Chapter 2

“Mother! Mother! Mother!" Nine-year-old Athena squealed as she ran around the house.

"Athena. Sit down." Brenda laughed at the little girl's excitement.

"But don't you see? it's my birthday I can't possibly be calm." The little girl made it sound like a taboo.

"Yes. Yes. I know. A nine-year-old isn't a baby anymore."

"I thought when one turns six is when they aren't a baby anymore." Cassandra fixed a stare on her.

"Did you lie to me mother?"

" Oh, dear! The pie is burning."

" But there is no pie."

It was too late since Brenda had already made her mistake.

Later in the evening, Cassandra is letting out sobs hiding her face in her palm.

"You mean you aren't my real mother?"

"I'm sorry, but it's true. But I will always see you and treat you as my own."

"No! I will just continue to pretend that you are my mother and that she doesn't exist since she was so wicked to abandon me."

"Athena."

"No! No! No! I hate her. I hate her. I hate her."

And she ran up to her room crying.

Brenda couldn't find it in herself to tell a nine-year-old that her mother had been burnt alive. She had told Athena that her mother was a very busy woman who lived far away and had entrusted Brenda with her care. It's safe to say that this did not sit particularly well with Athena who began to hate her mother.

1877

Werewolf children usually have their first shift at the age of six. Athena had turned nine and no shift seemed forthcoming.

"Athena."

"Yes, mother."

She answered in the withdrawn demeanor she had adopted ever since the realization.

"I want you to learn how to defend yourself."

"Okay. I'll hire you a personal trainer."

"Is that necessary?"

"Yes, my dear."

"Okay, mother."

1879

Athena was eleven now and still hasn't shifted. But due to all the training she had been receiving from all angles, she could fight off two of her age mates simultaneously even if they were in werewolf form. The fighting and the excessive training seemed to be where her passion went whilst she became more distant.

1884

At sixteen having inherited her mother's extraordinary beautiful looks, Athena had started to attract a lot of male attention. When Athena was a child Brenda had thought that by the time Athena was this age she would have to be beating off boys off the door with a broomstick or a pot. But everyone was so scared of Athena that no one male or female dared to approach her, saving Brenda the stress. She sighed. She was strangely looking forward to chasing boys away with mopping sticks and boiling water.

She walked up to Athena looked at her then said.

"Athena, I want to tell you something." She remained as she was, not turning around to acknowledge her. But Brenda was used to it.

"Let me tell you the true story about your mother."

**

It wasn't until Brenda finished narrating the tale of werewolves and her mother that Athena finally turned around to face, the anger and hate that became a constant in her eyes was now tenfold, but this time directed at her Father.

"I will avenge her." She vowed.

Brenda drew back at her tone and words. She had expected tears or perhaps a tantrum. What had happened to the sweet little girl who hid between the folds of her skirts.

1894

At twenty-six they had lost hope of her ever-shifting. But she became the most sought-after soldier on the continent from time to time she gets summonsed by different packs to help train the soldiers.

Though it was usually when those packs were out of options, because they had a problem with Athena, apart from the fact that she turned the men's head the wrong way. Whether it was the firstborn Alpha blood in her or just her stubbornness but Athena never took orders from anyone be it a soldier of the highest rank or an Alpha himself. She only did what she wanted and she always got away with it because against their will, they respected her not to mention she was good. Better than their best soldiers sometimes even the Alphas.

"I leave tomorrow, mother."

"Farewell, my dear."

But the journey was not to be made.

No sooner than Cassandra had left the house did she hear Brenda scream. She quickly went back into the house and saw the one person she cared about on the floor.

"Mother, what happened." She knelt beside her.

"The Alpha…" She coughed.

"What about the Alpha?" Athena asked, slowly panicking

"I come from a line of what they call king's women. When…..when I was born," she said as she spoke she coughed and blood emerged from her mouth and she took her breaths in gasps.

"My life force was linked to your father, the Alpha in such a way that if I died nothing would happen to him but if he died-"

She coughed up more blood.

" You die." Athena completed it for her.

"Listen, Athena. I have never requested anything from you but today can I ask you for something?"

"Go ahead."

"Two."

"I'm listening."

"If it's not too much I want to be buried in my proper place back at Antarti pack there is a place where midwives are buried."

"Consider it done."

"The second. Please Cassandra…. forgive your father." And with those words, she took her last breath, just before Cassandra uttered one word.

"Never."