just didn’t think I’d find him.