Kaeleigh’s POV

I woke up still shaking, the remnants of the nightmare playing over and over in my head like some sort of traumatic loop. I sighed and closed my eyes and tried to control my breathing. After the devastating destruction of our pack, we had gone into hiding. Alpha Ezra had said that we were still in danger from the pack that had attacked us. We had something they wanted, and he said that they would do anything to get their hands on it. I had said several times that maybe if we gave them whatever they wanted, that they would leave us alone and we could attempt to rebuild what was left of the Scarlet Circle pack. Our once three hundred strong pack was reduced to a handful of us. And even then we were down to only three werewolves, the rest of our pack being human. It was rare for a pack to include none shifters, and even rarer for them to be human, but Alpha Ezra’s fated mate was human, so it had been agreed long before I was born that our pack was more welcoming.

I felt a tear roll down my cheek and wiped it away furiously. I had cried too much over that damn event. And the repeated nightmares I had since never seemed to get any easier to deal with. I was too young at the time to understand when I saw the invading Alpha rip into and snap my father’s throat, and when I saw the realisation that crossed my mother’s face when their fated bond shattered with his death. She had been attending to me and didn’t see it happen, but I saw her heart break instantly. She said goodbye to me right there, even though I didn’t know at the time. I had passed out shortly after and when I woke up, both my parents were gone.

I grieved for my parents for so long, but I understood. We were attacked and my father was the Gamma of the pack. It was his job to protect the Luna and her children, and he died an honourable death doing so. Or almost doing so. The sadness of my parents’ death was far outweighed by the guilt I felt over the death of Jonathan, the Alpha heir of our pack. I had cried too much over the loss of Jonathan and blamed myself for his demise. If he hadn’t been trying to protect me, then he could have been hiding himself and wouldn’t have been killed. I blamed myself for his death every day, and to make things worse, his protection and sacrifice had been for nothing. I wasn’t even a real werewolf. Sure, I had the strength, and the heightened senses, but I couldn’t shift. My eighteenth birthday, which was the average time for a wolf to get their first shift, came and went, and my wolf never made an appearance. And now, at twenty-four years old, my wolf had only ever made one appearance, I think.

I had just turned twenty and was walking home from a club when someone grabbed me. I immediately recognised him as the Alpha of a local pack we had lived by at the time. He had shown interest in me, one that I did not reciprocate, and he and his wounded chauvinistic pride clearly didn’t like that. He had pulled me into an alleyway and I was fighting him off pretty well, but he was an Alpha and soon overpowered me. I wasn’t sure what had happened next, but I blacked out and when I woke up, I was covered in blood and the Alpha was nowhere to be found. My only assumption was that my wolf had sensed that my life was in danger and had surfaced. I hadn’t mentioned anything about it to anyone, though. I knew what would have happened if I had. They would have insisted that we pack up everything and move again. And I had caused enough trouble already. Not only was I responsible for Jonathan’s death, but also Hayley, Alpha Ezra’s sister and Beta Jeremy’s mate, had also died trying to protect me. It was pretty evident to me that I was cursed or something, so I tried to cause as little trouble as I could.

It was already enough that, after all that, Alpha Ezra and Luna Elaina had taken me in and raised me as one of their own. They had dealt with my nightmares and the waking up screaming almost every night for the last nineteen years. And they had dealt with my devastation when my wolf didn’t show. And my subsequent meltdown and defiance. I had run away from home, and like most eighteen-year-olds, I had got myself in with the wrong crowd. I ended up in the territory of a pack with an unsavoury reputation and found myself in over my head when I had tried to leave. It had taken Alpha Ezra and Beta Jeremy to force their way into the pack to get me out. After that, I cried for a month. I never knew how bad packs were. And even though I was told that they weren’t as bad as that place, which treated their female wolves like sex slaves, I had sworn right then that I wouldn’t allow anyone to hold any sort of control over me ever again. I might be a rogue werewolf, but at least I was free to make my own decisions.

Beta Jeremy had begun training with me soon after that. He has said that even if we weren’t an official pack, because you can’t be a pack unless you hold territory, we could still protect our own like one. And if I was going to take after my father and be the Gamma, then I needed to learn how to fight. I took pride in my position from that day, knowing that, even without a wolf, I could still at least attempt to protect Luna Elaina and their twins, Luke and Tatum. As well as Beta Jeremy’s three children from his remarriage to Jade, another human who had lost her mate in the massacre. And I was fortunate that Alpha Ezra didn’t insist on the traditional pack hierarchy and rules because my smart ass mouth and actions would have probably have got me into trouble more times than I could count.

I looked at the clock on my bedside table and groaned. It was already almost 4pm, and I had slept most of the day away. I had been working at The Cove last night, a bar and nightclub for supernaturals. I had got the job when we moved back here a year or so ago, and worked five nights a week behind the bar. My shift tonight was due to start at 7pm, which meant that I had a little time before I had to head in. I climbed out of bed and stretched before heading out of my room into the main part of the apartment.

As far as apartments went, this one was a good-sized modern one. Alpha Ezra and Beta Jeremy had gone into business together when I was young, and the business had grown and was doing well right now. Enough that they could afford two apartments in a good building with good security.

I wandered over to the kitchen area and opened the fridge to see if there was anything I could grab quickly. I was still rummaging when I felt the unmistakable feeling of Alpha power behind me. When I looked over my shoulder, I saw Alpha Ezra watching me. I closed the fridge door and smiled.