Chapter has been redone on March 16, 2022

Brae's POV

No one is out front so I open the door to the pack house and walk in. I am immediately greeted by snarls and growls from wolves who have jumped from their seats and stand in front of me.

'Ace, I'm here. If you aren't at the front door in two seconds...imma beat a bitch.'

I can almost hear Ace gulp through the link and I can hear footsteps approaching.

"Who do you think you are just walking into this pack house?" A member snarls.

"Who do you think you are disrespecting one of the people who came to help this pathetic pack?"

That causes one of the guys to run up to me and I smirk. He is charging full speed and I side step at the last second. He runs straight into the solid wood door, knocking himself out.

I let out a short laugh, "Weak."

"Hey!" Ace shouts. "This is my Beta, stand down."

You can tell he has authority in his voice, but not quite the strength of an Alpha.

"I didn't even have to lay a hand on him," I roll my eyes.

"Yeah, I know. This pack is...terrible and not just in fighting. They are rude and all have short tempers, I can see why you wanted to leave."

"No shit."

Jake and Ryan walk up to us with angry expressions.

"Who they hell do you think you are, knocking out one of my members," Jake growls.

"Calm down wolfy, he did that to himself."

"You will respect me Beta," Jake uses his alpha tone and I almost snap at him. Almost.

"I do not have to respect you, Jake. We came here to help you, not the other way around."

"I am an Alpha and you are inferior to me, you will respect me," I can see his anger rising and I just laugh.

Jake huffs and rushes out the back door before wolfing out in the house.

"You all need to learn to control your god damn temper."

Ryan glares at me before heading out back where Jake went.

"They don't even recognize you?" Ace asks.

"I told you that I was practically invisible. Where is Grey?"

"Speaking with Ethan in the meeting room. Come on, we should go there."

I nod and he directs me to two large doors. I push them open and Ace trails in behind me. I see recognition cross Ethan's eyes.

I smirk, "Hello Ethan, how have you been?"

"You? How? You couldn't have survived that," Ethan stumbles.

"I didn't."

Confusion is replaced by realization and then fear, "You are a black wolf?"

"Yup," I say, popping the 'p'.

"You didn't even have a wolf. You were no better than a pathetic human," he chuckles, "Seeing that desperate Alpha try to get me to help you was priceless. Even better was when I exiled you instead."

I keep my cool, but Grey had other plans. He pins Ethan to the ground, holding his neck.

"That's right, you were banned from being a pack member by the Alpha King himself, how are you here right now?"

"The stupid Alpha has no way of tracking that. I stayed at the edge of the territory for a couple weeks and then moved back in. He was too busy sulking around because of that pathetic excuse of a mate," Ethan spits at me.

I glare at him and it finally dawns on me that Grey knows who I am now. Thank the Moon Goddess that Riggs isn't here. I walk over to where Grey still has Ethan pinned and tell him to let him go.

I give Ethan a hand up, "You are still that useless bitch you were all those years ago. The Moon Goddess made a mistake bringing you back," Ethan spits in my face.

I throw a hard punch to Ethan's jaw, hearing the snap of his jaw breaking. I smirk at the sound and walk over to Ace and we leave the room to get some fresh air.

"Looks like someone remembered you," Ace jokes.

I snort, "Yeah, the former Alpha remembers me, but not the two who ended my life. I bet my parents won't even remember me," I say sadly.

I sit in the grass in the backyard and Ace sits across from me with my hands in his. We start to lean in to kiss, but the moment had to be ruined.

"So you are Braelynn?!" Grey shouts.

I roll my eyes and look at him, "Good detective work Sherlock."

"Why didn't you tell Riggs?"

"Are you kidding? He was already mates to someone else and I gave up on myself all those years ago. I was the one who caused him so much pain and I didn't want to cause him more pain because I died and came back when he was already with someone else."

"I guess I understand where you are coming from, but he needs to know."

"He doesn't need to know. If it gets to the point where he really needs to know, Peter can tell him. Don't mention what happens here to Riggs, please."

"Fine. If we get into serious shit here though, I will tell him where we are."

"Deal," I shake his hand.

