Curse of the rejected

“Dad, stop!” I screamed on top of my lungs, running towards my mother and shielding her from my father’s continuous kicks that never seemed to want to end. Dad stopped for a moment, and it was silent. I turned around to see what he was doing and if he had decided to retreat, even though I knew better. He was staring at me, his mouth gaped open in astonishment as a sick smile started to settle on his face when he asked me slowly and like a predator that had finally caught his prey but was waiting and teasing it, “And since when did you start interrupting me and diving into our private business?!” “No, Blair,” I heard my mother say to me. “Don’t do this. Just go.” But I was not going to leave just like that, and even she knew it. She was being accused of sleeping with another man under the roof, and I knew that it had never happened. He just wanted a reason to hit her as he always did. “Please,” I begged, shaking my head, even though I knew that it would take me nowhere. I had only put myself on his radar and landed in trouble. “Blair, my child,” he called out to me, his tone suspiciously soft as he bent to reach my eye level, “you want me to leave your mother alone after she has done wrong and deserves to be punished?” “She did nothing wrong,” I defended. “There was no man in the bedroom! She has never cheated on you!” It seemed to anger him that I raised my voice. The next thing I knew, his palm connected with my cheek, and I was thrown off of my mother. “Stop!” Mom screamed, picking me up and pushing me towards the door as she heaved at me, “Run, Blair! Come back later. You don’t need to see this right now. It’s between your father and I.” I wanted to stay back and protest, tell her that it was completely wrong, but I saw the desperate look on her face for me to get out of there, so I turned around and started to run towards the door when my father grabbed me by the hair and pulled me back so that I fell against my mother. “You two are plotting this against me!” he accused, sounding even more unhinged than ever. “You little demon!” I grunted as he kicked me in the guts, pulling me by the hair and slapping me as my mother tried to pry me away from his grip. “This is madness, Fred! Don’t do this, she’s your daughter!” Mom pleaded, and this made him even angrier. He slapped her and stomped on her leg as he barked out: “She’s not my daughter, and you know it!” “Dad, please!” I grabbed his hand, trying to get it out of my hair, but I couldn’t succeed. The next thing I heard was a loud scream from my father as my mother grabbed him by the leg and bit him. “RUN!” she barked at me, and I did as I was told, just as he was kicking her off of him and calling her a useless w***e. I ran as fast as I could into the pack, calling for help from everyone that I could. “He’s going to kill her, please! Someone, help!” I shouted on top of my lungs, running towards a gathering of three other pack members. “My father is going to kill my mother. I need your help, please!” I cried out as I reached them, falling to my knees and pulling my hands together in a pleading gesture, tears falling out of my eyes. “It’s your family issues again. I really don’t understand how many times you expect us to interrupt your parents in their daily shenanigans,” one of them commented with a shake of his head. “They’re both adults. I’m sure they can handle themselves right. People fight with their mates all the time. I’m sure you’re just panicking this much because you’re young. When you get your mate in the next few months or so, you will understand.” Without enough strength to even argue with them, I got off the floor and ran into the woods, finding the lake and sitting in front of it, crying my eyes out as I silently asked the Moon Goddess why we had to go through everything that we were going through. My mother didn’t deserve any of it. “Attention, all members of Silverbane Pack!” I sniffled and wiped my tears as I heard the voice of a messenger going around. “The blue moon festival is in two days, and we have been selected as the hosts for this year’s festival! Everyone is to be in attendance right as the sun sets!” The messenger repeated his words about three more times before leaving to pass his message elsewhere. I picked myself up and walked back home, where I found my mother nursing her bruises on the porch. “Did he leave?” I asked, sitting beside her and helping her. “He went to meet the Alpha about the festival. You know he’s the war general, so he has to organize the fights to entertain the other packs when they arrive,” she explained. “Why haven’t you run away?” I blurted, causing her to look at me, confused. “I would have. Nobody would blame you, I assume. Everyone in the pack already knows what has happened between you two, and it wouldn’t be a bad thing if you just went far away from him.” She smiled, placing her hand on the back of my head and patting it. “You wouldn’t understand, Blair. I can’t leave,” she said. I wanted to ask her why, but her face told me everything – she couldn’t tell me either. I hated that everything between my parents was in the dark, and I could only watch the outcome of it instead of knowing why things were the way they were. “Now, come on. Let’s go get you a dress for the blue moon festival,” she told me. ~ “You two will walk out of the house ten minutes after I do,” Dad commanded on the night of the blue moon festival. “I don’t want to be seen with the Omega and her daughter.” I looked at my mother, wondering if she would protest against his words, but she didn’t. She only took my hand in hers and nodded as he walked out of the house. “Why does he always treat us like that? There has to be something…” I wondered aloud, shaking my head. “It’s fine, Blair. That’s just the way she is,” my mother said calmly. There were a thousand and one questions that I had, but I couldn’t say a thing. I only squeezed my mother’s hand, assuring her that it would all be fine. We did as he commanded, going ten minutes after him and finding the party already starting with a mock battle as other packs had arrived, watching the fight intently. “Come on,” Mom encouraged, taking my hand and sitting beside me as we watched the fight. I could see Dad from the other side of the field, his eyes settled on the fighters with so much concentration that anyone could tell who the war general was. The fight ended, and everyone cheered, but the excitement could only last so long as there was a loud blast, causing us to look at the entrance to find a group of wolves, all growling at us.