Hey you all. I hope you like this chapter. I don't edit right after writing a chapter, so if there's any errors (grammar, spelling, anything), tell me please. I would really appreciate the help!

I'll post the next chapter by next week, before Friday definitely, so keep a look out for that!

Vote, comment, fan. :]

Enjoy!

-Tavita

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Chapter Two

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The hallway of the pack house was empty as I crept along it, which I was really glad for. I felt like I thief or a spy at how quiet and cautious I was being, but it was necessary. Who knew what would happen to me if they saw me.

They would use us as a punching bag, my inner wolf said to me, glumly. She’s been quiet and upset ever since he had denied us.

I shook my head slightly, refusing to refer myself as that. When I got to the kitchen, it was empty as it was in the hallway. I went over to the fridge and began taking out ingredients for pasta. The Midnight Pack had thirty members which was pretty big because most packs only had about twenty to twenty-five.

I took the biggest pan for the pasta and made about six batches. Lycanthropes ate a lot because they burnt calories a lot faster than humans did, so their appetites were bigger. When I was finished, I set the plates in the long dining table and served out the pasta, so they wouldn’t have to do it themselves. I was the unwanted member in the pack, so I had to do the lowly work.

After dinner was set, I went back to the kitchen and hopped up onto the counter, closing my eyes and blinking back tears. I should be treated with respect because my father was Beta of the pack before he had died, but I was just trash in their eyes.

It’s no use crying. Don’t let them see you’re weak, my wolf growled.

I took in a staggering breath and dished out a bowl for pasta for myself. I began to eat it, forking pasta to my lips. My stomach was growling with hunger from not eating since breakfast.

I welcomed the silence and enjoyed it, closing my eyes and imagining a life better than this. It, however, didn’t last long before loud laughter broke the quiet and chairs scraped the floor as the pack members probably took their place at the table. I remained silent, not wanting to be known, but as always, my plea was heard on deaf ears.

“Don’t you think you already eat too much?” my sister, Holly sneered.

Meet Holly Forrest, my nineteen year old sister. Graced with natural flowing curls of golden brown hair and baby blues eyes that looked like the sky in a clear day, she was probably the prettiest wolf in the pack. Of course, she didn’t hesitate flaunting her looks, consistently wearing revealing clothes that did not appear too slutty at the same time.

Beautiful as she was, she also had a very nasty tongue and didn’t relent on making my life hell. She insulted me constantly, accusing me of our parent’s death even now and insulted me every chance she got. I wasn’t very pretty; I knew that, because I constantly hid my face behind my limp black hair. There was nothing special about me except my eyes which were the strangest shade of blue: so blue they appeared white with a film of gray around my iris. But I was by no means, overweight; it was basically impossible unless you decided to shut out the wolf side of you which was extremely rare in our race.

“Answer me, you filthy murderer,” Holly spat at me. I flinched, but remained silent. She would leave another hateful comment before flouncing away. It was her daily routine. I sometimes wished she’d find her mate soon. Maybe he would be able to change her, but she hadn’t met him yet. It was uncommon for mates to find each other in their early life; they usually met in their twenties. If you met your mate in an early age, you were lucky.

“God, you fat bitch, you’re so useless, I don’t know why Alpha Archer still hasn’t kicked you out, yet,” she threw at me before exiting the kitchen after grabbing a bottle of Scotch from the cabinet.

I shook my head and stared at the bowl of half eaten pasta. I chastised myself for still letting her hurtful comments get to me. “I wish I could leave this place,” I whispered, too low for even enhanced werewolf hearing, but then I felt his presence in the room and I knew he heard me because suddenly, he was right in front of me.

“Ah, but you can’t, Cadrian,” Xavier Wolfe, son of Archer Wolfe, heir to the alpha position, whispered. I shivered, half with desire, half with fear.

Maybe he has changed his ways. Maybe he will claim us finally, my wolf said excitedly. I tried to not get consumed by her excitement. I didn’t want to set myself up for disappoint.

“I still wish I could,” I whimpered, my voice trembling as his hand cupped the back of my neck. I felt his breath against my face as his lips neared my own.

“And why would you want to do that, mate?” he murmured. Before I could reply, he gripped the hair at my neck painfully, yanking my head back, bringing his lips to my neck. I felt his other hand tug down my tee shirt and his teeth graze the skin just above my right breast, where it was ceremonial to bite to mark their mates. And just when I thought he would finally claim me as his, he pulled back, giving me a vicious smile that crushed all my hopes.

When he kissed me today, I felt those sparks erupting across my veins, lighting my blood on fire. It felt so good, but it was also rough and hollow of emotions. He was aggressive and the reason for the kiss was to remind me that I could only belong to him and yet…he’d never take me as his. It was one bittersweet kiss.

Xavier pulled away and laughed cruelly. “Don’t get your hopes up, little one,” he sneered and my heart sunk to the pits of my stomach. Tears swam in my eyes as I watched him walk away to join his fellow pack mates.

In my imagination, Xavier Landon Wolfe was the boy who had the heart of gold. He didn’t care what his mate looked like and loved her unconditionally. Even if he was gorgeous, with dark brown hair that was so long it was just shy of touching his broad shoulders and the prettiest eyes, he accepted his mate with his whole heart without caring that her looks would never match up to his.

In my imagination, Xavier Landon Wolfe, with his forest green eyes that had the strangest combination of teal and gold, looked at me with complete and utter love.

But that was just my imagination and I knew he would never feel for me what I felt for him.

It wasn’t easy to reject your mates, but it wasn’t very hard. You knew who your mate was when you hit puberty for the first time as a human. I had realized I was his mate after my parents died; he had known two years before that, but never approached me, denying it. Since he had denied it for a long time, it was easy for him to reject me when I had gathered up the courage to confront him about it when I was twelve and he was fourteen. Our link as mates could never be separated, not even by death, but he could still ignore it. And he did, but he made sure I never forgot it. He made me suffer by giving me false hopes that I could be by his side one day.

I bit back a sob and washed off the plates, trying to escape to my room. While I was fleeing to the closet sized space I called my room, I ran into a hard body. We both stumbled back from the impact. The person I had ran into caught himself; I did not.         

“Watch where you’re going, you clumsy bitch,” he growled. I looked up to meet my eldest sibling at twenty-one, Parker Forrest whose soft blue eyes were dark in anger.

Tears spilled my eyes, but it didn’t faze him at all that his baby sister was crying. He was supposed to protect me, but while he had toned it down with the teasing, he still never stopped the others. “I-I’m sorry, Parker,” I cried, stumbling to my feet.

He scrunched up his face as if me saying his name was an insult to him. “God, get out of my sight. You’re pathetic,” he scoffed, shoving me hard against the wall before walking in the direction of the dining room.

I winced as my shoulder bared the impact of the hard push to the wall. More tears rolled down my cheeks, but I tried to stop them as I walked to my room, my feet padding over the tiled floor silently. My wolf was silently seething in anger and agony. She was still hurt by the rejection of our mate. It shouldn’t have surprised us, but when it came to Xavier, she was emotional.

When I came upon my room, I collapsed onto the bed and buried myself under the cold covers, managing to cry myself to sleep.