The good thing about not being noticed, is that you're not noticed. The bad thing about not being noticed, is that you're not noticed. – Electra
She was mousy and plain.
Electra sighed as she looked at herself in the mirror. She looked the same. Plain brown hair, strange black eyes and skin that was pale from hiding in the library. She was not overly tall and was definitely a little pudgy. Definitely not your typical beautiful werewolf.
Every year she said that she was going to start going to the gym, going to get in shape, going to.....
However, she knew better.
She would go to school, the kids would be mean and cruel; especially, AJ, the Alpha's son. She would hide in the library, get lost in a book and then come back home. Mom would tell her that she's perfect. Dad would tell her that when she turned seventeen things would change.
Helena knocked on the door. "I've got to pee!"
Shaking her head, Electra pulled on her blue-green maxi dress and unlocked the door. Her fourteen year old sister was the epitome of young beauty. Her brown hair had blonde highlights and her eyes were light green. And she was tall and skinny. Everyone loved Helena.
Electra left the bathroom as her sister rushed in. Their older brother, Troy, came up the stairs with their youngest sister, Athena, on his back. She was laughing loudly and urging him onward.
Just like the rest of the family, they were also beautiful. They all shared the same light brown hair and green eyes. The other kids were tanned from playing in the sun and fit from sports. And dimples. They all had adorable dimples.
Truly, Electra sometimes thought, the only thing missing was a sparkle when they smiled.
"Go finish getting ready." Troy laughed as he sat her down. Athena grumbled but went into the room that the four girls shared.
"Come here." Troy said pulling Electra into his arms. She rested her head on his chest and wrapped her arms around his waist. Kissing his sister's hair he discreetly smelled her. "I promise, it will happen when it's supposed to." He whispered.
She nodded against his muscled chest as a few tears slipped out of her eyes. She turned sixteen without a wolf. Then seventeen. And eighteen.
Every birthday it was the same. She looked no different. She felt no different. She had no wolf.
By the time Troy met his mate, all the kids except Athena, who was too young, and Electra had a wolf. On her nineteenth birthday, there was no hug in the hallway. No reassuring hug as he tried to smell her without her knowing. But he and his mate stopped by for dinner.
"I think Electra should go to college." Troy announced.
"The alpha will not allow her to attend college." Their mother pointed out.
"A human college." Troy corrected. "Mom, do you know what life is like for someone who is wolf-less?"
"I know it can't be easy..."
"It can't be easy?" Electra said softly as she took off her cardigan sweater. Bruises covered her arms. "I'm a punching bag. Why do you think I hide in the library?"
"Who's doing this to you?" their father demanded.
Looking at her younger brother and sister, she whispered, "Who's not?"
"If we don't, then they attack us too!" Jason argued.
"It doesn't matter. Once I turn twenty-one, if I don't have a wolf, I have to leave. Or become your slave." Electra said sadly, softly. She stood up and walked towards the stairs. "Happy birthday."
"Please." Claire asked her in-laws. "She's endured so much already."
"We've secured her a place in a college close to the pack lands. She can't keep living like this." Troy added. "The alpha has taken so much from her."
It was a low blow, one that struck his parents with guilt. They all knew exactly how much had been taken from their adopted daughter. And he was right, it was only going to get worse.
They relented and in the fall Electra moved into the dorms. She turned twenty. Then twenty-one. Still, she had no wolf. She had earned a swimming scholarship and got a part-time job working in a public library.
She missed living with a pack. Even when the pack members were horrible to her, she liked knowing her family was there. That her parents loved her no matter what. She had loved the weekends when she could still go home.
Now, they could only meet off pack lands. Thankfully, her brother lived just outside pack lands in neutral territory.
"Are we still doing dinner at Troy's house Saturday?" Electra asked her mom over the phone. She was twenty-three and still wolf-less. But Saturday, she would graduate with a teaching and library science degree.
"Oh, hun, we can't. The council is having a meeting and we all have to work."