Chapter 1

I stared at the blank and grimy wall as silence permeated the small room, leaving me alone with my unwanted and haunting memories. My eyes flickered towards the dim light bulb swinging back and forth, back and forth; a constant in my fickle environment. A bell rang in the distance, its harmonious tingling soothing me like a warm embrace.

Footsteps thumped closer to my cell, making my body curl into itself, preparing for the oncoming pain. “I love you my beautiful angel,” Her last words whispered repeatedly in my mind, reminding me what I had lost and what I most dearly wanted back. The cold metal door creaked eerily as someone opened the cell door.

“Get up now, it’s time to cook dinner,” the voice snapped emotionlessly. “Mr. Carter is in a murderous mood tonight so make it good,” he grunted. I silently nodded my head, slowly sitting up. My hair fell around me in a ratty curtain, my bones groaning as I sat with my knees curled under me, arms down holding up my weight.

I stared at the guard’s stony face and glaring eyes as if he was saying it’s YOUR fault you are here. YOU could have helped her. YOU should have been in her place. YOU deserved it.

It’s as if no one knows how guilty and depressed I already feel for my actions.

I cautiously slide my feet from underneath me, stumbling a bit, though not wincing as my bones clacked together. After a while I got used to the pain. My hands pushed me up as I got up unsteadily onto my feet.

I slowly and painfully walked towards the guard, my eyes squinting from the harsh light coming from behind him, shadowing his face, but outlining his sharp features. “Hurry up bitch, I don’t have all day,” he snapped at me. Nodding my head, I sped up my pace, following him as fast as I could. As I reached the guard he snatched my wrist, his stubby fingers digging into the flesh of my arm causing me to flinch in pain.

The guard dragged me roughly up the stairs, not bothering to care if I was hurt. He walked at a fast pace, causing my bare feet to bump into every step, creating small streams of blood to run down my already injured toes and heel. As we reached the door at the top of the stairs, I nervously fixed my old ratty paramore band tee-shirt and sweats.

Glancing at me with blank eyes, he jolted the door open, thrusting me in and slammed the door right after me. I gulped and kept my gaze down as I maneuvered my way towards the kitchen; each step I took spiked pain up my leg.

My feet led me to the kitchen. As I looked up I spotted the bright kitchen appliances, making me gleam brightly. Knowing that everyone here found joy in my sadness, I forced my smile to fall back to its usual sad appearance before starting my work.

Opening the fridge I took out all the already marinated two pound steaks one by one and placed them on foil covered tin pans. Placing the first batch of ten steaks in the oven and set a timer. I then began placing candy roses on the six tiered triple chocolate cake I made the night before.

Hearing the timer ding for the steaks, I stopped working on the cake and began changing the foil on the trays and placing another batch of steak in. I took each plate of steak and placed it in the dining room and went back to the cake. I took red icing to match the red roses and wrote, ‘Happy 18th Birthday Hilton and Eleanor Carter’ in script on the tiers of the cake.

I left the cake on the counter for the pack members in charge of setting the dining room and continued working on the other food. I finished the steaks and worked on the mashed potatoes, gravy, and salad. I didn’t even flinch when I got a cut from the knife, only parting away from the food for a second to get a bandaid. After all the pain I’ve gone through, a little cut is nothing.

I was placing the last of the food down when I heard feet crashing towards the dining room. My eyes slightly widened as I scurried into the corner of the room. I lowered my face, hoping and praying that they wouldn’t see me nor pay attention to me.

They burst into the room like a bunch of loud gorillas, pushing each other jokingly as they laughed with bright happy smiles on their faces. Their laughter abruptly stopped, their footsteps getting quieter. Please, dear God, do not let them bother me. A warm, tan, manicured hand found its way under my chin, forcing me to look into their icy blue eyes.

“Hey guys, look what we have here,” Eleanor spoke in a slow drawl. Her nail tracing the side of my face condescendingly, a fake and exaggerated pout on her face. My fingers clenched together trying to control my anger towards her, as the others laughed.

Seeing my clenched fingers her brother Hilton spoke up, “Hey look, the reject’s angry,” pointing towards my fist. A cruel smile twitched onto Eleanor’s face, her dark brown hair falling around her shoulders like a moth eaten veil, wisps of hair floating around.

I cringed away, causing a nail to dig into my cheek forming a slender scratch on my hollow cheek. Eleanor gasped, “Look what you did!! I just got my nails done!” She growled at me, “What is my mate going think when he sees my ruined appearance?” she wailed, pointing at her nails and herself. I looked her up and down, seeing perfectly arranged chocolate brown hair, cruel blue eyes, red painted lips turned into a scowl, brand new clothes that are form fitting, and a barely, or even non-existent, blemish on her nail.

Looking up at her confused, I stayed silent. “Bitch, if my mate rejects me because of your stupidity and clumsiness, I will personally kill you,” She threatened, “I don’t want to end up a reject, like you.” Suddenly I fell onto the floor with my cheek stinging, and I couldn’t help the tears that started to form in my eyes and fall down my face. Usually I could contain my crying until I reached my cell.

“Stop crying, you slut,” sneered Hilton as he threw me against the wall, my head making a loud thud as it came in contact with the corner edge of the wall.

Walking towards me, Eleanor picked me up by my throat and slammed me against the wall. My eyes shot to Aaron, the Beta’s son, pleading him to help me for once and to be my brother. He gazed into my eyes then looked away, an unforgiving gleam in his eyes.

