Chapter 10
393words
A mother who worked in "massage parlors." A gold-digging father who married into the Howe family. An alcoholic stepfather who beat my mother to death—now serving fourteen years.
"I only want what's best for my nephew and the peace of our Pack."
"I trust you understand."
I nodded.
I understand.
Alaric's darkest days were those years in Brighton. He'd likely never face such hardship again.
But what he didn't know—before I turned fourteen, I slept in a storage closet in my stepfather's house, too small to even stretch out my legs.
A real bed, even a tiny one, was a luxury I couldn't even dream of.
At fourteen, I watched my mother die. Then hid in a dumpster for three days, terrified those bloodshot eyes would find me—the only witness.
Eventually the police arrested him and shipped me off to London, to a biological father I'd never even met.
I thought life would finally improve, but a few choice words from Vivienne painted a target on my back for every werewolf at school.
I first met Alaric after school on a sweltering afternoon during Year 10.
Some girls had torn up my homework. The teacher had kicked me out for "causing trouble."
Wandering the empty campus, I found myself cornered by three senior Alpha students in an abandoned greenhouse.
To werewolf bullies, a human girl with no connections was the perfect prey.
I never expected them to be so bold.
They tore my uniform, hacked off chunks of my hair, and dumped silver powder on my face—
Toxic to werewolves, but merely humiliating to humans.
Just as they pinned me to the ground, the greenhouse door exploded inward.
A loud BANG.
Alaric stepped through the broken glass.
His eyes blazed gold—the first sign of shifting.
Alpha rage rolled off him in waves, freezing those students in place.
I've relived that moment in dreams a thousand times since.
Sometimes Alaric doesn't come and I die in darkness.
Sometimes I endure two more years but still die.
Sometimes I let that day's dream continue.
Alaric burst into my life just like that.
I rejected him countless times, but he was relentless.
So persistent that I almost believed fate had finally thrown me a lifeline.
Until now, awakening.
A human like me—how could I ever have deserved such luck?
