FLASHFORWARD

She recalled the first time he had taken her there and she refused to even step foot into the home- it had ended in hot car sex and a huge fight between them. A few years later, she had decided that it was finally time for her to conquer that fear and she finally revisited old memories- it was the most touching and beautiful experience she had ever had.

“Trust me, you’re not getting rid of us anytime soon”, she joked before turning to a waiter and requesting for a different flavor of cake.

“Damn”, was all Asher could say before he felt a small tap on his shoulder. He turned around and suddenly, sadness washed over him again but he tried to cover it with a smile that didn’t quite reach his eyes.

She smiled widely at him- genuinely which made him feel like the worst person on earth. She wrapped her arms around his waist and pulled him closer to her, “We need to talk”. His heart stopped beating for a split second- this was it; he just knew this was it.

Did she know? How did she find out? Maybe he should tell her before she had the chance to call him out.

“Yes, we do need to talk”, he agreed and turned to his mother, “Momma, can we be excused?”, she nodded her head frantically and let out muffled sounds since her mouth was stuffed to the brim.

He took Imogen’s hand in his and lead her out of the building with only one thought on his mind…

He was fucked.

Brea’s POV.

I woke up with a smile on my face- it was the first time that I had had a valid reason to smile in a very long time. Usually, I saw no reason to smile; my days always seemed to get worse day after day but today, I had my fingers crossed. Today was going to be a good day- a special day!

Today, I was going to find my mate and maybe then, people in my pack would stop treating me as if I were different, as if I were some type of freak, they just wanted to get rid of. As if I were dirt on their shoes.

But wasn’t that what I was? a small voice said at the back of my head. And that is exactly what I would always be. I just had to agree with that voice, it was the voice of reasoning telling me to not get my hopes up or think that gaining a mate would change anything for me. No matter who my mate was, I will always be an Omega- the cheated class, the weak link of the pack, the unwanted intruder of the group.

I wasn’t the only Omega in the pack though- no, we were over twenty but everyone just found me to be an easy target, including the Omegas. I was picked on like there was no tomorrow, bullied and insulted as if I didn’t have any feelings and sometimes, it made me wonder why I was still here- in this pack, what exactly was I doing here? I had nothing here; no parents, no family, no friends, no nothing- I was just that poor little Omega who had absolutely nothing to her name. If I left, what was I going to miss? What was I going to lose? What were they going to miss? What were they going to lose?

No! Not today, I was not going to think about my sorry excuse for a pack today, I would not let any of them ruin my day. They did not care about me so why should I give any of my damns to them?

I checked the time on the clock and sighed, deciding it was time to make my way out of bed and into the bathroom to get ready for a possibly uneventful day, unless my mate belonged to this pack, then my day was definitely going to be eventful.

Then it dawned on me, today was the Alpha’s son’s birthday as well. I groaned in agony- if I was looking for eventful, I had found eventful. The Alpha’s son, Jax was always ill-bent on throwing lavish parties every year on his birthday- on our birthday and it was compulsory for everyone in his age group to attend. I had slithered into that group, being only two years younger than him and I dreaded that fact. Every year, I was forced to spend my birthday at his birthday parties, each one getting more and more horrid year after year.

Something told me that this one was going to be the most unbearable one yet, considering the fact that he was turning eighteen this year. That was the age when most werewolves became uncontrollable, especially those that weren’t mated yet- that was exactly Jax’s case, he had not found his mate yet and it was almost two years.

I hopped out of the shower and wrapped a towel around my slender body- I was not naturally like this but I wish I was, I really did but that was not it, I was like this because I suffered a bad case of appetite loss, I never ate properly and it affected me a lot. It also didn’t help that I was once bullied for having too much fat on my body, then I slimmed down only to be called ‘slender woman’ by my top bullies a.k.a Jax’s group of friends.

No, Jax was not one of my bullies, he never even paid me that much attention but he watched as they called me names and threw my things to the ground. He would snicker sometimes then go back to locking lips with the latest conquest of the week. I rolled my eyes. He was such an asshole.

