Alpha

The house is destroyed.

The door is off it's hinges, the couches and table in the living room are overturned or broken, there are dents in the wall in the hallway, Ryder's furniture is broken, and spilled blood is leaked across the floor.

Despair fills my chest as I gaze at the destruction surrounding me. I bite my lip as angry tears spill down my cheeks. I hate Damien, I hate him perhaps even more than his father, and I despised his father. I still do.

Sighing as the last of my tears spill, I drag myself to the kitchen and pull our tools from under the sink—I used to shadow my uncle whenever he had repair work to do around the house, so I'm familiar with tools. The first thing I do is fix the door. It's simply a task of screwing it back to it's hinges. While it may not look as good as it did before, at least it's there. I next set to work mopping the blood off of the ground. When I'm sure that there's no trace of it, I begin replacing the furniture where it used to be. Some of the legs of chairs and the table are broken off, so I use superglue to place it back where it was supposed to be.

Finally, I have to fix Ryder's room. I start by standing the dresser upright again, two of it's legs on the other side of the room. I sigh and reattach them, allowing the weight of the dresser to put an adequate amount of pressure for the glue to stay. I then fold up the clothes that were strewn about and place them gently in drawers that somehow fell out of the dresser and are chipped in several places, replacing the drawers where they belong. I neatly make his bed, wondering how everything in his room was so destroyed. I'll have to ask Ryder later, if other is a later.

Eventually, everything is fixed and back in place. I sigh and throw myself into bed, exhausted, lonely, and scared. The house is so quiet and empty. I can't tolerate the silence, can't stand the emptiness. The sun is setting outside my window, and it dawns on me. This is the last day of freedom. I don't know what'll happen next. All I know is in 24 hours, I'll be a wolf. In 24 hours, I'll be someone's prey.

In 24 hours, I'll be facing certain peril that I know I'm not ready to face.

In 24 hours, I have to save my Pack.
* * * * *
Sleep comes reluctantly.

I toss and turn for hours after I finally decide to allow myself to sleep. I just don't want to. I'm afraid of every shadow that flickers over the wall in the near-Full Moonlight. When it finally does come, I dream.

It is not a dream that I want to see.

I'm 10 again, following Lovett as he breaks into our newly-widowed aunt's house in the dead of night, our hearts pounding. We step slowly and carefully across the cold wood floors, barely breathing.

We had realized earlier that day that we had absolutely nothing. No money or clothes or food. We needed something to live off of.

The smaller me swallows as our footsteps cause the stairs beneath our feet to groan. Lovett pauses and bites his lip in front of me before taking a chance and just running the rest of the way, ignoring the creaks. I do the same, my smaller body making less noise but causing some disturbance. We both flinch and look up and down the empty hall, straining our ears to listen to three slow, steady heartbeats. We nearly sag in relief.

We continue down the hall which is thankfully a very soft, plushy white carpet that muffles our steps. Stopping outside the room that we used to share with our cousins, Lovett looks down at me. "Grab your bag and stuff jeans, t-shirts, and socks only in it," he commands authoritatively. I nod and follow him into the room. Louna isn't there, only Kenley sleeps in the room with nightmares haunting his face and twisting it in pain. I reach out, taking a step forward to wake him, knowing what those nightmares can be like, but Lovett grabs my shoulder and shakes his head when I look up desperately.

I sigh and nod, turning to my side of the room to raid my dresser. I grab the biggest back-pack in the closet and begin folding up my clothes neatly so they all fit, also grabbing a few pairs of panties and one set of pjs.

I stuff it all into the bag and close it, hauling it onto my shoulders. "You ready?" I ask Lovett with a terrified, shaky voice.

He nods and pulls a duffel bag over his shoulder, placing a hand on my back to gently guide me out of the room.

And then Kenley clears his throat.

Lovett and my eyes widen and we turn to look at our younger cousin. He sits up in bed, his auburn hair pasted to his forehead with the cold sweat born of his nightmares. His cheeks are tear streaked with the lines starting at his puffy green eyes. His face is red from his grief-caused crying.

But Lovett and I are terrified of him.

He gazes at us from where he sits on the edge of the bed, his arms crossed, eyes suspicious. We rattle where we stand before him. He slides off of the bed, looking back and forth between us. "Where are you guys going? Where have you been? Mama's been crying even more over your disappearance!" He looks up at us stormily—he always was short.

Ignoring Lovett behind me, I fall to my knees before my cousin, sobs shaking my entire body. "Please don't tell Kenley!" I whisper desperately through my tears, looking up at him through my blurry eyes. "We have to get out of here!"

Lovett kneels down next to me, wrapping his arms around my trembling body. Kenley joins us on the floor, again looking back and forth between my brother and I. Much less shocked and scared than me, Lovett takes over. "Please Kenley, just let us go and forget that you ever saw us tonight."

Kenley knaws at his lip, torn between his family. He looks at us, and then his eyes shift to the doorway behind us. He nods. "Follow me," he murmurs before standing and tip-toeing out and into the hall. I calm down, and Lovett and I follow our younger cousin. He leads us down the stairs, stepping everywhere that doesn't creak. We follow his steps exactly to stay quiet.

He leads us out into the yard and to the shed. Inside is a cabinet with a lock code. Kenley types five digits and the door opens. He pulls a big jar out filled with $10,000 Euros according to the label and grabs another duffel bag like Lovett's but a little smaller and hands it to me.

Miserable tears fill all of our eyes. I throw my arms around my little cousin and kiss him on each cheek in turn. Lovett gives him a hug as well, whispering in French for him to take good care of his mother and sister. Kenley sniffles, nods, and turns away from us without another word. We exchange sad glances and watch him leave, knowing it will probably be the last time we see our little cousin.

After another wistful glance at the shed's door, I throw my bag to the ground and unzip it, clothes spilling onto the floor while Lovett sets to work making sure that there is no evidence of us ever having been there. I throw some of the clothes along the sides and on the bottom of the duffel bag as padding before gently placing the heavy jar inside and filling the bag with the rest of my stuff. It's practically bursting. Lovett glances at it and sighs before leaning down, zipping it, and hauling it onto his back along with his bag.

"Come on, Louve. Let's get out of here."

With that, the two of us exit the shed and make our final departure from the house, hoping to never have to face our family again.
* * * * *
I sit up in bed, gasping desperately for air that my nightmare deprived me off. My breath comes fast and heavy as I think about the clear detail of the dream. Where the hell had that come from? I haven't thought about my family in weeks.

'I just thought that since all you were thinking about was your adopted family, you could use a reminder of your genetic family. I could show you your true roots if you'd like. Or perhaps I’ll save that for another night…'

"No!" I yell in terror, not wanting to see my parents or even think about them with the anxious way that my stomach churns. I gulp and get up, needing the fresh air. I stumble out of my room and down the dark hallway, practically tumbling to the ground as I reach the front door on my feet that haven't quite woken up yet. I throw it open—using the handle—and allow the breeze to dance with my sweaty locks of hair.

I close my eyes and think. This time tomorrow, I'll probably be in Damien's custody. The thought terrifies and excites me. I don't know if I can do this, willingly walk into a trap like this. But I have to—it’s for the Pack. With nothing else to do, I watch the sky and the stars until the sun rises.

I don't know what I'm going to do come dusk. All I know is that I will save my Pack if it's the last thing I do.