The dishes were unending.
I scrubbed each dirty dish meticulously even though I was dizzy from lack of sleep and taking care of my mother.
My father’s drunken voice droned on in the living room, entertaining his buddies while my mother, Treasure, was sick upstairs. She always seemed to be frail and ill. In my opinion, it was to gain sympathy from my father, Alan, whose rages couldn’t be tempered. Her second husband, Rodmon, was a wimp and couldn’t stand up to him.
I fucking hated my family. Every single one of them.
Grabbing another slippery plate, I scrubbed it clean, watching the soap bubbles pile up on it with satisfaction. I had cooked dinner and swept the floor for Alan and his guests, so I was bone-tired now. It was past midnight, and I couldn’t wait to snuggle in bed with one of the books that my Auntie Julie had brought in for me. Finally satisfied that the sink was all clear, I was about to go upstairs until my father stopped me.
“Breanna, get us three more bottles,” said Alan, waving a heavy drunken hand in my direction while laughing at a joke his friend made. His long, skinny legs filled the living room, and the light from the lamp illuminated his bald head.
“Sure,” I said, even though I was annoyed. I knew better than to aggravate Alan, so I walked into the kitchen and grabbed the bottles. But on my way to the living room, one of the bottles slipped from my hand.
It shattered onto the floor, spilling everywhere.
My heart raced with fear when I automatically looked up as my dad stormed over to me. He was furious by the way his eyes shone with rage. He grabbed the two remaining bottles from me with so much spite and hate that I could almost feel it.
“Clean it up,” he ordered.
He stood there watching me as I hurriedly rushed to the kitchen to grab a rag.
I didn’t ask questions as I knelt and started to wipe up the dark liquid seeping into the edge of the decorative rug in the living room that my mom adored.
I focused on the mess before me while trying to ignore Alan’s presence. But it wasn’t long before the searing, blinding pain hit me. I looked at my hand and suddenly realized he was stepping on my hand with his hefty boot.
“Ah!” I screamed, trying to pull my trapped left hand away, but he crushed my hand even further until tears sprang to my eyes. When he lifted his boot, all I could see was my red hand plastered to the ground.
Pain. It was all pain with him.
I couldn’t see straight at all.
He laughed with his friends about ‘teaching his beta daughter a lesson.’ Tears flowed uncontrollably down my cheeks as I carefully lifted my hand with my other one and used my right hand instead to clean the mess. In searing pain, I let my broken hand lay limp at my side while I struggled to clean the mess.
“Clean every drop you spilled, useless beta,” he said, shaking his head. He’d always been ashamed of having a beta daughter like me. I wasn’t born with a wolf claw birthmark on my shoulder or a pretty scent like an omega.
Squeezing the rag into the sink, I let all my pain and frustration out on it using my good hand. I went back and forth between the living room and the kitchen until the spill was thoroughly cleaned up. By then, my father was no longer paying too much attention to me, and he was snoring on the couch while his friends left one by one.
Sighing, I rinsed my good hand, and the pain seemed to take over my entire body as I limped outside the front door.
I always went to my Aunt Julie if I had an injury inflicted by my dad. She was the only actual parental-like figure I ever had. Breathing hard, I brushed the sand from my face in the city of El Paso, Texas. This was the only home I’d ever known since I was born here in this small community of werewolves, and no one was allowed to leave, especially omegas like my aunt.
My aunt lived a couple of streets down, so every alpha guard standing on the road eyed me as I limped my way over to her. There was a small clinic here, but I didn’t have healthcare, despite the numerous times human authorities would investigate our secret compound away from human society.
“Oh, Bree,” my Aunt Julie cried as she dipped my hand in ice-cold water that had floating ice cubes. “How could he? He went way too far this time, that asshole.”
“Fuck,” I groaned in pain when I felt the cold hit my skin. It felt like needle pricks, but the sharp, stinging pain I felt after the assault had dimmed a little.
“Don’t curse now,” she admonished.
“I’m fifteen,” I said, gritting my teeth from the chilly water. I was finally in the safety of her home, which only had the bare necessity for an unmated omega. She preferred to live in isolation, watching out for my mom from afar. Even though she had told my mother countless times to leave my father, my mom wouldn’t hear of it because she loved Alan too much.
“He’s such a horrible man,” my aunt continued. “I wish your mother would listen to me for once. I’ve watched out for her my entire life.”
“It’s not like she has a choice, though, right? Once marked by a pack, the bond can’t be broken.”
