Fighting for What's Mine

ALINA

I looked back at the trees, hoping they would just come through at the last second like they were known to do, but still nothing.

I should be at least happy they were doing their best, but it still hurt that they hadn’t come home when they promised.

Sighing again, probably for the thousandth time in the last twenty minutes, I looked back at the forest again. When nothing but the wind could be heard, I grumbled and stomped off.

I had always done as I was told, but right now, I felt like rebelling and running into the forest to find them both and yell at them. I shook my head at that thought.

Something inside of me was waking up like I had been asleep all this time. I could almost feel something shifting under my skin. Like there was another being slinking under my skin as it reached for the outside world.

It was more than annoying. I knew it wasn’t fucking puberty I already went through that shit. This was something different altogether.

The closer my eighteenth birthday gets, the stronger this feeling gets, and something was telling me that my life was about to change. I hoped that it would make me stronger. I could leave then. I could get away from this place if I was strong enough to leave there.

I wanted more than what my life had given me.

I was tired of the glares and snide remarks from the kids my age. I didn’t ask to be a part of this Pack. I didn’t think being human was such a bad thing. At least I had the common sense to see everyone the same. We all had dreams and fears. We all bleed the same color.

I was ready to be seen as an adult, even if the real reason was stupid. I just wanted to get past this stage of my life and move on with my future. The only thing I really had any control over. At least, that was what I always thought.

I wanted to leave this world of the Supernatural in so many ways it wasn’t funny. I never belonged here with all of this magical crap.

I just wanted a normal life. I was tired of being treated like a second-class citizen. I was better than that, I just wouldn’t really do anything about it. I was too damn afraid of actually getting hurt to stand up for myself. I was not a fighter.

I sighed again. No matter if I could prove I could hold my own in a fight, it wouldn’t matter. It’s not like anything helped.

The she-Wolf after me made my life hell. She and her ‘posse’ would basically hunt me down to take their anger out on me. Blaming me for everything that had gone wrong for them that day.

The one time I had stood up for myself, I ended up in the Infirmary fighting for my life. After that incident, my life had only gotten worse. The constant taunts had quickly turned physical the older everyone had gotten.

Victoria Kane, the leader of my turmoil, hated me with a fire that could only have come from hell itself. I had done nothing to her to warrant this treatment, but it was what I got anyway. I was a curse on the Pack in her eyes, and she was determined to make my life hell whenever she got the chance to do so.

A Human that should not be here. To them, I was the weakest part of our Pack. I was part of the Beta family, and I was making the Pack weak. I wanted to laugh at them and their foolishness. Alexander had never thought of me as weak or a curse on this Pack. It had only been when he left that I had been fated to hell.

I thought about how they all thought about me. It was a stupid way of thinking. It’s not like I had enough physical ability to actually hurt any of them. They were afraid of something I couldn’t even try to accomplish.

When I thought about my own family, I could do nothing but smile. Even if I was upset, Damien had forgotten his promise. They had saved me from death, and I could only ever see them as my blood. I wanted to keep my family as safe as they had done for me.

When I remembered that I was still Human and couldn’t keep anyone really safe, my smile dropped to a sad look. No matter what I did to make myself stronger, it would never be enough.

I knew I was going to be chased from the Midnight Pack by the others when the ‘changing of the guards’ happened. Alex will become Alpha, and the others will demand he banish me. He will have to give in to them to keep his title, and I will be out in the wilderness on my own. Not something I was looking forward to but a fact that I knew I might have to accept.

I felt worse for my mom than I did for myself at that thought. She had always been there to encourage me in life. However, I knew my time here was limited.

Just because I was more than loyal to this Pack and its Alpha, it didn’t matter, I was still just human. A burden on the Midnight Pack.

That was all I had ever felt like, a burden to all around me. Even if I tried to prove to myself, I was not. I had done nothing of importance, and I did not feel worthy of the wonderful family I had been given.

My family stopped keeping secrets from me when I didn’t shift like the others my age. My mom had said that she wanted me to stay because I wanted to, not because I felt obligated. She saw my need to leave, to find myself, but I stayed. I stayed for the family I was given as a gift.

I have known for a long time that I was human, but it didn’t stop me from trying to prove myself to everyone. I trained harder and longer than any of my peers, but they never saw how good I was.

I was not like the other Humans, and I knew it. I had known that for a long time and had come to terms with it. I understood that the things that went bump in the night were real, and most were terrifying.

