Chapter 2 - Leah

“You didn’t think you should ask my permission before offering me up in marriage to the highest bidder?” I asked as my parents began packing up my room.

“Don’t be such a drama queen,” my mom snapped, tossing my clothes into a suitcase unceremoniously. “It’s hardly a sacrifice to become luna.”

“Besides, we aren’t selling you. We aren’t getting anything in return except a connection to an alpha,” my father added.

“We wouldn’t have gotten much for you if it were an auction, anyway,” my mother said.

It was always the same. One moment, they spoke as if they were giving me a gift. The next, they were insulting me.

“Most parents just let their children get married when they want to,” I pointed out.

“You ungrateful little girl,” my mother snarled, throwing the book she was holding against the wall. Her outburst made me feel like a small child again, and I felt myself shrinking away from her. “Do you have any idea what your father and I have given up to raise you? Any idea how much work it is to have a daughter?”

“Especially one as spoiled and rude as you,” my father said. “You owe your mother an apology.”

“I’m sorry, Mother,” I said quietly.

Years of experience had taught me that my punishment would be slightly less arduous if I apologized contritely before things got out of hand.

“When we are done packing up your things, you are going to clean every inch of this room. Do you understand me?” my father spat.

I nodded in assent as my mother stepped toward me. She placed her hand on my cheek delicately, and I looked up at her from my seat on the twin bed I had slept in since I was a small child and wondered about the expression behind her eyes. Was it possible she felt sad about the prospect of her only child leaving home? She had never shown me much affection before, but a part of me had always hoped that it would be possible for her to love me someday.

Her hand moved away from my face, only to return quickly with a sharp smack as she slapped me across the cheek. I turned my face in shock and hurt at the abrupt contact as tears welled in my eyes.

“I expect that to be the last time you speak back to me, Leah,” she said coldly.

“Yes, Mother,” I replied.

“I hope you don’t speak to your future mate in that tone, either,” she added. “I hear that his pack is a very vicious one. Who knows what your punishment might be for disobeying him?”

They returned to packing up my things as I sat quietly, trying not to cry. My emotions were not welcome in this house, and I knew that if I allowed my tears to fall, my punishment would only get worse.

For my entire life, my parents had ruled me with an iron fist. I had always been regarded as the least important member of the family, even as a young child. I was useful to them but not loved. Some of my very first memories were of being forced to serve them and look after their needs, usually at the expense of my own. For twenty-five years, I had endured my miserable life of sacrifice.

It wasn’t like I was constantly mistreated, though. I had always had a roof over my head and usually had food to eat. They even occasionally showed me affection.

I glanced at the photograph near my bed—the three of us smiling on my fifteenth birthday. It was the day I had shifted for the first time, and I remembered how proud they were of me and my brown wolf, Destiny.

I smiled at the memory and did my best to recall other good times I had with my parents. The dollhouse my father had built me one Christmas stood in the corner of the room. It had been taller than me at age six and was one of my prized possessions.

But because it had meaning to me, my parents had often used the threat of its destruction to get me to comply with their demands.

That was the thing about my family. All affection felt forced, as if they were pretending for appearances or to get some kind of control over me in the future. And it never lasted for long. Any moment of happiness was usually followed by a punishment soon after, no matter how hard I tried to please them.

Now, they wanted one final form of payment from me: to give them the title they could never attain themselves. Luna, the wife to the alpha, the most powerful role in the werewolf community. I was being forced to marry a stranger because of their own sense of self-importance. But at least I might finally be free of them after today.

I had thought I could escape my parents one other time in my life. It was a year or two after I had my first shift. With each passing year, my parents’ treatment of me had gotten worse and worse.

But when I reached young adulthood, I met a man who had given me hope. I fell in love with a young rogue shifter, and we had been happy together for a time. It was only when Killian and I were together that I got a reprieve from the misery of my day-to-day life.

He’d talked about marrying me and getting me away from my abusive life, but ultimately, it wasn’t meant to be. He rejected me out of the blue one day, abandoning me to continued torment at the hands of my family and pack. That moment solidified the feelings of loneliness and low self-esteem that my parents had instilled in me.

Unfortunately, it also meant that I was doomed to a life of solitude within the pack. My parents had always prevented me from socializing with others so they could have control over me. While other children played outside and participated in pack life, I was relegated to staying by my parents’ side whenever I was out of the house. After years of this, I became known as the strange little wolf girl.

My parents always made a point of dressing me in designer clothes when we left the house so their status in the pack would increase. They wanted to be known as rich and powerful people. Despite my fashionable belongings, I’d always found it difficult to make friends. No one wanted their children to play with the pack outcast, and the other children seemed to fear my parents.

The only exception to this was my best friend, Sienna. I watched as my father grabbed the photograph of her from my nightstand and tossed it into a box of my belongings. My friendship with her had been the one constant in my life.

I was in the third grade, and after years of being treated like an unwelcome addition to all my classrooms, I had gotten used to being alone. But one day, on the playground, a group of boys took my harassment a step further.

As I sat on a bench on the edge of the playground, they began pelting me with pebbles while the teachers’ backs were turned. As a small, unathletic, quiet child, I didn’t know how to respond. I crawled underneath the bench, covering my head with my book, praying that they would lose interest in their sick game.

A pair of girl’s shoes suddenly appeared at eye level, and I wondered if more children were about to escalate my abuse. But instead, a confident voice shouted at the boys.

“Leave her alone!” the voice said.

“I wouldn’t stick up for the freak if I were you,” one of the boys replied. “Unless you want to get hit, too.”

