The Lycan Queen

The bell rang, and an order was up. I rushed behind the counter to grab the pizza off the counter. “Table five, Laken,” Alfred told me as I picked the pizza up. “This time, don’t get them riled up.” I rolled my eyes at him. I knew who he was talking about. It was the table of the popular kids at my school. They love to give me hell about being adopted, calling me a reject because my parents didn’t want me. That is far from the truth. I took the pizza out and placed it on the table. “When is Alfred going to fire you?” Shannon Morgan asked me. “You are nasty, and now I don’t think I want to eat this pizza after you touched it.” A couple of the girls agreed with her, refusing to touch the pizza. “Quit giving her a hard time, Shan,” Bryce Andersen scolded her. “Can’t you see she is wearing gloves?” He pointed to the nitrile gloves I was wearing. “Can I get you guys anything else?” I asked the table, hoping they wanted nothing else. Shannon smirked at me, picked up the pitcher of water, standing up. “We could use more water.” She giggled, pouring the water over my head. Everyone at the table cracked up laughing as I stood there soaking wet. “Of course,” I said to her, walking away from the table back to the kitchen. Sofia, Alfred’s wife, saw me when I walked in. She rushed over and handed me a towel. “Table five needs more water,” I told her. “f**k them,” she growled, trying to help me dry off. “They can die of thirst for all I care.” She pushed me into the supply room, handing me some more towels. “Go home,” she ordered me. “Get some dry clothes on and take the rest of the night off.” It was Friday night, and that is when the pizzeria was the busiest. “I can’t afford to-” Sofia cut me off. “Bullshit,” she said, marching out of the supply room to the cash register, grabbing our tip jar. “Laken, why do you work when your parents are the second richest people in the pack?” Sofia is talking about Leofric and Piper Wittelsbach. They are the king and queen of the demons, and dad makes damn good money from his accounting firms he has around the world. Mom is the daughter of the late Alpha Gregory Salyers, who once ran Mountain Moon, the pack we live in. She once was the Alpha but stepped down when she became a mother, not only to my sister and me but also to my twin brothers. She handed the title to her brother, Lykeon, and now he and his wife, Summer, are running the pack. “I want to take care of myself without my parents’ money.” I explained to her, watching as she took all the cash out of the tip jar, and handed it to me. “You are doing it the wrong way, kiddo,” Sofia smiled at me. “Find yourself a rich mate and don’t worry about ever working again.” I smiled at her, as she is always telling me this. “Go home,” she told me. “I will handle table five, and the rest of your tables. Gabby should be in shortly.” She hugged me quickly and led me to the door. “I will see you tomorrow.” I sighed and walked to where I had chained my bike. Unlocking the lock, I pushed my bike down the sidewalk, hoping not to get any attention. “Laken!” I heard a familiar voice. I groaned as I knew it was my brothers, Wade and Will. They both came up to me on their skateboards, looking like they were up to no good. Wade looked at me and was immediately pissed off. “What the f**k happened?” he asked me, kicking his board up. “Nothing,” I muttered, trying to walk past my brothers. “This doesn’t look like it is nothing,” Will said, stopping me in the middle of the sidewalk. He looked into the pizzeria and saw Shannon and her friends laughing and eating pizza, with the boys flinging pepperoni across the restaurant. “Do you want us to take care of them?” He asked me, glaring at the kids inside. “No,” I answered him, trying to get past my brothers. “You will just make things worse.” “They shouldn’t be treating you like s**t,” Wade spoke up. “You are the daughter of the king and queen of the demons.” “Adopted daughter,” I reminded him. “Or did you forget?” Wade shifted his weight and looked at me. “You know damn well that mom and dad love you no matter what, blood or adopted,” he said to me, trying to cheer me up. “I know, but it seems like the rest of the pack wants to treat me like I am trash,” I told him, adjusting the strap to my bag. My brothers sighed, knowing they would not win in this conversation. “Say nothing to mom and dad,” I begged them, reaching into my bag, and pulling out my tips. “Should this be enough to keep the both of you quiet?” I handed them the money, about forty dollars’ worth of tips. “Laken, we don’t want your money,” Will said, shoving the money back into my bag. “We won’t say anything, but you need to tell mom and dad about the bullying. They can help you and nip the problem in the ass before it gets any bigger.” “No,” I told my brother. “When I officially turn eighteen, I am leaving and not coming back!” “That will kill mom, not getting to see you,” Wade tells me. Mom has been a great mom to all of us when she is not busy with the kingdom and pack. But since the war with The Hunters is over, and there is peace, she has spent more time with us. “Don’t drag mom into this,” I hissed at my brother, grabbing him by his shirt. “I’ll take you somewhere where you will never make it home ever again.” He grabbed my hand and pulled it off his shirt. “Talk to her,” he said, then he jumped on his board, skating down the road. Will looked at me and shrugged his shoulders, following his twin. I continued down the sidewalk until I got to the end of the center and got on my bike. I rode it up the mountain to the house where we live, with it overlooking the valley the pack lives in. I jumped off my bike and put it in the garage. Mom and dad were not home, as both their vehicles were gone. I popped my head in the house, hoping Nigel, our butler, was not in the living room. It was clear, so I ran to the stairs, taking two at a time to the second floor where all the bedrooms were. My sister, Laramie, and my rooms are at the top of the stairs, so I didn’t have to face Clair and Kolton, my younger siblings. Slipping into my room without a sound, hoping no one had heard me sneaking into the house. I peeled my wet clothes off and threw them into the clothes hamper. Taking advantage of having the bathroom all to myself, I jumped in the shower, trying to warm up from the cold water that was dumped on me. Standing under the hot water, I leaned my head back, wetting my hair. The hot water ran down my back, then down the back of my legs, relaxing my tense body from the altercation with Shannon, and then the argument I had with my brothers. Perhaps Wade and Will are right. Maybe I should tell mom and dad what has been going on. But I didn’t want to give them another thing to worry about, as they have enough on their plates. There was a knock, and Laramie walked in. She looked over at me with concern. “When the hell are they going to quit?” She asked, having a towel ready for me. I turned off the water, and reached out, taking the towel from her. “They are a bunch of arrogant rich kids who think they are better than us,” I said to her, drying off. “We are so much better than them, but I don’t know how. There is something inside of us that is much more powerful than an ordinary werewolf, but I don’t know what.” “We don’t know what our past lives were like before we came here.” Laramie said, following me into my room. “It would be nice to know who we truly are, and who our genuine family is.” “We are the daughters of the king and queen of the demons,” I explained to her, placing my hands on her shoulders. “That is who we are, have been for the past thirteen years. We will always be royalty, regardless of our adoption.”