"Willow! Get your lazy ass up, right now!"
I was startled awake as the booming voice of my Father, Alpha Nicholas Benoit, floated up the stairs to my room. Hurriedly, I pushed away my pathetic excuse of a blanket and got up.
To call it a room is misleading, it was the attic of the main house. I had lived in that cold, dusty, dark room for as long as I could remember. In the corner, there stood a few boxes with the few pieces of clothing I owned. My bed consisted of a few blankets on the floor. The only part I liked was a makeshift reading corner. I had a few volumes I'd stolen from the pack library over the years.
"Willow!"
Shaking my thoughts away, I quickly got dressed and rushed out. As I passed the clock it read, 5:00 AM. My brow furrowed, I knew I wasn't late for anything. I usually got up around six to start making breakfast for my Father, stepmother, step-siblings, Mollie and Ben as well as the beta's family.
He'd mated with my stepmother when I was eight years old. My mother passed away after I was born, but I have no idea why as no one had told me and I knew better than to ask. My step-siblings were great, they were sweet and fun to be around but she wasn't. She hated me, I guess I was a reminder that she wasn't a true mate.
My Father's true mate was my mother, and she was the rightful Luna to the SilverClaw pack. I'd overheard a few people talk fondly about her, but I was too scared to ask.
As I made my way to my Father's office I wondered why he called me so early. Did it have something to do with my birthday? After all I was eighteen today, surely he would need to at least comment on it.
Never once had I received a birthday card or had a party. I only knew they were a thing because the Luna insisted on lavish parties for Mollie and Ben. Of course, I always had to do the cooking.
In fact, I not only did the cooking, but I also cleaned, did the laundry as well and went to school. I was due to graduate within the month. Secretly, I had applied to out-of-state colleges but I couldn't get a scholarship because of my Father, and he refused to pay.
I was doomed to this life, it wasn't like I could go anywhere else. No money, no connections, so no point, right?
I stopped at my Father's office door and sighed as I knocked. He shouted a gruff 'come in' and I took a deep breath before opening the door.
"You called for me, Alpha," I asked, remembering not to call him father.
"Yeah! An hour ago! What the hell were you doing?"
'An hour!' I thought.
"I'm sorry Alpha, I was asleep and …."
"Shut up!" he shouted and I flinched.
He never did raise his hands towards me, but I could feel that he wanted to.
"I called you here for two reasons, first, a group of warriors from the NightWind pack are coming here next month. They will be staying for a few weeks to train our warriors since the rogue attacks have increased. Make sure their rooms are ready."
I nodded respectfully.
"And the second reason, Alpha?" I asked when he remained quiet.
"What? Oh yes, I know today is your eighteenth birthday. Which means you could find your mate."
I nodded. Ever since I received my wolf at thirteen years old it's all we'd been talking about. My wolf hoped finding our mate would mean breaking free from this place, this life. I wasn't so sure.
"When or if you find your mate make sure you accept their rejection. Don't be a fool and make a fuss over nothing. No wolf is going to want a weak, pathetic mate like you, so just accept it."
My mouth hung open as I stared at him. He glared at me before turning his back and staring out the window.
"Who would want someone so useless as you? It's better to get it over with and that way you won't embarrass yourself or me. You're dismissed."
Slowly, in a daze, I walked back to my room. I still had around fifty minutes before I needed to start cooking. So I sat on my makeshift bed and sighed. A feeling of dread gripped my heart. So much for my mate getting me out of here. Would I be rejected? If I defied my Father there's no telling what he would do to me.
No matter what, I would do as he commanded. I'd never refused him, always did as I was told. As a child, I had hoped that if I did everything he wanted and did it well, then he would praise me or at least be happy with me. No such luck!
---
After breakfast, I headed to school. My Father gave me a push bike to get to and from school but it was ready for the scrapyard. At school I was teased for having a beatdown bike and not something new or even a car.
To be fair, I was teased and bullied by everyone for anything. The human kids bullied me because I looked scruffy, had holes in my clothes and looked like I was poor. The shifter kids bullied me for those reasons too but also because I was the Alpha's pathetic excuse of a daughter, the reject of the pack.
There were a few pack kids that just left me alone but I sometimes thought that was worse. When I got beaten up or pushed around or called names, they wouldn't do anything to help. They just walked away.
As I headed into school, by passing a lot of the popular bitches and their taunts, I caught a sweet scent. Carefully, so as not to draw attention, I followed the scent but I soon stopped dead in my tracks.
There, ahead of me, leaning against the lockers was Trip Billings, Beta Jesse's son, my mate. No fucking way could he be my mate!
Trip was one of the worst bullies in the pack. He would hit me very hard all the time, and trip me up when I carried things. Once, he even tried to drown me in the lake when I went to bathe.
I hated him with a passion! My Father needn't have warned me this morning, I had no intention of accepting that asshole. Besides, Julie, the queen bee of the shifter bitches, was his long-time girlfriend, and she would kill me if she found out.
Trip must have noticed my scent too because he looked away from his bitch and stared right at me. I quickly turned and, like a coward, I fled. No way did I want to get into that right now!
I'd managed to make it to lunch with no sight or sound from either Trip or Julie. I had hoped I was home free but I shouldn't have gotten my hopes up too soon.
As I was on my way to the library, where I always had my lunch, Trip pulled me into an empty classroom and barred the door.
"What the hell Trip!" I called out in surprise, rubbing my arm where he'd grabbed me
"Shut the fuck up!" he growled.
He took a step closer and I instinctively backed away. His eyes never left mine as he came too close and sniffed. My wolf mewed in my head at being close to her mate but I wanted to puke.
"You know," he breathed against my ear and I instinctively bared my neck a little. "When I smelt you this morning I was pissed that the moon goddess would give me someone so pathetic to be my mate. Naturally, I was planning on rejecting you but …"
He paused and moved back a little so he could smirk at me.
"But?" I asked quietly.
"But ... I don't think I will. Don't get me wrong, I'm gonna accept you but I'm not gonna reject you either. It will be more fun this way … at least for me."
My brows furrowed as I watched him leave. I had no idea what he meant ... well, not until that night. As I tried to sleep, a sudden pain shot through my body and my lungs squeezed in my chest.
'What's going on?' I asked my wolf.
'He's with someone!" she whined in pain. 'Our mate is with her!'
So that's what he meant. He won't reject me because he wants me to feel when he's with Julie, his soon-to-be mate. My heart thudded as a painful thought went through my mind.
When he eventually claims her, will it kill me?