I would not be like the other Humans. I would make sure I was protected from every evil, not just the mortal kind.

Knowing about everything that had kept itself hidden from the world had almost driven me insane. I felt so lost as I grew up, knowing all I did without having someone to really talk to about it.

Alexander and Damien just couldn’t relate to everything I went through, and now they weren’t even here to help me deal with what they could help with. I just wanted everyone to see that I still had feelings and dreams of my own.

I wished my brother and Alexander had never left me behind in this hell. I used to wish they had taken me with them, but if I had to choose which one I went with, it would have been Alexander.

Alexander was the only one who had my best interests outside of my family.

That’s probably why I fell for him so hard. I had a hero crush on him, and I knew it. I knew I could never have him for myself. I was not good enough for an Alpha. No matter how much I loved him.

I was not weak, but I was not a wolf either. I was always going to be weaker than the supernatural beings surrounding me, and that was just another simple fact I had come to accept in my life.

I was just the oddball. The one who didn’t really belong but did anyway.

While my adopted brother would train me at night to help build my muscle and train me for fighting, I would never be able to win against a Wolf. I was not a violent person. I was a bit of a wimp and didn’t really want to hurt anyone.

Regardless of not really being able to fight against a Wolf, I just didn’t want to hurt anyone.

I tended not to want to fight others. I didn’t think it ever got me anywhere. What was the point? It never solved anything for me.

Trying to fight back only made things worse for me. I just wanted to go through this life unnoticed, but that would never happen.

That feeling inside of me shifted again. I stopped to look back at the forest once more as the feeling settled before I went home. I was not going to wait forever.

There were far too many things going through my mind for me to wait for my brother and his best friend. I wanted to understand this feeling deep within me. The shifting inside of me I had never felt before.

I never expected The Moon Goddess herself to show up in my mind to tell me about more than I had bargained for in my life. Days after my 18th birthday, I was faced with a very harsh reality. One I never asked for.

THE NEXT DAY

As usual, I was up before everyone in the packhouse.

I didn’t even need an alarm anymore because it was just a routine for me now. I got up before the sun and most of the Pack. Today even the Omegas were still asleep.

They were always the first wolves among the Pack awake. They were the ones I was always happy to see in the morning before my day went to hell.

I was glad that the normal buzz of everyone in the kitchen was missing. I was still in a depressed mood from yesterday, and I didn’t want to have to fake a smile for all the sweet Omegas that ran the kitchen.

Yesterday, I wasted most of my time waiting for my brother and Alexander. I had been looking forward to them being here today, but I was not going to let their absence ruin my day. I was going to just let it go now. For now.

I went to bed annoyed, but today I was hyper-focused on doing everything I could to stay away from the others.

Today was supposed to be a good day for me and I wanted to start it off right. I usually helped the older Omegas in the kitchen before running off to school.

The older women of the Pack actually liked me, and I enjoyed spending my mornings with them. They always had the best advice, filled with their long years of wisdom.

It made up for the harsh words from their children or grandchildren. Not by much, but it did help when they would slip me some extra pastries in my school bag for lunch.

It had become a normal routine for me when the boys had still been here for me to get up before the sun rose for training. I didn’t want to be seen by anyone else. I needed all the help I could get.

Today I was doing everything much earlier than usual just to avoid any confrontation. I wanted today to be a good one.

If any of the kids my age saw me training and conditioning my body, they would have probably tried to mock me or beat me or both. I just didn’t want to deal with that today.

I wanted to have this one day be perfect. Against everything going against me, I prayed that today would be the day I would be left alone by everyone.

Today I just wanted to get through the day unnoticed by everyone. Please, Moon Goddess, please let them leave me alone today.

I felt myself blush a little at my thoughts. Most of the kids of the pack would tell me that their Goddess only listens to the prayers of the weres, ~not~ weak humans like myself.

My prayers were not heard by their sacred Moon Goddess, but I have always felt a connection to the moon. The moon and the forest have always brought me joy and a sense of peace.

Victoria would be the first to tell me such things. She would always be the first to tell me I wasn’t welcome here and that I was just trash.

Her and her asshole of a ‘boyfriend’ Wyatt. They would be the first ones looking for ways to hurt me. The first ones trying to find ways to get me out of the Pack.

Victoria was already convinced that when Alexander came home from alpha camp on his birthday, she would be his mate. That the thing she had with Wyatt was nothing but practice for when she became Luna.

