Chapter One

I knew it was going to be a bad day. I had gotten up late. My alarm had been waking me up less and less. I threw on my clothes. I didn’t really care what I looked like, I wanted to be invisible. Maybe if I was invisible, they would leave me alone. I doubt it. I didn’t want to be here, I didn’t want to be at school, sometimes I envisioned myself running away, free to be whoever I wanted to be. I knew better than to hope for it. I’m a werewolf, I am fine with that, I just don’t want to be in this pack. Alpha Jax and his Luna Nina were very nice. Their sons, Arrow and Arion were a different story. I had dubbed them the twins from hell when we were in elementary school.

As I headed out the door, I heard my mom in the kitchen.

“Wait! Rina, you forgot lunch!” She called out.

“I will grab something at school,” I yelled back.

The bell rang signaling the start of the first period. I was getting used to being late to my first class, it was gym. I hated gym. My coach is Betta Reid the pack’s beta. He is tough cunning and liked to make an example out of me. He wasn’t nearly as tough on everyone else.

When I walked out onto the field, Coach Reid, as he liked to be called; called out to me.

 “Rina, if you insist on being late for my class, then you will continue to run laps. Five laps then join us.”

I grumbled. I could run five laps easily. He had tried to get me to try out for track but, I didn’t want to, the other girls would have picked on me anyway. I didn’t want to run laps with everyone watching me and laughing at my punishment again, especially the twins. Arrow and Arion were both in my gym class. They found it fun to torment me every chance they got. They would be turning eighteen soon. That meant they would find their mates. I felt bad for the mates! Sheila and Jackie both thought they were obviously their mates. Arion was dating Jackie and Arrow was dating Sheila. They deserved each other. Jackie was a bit nicer than Sheila but only because Sheila was scarier. Sheila was a monster. She decided she would be the Luna once she was found to be Arrow’s mate. She would sit at her desk ordering others around, even Jackie said she would do what Sheila said so she didn’t have to listen to her.

I shuddered as I ran thinking of either one being my Luna. I was not interested in becoming anything other than a regular pack member. I didn’t care for parties, speeches, and council meetings. I had decided when I was 12, that I would leave this pack as soon as I turned eighteen. I refused to have the twins as my Alpha. If they were indeed mated to Shelia and Jackie, I couldn’t imagine the awful future for this pack. I had three months to go. Hopefully, I could wait that long.

After I finished my five laps, I joined the rest of the class. Everyone was playing dodgeball. Yup, a bad day. I took my place on Arion and Arrow’s team. They were never separated. They did whatever they pleased which usually meant they got their way.

“Hey, tiny, don’t make us lose,” Arrow yelled to me making everyone laugh.

“Yeah, we stood a chance until you showed up!” Arion yelled causing everyone to laugh harder.

I rolled my eyes. When Coach Reid blew his whistle, everybody took their stance. I had not been given a ball, typical.

“In three, two, one, playball!” Coach yelled.

All at once, the field erupted with balls flying, wolves yelling, and of course, Arrow and Arion yelling directions at everyone.

“Get the ball!” someone yelled at me, I looked up in time to see Sheila throw the ball as hard as she could right at me!

“Catch it, catch it catch it,” I told myself. I was ready, then at the last second, I tripped over a rock in the grass. I fell forward just in time for the ball to slam into my face. I fell backward hitting my head on the hard ground. The entire class erupted in laughter.

“That’s my girl,” Arrow yelled as he ran over scooping up Sheila before kissing her as he spun her around.

Really? I thought to myself. She’s on the opposite team. I sat up, rubbing the back of my head. I felt something drip down my face. I reached up feeling my nose run. When I looked at my fingers, it was blood. Great, now my nose will be black and blue as well as swollen.

Arion was watching me from across the field. I looked away. I didn’t need them having more ammunition to use against me. Jackie ran over to him, she wrapped herself around him before they joined Arrow and Sheila.

Coach came and checked out my nose. “Go to the nurse, I think it may be broken.” He pulled me up from the ground.

“Darren, walk her to the nurse.”

“Ok coach.” Darren jogged over. He offered me his arm. I took it glad to have something to stop me from falling over.

I must have hit my head harder than I thought. I could have sworn I saw Arion look at me again. Nah, it was just the broken nose and giant goose egg on the back of my head.

When we reached the nurse, she took one look at me before grabbing two ice packs. She had me lie down on the cot. She put one ice pack under my head for the bump on the back. She wiped all the blood off my face, making sure my nose had stopped bleeding. She then placed the other ice pack gently on my face. I flinched at the cold.

Darren stood there watching me, a sympathetic look on his handsome face.

“You can go back to class, just be careful, tell coach I said to stop breaking the students!” She is Betta Reid’s mate, I felt bad for her.

“Ok, I will give him the message. Hey, Rina, you gonna be alright?” he asked, genuine concern on his handsome and totally kissable face.

I didn’t answer, giving him the thumbs up instead. A little while later, my mom came and picked me up. She took me to the doctor to have my nose checked out.

“Shelia threw the ball at you?” she asked anger on her face.

“Yeah but, we were playing dodge ball. I tripped instead of catching the ball.”

“Still, someone needs to put that bitch in her place,” she growled. Sheila’s mom had treated my mother the same way until my mom took her down in training one day. After that, she left my mom alone.

The doctor I saw was nice. She checked my nose, and without warning, she grabbed it, I screamed as she reset it.

“It will heal, and you will never know it was broken. I am giving you a note for Gym. No sports other than walking for two weeks.” She smiled as she handed me the note.

I stayed home the rest of the day. My mom owned a bakery in town, she was always busy there. I went with her to help her make dessert for the pack dinner. They paid her well for the desserts but she often said it was difficult to keep up with all the normal stuff plus dessert for the pack every night.

I heard the bell above the door chime. I wanted to run and hide when I saw Alpha Jax, Luna Nina, and the twins walk in.

“Hello Nadia, we would like to have you design a cake for the twins' eighteenth birthday. As you know it is in a month and a half.”

“Of course! I was wondering when you would come to see me!” she smiled politely. “Come right this way, I will grab the books and you can all start picking out what you would like.”

Luna Nina thanked her. My mom had been friends with Luna Nina when she was just Nina. They were still friends, but they were not as close.

I watched as they all headed into our design room. Arion looked as though he wanted to say something but decided against it. Arrow, on the other hand, smirked at me. Once they were inside with my mother, I rolled my eyes. Why did the hell twins show up everywhere? I mean they are gorgeous, and them being identical twins means double the eye candy but, they are so aggravating. They both had perfectly sculpted faces, their eyes were amber-colored but darkened when they were mad, their skin was sun-kissed and their bodies were muscular. They wore t-shirts to show off their muscles that rippled under the thin material. When they took their shirts off, their muscles trailed down below the waistline of their jeans. Their black hair looked so soft, I wanted to run my fingers through it, Wait what? No, I didn’t eewww. I could never compare to Jackie or Sheila, they both had supermodel bodies, Sheila was blonde with blue eyes, and her body had been described by plenty of guys as “perfect.” Jackie had light brown hair, her eyes were brown, and she had big boobs which all the guys talked about. I hated all four of them; I didn't care if they were the "it" crowd.