"So, this is where you grew up?"

"Unfortunately."

Grey goes to ask another question, but my nightmares interrupt him.

"I knew there was something familiar about you, but I didn't realize where I remembered you from until my dad linked me," I freeze at Jake's words.

"Apparently we didn't do a good enough job of keeping you dead the first time," Ryan adds.

I don't respond, I know where this is leading up to, but I can't seem to find the strength to speak back.

"You were really fun to play with while you tried to scream but couldn't. You are still just that broken little girl who can't even stand up for herself."

I can feel tears that fill my eyes from the memory but I manage to push them down. I try to think of what to say to them, my torturers, my killers, but Ace beats me to it.

"That's enough," Ace insists.

"She will always be a slut, a whore, Ace. You are better off rejecting her and throwing her away. Better yet, we could have some more fun with he..."

Ryan is cut off by Ace punching his face. I want to feel happy that they are getting what they deserve but I don't. I look in Grey's direction.

"Get him to stop please. Ace will kill them," I whisper.

I see Grey nod from my peripheral vision and he tries to remove Ace from Ryan with no luck. He whispers something in Ace's ear and Ace immediately walks over to me and takes me in his arms.

"Next time when you die, you better stay dead," Jake tells me before grabbing Ryan and heading off inside the pack house.

"Are you okay?" Ace asks.

"I think so," I reply in a quiet voice.

"Let's get to training these assholes," Grey grumbles.

The young men are all outside on the field within the next ten minutes. I tell Ace to go find the women to train as well. It's everyone or no one in my training. Soon, the women walk out onto the field looking confused and excited.

"What are they all doing out here? They should be doing housework and cooking dinner," Jake scoffs.

"They are training as well. I will teach all of you or none of you. I will let you decide alpha," I spit in Jake's direction.

I can see the debate in his eyes, he needs help to keep his pack on their feet but he doesn't want to be seen as an equal with women. Sexist ass if you ask me.

"Fine, but if they can't keep up, they leave," he states, firmly believing they won't be able to keep up with the rest of them.

"Everyone is going to do a run around the territory. Ace will be following you to ensure there are no stragglers," I instruct and then whistle loudly to begin the run.

Within five minutes, I see Jake and Ryan emerge from the woods. Next is a girl, she may be sixteen but she is fast. Jake and Ryan look at her like she has two heads causing her to shrink back. A mix of both men and women come onto the field and one of the guards is last to finish the race. I smirk, most of these women are better than half of the men here. The rest of training goes by pretty smoothly. I mean, other than Jake and Ryan questioning my every word.

As everyone heads inside for water, food and showers, Ace, Grey and I remain out in the field to train ourselves. Grey watches our technique as Ace and I spare. I get in my defensive mode and Ace does as well. Grey whistles to signal the beginning of the fight. I know Ace and he knows me. Both of us hate being the one to strike first. It isn't the smart move. I know Ace and his fighting technique so I chance it and punch first. I aim low for his stomach, but he blocks and jams for my face which I dodge. The fight now begins.

I kick the back of his knees making his fall, but he grabs around my knees, taking me down with him. He climbs on top of me to try to pin me down and he is fast, but I am faster. I swing my legs up behind his back and wrap my feet around his neck. I use momentum to swing myself up and push him back. I am now sitting on his chest with my legs being cross crossed behind his back and my feet at his throat. Being in this position makes it very difficult to get out of. Ace, however, somehow manages to roll to the side and stand up with me still in the same position. He then lets us both fall, with him on top of me, to the ground. My back and head hit the ground hard, making me loosen my position and give Ace a chance to get out. He takes a step back and I get up. I crack my neck and prepare to win this thing.

I jump at Ace and rapid fire my punches. I punch his flank and then his jaw that he left open from the pain in his side. I punch him in the stomach and then grab his arm to whip him around while he is confused. I get him in a headlock and kick his legs out from under him so he is sitting on the ground with me behind him. A very vulnerable situation. Ace double taps my arm. I smirk and let go of his neck.

"Wow, just wow," Grey says and starts a slow clap.

Ace and I laugh and I do a little bow, "Thank you thank you, please no photography," I dramatically say.

