Runt's Revenge

Runt's First Pack Run

So, her mother knew about his crazy claim that Athena was his “second” mate? “Double ew!” She thought. But her mother had become such a weak mouse ever since finding her second chance mate in Damien. He had used his Beta command when telling Athena to show up in the morning. He had ended his sentence with a malicious growl. He probably thought it was a done deal now and that she would simply obey him. He didn’t know that his Beta command voice didn’t work on her, maybe because she was an Alpha’s daughter. She had long pretended to “obey him,” mostly to avoid a beating.

When her step-father had approached her yesterday with this wild claim that she was his second mate, Nea had run to West, looking for a way out.

“There is no way the Moon Goddess would do that to you, or anyone, Nea,” he had told her last night. “No one has two mates at the same time, especially not a mother and daughter. That is obscene! I will talk to Alpha Eric and we will figure out what to do. In the meantime, stay out of his way! Link me if you get cornered and I will come running.”

Athena looked up at her step-father, trying to keep a neutral expression even though she was mentally puking. She wasn't actually cornered... yet, at least not physically. He was waiting for her to answer him. Yuck! Nea didn't want to say anything that would rile him up. She needed time to get a plan from Alpha or West. At that moment, as if she had summoned him, Alpha Eric walked into the kitchen. Nea let out a breath that she didn’t realize that she had been holding.

“Beta Damien,” he said, “We have a situation. I need to speak with you.”

Damien nodding amiably, “of course,” he said lightly as if he had not been threatening me just moments ago.

Alpha Eric made eye contact with me. I could tell he was checking to see if I was alright. I grimaced once Damien’s back was turned to me. Alpha Eric’s eyes narrowed and his mouth tightened… West must have already spoken to him. Perhaps he was going to talk to him about it now.

Nea peeled as fast as she could, haphazardly chucking potato chunks into the boiling pot and dumping the peelings into the compost bucket that she would empty later tonight. She rushed out of the kitchen and tiptoed to the Alpha’s office door, hoping to catch a little of what the Alpha and Beta were discussing.

“I will not hear of it. The subject is closed.” She heard the Alpha saying.

“But,” her step father started…

“It is an abomination! You will not touch her!” The Alpha shouted in his Alpha voice.

Athena’s shoulders dropped as the anxiety left her. She was sure they were talking about her. She turned to head back to the kitchen but stopped when she heard the Alpha change the subject.

“Make sure all of the patrols know to be on the lookout for the River’s Edge girl. I want to hear of any suspicious activities. You are dismissed.”

And with that, Nea hustled back to the kitchen before she could be discovered.

Athena was relieved that the Alpha had commanded his Beta to leave her alone. Things would have been so different if her father was still alive! There would have been no disgusting step-father in the picture and maybe her mother wouldn’t hate her so much. Athena’s father had been the Alpha before he was killed in the line of duty. He had been the most wonderful man that she had ever known. He never made her feel like she was less than anyone else, despite being born a runt. He had always said, “Nea, people can’t help the body they are born with, but they should make the most of what they have.”

He had encouraged her to build strength and even started her training at the age of four, very early, even for a werewolf. Nea smiled thinking of it. Dad had called it “training,” but it was really just a lot of running at that point. By the age of six, he had her begin basic self-defense with Warrior West. West pushed her harder than anyone. By the age of seven, Nea had hated old West and by the age of nine, she loved him almost as much as she loved her father.

Everyone in the pack had been nice to her back then, even at school. After her father had been killed in the rogue attack when she was ten, everything changed. Her mother lost her position as Luna and seemed confused and bitter at her loss of status. Still, almost immediately after her dad’s passing, Damien became a fixture in her life. He had been her dad’s Gamma. He and Nea’s mom suddenly claimed to be second chance mates, but there was something weird about them. “Demon,” which is how Nea thought of Damien, was nasty to her. He would slap her if she wasn’t fast enough, or respectful enough, in obeying him and her mom would always take his side. The longer Athena lived with them, the worse it got. And then Nea turned 14… and had her first run with the pack.

The worst day of her life, besides the day that her father died, had been at her first shift. The pack held a pack run each month on the first day of the full moon. The entire pack would run the perimeter of the pack lands, with the exception of the young mothers who stayed behind with the little ones. After your 14th birthday, you were expected to join in, shifting for the first time with everyone there. On Athena’s first pack run day, she had been excited to finally shift into her wolf. She had hated staying behind with the babies, and even more than that, with her mother. Her mother had never been particularly warm toward Athena. She was embarrassed that Nea had been born a runt. She did the things a mother was supposed to do, technically, like trips to the doctor and meetings at school. But that had been before Athena’s father had died. Now her mother hardly ever even looked at her. It wasn't like her mom wanted to run with the pack though. Nea had never even seen her mother shift. If someone had bothered to asked her, Athena wouldn't have been able to tell anyone what color her mother's wolf was.

Then it came time to shift, and she did with joy and pride. But when everyone saw how little her wolf was, Nea became the pack joke. Her mother was even more embarrassed by her runt daughter. Worse than that though, had been when they all got back to the packhouse and shifted back. It was the first time Athena had been naked in front of everyone. She wasn’t uncomfortable, because it was normal. Most people ignored her, and each other, because nakedness is just no big deal in a werewolf pack. But then her stepfather brought Athena a robe. Now, that might seem like a nice thing to do, but he when he wrapped the robe around her, his fingers brushed up against her newly developing breasts. He made it seem accidental, but Athena knew that it wasn’t. It was creepy and she was instantly uncomfortable. West pushed him aside to give her a big hug and tell her how proud he was of her and her wolf, but the moment lingered. That was when Damien started paying a lot more attention to her and Athena’s mother began to truly hate her.