1. A traitor's daughter

Kiara’s POV

As I gently nudged open the door to my dorm room, my jaw dropped in utter disbelief. 

The place was a total disaster!

My once neatly arranged bed, desk, and dresser now lay in disarray, overturned and scattered haphazardly. Torn books littered the floor alongside dusty clothes and crumpled fabrics, while a toppled vase added a touch of shattered fragility to the scene.

Appalled, I looked toward my roommate, Anna sitting on her bed with her eyes looking towards the ground, hesitant to meet mine.

“Anna, what the hell happened?” I asked, worried that people might have broken into our room and tried to harm her. However, thankfully, there were no signs of injury on her body. “Are you alright?”

She nodded and looked up at my face with guilty eyes, “I’m sorry.” She said, “Leslie knocked on the door half an hour ago and threatened me. She said if I didn’t let her in, she would make my life a living hell like she did with you.”

“Oh, God.” I mumbled to myself, “Of course.”

Before I could examine the extent of the damage in the room, a sudden thought prompted me to look toward my closet. No!

With haste, I darted towards my closet, forcefully swinging the doors open, only to be met with an unbelievable sight. 

My hand-sewn cocktail dress, which was intended to be my birthday outfit for tonight, lay torn to pieces. My heart sank to the deepest abyss of my stomach at the sight before me, and tears began to well up, threatening to escape from my eyes. 

I would not have cared if it was any other piece of clothing. But this gown, besides school supplies and essentials, was the first thing I bought for myself in a long time. I had saved up money over the past three months by working at the café so that I could buy the necessary materials to sew the gown myself.

And tonight's a double whammy – it's my 18th birthday in just a few hours.  As a werewolf style, turning 18 means I get to find my fated mate that is chosen by the moon goddess and probably got a chance to pull off my first shift.

But now, the torn dress destroyed the highlight of my life that I longed for most. I fell to the ground, and tears streamed down my cheeks as I examined the torn fabric, a bitter realization washed over me—I had nothing suitable to wear for tonight’s occasion.

Embarrassed to let Anna witness my plight, I hurried to the bathroom, her voice calling out for me from behind. Despite her calls, I rushed inside, determined to shield her from seeing me in such a state. Those pity-filled eyes, which I had gotten used to, were exactly what I aimed to avoid. Anna knew better than anyone else that my foster parents never got me stuff of my own. I was always forced to wear their daughter Leslie’s old clothes. To make things more difficult for me, Leslie would purposefully tear or stain her old cloth. And I never had the money to buy things for myself until recently when I had to move to a dorm and got a part-time job.

All of my nightmares start with the unfortunate night of my father’s death. Beta Benson Stone, Leslie’s father, has been controlling my life since then.

I'm from a single parent family before all these horrible things happened.

My mother passed away, giving birth to me due to a medical complication, and my father was away fighting in a war at that time. He was devastated when he returned home, but he could not let that get the better of him, as he was now responsible for caring for me. However, I didn’t have much time with him either, as he was again sent into a war to fight for his pack. He was the Beta then, and he had huge responsibilities on his shoulders.

Nevertheless, my father never returned home from that war. The only man with him that night was Benson Stone, who claimed that my father was trying to escape like a coward. In an attempt to stop him, Benson suffered grave injuries and fell into a deep pit in the ground, but he could not save my father. 

Believe it or not, this is all bullshit! I don't believe a word that comes out of that disgusting mouth. The last thing my father would do, was to betray the pack and escape to save his life.

Upon Benson’s return to the pack, he was promoted to fill my father’s position as Beta, and the entire pack showered him with applause, praising his supposed bravery. He even made grand promises to take me under his wing and care for me as his own daughter. If only someone had held him accountable for his empty words now.

The entire pack is well aware of the horrendous treatment I receive from Leslie and her family. Essentially, I was nothing more than a servant they pretended to care for. Despite the grim awareness of my dire circumstances, no one steps forward to rescue me, and I am painfully aware that deep down, resentment lingers within every one of them. They despise me for the simple fact of being my father’s daughter—branded as the offspring of a traitor, a coward, and their way of punishing me is letting the Stones do the cruellest things to me and remain silent.

The sole glimmer of hope I held onto was the fact that this was my final year of high school. Once it concluded, I could flee to college and bid farewell to the burden of living with the Stones. Additionally, I found solace in being awarded a scholarship for this year, granting me the privilege of free housing on campus. Fortunately, very few individuals occupied the dorm rooms in our school, a circumstance for which I was immensely grateful. It significantly diminished the likelihood of encountering the Stones daily. The only times I was forced to visit their residence were the weekends, as they aimed to put on a façade of care and concern for me in front of others.

However, that wasn’t my concern for tonight. I had more pressing matters, such as deciding what to wear for tonight’s party. There was no way I would allow myself to miss this event. After all, it was the end-of-semester celebration at school, and on top of that, it marked my 18th birthday. This meant that, at long last, I would discover the identity of my mate. At the very least, I needed to attend the party for his sake. A small glimmer of hope within me couldn’t help but yearn for a better life once I found my mate. Perhaps he would become my shield, protecting me from every adversity that plagued my existence.