Rooming With The Enemy Alpha

(Danielle) Gazing up at the sterile white ceiling in my school dorm at Semer School for Shifters in Westwood County—a renowned institution where shifters from across the state come for both human and shifter studies—I sensed an unsettling void expanding within me. The faded blue paint on the walls seemed to echo the dull ache that emanated from my stomach to my chest. It was as if a tree of desperation had taken root, its black, gnarled branches entwining around my body, tightening with each passing moment until the air itself felt stifling, making it increasingly difficult to draw a breath. A tear slid down my cheeks and landed on my palms and I watched it with frustration and denial. And wonder. I had never been one to easily succumb to tears—not when my mom left me in the care of another to escape this life, not when my father remarried and mated to another wolf, and then treated me as a stranger, and not even when my life officially unraveled, transforming into a living nightmare. My life was hell, but I never cried. I can not cry. I can not break down. Not now. Not ever. I couldn't afford to. Tears came with weakness and weakness was something I could not entertain. "We are sorry, Danielle. We are going away for Christmas to Fiona's pack, and we can't..." We don't want you there. They. Fiona, my stepmom. Dad, Beta of Wylen Circle Pack. Their unborn baby. Fiona's daughter, Anna Sophia, grandmother. They were a unit. A family. Me. I was the odd one out. I had no place in that unit. Christmas didn't come for another month, but... Maybe he didn't want me to crash their party at the last minute. I wiped my tears angrily with a frown. I couldn't cry. I was a beta by blood, and I was powerful, but... "I am sorry, Dani," my wolf, Rexi, said with a sigh. "You don't deserve this." "I know, but this is not new." I had once called him dad with so much love--he was my hero once, but now it was all a distant memory. He was almost a stranger to me now, and I was unwanted in their life. He proved it with his every action and word. Even though it had become a routine, it still hurt me whenever he pushed me, further and further away from his life. I was truly alone in this world and I wished he would see me, see how much it hurt, but he wouldn't. "You can call your aunt, if you want, or you can stay in your dorm. Whichever is better," he continued, despite my silence. He didn't simply care whatever I did. He just wanted me away from the pack. Aunt? Calling aunt? I thought with a wry smile. How could he even suggest that? Aunt Giselle was the only one who was left of my memories with my mother, but I hadn't seen her for a while. "It is alright," I said with a frown. "I can stay in the dorm. I-I can't go back to the Crimson woods." It was never alright. And I knew he knew that, too, but he never cared enough to second guess my okays. "You are right. After what happened to Daisy..." he trailed off, and took in a deep breath. "Yes, it is better you just stay in your dorm." "I know. Bye." He hung up. It was done. No I love yous, no take care of yourself. Sometimes I wondered why my father still called me. Maybe because he felt a sense of obligation, because I was his daughter. Knowing that was the biggest torture one could go through. I could go through. Knowing that you were only a duty. A responsibility. And nothing more. Grandmother loved Anna Sophia more than her own blood--me. Anna Sophia was perfect, she walked and talked like grandmother. She was pure sophistication in 4-inch-high heels. Me, on the other hand, was my mom's daughter. I looked like mom. Talked like mom. Mom, who ran away from this perfect asylum --I don't hate mom for running away, because I do want to run away when I am there, as well. I just hate that she ran away without me-- and that was enough for my grandmother to hate me. And yes, my dad, Beta Brian Landon, loved Anna Sophia more than me, as well. She might have been the daughter he would have wanted. She was perfect. They were all perfect in their perfect dresses and perfect home. I was a blight in their perfect picture. I'm the red eye. Or a strange flash. Fiona was never malicious or anything with me, she didn't treat me like a slave, or hurt me in anyway when I grew up in the pack along with them, but she just couldn't accept me as a part of their perfect family. I had always been an outsider, even when I was living in my pack, the second-biggest pack in Westwood County--Pack Wylen Circle. Maybe my mom had felt that, too, and maybe that was why she had to break free and fly away. I was eight when my mom disappeared, without a word from my life. Life as I had known changed with my mother's decision. Their family wasn't picture perfect when I was there in it. Stuck. Odd. Out of the place. That family, with me in it... It was just an illusion. We went to parties together, and I always stood on the outside, watching my step mom, my dad, her daughter. Me. I was too ordinary to be a part of that extraordinary picture. I was the passerby watching magical creatures. But it had been bearable, until one day, one day. My life was turned upside down. That happened. And I still didn't know who to blame. Daisy? Or Fate? Or God? Or Samantha? Daisy. She was from my aunt's pack. We had become friend when my mom and I visited Crimson woods, the pack my mom was originally from. Daisy was everything to me after my mother's disappearance. She helped me, she helped me heal and she stitched my broken heart together. She was everything hopeful in my hopeless life. Every color in my monochrome. My best friend. My partner in crime. My soul sister. And then one day, when I knew I couldn't live my life without her, I lost my best friend to some cruel ploy of fate. The thought of her made me cry, again. But these tears... I could afford to shed them. Always. Forever & Always. She had promised me, and I was still waiting for her to remember that promise and come back. Back to me. Daisy was my home, when the home and people who were supposed to be mine became nothing but a prison. Losing her was my biggest fear. And then I lost her, too. I don't know who to blame. God? Fate? Now this dorm is my home, it had been for almost two years. I had nowhere else to go. I was stuck here. I couldn't go back to my own pack--nobody welcomed me, or go to my best friend's pack--I was the enemy to most of them there. I would sit here in this room during Christmas when everyone else is singing carols and hugging and being family. I had nothing. "But one day, you will have it all. And Daisy will wake up. She will come back. She will come back," My wolf said with a sigh. I sighed. One day I would get away from the chains that were binding me. Get away from this prison. And I would fly, then. Wherever. Whenever. I would fly and I would fly far, far away. I would fly from my heartbreaks and pains. I would find myself. Again. I would find my happiness back. Life is tricky, they say. And my life has always been. But I had learned the tricks to catch the curveballs thrown by life. I just had to anticipate it all before it happened. That was it. Just that. I was ready for this year--the last year. After this, I would leave this dorm, I would run away from my pack and find a home for myself. But then... What came next, oh, God, I hadn't anticipated it in my wildest dreams. No one could have. I was blown over when... ...When the boy who hated me came barging in, into the only place I could call home, disrupting my life like a STORM. Aaron McCarter was my storm. ----