"Mama, am I a monster?Why am I different from everyone else?"
"You are not, my darling. Just like there are many flowers in the world, the red camellia is the rarest of them all. You are like the red camellia. Rare. And that makes you special."
Camille to her daughter, Ally (8 yrs old)
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ALLY’s POV
The first time my powers manifested, I was eight.
Kara and I had been playing in our mother's garden in the backyard and something had bitten my bare foot.
One minute I was screaming and the next, I saw my sister sitting on the ground several feet away from me, terror in her eyes.
Our mother, heavily pregnant had rushed out to see what the commotion was about and gasped.
That was when I looked around to see what used to be her garden. Nothing remained. Just a huge pile of ash. I'd passed out almost immediately, the migraine that hit me knocking me out in an instant.
If I'd thought mama was overprotective before, after that day, it quadrupled.
And then when mama passed, Kara became my babysitter, as much as her position as the Alpha's oldest could allow.
And then Kara died and the job of protecting my secret fell on my shoulders.
Sometimes I wondered if sleeping and never waking up would be a mercy compared to what would happen if anyone found out my secret.
Unnatural. Hybrid. Crossbreed.
I groaned and covered my head with a pillow when the first rays of sunlight hit my face.
"Rise and shine, my disciple."
Only one person called me that. I squinted my eyes and was met with the face of a boy that looked so much like Kara, it hurt to look at him sometimes.
My brother, Myers.
His dark blonde curls were glittering as the sun's rays rested on his head.
"Go away, Myers" I said, stuffing my face in a pillow.
There. Some peace and quiet. That is, until my entire body hit the ground.
"Myers!"
"Catch me if you can." And he took off for the living room, sure I'd run after him like I always did. And I was planning to, standing from the bed and stopping almost immediately when I saw handprints all over my sheets, only that where those handprints were, they were holes. Burnt into the fabric by my palms. It'd been so long since it last happened that I'd almost forgotten that I was capable of burning the house to the ground if I ever lost control.
Ripping the sheets from the bed with speed in case Myers came back to find me, I dumped it in the laundry basket and walked out of my bedroom. I met him in the kitchen drinking from a bottle of juice, despite knowing he should use a cup. On the counter was a plate of toast, bacon and eggs.
For a moment, I forgot what brought me here and helped myself to some bread. "Hey, that's mine. Go make your own." He whined and I smacked the back of his head.
"Well,you woke me up. Besides, who made this? Last I checked,you can't cook."
"Dad did."
"Oh."
It was no secret that my father and I were not friends. Ever since Kara died, I'd distanced myself from him, rebelled, fought with him until he couldn't take it anymore and finally snapped. And there was the fact that I'd done it all so that he wouldn't get close enough to know my secret.
"You can't do this forever, Allyson." He growled at me as I stood by the window in the living room.
"Of course I can. What do you want from me?"
"I want you to grow up, Grow up. You've lived your entire life being a shadow of your sister and I didn't complain because—"
"She was best at everything, father. She took care of us when you didn't. Of me when you didn't. She became both mother and father to us when mum died and in your grief, you shut us out. Myers and I were able to have a normal childhood because she made sure she exceeded all your expectations and carried the burden of being the Alpha's oldest." I yelled.
"You think I don't know that! Do you for one second think I'm okay with losing Kara? She was everything a father would have wanted in a child. She wouldn't be making trouble around and constituting a nuisance everywhere." He blurted out, but not before he saw how he'd broken the battered remnants of my heart to pieces.
"Ally, I didn't mean-"
"No,it's fine. I understand. I'll never be the kind of daughter that you'd be proud of. I'll never be Kara."
"Ally, you're not eating." Myers said, a frown etched on his slender face. He was just eleven and was already bigger than most boys his age, looking like a fourteen year old. The perks of werewolf genes. Alpha genes.
"Its alright. I'm not just hungry anymore." I said, standing up to leave the kitchen.
"But I can't finish all of this. I asked him to make for the two of us. Please, don't go." I could hear how hurt he was as he pleaded.
Turning around to face him, I saw his green eyes filled with tears. I sighed and opened my arms for him.
He hugged me tight and started crying as I apologized to him. Even though he barely talked about Mum and Kara and tried to put up a happy face, I knew he was just as affected as I was.
He was barely three when mum passed away, and then Kara died a few days before his eighth birthday.
Then he had to watch as I spiraled down for a while before trying to pick up and put the pieces of my life together. It filled me with shame that despite knowing all of that, I couldn't protect him from the repercussions of the discord between myself and our father.
"I'm sorry, Ally. Men don't cry, do they?" He said, sniffing as he pulled me to sit beside him by the kitchen counter.
"Don't let any one fool you, Myers. They cry, a lot. But don't cry in front of anyone except me,okay?" With that,he nodded and gave me a genuine smile. Something that I'd been struggling to give to everyone who was worried about me. There and then, I decided that I was going to try harder to be the sister he deserved "So,will you eat with me?"
"Of course. I'll even drive you to school. How about that?"
••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••
"So,what's it going to be? East or West?" Caleb asked as we sat in our favorite diner. The sun had just set.
We were discussing college options.
