Chapter 1
~Megan’s POV~
“BEEP! BEEP! BEEP!”
My alarm blares, dragging me from my slumber that was far too short. I hit the snooze button while I pry my hazel eyes open to the darkness of the early morning.
”Happy Birthday Megan!”
I hear my wolf say warmly in my mind and I realise that it’s September 16th, my birthday. I am finally 18!
“Thank you Lilly!”
I reply just as warmly, sitting up and stretching my slender arms. I know full well that Lilly is the only one who will care enough to say Happy Birthday to me, or remember it at all. I’m finally old enough for my wolf and I to find our mate. We werewolves usually mate for life if we are lucky enough to find the mate the moon goddess gifts to us. Finding our mate might be our only real hope of ever getting out of this s**thole, that is if he doesn’t reject us!
I met my wolf, Lilly, five years ago on my 13th birthday, THREE years earlier than anyone else! Some particularly strong Alpha bloodlines occasionally get their wolves a year earlier than others, but I’ve never heard of anyone else receiving their wolf any earlier than that. The night I met Lilly for the first time I had been badly beaten by Alpha Blake, I barely managed to escape but I had desperately busted out of the second floor window and hurtled to the ground. I had managed to pick myself up from the hard ground and was limping towards the woods when I heard the softest voice.
“Everything is going to be okay Megan, I’m here now, you are no longer alone in this.”
I jumped, startled. It took me a moment to realise that the voice was in my head, and that it was my wolf speaking to me!
Lilly helped me to find a secluded clearing in the forest and we shared our first shift under the soft light of the full moon. Shifting helped my injuries heal faster. However, soon after I shifted we heard voices looking for me, I definitely didn’t want to be found and suffer a worse beating! Lilly told me I shouldn’t let anyone see me in wolf form.
“One day we’re probably going to have to run away Megan. If you hide me from everyone and they believe you don’t have a wolf, it will be easier for us to run away when the time is right, no one will know to look for a wolf or what we look like and then all we will have to do is find a way to mask our scent.”
I agreed and shifted back, hiding under some particularly dense bushes until we were sure no one was near. Clothes torn to shreds, I carefully made my way back to the pack house in the early hours of the morning and snuck in, hoping Alpha Blake had finally passed out drunk and wasn’t still looking for me. Thankfully luck was on my side for once! I couldn’t let anyone know that I had met my wolf and shifted so I threw my shredded clothes in the fire to hide the evidence.
To this day, no one has ever seen me in wolf form, not even Alpha Blake. Because I’ve never shifted in front of him or anyone else they all believe I have no wolf. We don’t shift very often at all, only on the rare occasions that we manage to sneak away from the pack and find some privacy in the forest. It’s difficult to find somewhere because there are warriors constantly patrolling the borders of our pack land, plus scouts and other pack members wandering the forests. Not to mention that I very rarely get time to myself with all the work I’m forced to do!
For most wolves today would be a happy day, one of excitement and celebration, but not for me. My life has been a living hell the past 10 years. Alpha Blake made me the pack slave, he views me as even lower than an omega and he’s made sure the rest of the pack does too. Including the future Alpha. Not a day goes by without them abusing me, and it’s a rare good day if it’s just verbal abuse!
Oh yeah, want to know something FUNNY?! Alpha Blake is my FATHER! He blames me for my mother abandoning us, and I have long since given up trying to understand how he could possibly blame and treat his own daughter so horribly. I can’t bring myself to call him my dad anymore, not even in my own head. Blake demands that I call him Alpha but he doesn’t deserve that title so I only use it when I’m talking directly to him so I don’t get in trouble.
Just the thought of my cruel reality makes a growl slip from my throat. It’s so hard to contain my anger and loneliness, and Lilly doesn’t make it any easier as she shares and amplifies my feelings! She’s been getting harder to keep from surfacing lately. Her alpha blood fighting through and making her unwilling to submit to such abuse! I’ve all but given up though, fighting back just ends up making everything worse, and I feel so utterly broken after years of enduring this torment.
I feel like the moon goddess hates me! What have I done so wrong to cause my life to be so torturous?! What did I ever do to deserve such horrific and unfair treatment?! Why does the whole pack blame me for my mother leaving?! I was just a young child! How could any of it be my fault?!
“She probably got sick of your despicable father, her so-called soulmate!”
Lilly chimes in, just as angry as I am.
“But then how could she willingly leave her children with such a horrible man?!”
I reply to her in my head.
“I don’t know Megan, there are a lot of things that don’t make sense surrounding your mother’s departure”
Did I mention I have a brother? He’s the future Alpha that hates and abuses me too! He won’t talk to me unless he’s ordering me around or abusing me and using me as a punching bag. Once upon a time Kaleb used to act like a big brother and protect me, but he’s learned to be abusive from our father since our mother left us. Even though Alpha Blake has always been a mean and hateful man, Luna Liandria kept him from spiralling and taught us all love and respect.
I barely remember my mum, but I remember feeling safe and loved when she was still here. Things were very different back then, the whole pack fell apart when she left…
