Chapter 1.

"Oh my God, it was an accident, why is no one listening to me? I didn't mean for that to happen, I didn't mean it dad, you have to believe me mom, Rana, why aren't you saying anything, you know what happened was a mistake! Enzal, you too?"

Rita looked around desperately, searching for the eyes that would hold hers, believing all that she was saying, but everybody, her whole family looked away, every single person, no one of them believed her or even remotely believed her claims of innocence.

"Wow, oh my God, wow"

She broke down in tears, crumpled on the prettily designed sofa, but no one she had just appealed to came near her to comfort her or to soothe her. They just watched her cry her eyes out till she was ridden with a running nose and red eyes. Her mom and dad watched her from afar, the few steps they were from her and collectively shook their heads.

"You don't need all these pretending, everyone knows how you are with Sam, you were never on good terms with him anyway, so after all these, you think we'd doubt that you did that to him?" It was her mom that finally spoke up after so long.

"Rita, I'm your father and I've watched you grow from a toddling toddler to the grown woman you are now. I know everything you're capable of and I will affirm now that you are capable of doing this. Yes, this was an intentional act, things don't just coincide and happen by accident."

Her father added while she just stared at them through her tears, her body suddenly numb.

"Rita, we're not even condemning you but the least you can do is to own this, it has happened and we've already seen a way forward and Sammie isn't going to die, you denying this so vehemently isn't going to change anything. Why not just own it?" Enzal intoned right after her father when Rana contributed the worst of it all.

"We all know what you can do, Rits. We've lived with you all our lives and we know what happened with Sam, stop this bullshit pretense, we know what you did, girl, we know!"

This isn't my family. This isn't my family. This isn't my family. This isn't my family. This isn't my family. This isn't my family. This isn't my family. This isn't my family.

Rita chanted like one mad with a devil, in her mind, she went over the words again and again until she was sure that she was imagining what was going on in front of her.

She watched her parents and siblings walk out on her, they walked past and her mom added "We expect you to come visit Sam in the next few days, we're unable to explain what happened to him, perhaps only you can do it; I don't expect to remind you."

This was the last straw for Rita, immediately they had all filed out, like one possessed by a demon, she stood up in a daze, her face still tear stricken, she went into her room, then returned as if as an afterthought. She went to the kitchen, took some of the boxes of cereal into the room, there was a water dispenser, toilet and bathroom and most of all she needed in her room, it could even pass for a self contained place.

She grabbed most of the fruits and frozen meals in the family fridge in the kitchen and dumped them into hers, basically, she was grabbing a whole lot of stuff into her room. After about 10 minutes, the tears earlier seen on her face seemed to have dried off a little, her long black hair now in a bun as opposed to her unruly look moments ago. She seems like one with a new found determination.

Then with a helpless smile, she entered into her room, turned the knob and locked the door. After that, she moved the bedroom sized sofa in her room to the door as a double lock.

As if finally shedding her temporary tough skin, she broke down again in tears, crying and crying and crying for the next couple hours, just there, curled on her bed in fetus form till the next day when she was woken by the rays of sunlight that escaped into her room just to spite her. To remind her that she was once again awakening to such a sad horrible life, where she had nothing like family, where she had a headache from all the crying, last night and even in her sleep.

Fuck!

Was her first thought.

Fuck this shit man!

She thought again. Unwilling to get up from the bed as pressed as she was, she cursed mentally her bladder that was threatening to give up on her. When she thought of her kidney and all the things that could go wrong for not standing up right there and then she decided to go.

Ugh! She groaned as she carried herself up with great effort, made her way to the toilet within, and after doing her business, she stopped at the toilet sink mirror, where she stopped to take a look at her rough looking face with unclear eyes.

She saw the eyebags settled underneath her eyes but for once she wasn't bothered, that was one of the things she could describe as far from important. With everything that had gone on in the last few days… Thursday, she recalled the phone call to her parents and other siblings that drove them back to Ohio, where she announced that Sam was in the hospital, Friday when they finally arrived back home from the cut short vacation, Saturday, when she had related what had happened with no single family member believing her and today, the day of the Lord, today, now. She thought and thought and was so lost in what she was thinking that when the rapid knocks on her door began, she did not first hear them until they startled her out of her thoughts.

"Rita! Rita!"

She heard them call and for once, she wanted to snatch Rana's tongue and curse her for using her name so callously. Having disowned her family in her mind, she was in a state of simmering anger.

RUDER'S POV

Growl.

I snapped at Endra, my beta, while he just laughed good naturedly.

Both of us in the woods, the closest woods to Richevil where we had our territory. It is a full moon tonight and Endra has just challenged me to a run; Challenging your own Alpha to a run? Growl. I snarled again, to show him that I didn't mind his mind games but it was foolish to challenge me.

With abandon as soon as the full moon was unveiled, Endra and I took off into the vast woods, racing each other but also having a great time at the same time, it was so calming, soothing, this feeling of running in my wolf form in the woods, the foliage all around me and the air rushing against me, taking my breath away and refreshing my limbs as I dashed across the leaves.

As expected I got to the pre meditated spot first, it was the opening of another pack, the Panthing Wolves pack, but suddenly I realized that there were no sounds of twigs breaking as I had heard while running. It took me a moment or two before I realized that something was wrong. Really wrong. Where the hell is Endra?

..

RITA'S POV

..

Rita! Rita!

In my anger, I kept my peace silently. I was quiet as Rana rapped consistently on the door, just when I thought she would never stop and I would go crazy from the sound, she stopped. I heard her muffled voice, she was talking to someone, probably Enzal I reasoned. Whatever did they want from me? Those are clearly not my siblings, so God only knows what the hell they're doing outside my bedroom.

After they were gone, I took my time to clean my teeth and soak in the shower. Better then that I had stood up from the bed than never, what if I lack the strength to stand up from the bed again, I reasoned?

Ouuu, my phone beside me playing Sia's Titanium, the song is one of my favorites, the strength in it giving me so much strength and assurance, but now with the beat and the words and the rhythm, I suddenly felt like fuck, I can't keep in doing this shit.

Shoot me down

But I won't fall

I am titanium

The urge to scream at these words is so overwhelming at this moment that I know that there is a limit I can get to before I would actually go crazy. I have my whole life ahead of me, I can't let a pseudo family come to destroy my plans. I soak into the water and for once I relish the near feeling of drowning.