Chapter 1:
The screeching of my alarm clock is the first thing I wake up to, I hated that alarm clock. I really should get a radio alarm, anything is better than an alarm clock that makes me think of the fryers at work.
Goddess, I hated working in fast food, but fast food is all I can get within a thirty-minute walking distance of home. I can usually get the commute down to fifteen minutes riding my bike. I don't have a car, like my older sister did. She has already wrecked two cars and is now on her third. My parents spoil her. I hate that they treat us so differently.
Unfortunately for me, I'm truly both my mother's and father's child. I even had it tested. I'd done it because I didn’t look like either of them at all. I was born with violet, almost indigo-colored eyes. I had black hair so dark a blue hue shines when light hits it. Then there was my skin, it was a copper olive tone.
I'm Alora. The wolves of my clan, for many generations now, have been born pale with blond hair and blue eyes. Both of my parents' clans have deliberately bred out any dark features.
But there had to have been someone, from one side or the other, who had to have passed on the genetics for my coloring. The DNA test I'd done found that I'm related to one of the seven original werewolf bloodlines of our pack.
I look like my ancestor, Luna Heartsong, coloring and all. The Moon Goddess was said to have blessed her bloodline with power and amazing voices. A Heartsong's song is from the heart, as the surname implies, and when singing, they can influence the emotions of those hearing it.
The fated mate of a Heartsong could form a deeper soul-binding connection when the mates sang together with power. A very powerful and magical bond was created that would bind the mates through reincarnation, according to the old legends.
At first, I had only talked about taking my DNA test with the Alpha. He'd thought it had been a good idea, so he was the one who authorized it. After the results, he showed me the painting he had of Alpha Luna Heartsong. That's how I found out I look almost exactly like her.
I asked my Alpha to keep the results quiet from my parents. The reason I asked him to do that at the time was because I was afraid of what my family would do to me if they knew I had this knowledge. I knew they wouldn’t want it to become public because after the first Alpha, Luna Heartsong's coloring, was wrong. That was idiocy in its prime if you asked me. I have used the test to my advantage though, as a tool needed for escape.
Any coupling outside the Frost and Northmountain bloodlines had been "Strictly forbidden" for generations now. You don't dirty up the skin and hair color. You were to breed it out, or you're basically thrown out of these clans, being made a pack-less wolf. Or, you had to hope your chosen mate had a clan of their own that would willingly claim you.
I used to be scared of the day they would cast me out. Yet, as I've grown up, I've gotten less scared of leaving, being desperate for it after graduation. I had been kept from starting school until I was age six. Then, I was held back in my first year of school, at my parents' request.
They hadn’t wanted me to be in a grade so close to my sister's; they didn’t want our relationship to be too noticed. Not that it helped any, as she was held back herself two years. It's the reason why I still have to suffer in school. Sarah and, strangely, her three best friends, were still in school with me.
So, while I'm eighteen and still in high school, I could have tested out already, graduated, gone to college, and attended full-time without having to take high school classes. The school pushed to have my education accelerated, but my parents wouldn't allow me to advance this far. My parents told the Principal when first approached that it was because they were worried I wouldn't know how to function in college at such a young age, they didn't want me to be taken advantage of, or to have too much expected of me.
Really, it was that they didn’t want me to outshine my older sister, or have a means to escape them. This led to the Principal, the Superintendent, and almost all of my teachers realizing my parents were holding me back, and they would need to go around them to give me the education I not only wanted but deserved.
This all meant that, while I could have graduated from high school by the 9th grade, my parents prevented that from happening. I was still attending college classes, but they were just taken as a high school student. They have been taking place at the local pack university. I was bussed there after my high school courses just to make it look like I still needed to attend high school. The university was glad to have such a bright young student who was on track to graduate from high school and receive a doctorate at the same time.
I'll basically be a double graduate, but I don't mind. I was grateful to get my education. My parents didn't know about any of the lengths the school and Alpha went to help me get my diplomas. They thought my transportation to the community college campus was for remedial classes, and my time at the lab was required by the high school to pass. My sister didn't care enough to notice any of this. She was oblivious, which was a good thing.
The doctorate programs I've been taking were supposed to take eight years each to complete. I've been able to complete all three programs in just four years while attending high school and working. I was doing my internship three days a week at a lab I don't need for credit anymore. I've got all the required hours for my license and degrees, but the lab was my reprieve. The fast food job was only twenty hours a week, just enough time to give me a small budget for shopping and to pay for my cell phone. If I made more money than that, I would draw my parents' and Sarah’s attention, and that was the very last thing I wanted right now.
I'm five foot nine, I have a triple-D bust, and a long, lean, toned, tucked-in waist, wide shapely hips, and a large, but firm round bottom. My legs are long and toned, and my arms are also toned and muscular. My skin, still having the olive tone I was born with, was smooth, with no blemishes. No matter how many beatings I took from my family, my skin refused to scar, hiding them inside my heart and soul instead.
My hair hangs down to my hips in gentle waves. I would braid it to keep it out of my face, usually binding the braid in a bun to keep it from getting into lab equipment, or the fryers at the fast food joint where I work. Otherwise, I usually left it down to hide my face. My eyes are large and almond-shaped, they are tilted up at the outer corners. My violet, silver-rimmed eyes are framed by long, thick, black lashes. I have a slightly small nose, the tip tilted up a bit. My lips are full and slightly pouty, and naturally tinted red.
I was strong and toned because every werewolf of the Pack had to train. The Alpha had me train with the Pack's Elite Master Trainers to conceal from my family how much better I was at training than my sister was, fearing what they would do to me. I’ve been training in a different building from my sister and all the other wolves in my grade, up through this year.
Her group still trained in another building, set out for the seniors. This was because they were reserve fighters, the ones who would stay back with the pack and hide in the shelters. They were to protect those inside as they didn't have enough power to be a first line or second, or even third line of defense. I was now with the senior of the Alpha class level, and we trained in our own building. My father was a former Beta candidate, and my mom was the daughter of an Alpha and Beta. They both were under the delusion that their oldest was in beta-level training. Oh, the lies Sarah told them.
I was saving all my specialness for after graduation. My sister's friends and most of our high school classmates thought I was just a nerdy she-wolf and a fast food worker on skates who brought them food. The others believed the rumors that my sister and her friends spread. Only the adults who have helped me have let me know how special I am. Well, they say I'm special, but how can I be when my own blood hates me because I'm not pale? I don’t have almost white blond hair, my eyes are not a shade of blue. I don’t even have the small, slim, and sleek figure the rest of the women in my clan have.
Next to them, I felt fat, too large, and too dark, although I know objectively I’m not fat and that being dark isn’t a bad thing. I trained too hard to have even one ounce of fat. My training was one more tool I would use to escape from my family. It was a good thing that werewolves only need about four hours of sleep a night. I would have never gotten all of my education and work done otherwise. Besides, sleeping was only for those who felt safe in their home…
And I have never felt safe here.
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