My aunt suddenly got a glimmer of something in her eyes that I couldn’t place. And I knew that the only way to break away from an alpha pack was death. Was she implying that my mother should kill Alan?
I was shocked, but a part of me didn’t care what the hell happened to him.
“If your mother can’t leave him, then you should,” she whispered while looking towards the door. We would never know when an alpha guard was patrolling the area, and someone could be outside, listening. “You should leave this awful place.”
Fear struck my heart at the thought of going to the outside world.
“I…I can’t,” I said shakily. “What if I get caught?”
“This is no life for you to live,” she said. “I don’t care if you’re not an omega. No one deserves to live the way you do. Don’t you want to live a normal life?”
“To live with humans?” I whispered harshly. “I’ve never even seen one before.”
“They’re just like us, but without the werewolf gene,” she said, her eyes wide with excitement. “Since, obviously, my sister has chosen her path- I’ll protect you instead.”
“Protect me?”
“I’ll go with you,” she said, and my heart pounded faster with fear but also excitement.
“I don’t know,” I said. “There are guards everywhere.”
“Let me figure that part out. Just let me know when you’re ready.”
Things were moving too fast and too quickly. I needed time to think.
“I’ll let you know,” I said, wincing in pain as she wrapped my hand tightly in a long cloth. I wasn’t ready to make a huge decision like that yet. The only thing I knew was that I was locked up in my room for hours at a time, cleaning the house and reading the books my aunt would smuggle from the human world.
“Here, nice and snug,” she said, tightening the makeshift cast. “How does that feel?”
“Much better than before,” I said. “Thank you, Auntie.”
“No problem. Listen to me,” she said, and I looked up to see her eyes glimmering with tears. “Please know this is wrong. This is not the way a father should treat his daughter.”
A lump formed in my throat, and I nodded before I ended up crying.
“I know,” I whispered.
“Good,” she said. “I just don’t want you thinking that’s normal, okay? He won’t get punished by our society, as we know, but the one thing you can do is leave and never put up with him anymore. I care about you like you’re my daughter. And when you get hurt, it hurts me even more. Sometimes, I wish I could absorb all your pain.”
Tears were free-flowing down my face. I hadn’t realized how much she cared.
I was quietly reading in my room on the wooden floor next to the floorboard opening, where I stashed away the books I’d borrowed from my aunt. Reading stories of happy families always transported me to a happier place in my mind. Books, movies, and television were all forbidden here at the Alpha Compound. Pretty much anything to do with humans was forbidden, so I learned all the information I needed from fiction books. My aunt said she acquired the books when they first landed from Howl’s Edge onto the human lands.
I sat cross-legged on the floor, leaning against the cold wall as I read a magical novel for the twentieth time, Inkheart by Cornelia Funke. But before I could fully immerse myself into her world, a scream sounded from upstairs.
Shit.
Did Alan hit my mom harder than usual? I needed to go upstairs and take the beating for her instead.
Just like I always did.
Setting my book down, I threw it under the floorboard and quickly made my way up to the third floor. I was shocked to see quite a few people surrounding the entryway.
“Mom?” I called, walking inside to see a man wearing a white coat and glasses standing in the middle of the room. She was lying on the bed on her back in a birthing position.
My eyes widened. The baby was coming tonight.
“Wait outside, sweetie,” she groaned through her pain.
My heart was pounding with trepidation as I waited outside her door, listening as she screamed through her intense labor. I sat with my knees pulled to my chest as I waited outside the door. Time was going by unbearably slow, and my mind was drifting as I constantly nodded off to sleep.
Hours passed before I finally heard the cry of a newborn.
Heart-racing, I burst back into the room.
“You have a boy,” announced the doctor proudly, and I watched with horror as Alan lifted the baby. I was worried instantly about what he’d do.
Yes, it was pretty messed up that it was my first thought. I watched as Alan’s face twisted into the first smile in decades.
“Finally, an alpha,” he said, looking at the baby proudly. He had never in my life looked at me like that. When he handed the baby to my mother, she also smiled as they both looked at the baby boy with pride.
I hadn’t realized how my heart was aching at this moment. Tears were streaming down my face as I watched.
Slowly backing away, I started to realize they never loved me like that. Did I ever bring joy to their faces?
The fact was clear as day.
Heart racing with adrenaline, I quickly walked to my room, roughly wiping away my tears as I decided I had enough.
Packing my favorite books into my backpack, I grabbed one pair of pajamas and rushed downstairs while they were occupied with the new baby. I didn’t give a fuck anymore about my old family.
It was time to start my new life.