"How did you learn to fight like that?" Grey wonders.

"Close knit group of rogues banding together. We all had different training techniques from different packs and I had some natural talent from being a black wolf," I explain.

"That's amazing, you will need to teach me sometime."

"Definitely," I grin.

We head inside to grab some water and food. I make us all sandwiches and Grey grabs the water bottles. Soon after we finish, we all call it a night, heading to our rooms to sleep before training tomorrow morning. Just before heading up the stairs, I can hear Ace laughing, hard. I look at him oddly and I can tell Grey is doing the same. What is he laughing at? He coughs and shakes off our stares, walking past me up to our room. Grey looks to me questioningly and I just shrug, walking to catch up to Ace.

In the morning, I am up before everyone so I decide to go on a run through the territory. I subconsciously jog to the school. Where everything happened. I make my way to the river, the spot where I gave up. The spot where I didn't have anything left in me to give. The spot where I saw that beautiful wolf all those years ago. The spot where I spent all of my lunches for years. The spot where I was pushed into the water and wrecked my favourite book. The spot where I was raped. I sigh, willing the tears not to fall. It's hard being back here but I feel like I need it. I need to say goodbye and let go of that girl I was at that time.

I take a deep breath, "It got better," I whisper to my past self. I feel more at peace.

I jog away from the school and head back to the pack house. I make it to the clearing in the backyard when I sense two people watching me. I know in an instant who it is. I could never forget their scents. They smell almost rotten to me now. Jake and Ryan.

"What do you want?" I demand, wanting to stay strong, to be the new person I am.

Jake and Ryan start laughing, Jake speaks first, "Look what we have here, the butch speaks. She is now trying to demand things of us. Is that how little sluts are supposed to act Ryan?" Ryan shakes his head, a smirk on his lips, "I didn't think so. I think we have to put this bitch back in her place."

And just like that, I am frozen. I can't move my limbs and I can speak or scream. It's happening again. What happened to what I was just telling myself. You are better than this Brae, you could beat them to a pulp if you wanted to. Where is that girl now when I need her? She's gone. She can't fight the ghosts of my past.

Jake punches me in the jaw and Ryan throws his fist at my stomach. I fall to the ground in a heap of weakness. I get a swift kick to the ribs and then one to the chest where the air is knocked out of me. I try gasping for air, willing my lungs to work but they don't have time because I am kicked in the head. My vision goes blurry before going completely black. I haven't passed out but I can't move and I can't see. I can still hear everything though.

"Should we just finish the butch while we still have the chance?" Ryan suggests to Jake.

Before Jake replies I can hear a punch connect with someone's face. I can hear the grunting of someone plummeting another with punches and kicks. I can smell Ace and Grey nearby and I can only guess that they are beating the shit out of Jake and Ryan, doing what I was too weak to do.

My vision slowly starts to return and I can feel my limbs once more. I can feel strong arms on my shoulders, shaking me. I can hear Ace pleading with me to be okay. I groan and as I come back to my senses I can feel faint sparks where Ace's hands were on my shoulders. Odd, I should have felt them even when I was half out of it. Maybe I was too stressed and scared.

"Are you okay?" Ace asks, looking worried.

I sniffle and tears start coming from my eyes. I ignore him and walk inside, heading straight for the bathroom and lock myself in there. I look at myself in the mirror.

I should have died that day. I shouldn't be on this earth right now.

'Don't think like that Brae,' Noctis tells me.

'It's true, you deserve a better human than me. I hope you find one,' tears run freely down my cheeks as I elongate my nails in one hand.

'I'm sorry Ace. I love you,' with that, I cut four deep gashes running from my right shoulder to my left hip.

I curl up on the ground and push away Noctis, hoping she would leave before I die so she can find another human. By pushing her away, it suppresses my healing capabilities and soon I will bleed out. I feel my eyes drooping closed as I see a blurry Ace crouched in front on my face, yelling something. It seems like he is a thousand miles away and I can't make out what he is saying.

I close my eyes and welcome the darkness of peace and serenity that death will bring. I hope I go back to that beautiful clearing in the woods.

Goodbye Ace...