Chapter 1

Another day, yet another day for school. For some reason, I felt weirdly excited about today, but I can’t tell exactly why. I felt a warmth envelope my body as I went to my first class, English.

That was strange, considering I’ve just been to hell and back. My brother, Chris and some of his friends came around our house this morning, which wasn’t quite an unusual thing, given that they’re there most of the time anyways. Although, the Alpha- my brother’s best friend wasn’t there. And I must tell you, they weren’t the nicest people out there.

As I entered the class, I noticed that it was only half-empty. Some students were chatting with their friends. Friends, yeah, a word I find most unfamiliar with. Times like this when I wished I had friends.

I found my seat at the back of the classroom by the window. Gazing outside, I saw how the leaves swayed from side-to-side and how there wasn’t a single cloud in the sky. The sun shone brightly and the birds flew happily.

All of a sudden, the most amazing scent hit my nostrils. I turned to look at the door. There, stood in all of his glory was none other than, Howard Taylor, with his messy dark brown bangs and sky blue eyes. Our new Alpha.

He was 17 years old today. Thus, he was given the position of the Alpha of the Pack. Also, He’d most likely find his mate today- which he had.

Unfortunately, that person was me.

I watched as he scanned the class with his eyebrows furrowed. His eyes landed on me and I felt the tingles spread through my body. I felt like it was just the two of us in the world. There was no one else, it was just us.

“Mate! Mate! That’s my mate!” My wolf yelled at me.

“I know,” I said to my wolf, “We’re so lucky to be his mate.”

His eyes showed a string of emotions, shock, lust, and love. He smiled slightly at me which I returned away.

“Babe, let’s go find our seats,” a disgusting voice said. I saw Eva- the Cheerleader of our school sports team- was clinging off his strong, tanned arms like her life depended on it.

She is my mate’s girlfriend. I felt my wolf whimpering inside of me. She desperately wanted him, but he…

He nodded, but his eyes never left mine. I felt a ton of jealousy but I tried to forget about it all. My wolf no longer felt down by now. Instead, she was becoming angrier and angrier by the minute. I knew, she would take over my body anytime soon- even though I didn’t know how to shift.

It hurt me to know my own mate wouldn’t push away that bi*ch, but instead wrapped his arms around her and allowing her to sit on his lap. That is somewhere only I should be sitting!

I tried my best to push away the tears, while some other of the pack came in and sat down surrounded the Howard and Eva. I bit my lip, I do not want him to see my sorrowful face. I have to act strong.

Since I was the only person who hadn’t shifted yet in the pack, people often teased me and made fun of me. But my families were never there for me. My mom thought I was a shame in our family and didn’t care about me. My dad loved me a lot. Actually, he might even be the only person who loved me in this world. He was always kind, and he taught me how to play the piano, which later became my favourite instrument and the one that I was best at. But unfortunately, he passed away many years ago.

As to my brother, he ignored me most of the times. He thought of me as an embarrassment and always made fun of me along his friends. He used to my best friend, until he shifted and I didn’t.-

The hour quickly passed and the bell screeched. I grabbed my things and threw in into my backpack before quickly running out of the room. I was the first person out of there, and I was happy because this meant that I wouldn’t have any chance of seeing him at all for the next lesson.

“No. Go back to our mate, I need him!” my wolf screamed.

“No, don’t be naive. He will only hurt us. Didn’t you see that? He let Eva touch him.” I shouted back to my wolf.

‘Caroline wait, meet me by the janitor’s closet,’ all of a sudden Howard’s voice boomed through mind-link.

I wanted to disobey his order, but since he was Alpha, I had to do what he said. Or it would be considered very shameful and challenging not to listen to someone who was of higher rank than you, like an Alpha or a Beta. And since I was the pack runt, I had to listen to every single person in our pack, as I was the lowest of the low.

I turned around and made my way towards the janitor’s closet, which was near the exit of the school, hence it was the complete opposite side of my next class, Biology. The hallway was completely empty, which had my heart thudding against my chest, because it meant that I would be alone… with my mate.

Once I was a few meters away, his scent hit me, driving my wolf insane. She wanted nothing but to run into his arms and kiss the life out of him. But I kept control of my wolf. It was hard and painful, but I had to.

