She broke the rules.

lay of the land- Bessa

It is cold tonight. Our bodies shiver as we all cuddle together on the damp stone floor. Old castles suck for keeping anyone warm. Especially if they are kept in the dungeons. Barely rags to cover us. Some of the smaller kids cry and sniffle. They know not to make a sound or a beating might come.

I guess I should tell you who we are. We are the orphans and castoffs. We live in the basement of the pack house...ok castle. The most I know is that we live in upstate New York. No not the city. The mountains of New York, USA.

I am Bessa. I don't know my parents. Like most of the kids here. I am one of the three oldest down here. I am 17. I have had my wolf since I was five. That was when I got beaten the second time which almost killed me. The first time was when they found out that none of their barks could affect me. The time they almost killed me was at the hand of the alpha, when he decided that he needed me to learn my place.

The other two oldest are Mackenzie "Mac" and Max. We lovingly called them M&M. They are 15. Now you get the joke. They are twins.

Alley cat is the youngest at three. She is a spitfire and has the locks to show it. There are ten of us in total.

The lights snap on blinding me for a minute. The lights tell us it is time for chores. Yeah we get the dirty jobs. The ones none of the omegas will do. Sometimes we do the stuff they didn't have the time for. We take the time to gather things that are discarded. Like stained up shirts or pants. Blankets that get tossed because someone doesn't like the color anymore.

Everyone over the age of five heads up. We leave the little ones and someone to watch them down stairs, to have some kind of childhood. Alley cat, Ben and Tosh are the littles.

Mac and a couple of kids start on the usual laundry and supply closets.

The pack is sleeping or in their rooms. The night is ours...well sort of.

I head to the kitchen to see what Omega Sue Ann has left for extra chores.

Max takes a few boys out to the woodshed to get busy cutting wood for the pack house.

I go through the fridge and start by pulling the throw away stuff. When the fridge and kitchen are clean I start on chopping veggies and prepping for tomorrow.

C comes up to take some from me and heads back down to the little ones. He will make something to eat for all of us.

I go to the pantry and find a few things there that would be on the throw list. I add them to the pack. Hey, they are non perishable. I do touch ups as the rest are coming back from their chores.

We double check everything and head back down as the sun rises. It is our turn to tuck in for the night. M&M take my bag down to the kids.

I wait at the top of the stairs as a look out and listen for the door to be locked.

No one below moves other than laying down. I wait until the count of ten then head down. We all shuffle to the back. The littlest are the excited ones. It looks like everyone has a hood load tonight. No one speaks. I take the bags and start pulling things out. We did really good; Paper, food, clothing, score with a couple of blankets.

A couple of children's books the littles start to bounce. I give the "mom's look" or at least what I think it would be.

I get to the bottom of the bag. I KNOW who gathered these.

I slap the bag shut, look at Mac and cover a smile with my hand. I know my eyes are sparkling.

She smiles big.

Ally cat starts to say something but C covers her mouth.

Everyone covers their mouths as well. We stay as quiet as mice down here. We don't speak at least not the way everyone one upstairs does. I play with everyone a little. I opened the bag again to make sure I saw right. Close it and look at Max, then at C. They both know it is something special.

Mac is giving the sign to open it all ready.

I shake my head no then hand her the bag. It is her find after all.

She looks everyone in the eye with a finger over her mouth.

We all nod yes.

I go to the stairs and listen one last time. Then nod again at Mac.

She pulls out a pack of 64 count crayons and a pack of green and purple pencils.

We all raise our hands and wiggle our fingers. This is our happy dance.

We put everything into its hiding place. It is time for bed. We put a "new" blanket over what is our bed like a sheet. The littlest one goes to the center of the bed. The older pack is around them. Then pull the blankets over all of us.

*We did good tonight. Sleep well my friend. I will keep watch* Kainda my wolf says.

*Yes we did. Thank you my friend. Be safe.* I remarked with our usual change over. This marks the changing of the guards.