4. Chapter Three

Chapter Three

Amelia stood in her room, looking around. She took in the purple walls and the black accents. They brought a small smile to her face. The memories of her childhood were all on display. The first chess competition she won. Her father hadn’t allowed her to take part in sports, but he encouraged her to do anything that grew her mind.

Her closet was filled with what she called decoy clothes. Around the age of ten, her father started taking her shopping. Except instead of spending hours in a mall or boutiques, he’d take her to the bank or teach her how the human world worked. They did not expose most of their pack to this world at such an early age. Then they would grab one or two frivolous dresses along with anything that caught her attention and make a show of bringing bags into the house. She learned to drive the same way.

Earlier that day, her father had come down to see her. “Sweetheart?” Her alpha father’s voice called out to her.

“Back here, Dad.” She had a studio in the back of the basement where she could paint and draw. It was one thing she liked to do in her spare time. Her father had encouraged her to attend an online college where she’d gotten her accounting degree. She was some weird symbiont of human knowledge and pack law. It never sat right in her mind. Why did her father decide to raise her differently from the other females in the wolf pack? He was her alpha, and she respected him as that as much as she loved him as a father. That love and respect allowed her to follow his orders without understanding the why.

He stood in the doorway, staring at her. “You look so much like your mother, except for the wild white hair. I’ll never know where you got that from.” Her hair was a curly mess that she had trouble keeping under control. It was cut to her chin with white spiral curls all over her head. She was used to it by now and loved it because there was no use hating herself.

“Tomorrow is your twenty-fifth naming day, and I bought you a present.” She was excited despite the blackness she kept seeing in her visions.

“What is it? Where is it?” She rubbed her hands together in anticipation, like she was sixteen again. She ignored the blackness that seemed to hang on the horizon of her life.

“Come with me.” She followed him up the stairs, her heart fluttering until they got outside. She watched her father become the no-nonsense alpha, and it hurt her. He wasn’t supposed to show his love for her where others could see it. The pack smiled at him, but they watched her like she was a gazelle, and they were lions.

She wasn’t stupid. Her father had gone out of his way to make sure that she understood the world even if she didn’t live in it. The pack thought she was an omega and that tomorrow, on her naming day, the abomination she hid inside of her would come out. The people she thought of as her family were planning to kill her. There was no other way to say it.

He took her on what should be an innocent walk in the woods. They spent their lives walking through these woods, and she knew them like the back of her hand. He stopped right before they could hear the traffic of the road beyond.

“What’s over there?” He pointed to a spot where the tree branches seemed to have fallen. She ran over and cleared the area and then stood back, her hand over her open mouth. There was a cover over it, but she knew a car when she saw one. She ripped the cover off and there was a small dark blue car.

Her eyes lit up as she ran to her father. She wanted to scream but was too aware that the pack might be closer than she thought.

“Is this mine?” She was bouncing as she hugged her father.

“It is.” He placed the keys in her hand. “I’ve loved you from the moment you were born.” His hands went to her cheeks. “Your mom knew the risk of having you. She thought you were worth it. I miss her, but I see her in every move you make. Watching you grow up has been a dream. The others, my tribe.” His tears flowed, and she knew that alphas weren’t supposed to cry. Her dad crying made him seem like a real alpha.

“They think you’re something you’re not. If you are, it doesn’t matter to me. After midnight, I’ll no longer be able to protect you. I’ve done everything in my power to make sure you could protect yourself.”

Her fingers went to his eyes, wiping the tears that refused to stop flowing. He stepped back, pulling a bank card from his wallet. He handed it to her. It had her name on it. You know the number. This is a credit card with your name. If you get into trouble, use it. I’ll always pay the bill.

“Dad.” He stopped her by placing a finger against her lips.

“I need you to make the right choice, for yourself, your mother, and for me.” They stood staring at her little dark blue car for a long time before she covered it up and replaced the fallen branches.

Now she stared at her naming day outfit. It wasn’t the dress that Nicole wanted her to wear. She’d taken out a worn pair of jeans that fit her like a glove and allowed her to move fast. The pair of boots she’d been given. There was a worn jacket along with a spaghetti-strapped cami. Next to it was a backpack with the few things she couldn’t leave behind.

She wasn’t sure if she wanted it buried with her or not. How could she leave her father or her mother’s grave? Did her dad and her alpha want her to run or show bravery by meeting the tribe first thing in the morning? She wasn’t sure. There were too many questions, and her sight was showing her too many paths. It was only eight, but she took a shower and went to bed. Tomorrow would look different.

