The Moon Warriors Second Chance

AMARIS *BANG BANG BANG* “Wake up, you lazy piece of s**t! If you’re not downstairs, starting breakfast in five minutes, I’ll send word to Alpha Robert and who knows what he’ll do to you!” The head omega shouted through the door. I check the clock on my nightstand and notice I only got about four hours of sleep thanks to all the chores the head omega made me do yesterday. I was up later than usual with my training. Not that anyone knows I’m training. I have to do it in secret after everyone goes to bed for the night. If anyone knows I’m training, they’d tell Alpha Robert, aka my father, and he would probably have me sent to a cell in the dungeon or worse, have me beaten by his warriors. If you're wondering why I call my father Alpha Robert, it would be because he doesn't allow me to call him or my mother mom and dad. It's always Alpha Robert and Luna Kate. It's been that way since I was a child. While my brother and sister call them mom and dad I get beat if I do. I learned fast not to refer to them as anything but their title. You’d think with my father as the Alpha, I wouldn’t have to work for the head omega, and they would let me train. Sadly, that’s not the case for me. For as long as I can remember, nothing I’ve ever done has been good enough for my family. My grades, my looks, it’s like they took it personally for me being born. If I got a B in school, I’d get yelled at and beaten because it wasn’t an A. Even when I got an A, my parents made it seem like I should have somehow gotten a better grade. My parents always had an excuse as to why I couldn’t train with the pack after school. The only training I could do growing up was the mandatory training during school. They didn’t want to look bad for having an alpha child not in training. But they’d make sure I wasn’t able to train to the best of my ability. Whether they had me beaten for my ‘poor grades’ or they didn’t let me eat enough food the night before, I was always too weak to be effective. If it wasn’t for Mike, the head trainer, I probably wouldn’t be where I am today. Mike found me five years ago, hiding from a bunch of my classmates after school. Shocked to learn that I was the second oldest of the alpha children and even more shocked when he learned how everyone treated me. From then on, he made sure to have a reason for me to stay after school. He’d let me eat something substantial and then train correctly. Despite everything they did to make sure I stayed weak, I’m a natural warrior. Quickly, I surpassed my peers, and from what Mike told me, I was as good as a couple of his warriors. But we decided it was best for people to think I’m still the weak little girl they saw growing up. We still meet a couple of nights a week to keep my training fresh, but to everyone at the Silver Claw Pack, I’m still the weak, unwanted child of the Alpha. Sighing because I only have myself to blame for my lack of sleep, I get up and grab a set of my work clothes. It’s a simple black on black outfit, like most of my other clothes. I used to wear other colors, but with how often people would ‘accidentally’ spill something on me, I stopped wasting what little money I was allowed on something colorful and eventually, I decided black was my color. I make my way into the pack kitchen and see that no one has started anything for breakfast. Usually, there are a couple of omegas that help in the morning, but they must be somewhere else today because the kitchen is empty. I swear under my breath and hurry around the kitchen to get everything started because I’m going to be cutting it close with all the work to myself. About an hour and a half later, I have scrambled eggs, bacon, sausage, waffles, biscuits and gravy, and fruit all ready to go out for everyone but the Alpha family. It’s not one of the best breakfasts I’ve sent out, but it should be enough not to get in trouble with the head omega. Then I started on the Alpha family’s breakfast. An egg white omelet with spinach for my sister Bri. And eggs benedict for my mother and father. If my brother Kyle was here, I’d also make something for him, but he’s been away for the past year at the Crescent Moon Pack for Alpha training. Luckily, he’s not here because I put the finishing touches on their meals right before they came down to eat. “Whew, I didn’t think I’d get everything done on time.” I said to my wolf Artemis. Other than Mike, she’s my only friend. She keeps me sane when otherwise I would have broken down by now. I got her when I was 13, unlike most kids who get their wolf when they’re 16. It’s incredibly rare for someone to get their wolf that early, but Artemis said we’re special. So, while I was excited to have my wolf so early, I had to keep her a secret. No one but Mike knows about her. My family thinks I’m wolf-less, and even if they knew the truth about me and my wolf, it wouldn’t change anything. “That’s what you get for working us out so hard yesterday.” She replied while rolling her eyes at me. “Yeah yeah, I know. But you can’t tell me you didn’t enjoy beating Mike’s ass.” “True, if only we could stop hiding and take on different people. I’m dying to know how we’d fare against other warriors.” “You know why we have to hide. If Father knew we could beat his head trainer, I don’t want to even think about what he’d do to us.” I shiver. “Maybe one day we won’t have to hide, but we just need to keep training and hopefully we’ll get our chance.” I said softly. Artemis huffs and goes in the back of my mind. We have this conversation often. She’s tired of hiding, tired of us being weak because I won’t let her heal me. Tired of how people treat us like we’re nothing. I’ve heard it all from her before. We shouldn’t have to hide. We shouldn’t have to pretend to be weak. We should be respected because the goddess blessed us. She thinks we’re strong enough to stand up to our family, but we’re just one wolf against an entire pack. Even if we’re strong, we’re not THAT strong. We’ve gone back and forth about leaving the pack. Going rogue long enough to find another pack to accept us. She’s been urging me to leave more and more lately, but something is holding me back. Maybe one day we’ll leave here, maybe one day we won’t have to hide our true selves. But it won’t be until I stop feeling like there’s a reason to stay.