Rejecting my mate

3. My mother, my only friend

Melissa's POV

I had already finished the tasks I had been assigned for the day, grunt work, the kind no one else wanted to do. I had managed to stay away from the brats all day, it wasn’t that I was afraid of them, but I knew that they would take any chance to beat me down, and I had things to do. I was worried about my mom, she looked worse every day, and no matter how much I insisted that she should quit the Pack and go away, she refused to leave me alone. I couldn't wait for my eighteen birthday, the day my mom and I would finally be able to leave the Pack and go search for a better place. I could feel we were running out of time, because no matter how hard life was for me, it was even worse for my mother. I knew that in a way she was the only one standing between me and Hunter, and that there was no telling what he could do to me if I was forced to move into the Pack House. Stupid pack rules stated that I belonged to the Pack, and if my mom left, I had to stay behind, but as an orphan, I would have to move to the Pack House, and would have to face Hunter, his w****s and the brats every single day. I didn’t really care about it, at this point it would be only for a few days, but mom refused to leave me behind, and I felt like she was afraid for more, but she wasn’t talking about it.

Mom had been the Alpha female before Hunter took over, strong in her own right and a leader for our people. I didn't know much about my father, it was forbidden to talk about him, and even my mother had to follow the new Alpha's orders. That was the worst part, the control he had over all of us. If he made an order, an Alpha order, we weren’t able to break it. He wasn’t much of an Alpha, at least that’s what Paul and mom said, but he was really strong in his compulsions, and no one could disobey him. They said that most Alphas didn’t use that power as often as Hunter did, and because of that, he was very strong at it. As they explained to me, that didn't make him a better Alpha, that power only worked for members of your pack, and a good Alpha didn't need to force others to obey you, a good Alpha made people follow him out of their own free will.

My mother was one of the most affected by the Alpha’s power. Being able to shift helped with our wounds, but also with our overall health and endurance, and she was unable to shift because of Hunter’s orders. After my father lost the Alpha Challenge, my mother refused to mate the new Alpha, still hurt over losing her True Mate, and had been punished for it by not being allowed to shift. She was growing weaker and weaker, the only way she could shift again was by accepting to mate Hunter, breaking her bond to the Pack, but she refused to leave without me. She also kept me away from most of the Pack, I think in a way she was trying to keep me invisible, so Hunter didn’t remember that my father had a daughter. Mom couldn’t completely escape him, but she could keep me away. It was bad enough that I had been ordered not to fight back, but not being able to shift was a whole different level of torture. Something we needed to fix soon.

I arrived at home and called for my mother, but she didn't respond. I thought she was still working and decided to start preparing a good meal using the meat Paul had given me the day before. I started by checking we had everything we needed and gathering all ingredients. Before starting to cook, I decided I had time for a quick shower, I didn’t feel comfortable in the kitchen without cleaning up. I went to the bathroom and found my mother on the floor. For a moment, I couldn't comprehend what I was seeing, but then I ran to her and tried to wake her up, knowing perfectly well that she wouldn't be opening her eyes ever again. She was already cold and I couldn’t hear her heart beat. I took her into my arms, pleading for her to wake up.

It wasn't until my home was invaded by pack members that I noticed I had been screaming. It didn't take them long to realize what had happened. I could feel them moving around, but they left me alone for a while, not knowing what to do, waiting until someone with higher authority could arrive and take over.

"What's going on?" Hunter, the Alpha asked. “Take her away, check on Cassandra,” he ordered.

It took a couple of them to drag me away from my mother's body, she was my everything, I couldn't let her go, I needed her and they were keeping me away from her. One they took her from me, Hunter moved next to my mother, and I saw red. It was his fault, he was the reason I had lost my mother.

My screams turned into a growl, and I tried to go after the Alpha, he barely noticed me, as he kneeled next to my mother and lifted her in his arms, holding her as if she was precious to him, as if he wasn’t his fault she had suffered, that she had died. I kept fighting, and he finally turned to me, as he started moving to the exit.

"Shut up and calm down," he said in his Alpha voice, and I went numb. I stopped fighting and my growls went out. I still tried to go after him, he was taking my mother away from me. I couldn’t let her alone with him, whom she had hated with everything in her, him who had condemned her to death. He looked over his shoulder and saw that I was still trying to move. “Stay here.”

I just stared in shock as he took my mother away and left my house. Taking my everything with him. I tried to fight his orders, I really did, but the pain of trying to deny his power left me twitching in pain until it overcame me and made me pass out.