I went to the pile of clothes folded at the side of my room and picked out one of my best outfits- it was worn out black dress and it was certainly due for throwing out but there was nothing I could do other than keep it since I had no money for excess expenses. I was on the pack’s trust fund; it was like a replacement for not having a pack orphanage.

I shoved my feet into my worn-out sneakers and grabbed my bag. I opened my door gently and looked out into the hallway- left, right. No one was there, as it should be. I always made sure that I was awake before everyone else in the house to avoid running into them. I snuck out of the pack house and started the walk to school, but even I knew it was way too early and school wasn’t going to be open until seven o’clock- more than an hour from now, that’s how early I was.

So, I took the long route; through the bushes until I came across my old house. I had turned this into a daily routine; wake up extremely early in the morning, get dressed, sneak out of the pack house and spend the hour here, across the road from my old house. It was a bungalow, nothing much but it was still my home and I loved it very much there. It was the only place that I could catch an escape from the outside world- take a much-needed breath and a place where I could feel genuinely free but I didn’t have that anymore. The second my parents died, it was taken away from me, everything was taken way from me by my own pack.

As usual, I left when the sun was almost at its peak, I never knew what the time was when I headed to school but I always got there as early as I possibly could. I never saw a reason to have or even own a cellphone as there was no one I needed to reach or contact, they were either dead or inexistent.

I got to the front of the school and sighed, mentally preparing myself for my daily dose of early morning bullying and a slight chance that my mate was right inside the school building- that alone made my face light up brightly, I could actually avoid getting bullied if I found my mate first before seeing Jax’s posse.

Unfortunately, life was a horrible, horrible thing and at this point, I was determined to believe that it hated me and hoped for me to die. At the end of the hallway, I could see said pose walking towards me, it was too late for me to run, too late for me to hide or shrink or disappear. They had seen me and that was it, they were never going to pass up on an opportunity to bully the Omega.

“Slender Woman!”, Jax’s best friend and soon-to-be Beta, Keelan exclaimed with a demonic smirk on his face, he was in front of the group- where was Jax? I was about to scurry away when my forehead hit a hard surface,

“Holy…”, I wheezed out, my hand going to my head to nurse the spot,

“Where do you think you’re going?”, another one of his friends asked, he was the one I had bumped into. I was tempted to cuss at him for pulling such a dick move but I kept my mouth shut- they had me corned, all eight of them.

“Cat got your tongue?”, her voice, her stupid, irritating voice sounded like nails on a chalkboard, I could never get used to hearing the voice of Addilyn Villin, the queen bee of the pack. For the longest time, everyone thought she was destined to be the Luna of the pack, Jax’s mate but fate had other plans and had played a dirty game on her. It serves her right! She always acted like she was better than everybody just because she was the Beta’s daughter- she got what she deserved the day Jax announced that she was not his mate, in fact, that was the greatest birthday gift I had ever gotten and I was fourteen then.

“Didn’t you hear that my sister was talking to you?”, Keelan growled in my face, “A person of Beta blood spoke to you and you ignored. You must be punished for that”, another sinister smile broke unto his lips as he grabbed my bag from my shoulders and threw it unto the floor. The latch was broken so all my books came spilling out of it, I bent down quickly and started to shove them back in, “Look at you”, his voice said in disgust, “You are nothing, you will never be anything but a useless piece of shit to this pack”, he crouched down in front of me and pushed my chin up, his hands felt cold on my skin and I wanted them off me, “Tears”, he snickered and turned to his friends, “The bitch is crying”, he laughed and they mirrored his action, “Maybe you should go cry to your mummy and daddy… oh wait, they’re dead because you killed them”, he shoved my face away and stood to his full height, looking down at me, “Why don’t you just do all of us a favor and leave? I am damn sure that we would all be better without you. Come on guys, let’s go”, he said as he placed his arm over his mate’s shoulder.

Yes, Keelan had been blessed with a mate. In fact, he had found her the second she turned sixteen considering the fact that she, Manilla had always been a core member of Addilyn’s group of followers. Keelan and Manilla had actually had an off and on relationship before fate joined them together permanently, good for them, I guess.