True, Victoria had been close to Alexander before he had left, but only because she couldn’t take the hint to leave him alone. I doubt very seriously that Alex would like having a slut for a mate.

When Alexander left for alpha camp, Tori went after every male wolf that would fuck her sideways. Then settled with Wyatt, who was the strongest out of them all. All the while, she claimed to be only for Alex and the future Luna of this pack. Pfft, I think not.

My brother Damien was Alexander’s best friend. They had been close since they were pups, and Damien will be the pack’s second in command when Alex becomes the alpha after finding and marking his luna.

That meant that Alexander had spent more time with my family and around me than any of the other Wolves. I knew more about him than any of the other she-Wolves in the Pack.

He was the other brother to me growing up, until I turned fourteen and saw him in a different way. They were my guardian angels, my best friends when I had no one else to run to until they had to leave me for training.

When they left I was sad and angry but I understood why they were leaving me behind. They had to get stronger to protect the Pack. To do better than the generation before them.

They left two years ago to train with the other future Betas and Alphas. Now they were both coming back to take over. It still hurts like hell that they left.

I have been left alone for two years, facing the pack alone.

While most of the adults in the pack loved me and found me to be cute and adorable, most of the time, their kids or grandkids hated me.

Victoria Kane and Wyatt Jones were the ringleaders and led the popular kids in bullying me, beating on me in and out of school every chance they got. It had been them that had spread the hateful words condemning me to the back of the Pack.

They were the ones to make my life hell for the past two years and the ones I had wanted to avoid the most today of all days.

After my quick breakfast, I ducked out of the house before anyone could catch me out in the open. If any of them caught me, I knew I wouldn’t have a good day, and today was a special day for me.

I wasn’t going to let anyone ruin this day for me. Hopefully.

In the first period, however, I knew I was going to have a shit day. Victoria and her ‘boyfriend’ Wyatt came in lip-locked and bumping into everything on their way to the back of the class.

When they almost knocked me clean out of my desk, I pushed back at them. I was not trying to be in the way, but damn. They could at least break apart to get to their seats.

I turned back to my open school book, only to have another slammed down on my fingers.

I let out a yelp and looked up to see Wyatt glaring at me.

“Stay out of our way, human trash,” he growled as he pushed my desk, with me in it, further into the other aisle.

I glared at them, getting Victoria to grab my ponytail and yank hard. “Keep your filthy eyes off my man,” she snarled, pushing me again before going to her seat.

Wyatt pulled her into his lap and turned to glare at me again.

I sighed and shook my head, going back to what I was doing before they had come stumbling into the room.

English Literature has always been one of my favorite classes, and I excel at it.

When the bell rang, I quickly gathered my books and headed for my next class, only to be slammed into the side of the lockers by a rough set of hands.

I looked up to see Wyatt’s harsh gray eyes glaring angrily at me.

“Don’t think you are special, human. Just because the Beta has his head up his ass doesn’t mean you get to go around thinking you own this place,” he growled, shoving my head into the locker, causing it to ring from the impact.

I grunted and shook my head as Wyatt stomped off down the hall. Victoria wrapped her arm around his, shooting a glare over her shoulder at me when the warning bell rang.

I shook my head again to clear it and rushed off to class.

Why couldn’t they have just left me the fuck alone today?

Worst fucking day ever!

Everything was going just fine after my run-in with Wyatt in the morning until after lunch when Victoria and her bimbo squad caught me in the bathroom. They decided to beat me until I bled. Screaming at me and calling me every name in the book they could think of.

They had locked the bathroom door and pinned me to the floor, where they kicked and punched me until I swore they had broken something.

I had to go to the nurse’s office, and then I just ditched the rest of school, not wanting to deal with any more of the bullshit. I was more than done with the day, and I was not in the mood to explain myself to anyone.

I snuck out to one of my hiding spots and just stayed there for the rest of the day. For once, I didn’t care that my phone was almost dead or that I was still bleeding a little.

I didn’t care that my mother was going to lose her mind that I didn’t come home right after school today. I didn’t care that I probably could have defended myself easily against Victoria and her friends when they attacked me.

I just wanted to be left alone.

My brother and Alexander hadn’t kept their promise to me this morning by being here. They were supposed to register with the school and finish out the year with me. Then this shit that happened today.

I made myself as comfortable as I could and felt myself drift off to an uncomfortable sleep.

That was until the sounds of crunching branches and leaves reached my ears, sending me on high alert.

‘Please don’t let them find me.’