A punch to the gut brought my stare back from him and to Eleanor. Dropping me to the ground, she began kicking me harshly and repeatedly. Blood filled my mouth, choking me. Coughing crimson red splats, I started to breath heavily.

Once Eleanor stopped beating me, she handed me over to her brother who started to drag me away by my hair. I cried and searched for Aaron, Adam, and Axel praying they would help me and save me like they do in my dreams.

As always, my dreams are just dreams and they just stood there, watching me get dragged away to the room. They continued to watch me, almost as if they were still trying to tell me it was my fault and I could’ve helped them.

Eleanor followed us into the kitchen, lifting one of her five inch heels and slamming it into my stomach, causing me to groan in pain. I don’t do anything to stop her from kicking me, from twisting her heel into my gut, or from her disrespecting me; I deserve it. I take it all because of course I deserve it for being the weakest of the pack, the achilles heel.

I was pulled back by the shoulders slammed into the other wall. I slid down the wall feeling a shot of pain racing through my back.

“I told you to watch yourself,” Hilton growled. Sneering at me his cold fingers wrapped around my neck, I tried to breath, but it was no use he only tightened his grip on me. “Why you do piss everyone off? Huh?” Hilton snarled at me his canines flashing through his gums.

I shook my head “P-p-please” I gasped out trying to loosen Hilton’s grip on me. I felt a sharp pain erupt into my lower stomach, lowering my eyes towards what caused the pain. A knife protruding from my stomach made me want to throw up. My eyes widen as I struggled to move my hands, trying to remove the knife from my stomach. Hilton’s hand reached the knife before mine did, twisting the knife and causing a scream to erupt from my lips. My throat burned from the scream that ripped through me like wild fire. I thrashed against Hilton my breath coming out in pants, blood clogging my throat trying to escape through my closed lips.

I was no rookie and kept my blood from overflowing my lips.

The knife dug deeper into my stomach slicing through me. My life flashed before my eyes all of the pain, the misery, the agony clouded me. Fogging me in contempt for myself. Why am I so weak? Why can’t I protect myself? Why did I never fight back? Why today? Why? Why? Why?!7

My head snapped back, feeling the stinging pain still in my stomach, letting out a groan in soreness. Roughly grabbing my chin, jerking my face in his sister’s direction, Eleanor puckered her lips and spat on my face, looking at me like I was the scum of the earth.

“You shouldn’t have been born,” She said sneering at me, “You only cause pain and misery for us. You should have died the day you were born, your the reason why everything is wrong in our lives,” and at that moment I believed her. Hilton carelessly pulled the knife out of me. Hilton ran the blade down my cheek and under my chin, lifting my chin, “Why don’t you just die?”

Hilton gave me slobbery kiss to my cheek and left me there in my pain. I fell to the floor in a gasping heap, my body closing down on itself. I felt a kick aimed at my stomach, letting me fall into to a peaceful darkness.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ 6 hours later ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Hissing in pain, I applied disinfectant to my wounds. The stinging pain didn’t hurt as much as the beating I had gotten earlier. Stuffing a pair of socks into my mouth my hands went to my shoulder and popped it back in place. A lone tear slipped out of the corner of my eye.

Why me? I thought hopelessly, what did I ever do to them? They should respect me I am the BETA’S daughter.

“Don’t listen to them Amelia they don’t care about us, so why should we care about them?” My wolf spoke to me with hatred in her voice. My wolf, being a Beta, hated the way we are treated and doesn’t hesitate to show it.

It hurt both of us to think of our life before death. My mother was serious, but soft-spoken, and very affectionate. My father was almost the complete opposite; loud, boisterous, and renowned joker that could and would turn any awkward, and tense situation into something light hearted. The only thing they had in common was that they loved each other, and their kids, more than anyone else, and it was like their souls were intertwined. I can say, without any doubt, that even if they were human they would have ended up together.

I had three older siblings all of them brothers, me being the only girl and the youngest. My oldest brother is Aaron, he has an overprotective and very possessive edge to him that all betas have, he is also obnoxiously funny, and sarcastic. The second oldest is Adam, he is loud and is always joking around. The third oldest and my twin brother is Axel, he is a humble and funny guy, and had always been my best friend. Although, if you ever saw him fighting you would never assume he was class president and a straight A student.

It had happened on my 6th birthday, my parents had just given me a beautiful gold chain necklace as a gift. I was so excited for the party that I was bursting with excitement. I knew I shouldn’t have gone there, but I did. I knew I was not supposed to go there alone, but I did anyway. Walking towards the lake, I didn’t even notice the shadow following me until it was too late. The wolf lunged for me. Screaming, I fell to the ground praying to God that I would survive this.

White hot pain ripped through my stomach as I fell, the wolf falling on top of me. Suddenly, as if it was never there, the weight disappeared, and I fell into darkness.

I woke up in a white room, with 16 stitches in my stomach. I was told that my parents had died protecting me, and that moment was when my fairytale life turned into a nightmare.

Sighing, I broke myself from my thoughts and concentrated on my wounds. Closing my eyes I breathed in deeply and applied the antibiotic to the gash. Opening my eyes I looked at the long gash on my abdomen and slowly inched the needle towards it, sewing my wound together with a torrent of tears running down my face, my teeth biting into the socks in my mouth. Doing this four more times for the other gashes on my body, I finally laid down for a break before I began on the other wounds.

As I laid there, in what was most likely not the weakest state I’ve been in over these years, I kept on thinking, just what if.