“See what happens if you do,” the girl replied cockily.

I peeked out from behind my book just in time to see the boy pull his arm back, ready to throw a rock into her face. Without hesitation, the girl took one step forward and swung her other foot up, connecting between the boy’s legs. He collapsed on the ground as the rest of the group scattered.

“You kicked me!” he wailed.

“I’ll do it again if I see you bother her again,” she said nonchalantly.

I crawled out from under the bench as a teacher rushed toward us. The boy was in tears as the girl smiled down at him.

“What happened here?” the teacher asked.

After a rush of explanations, Sienna was carted off to the principal’s office, still smiling, while the boy was escorted to the nurse. I was worried she would get in trouble at home for defending me, but after school, I found her waiting outside the building.

“Don’t worry about it,” she assured me. “My parents don’t care if I stand up to bullies. Want to be my friend?”

That was it. We had been friends ever since. Of course, that friendship was even further complicated by the fact that Sienna wasn’t a member of the pack. Instead, she belonged to a local witch coven.

Many of the older wolves in the pack warned my parents about allowing their daughter to cavort with a witch, but there wasn’t much they could do—not when Sienna had convinced them that she could curse them whenever she felt like it.

As time passed, Sienna had become one of the most beautiful girls in town. Her vibrant green eyes and bright red hair added to her mystique, and she became the focus of romantic affections among the boys in our classes. Despite her growing popularity, she remained a true friend to me, ignoring the invitations to class parties in favor of spending time watching movies at my house.

My parents had always tried to dissuade her from being around me, but Sienna had never been afraid of them. Her family, unlike mine, treated her with kindness and respect. She had been taught to give respect when it was given, which meant that she met my parents’ passive-aggressive comments with sarcasm and indifference. No matter how many times they tried to make her leave, she always returned.

As her photograph disappeared in the cardboard, something inside me snapped. How would I survive without the only friend I’d ever known? I would be fine without my parents, but I couldn’t imagine leaving Sienna.

“What if I refuse?” I countered.

They stopped packing as they both turned around to face me, anger written as plain as day across their faces. It was a look I had seen often over the course of my life but not one I had ever truly gotten used to. Most parents seemed to love their children. But not mine.

“If you embarrass us today by refusing to say your mating vows, I promise that you will regret it,” my father threatened.

“You are leaving this house and this pack today, whether you leave with a mate or by yourself,” my mother continued. “If you don’t marry the alpha, we will disown you and make sure that you are no longer welcome in Sparkle Hollow.”

“Then I’ll go somewhere else,” I countered, still in disbelief that they were making me marry a stranger.

“Where?” my mother sneered. “We’ll make sure all our allies will turn you away as well. There will be nowhere left for you to go. Unless you want to become a rogue and risk what kind of treatment you’d receive among the other werewolves whose families have sent them away, then I suggest you cooperate.”

Dread crept over me as I realized that I was trapped in my parents’ scheme. There was nowhere for me to run, and no one to turn to who could help me. I had been cut off from the kind of support it would take to go against them. My best chance at some semblance of freedom was to marry the alpha, who had agreed to take me and pray to the wolf god that he was a kind man.

I didn’t have high hopes that he was compassionate or intelligent, but anything was better than continuing to live with the monsters who had raised me.

“That’s it,” my father said, zipping the duffel that contained the last of my clothes. “Leah, grab your stuff and meet us at the car.”

My parents had packed my belongings but clearly weren’t interested in helping me any further. If I wanted to take my stuff to my new home, it would be up to me to get it downstairs. It only took two trips up and down the stairs to grab the boxes and bags containing my life and load them into my dad’s shiny gray Lexus. It was both a blessing and a curse that I didn’t have much to my name. I walked back up to my old room and looked around at how empty it was. The only trace left of me was my dollhouse.

“What are you waiting for? Get in the car,” my mother snapped as she passed my bedroom doorway.

“I was just…” my voice trailed off as I waved my hand at the near-empty room.

But my mother didn’t hear me. She had already gone down the stairs and out the front door.

As I shut my bedroom door and followed her, I felt a burning in my eyes as hot tears gathered. I did my best not to let them spill out, but by the time we made it to the end of the block, they flowed freely. I looked out of the window at my neighborhood through blurred eyes. There was no use in trying to compose myself. I knew I wasn’t losing a happy home, but it was the only home I had ever known. In front of me was uncertainty. For all my parents’ faults, I had at least been able to count on their consistency.

We pulled into the pack house and were greeted by Alpha Lex. “Are you okay?” he asked me as I stepped from the vehicle. He sounded more surprised than concerned to see my stricken demeanor, but at least he cared enough to ask.

“She’s fine,” my mother replied for me. “It’s just an emotional day. Isn’t it sweetheart?”

I cringed internally but nodded in agreement. She only ever used terms of endearment when we were in public.

“Very well. Come inside, Mr. and Mrs. Smith,” the alpha said to my parents. “I just have a few things I wanted to discuss with you before your daughter’s future mate arrives.”

I trailed behind them and sat awkwardly on a chair in the alpha’s office while he discussed pack matters with my parents. I hardly heard a word they said as I focused on controlling my breathing. My mate would be here soon, and I was regretting my crying spell in the car. I wasn’t sure an alpha would want to marry someone who cried at the thought of being luna.

My thoughts were interrupted by a sharp knock on the door. I turned my head at the sound and saw the door open to admit a lean and muscular man with wavy blond hair that threatened to fall into his eyes.

His all-too-familiar hazel-green eyes.

I hadn’t seen him in years, but I would recognize him anywhere.

“Killian?” I blurted.