All supernatural communities, including the packs and clans took up the responsibility of educating their young until the high school level before letting them leave to study in whatever college they desired, with humans. It was the only time supernaturals were able to share the same space or air without the need for confrontation, because confrontation meant exposure to the humans and confidentiality was the only rule all the supernaturals agreed on completely.
"We've had this discussion before and you know that-"
"You can't leave Myers here while you go to college in the West or probably East. North is out of it entirely." He answered,stealing a fry from my plate.
I rolled my eyes. Everyone knew that there were only mountains in the North, the human population the lowest in the entire country although there were rumors that some packs lived there. Our pack, the Rocca Tribe was located in the forest region of Creemore, a little town thirty minutes away from the country's largest city, Toronto.
"I prefer to go West though. That's where most of us are likely to be at, especially with the vampires overpopulating the East."
"Come on. Let's go East. I've heard tales that the most beautiful women are from the East. Besides, we'll get to see the famous Gomez Tribe for ourselves."
"Like it's not the Gomez girls you're after."
I snorted and stole his cup of ice cream.
He tried to pin me with a glare and sighed when I didn't budge.
"Ally, please. There are so many tribes to check out in the East. Besides, the human population is more there than West."
"I'll think about it. But the Saskat River in the West is beautiful and the weather is—"
We were interrupted when Raymond walked in with a group of people. After telling them to reserve a seat for him, he strolled to meet us, a smirk on his face. I adjusted my glasses and gave Caleb a look that said,
Please don't fight him.
Raymond was the son of Grant, my father's second. He was also the guy I lost my virginity to, when I was going through a rebellious phase.
After that, I think he assumed that we were going to have our happily ever after, where he would become Alpha and make all his dreams come true. Unfortunately for him, I kicked his ass to the curb after waking up the next morning and we'd been at loggerheads ever since.
"Well,well,look what the wind blew in my direction today. Hello, Allyson." He said and gave me a smug look. I sighed and placed a hand on my forehead, the poker face I'd had to perfect over the years intact. I could have done better than him.
"What do you want?" Caleb attempted to say but came out as a growl, his face impassive. I knew Caleb enough to know that he would attack if provoked. And Raymond, from the glint in his eyes was set to provoke him.
"Well, hello to you too, Caleb. Thanks, by the way for watching out for my sweetheart while we were apart."
"What do you want, Raymond?" I said, looking up to glare at him, and he smirked,eyeing me up and down.
To think there was a time in my life where I'd fantasized about getting into his pants, I shook my head and sighed in regret.
"I want us to talk, Ally. Like a real talk. Without Mr bodyguard, of course." He said seriously before eyeing Caleb like he was some kind of poison.
"Well, she doesn't want to talk to you, punk. So waddle away." I chuckled when I saw that Caleb's words had wiped the smirk from his face.
But then he smiled, and whispered
"At least I was the one that got into her pants. Not you, smartass."
He turned to leave, but not before Caleb stood up and tackled him on the ground, his fangs already showing.
The entire cafe had stopped what they were doing to witness the fight. If there was anything werewolves loved more than hating vampires, it was watching fights. I could see all of them ready to start chanting.
Although I wanted to let Caleb have his fun with Raymond, I had to stop him.
"Please, Caleb. Trust me, it doesn't matter."
"I won't let him disrespect you and get away with it." Caleb's green eyes were already wolf-blue, Raymond's brown eyes amber as his wolf waited for Caleb to land the first blow, which would automatically lead to a fight that ended in spilling blood and broken bones.
Then I remembered something and I smiled. "Just let him go, Caleb. His dignity is already down the drains. Not every guy would be happy to know that you screwed their girlfriend and sister, on the same day." I whispered, knowing that everyone in the diner with werewolf senses would hear me and I'm sure I heard someone gasp.
Raymond's face paled and Caleb smiled triumphantly at the memory. Standing up,he whispered "Well, Ashley and Rayna were good lays, by the way."
"You son of a bitch" It was Raymond's turn to see red. Some guys had come over to restrain him, while Caleb helped me to gather my books. "Bye." We said simultaneously and turned to leave the cafe when we heard a piercing scream.
I'm sure everyone else heard it too, because all of us ran out to see what was going on.
The scream was from Mrs Nettle's house five houses away and when we got there, a small crowd had gathered around something.
A girl was on the floor, lifeless with black liquid foaming at her mouth and when I moved closer to see her face, I gasped and covered my mouth.
It was Ashley, the same Raymond's girlfriend that we'd spoken about not too long ago.
This didn't look good at all.
I hoped you liked this chapter. Well,for more clarification, The plot is set in Canada, where there are many towns with different packs, for example, the Rocca Tribe lives in Creemore, Toronto.
Gomez Tribe in the East, in Mysica, Labrador. It goes on and on like that. More packs will be talked about as we move on.
Let's not forget the vampires too. They live in clans as well in different places too and so do humans. You could find some wolves and vampires living among the Humana especially those that have gone rogue or been banished for one reason or the other, or just basically refuse to live within a pack/clan structure.
The packs and clans educate their children all through the way to high school after which they are then giving identities that allow them to attend colleges in human societies.