“Yes A-Alpha,” I stuttered, my head bowed. I looked at my old worn-out Converses like they were the most interesting thing in the world.

He lifted up my chin using his index finger and looked at me in the eyes. Tingles shot through my body when he touched me. I felt so warm and his touch felt so right.

“Call me Howard,” he whispered, bringing his mouth to my ear. Slowly, he began sucking on my earlobe and wrapped his arms around my waist. I let out a quiet moan and felt him smirk against my skin.

He pushed me against the wall and he began trailing intoxicating kisses down my neck and and onto my chest, when he opened the buttons of my school shirt.

This is a feeling I had never experienced before. I felt alive for the first time of my life, and my wolf was already cheering up like never before.

He grabbed me into the janitors closet and I moaned when he began sucking on my neck, where he was going to be marking me as his. His hands freely roamed my body before finally stopping at my butt. He roughly pushed me against the wall when he made sure the door was fully closed.

I felt my body was on fire, and my face was burning.

And then, I lost memory of anything happened after that.

When I woke up again, I found myself lying on the ground. I had to get out of this school as quick as possible. It was suffocating me. Walking down the hallways to get to my locker, his mouth-watering scent hit me once again. I continued walking down further, only to stop at the sight in front of me.

It was truly heart-breaking. I could feel my heart shattering in pieces.

My wolf howled in pain as I watched Howard making out with Eva. Her hands tangled in his hair and his hands on either side on her, while she had her back against the locker.

I so desperately wanted to move, I couldn’t look at it. I couldn’t look at them.But my feet were glued to the floor. Even if I tried, I couldn’t move.

“What are you doing here bi*ch?” Eva screeched in her annoying voice.

Suddenly, something snapped inside of me. I knew that Howard was looking at me, smirking. I was so shameful by what I’d done. I felt dirty. I let my hormones get the best of me. And I regretted it now. Every single minute of it.

I was so repulsive that even my mate didn’t want me. I was truly and utterly disgusting.

So I turned and ran out of the closest exit. I ran to my beat-up Ford and slipped in to it. I rushed out of the school and to my house.

Thankfully, we didn’t live in the pack house. We had our own home near the pack house.

Once I parked the car, I sprinted into the bedroom and locked myself. I cried until there wasn’t any tears left to shed. I cried for hours and hours.

My pack hated me. My brother hated me. My mate hated me. Even my mom didn’t care about me.I was a shame to this pack.

Then what the hell was I doing here?! I’d hurt them enough already. I couldn’t hurt them anymore. I’d hate myself even more than I do now if I hurt more people. I had to leave. I wouldn’t hurt them, and then maybe they’d be happy, right?

I thought as I started to pack up my things.

“Where are we going, Caroline?” my wolf asked me.

“I don’t know. I just want to leave this place. I don’t want to hurt people around us anymore.” I replied.

“Alright, Caroline. I guess we deserve it.” my wolf said sadly.

Then, my wolf didn’t say a word as I packed all my clothes and other photographs. I went to my mom’s room and got a beautiful necklace from her jewelry box, which I fastened around my neck. And I picked out one of Chris’s hoodies. I packed those items and grabbed some food from the kitchen.

I slipped into the study, where our secret safe was located. It was a safe which was only know to me and my dad. Before my dad past away, he left a considerable amount of cash in it just in case that I needed it. Only I had the key to the safe.

I finally found the key and pulled out an ancient-looking book for one of the portraits to slide up and reveal the safe. Using the key, I unlocked the safe and pulled out a wad of notes. There were lots of money in the safe- I wouldn’t be surprised if there was over a million in there.

I locked the door of the safe and pushed in the book fully, allowing the painting to go back to it’s original position. I slid the key back in it’s place before checking the time. 3:00 p.m.

Nobody would be at home for a couple of hours, so I was safe, but if I didn’t want them tracking down my scent, I’d have to leave soon anyways.

I stuffed the money in a corner of my duffel bag and found a small plastic bag with a couple of thousands in, it was the money I’d saved from my job- which was teaching children ballet, right at the back of my closet.

I wrote a note, with only two words on there.

With one hand I carried both my duffel bags, and with the other, I carried my guitar, which was safely placed in it’s case. I wanted to bring my piano with me, but apparently, it was too big for me too carry.

And with that, I felt my old home and life in search for a new better one…