Storm
I was thinking of calling it a night and heading home. As much as I didn’t want to be at home and dealing with my father, along with Mason and his stupid mate, Jewel. I knew that I should leave the party before the men here got even more drunk and became even more difficult to deal with.
Mine and Winter’s relationships with the members of our pack had taken a turn for the worst after the death of our mother. Our pack had turned on the both of us on account of our father’s rumours. Rumours which had painted a dark picture of our mother. Our mother had been well respected by the members of our pack. Many of our pack’s members had pitied our mother for having to put up with a man like our father. But once our father had started spreading rumours about our mother being unfaithful, the pack had forgiven him for all his past indiscretions and had condemned her for daring to try to have a little happiness in her life. Now thanks to my no-good father, Winter and I got treated abysmally by all of them. There was a time when we had only had to deal with our father and Mason torturing us on a regular basis. But now we had to watch out for members of the pack attacking us whenever we were out and about.
Whenever one of the pack members got the nerve to have a go at one of us, Winter and I tag teamed it and fought back with everything we had, determined to cause them as much pain as possible. We obviously didn’t care how much we hurt them. As far as we were concerned, our actions were justified.
As I was walking away from the bar, my best friend Kat scared me half to death when she grabbed me and dragged me into a big bear hug. She was almost as close to me as a sister. Kat and I had been inseparable ever since childhood.
As the two of us hugged it out, the music continued to reverberate around us, pounding through my bloodstream, and making me feel as though I was on some kind of an adrenaline high. Kat began to slowly move us in a swaying motion, moving us to the beat of the bass. After a while my body took over and soon the two of us were dancing, our bodies moving to the sound of the music pulsing through the speakers.
I had been trying to spend as much time with Kat as I could lately, because I felt guilty for the secret that I had been keeping from her for the past several weeks. She had no idea I was going to be leaving town soon. Winter and I were planning on leaving the country in the next couple of days, and we wouldn’t be coming back. After everything that had happened since our mother’s death, we couldn’t be around our own family or our pack anymore. We knew that we both needed to get out of this place before someone killed us.
Kat had no idea that in less than thirty-six hours, I’d be gone. After years of being around each other every day, I would be out of her life for good. As much as it hurt for me to admit it to myself, Kat and I would never see each other again. I couldn’t come back here. The risk was too great. As we continued to dance to the music, beads of sweat began to gather on my forehead. I had been out here, dancing in the heat of the fires for hours now. It was hot, and the sweat covered my body as my hair stuck to my neck, and my clothing began to stick to my skin. I was sweating so much, that I knew I needed to rehydrate. I needed another drink or five.
As if reading my mind, Kat stepped back away from me and grabbed my hand. A moment later she began to drag me back towards the bar I had gone over to earlier. Leaning on the bar, she yelled, “Vodka and orange juice please.” The bartender nodded to her, before looking at me. “Can of Jim Beam please,” I shouted, over the loud music. The bartender nodded to the both of us, then walked over to the coolers that were behind the bar. As we stood there and waited for our drinks, Kat hugged me to her once again, and leaning in closer to my ear, she said something to me, but I didn’t catch what it was she had said, because her voice was drowned out by the loud music. I looked up to tell her that I hadn’t heard what she had said, and I was surprised to see that on her face there was a smile as big as Texas. Her attention was now on a man who was standing a few feet away from us. The man she was looking at was tall, roughly six foot, and he had brown hair with blonde tips, light blue eyes, and he was of muscular build with a healthy tan. He could be a model gracing the cover of GQ with that body and those looks. And Kat looked absolutely stoked as she gazed at him.
I was aware of movement beside me, and I looked up and found that Asher guy looking at me. Still annoyed with him regarding our earlier conversation, I stepped back away from him, wanting to put a little distance between the two of us. Glancing back over at Kat, I took in her appearance. Kat was what people called a classic beauty. With her long black hair and ivory complexion, coupled with her beautiful emerald, green eyes, rimmed with thick lashes, and a body that women around the world would happily kill for. She was stunning to say the least. No wonder men drooled over her wherever she went. She was gorgeous enough to easily grace the covers of magazines around the globe, and I was proud to call her my friend.
I glanced back at Asher, trying to figure out what was up with him. Why was he hanging around me like a bad smell suddenly?
“Kat, want to play a game of beer pong?” I asked her, breaking into her ogling session. She looked over at me and nodded.
We picked up our drinks off the bar and made our way over to where the table tennis tables had been set up earlier in the day. Two members of our pack, Cameron and his friend Josh were already there playing a game of beer pong. Josh and Cameron, ever the womanizers, were trying to sweet-talk their way into the pants of two blonde bimbos who were hanging onto their every word. They were human, so as far as the boys were concerned, the girls were easy targets for a night of fun. Still, I felt a stab of anger as I watched them. Josh wouldn’t ever change his womanising ways.