How long had she slept before the dream started? She was walking through a forest she’d never seen before. The old woman who gifted her the boots was walking beside her.

“I remember you,” Amelia said when the quiet became too much. “You gifted me the boots.”

“I did.” The moonlight broke through the canopy of the trees, shining on them.

The old lady reached out and touched Amelia’s hair. “I thought it was a clever move. Now I worry that I have placed a brand on you and all who come after you.”

Amelia touched her hair, not understanding. “My hair?”

“It’s beautiful and suits you, little wolf.”

“I’m not a wolf.” This was her secret shame. While all the others changed in puberty, she didn’t.

“Not all wolves are the same.” They walked until they came across a bench that seemed to be set aside for wanderers to sit.

“This place is wonderful.” There was a sense of peace that flowed through it. As much as she loved the woods where she lived, to be in a forest that seemed to have no end or beginning appealed to her.

“Many call it the alpha and omega.” She turned to give the old woman her attention. “Alpha the beginning. Omega the end. It’s a blessing to be the omega who will stand for the unending end.”

“I don’t understand how the end cannot end.”

“It is a mystery that not even the world has come to grips with yet. Anger, even if felt justified, needs to be tempered by the tongue. Now we have a paradox that cannot change, for it was spoken. That is not your worry. Soon your twenty-fifth naming day will be upon you. Have you made your decision?”

“Will I run, or will I stay?” Amelia whispered the words. They had plagued her every day since the old woman gave her the boots. Then her father gifted her with a car that she ached to drive and a bank card she wanted to use.

To run meant to leave everything she knew and loved. It meant to leave her father and Nicole. To never see them again for a chance at life in a world she didn’t know much about.

“Yes,” the old woman said. It also sounded like she was saying yes, Amelia needed to run.

“I don’t know.” Her confusion was thick in her voice.

“Allow me to help you, little wolf.” The moon sought to highlight the older woman as if it were supporting her or drawing attention to her words. “If you stay with your pack, they will kill you. Will there be enough of you left to bury beside your mother? There is no answer to that until the rendering and shredding begin. To leave means you have a chance at life. It is not guaranteed, no life is. A chance is all you’re ever given. Only you can decide what your future looks like.” The old woman walked away, disappearing in the moonlight.

Amelia woke and looked at the phone her father had updated for her last month. It was midnight, her naming day. She got up and dressed in the outfit she laid out. If she were honest with herself, she wasn’t going to march placidly like a lamb to her slaughter. The decision to run away took hold when she understood that if she stayed here, there was no future for her. She crept out of her room. The desire to look at her father’s face one more time and to hear his voice or to hug him almost overwhelmed her. She shook it off.

They had said their goodbyes before she retired for the night. She understood why it had to be that way. She crept up the stairs and out of the house. The small town they lived in was quiet, everyone was asleep. She got as far as the trees before someone called her name. It was quiet enough not to wake anyone.

“I knew you would leave before the others woke. Only a coward misses their rightful death.”

It wasn’t until that very second that she realized James was full of bullshit. He wanted a chance to prove he was alpha material by being the one who would take her down. Her death would be a feather in his cap.

She didn’t stop to plead or try to talk reason to him. She secured her backpack and took off running through the woods. He changed, going from human to wolf. His change wasn’t the fastest, and that gave her a head start. He was on four legs to her two and even with the head start; he cut her off.

He stood before her, growling. Saliva dripped out of the corner of his mouth while his eyes looked wild. He was a wolf who wanted to rend and tear.

“I was always sorry for the father the goddess gave you.” She moved backwards silently, drawing him away from their small town while not leading him to her car. “Any other father would love you for what you are and see the worthiness you bring to the town. Now no one sees it because you cannot see that you are enough.”

James couldn’t talk in his wolf form, but the low growls that vibrated through his chest got his message across. He jumped at her, she spun around on the heels of her boots and started running. He caught the backpack with his teeth, clinging on as he tried to bring his front paws close enough to tear through her neck. She swung around, hitting him against a tree and forcing him to let go. The backpack was going with her. The things like the picture of her parents that she cherished were in there.

She ran deeper into the woods, leaving a false trail before she climbed a tree. She stayed still as he came to sniff at the end of the trail. James looked into the canopy, but it was thick enough to hide her. When he backed off, she took off, using the tree tops to make it to her car.

He let out a howl that would wake the entire pack. She uncovered her car and slid in. When the pack howled together, she started the engine, knowing the howls of the wolves would hide the roar of the engine. She took off, vowing never to look back.