Storm I was turning eighteen in two weeks, and when I did, I would find my fated mate, or soul mate in human terms. Josh’s birthday was three days after mine. There was once a time when I was still a kid when Josh and I had been friends. Back then, I had hoped my fated mate would end up being Josh. But now? Now I was constantly worried that in two weeks’ time I’d find out Josh is my mate and just like my mother, I’d be stuck with an unfaithful mate for the rest of my life. If that were to happen, I would be destined to live my mother’s disastrous life all over again. Well, no thank you. Living through it once had been enough. “Well, well, well, lookie who finally showed up! Had enough of getting the men folk all hot and bothered on the dance floor, have you?” Josh asked, as he looked at me with a smirk on his face. Before I could respond, Cameron said, “Oh there you are! Girls, may I introduce you to Emma and Alice,” as he gestured to the two bimbos standing
Storm I took in his words, and after a moment I nodded. He was right. If I wanted our escape plan to go off without a hitch, then I needed to stay out of my father and my brother’s way. I needed to fly under the radar and not attract any unwanted attention from either of them. If I were to get on their nasty side now, it would throw a spanner into the works. Effectively ruining our escape plan and seeing me trapped in this never-ending vicious cycle I had been caught in with the men in my family since my mother’s death. Felix was flying back out to Germany in two days’ time, to return to his pack. Felix’s father was his pack’s Alpha, and Winter had met him last month when he had flown over here to America with his parents to attend a conference with our pack, along with several other packs in the Texas area. I remember how excited Winter had been when she had first met Felix. She was twenty-one now and had been waiting to find her mate since she had
Storm Now, standing here in front of him, I had had enough of his crap. Now that he could see that someone appeared to be showing an interest in me, he was annoyed about it, and he had begun to think he had the God-given right to sabotage what he interpreted to be my new love interest by acting in the manner of a typical jealous boyfriend. “Thank you for your concern, Josh. But you can leave now and take those two bimbos with you. Screw them and then just throw them away, just like you always do. Like you have done with every other girl you have ever slept with and then thrown away, as though she was nothing more than yesterday’s trash. I don’t give a stuff what you do anymore. I couldn’t care less. But I am going home with whoever I want to, and there ain’t a damn thing you can do or say about it.” As I spoke, the venom in my voice was coming through plain as day. Cameron was standing back, a short distance away from us with bimbo one
Storm I woke up the next morning and it wasn’t long before the thought that today was my last day with Kat sank in. Laying there, I felt the ache in my chest as the tears gathered in my eyes. I was going to miss her when I left here, but my leaving here had to happen. There really was no other option for me. My survival depended on me getting out of here and making a life for myself elsewhere. In this case, 'elsewhere,' being as far away from here as humanly possible. Thinking about how tomorrow meant that I would no longer be living here in this pack, slightly eased the ache in my chest. Soon I would be free of this place for good. I was meeting Kat for lunch today at a local cafe in town. For Kat, it would just be a normal lunch, the same as we did each week, but for me, it would be a farewell lunch. The only thing was, I would have to make sure that Kat didn’t catch on to what I was up to. I had told Winter that I would be spending the morning packing my b
Storm I snuck outside of the Alpha residence and made my way towards the eight-foot concrete wall which surrounded the Alpha residence. Crouching behind an enormous tree in the garden, I watched as two of my father’s guards made their way past my hiding spot. Even though these guards were assigned to protect the entire Alpha family, my father and Mason had turned the guards against me and Winter, just as they had done everyone else within the pack. So, if the guards caught on to my presence and I was captured, it would mean trouble for me for sure. I waited until the guards were out of sight, and when I could no longer see them; I ran over to the wall hiding among the trees near the wall. When I was sure the coast was clear, I crawled behind the shrubby bush which covered the hole in the wall that I used to sneak in and out of the Alpha compound. I crawled through the hole and found myself between the wall and another bush which hid the hole on the outside of
Storm When Winter arrived, I was relieved to see that she had brought Felix with her. Winter and Felix sat with us and joined in for a brief chat with Kat so that we wouldn’t appear suspicious. It wasn’t long before Winter suddenly announced that we had to be leaving, because we had somewhere that we needed to be. Thankful that Winter had come up with an excuse for us to leave, I got up from the table, glad to be away from Asher, and hugged my friend for the very last time. I held onto her tight, and when I let her go, I saw the curious look she gave me. So that she didn’t ask me questions that I wouldn’t be able to answer, I simply said, “I will call you tomorrow and see where you are at, and what your plans are, maybe we can go do something together, okay?” Seeming happy with that, Kat smiled at me and nodded. As soon as we got into Winter’s SUV, unable to hold my emotions at bay anymore, I burst into tears. Winter who was sitting in the back seat
Storm Setting my backpack on one of the shelves in my wardrobe, I started arranging my outfit for tomorrow. Selecting a pair of black yoga pants with lime green pin stripes that ran down the sides, along with a lime green long sleeved tee shirt and a dark purple zip up jacket, and a pair of Nike runners. I put the clothes on the shelf beside my backpack ready for in the morning. With my outfit and everything I needed ready for tomorrow morning; I made my way downstairs where I found Felix and Winter snuggled up on the couch watching a movie. When Winter saw me, she smiled, and I sat beside her on the couch, and watched the movie until it was time for us to make our way into the dining room for dinner. When we got into the dining room, I felt relieved when I saw that Winter, Felix and I were the only ones who would be eating dinner that evening. Everyone else must have been out, as there were no other places set at the table. The three of us ate our meal quiet
Storm The flight from Houston to Dublin took just under ten hours. On the flight, I did what Winter and Felix had said, and set up the phone with my favourite apps and downloaded music onto Spotify. We were halfway over the Atlantic Ocean when Winter and I had renounced our ties to the Hunter’s Moon Pack, which meant that we no longer had any links to that pack. During the flight, Winter had sent me a text message that contained the details for my new email account and various other accounts that she had set up for me in my new identity. She also gave me my newly forged documents that her friend had made for me. I took a quick look at my new identity, noting the name, Lena Wolf, smiling at the irony of the name, as I placed everything into my backpack. By the time we had landed in Ireland, it was almost three o’clock in the afternoon. Seeing as how all of us were exhausted from the long flight, we decided we would eat our dinner and sleep on the plane for the