Chapter One
Niklaus Wade
It's that time of the month again that everyone dreads. It's back to school time but school was even worse for someone like me. I didn't speak, I was a mute; a weirdo. No one wanted to socialize with someone who didn't open their mouth to speak. No one wanted to communicate with someone who used a notebook to speak but I didn't care.
I got over what teenagers deemed 'normal,' because my life was far from that spectrum. My original birth giving parents didn't want me, so much so that they inflicted torture onto me whenever they could but my memory of those times were vague, glimpses I painfully endured while I slept.
It was impossible for me to have a good nights sleep, sometimes I wouldn't sleep at all because I didn't want to relive memories I couldn't recall while conscious. My insomnia flared up when I was in the seventh grade, when the bullying got worse. I never let it get to me because my life was a constant circle of bad happenings. Nothing good ever happened to me so I never expected good things to happen, I didn't experience anything but what I did now.
Usually people relied on siblings but I didn't have real siblings, I mean did but not in my head. I felt like an only child and I would bet that my other 'siblings,' felt the same. I was adopted along with two other boys and we were acknowledged as brothers by Elliot and Elijah, our adoptive parents, but I couldn't see it as that even though it's been fifteen years since I've been taken in.
I mean, Elliot and Elijah were nothing but kind and loving to all of us. Elliot was always so affectionate, so playful and always in a happy mood. Elijah was like the dad I never had, he was protective of me especially and always told me that he'd have my back no matter what. Aside from their semi perfect parenting, they were both so in love.
Sometimes my heart would clench tightly when I looked at them because I admired their relationship. The moon goddess really did an amazing thing giving us soul mates but it was also quite sadistic that rejecting your counterpart was a thing. It broke hearts, shattering them into pieces until it eventually ate an individual and killed them inside out. It was so depressing to think about but I wasn't much of an optimist to begin with.
"Nik, did you wanna go back to school shopping with us?" Elliot pokes his head into my room with a warm smile, his lips were bruised slightly and I couldn't help but blush knowing Elijah was the product of it most likely.
I reach for my blue notebook that sits on the wooden rustic nightstand that was sat next to my bed. Opening one of the drawers, I rummage around for something to write with until I'm able to find my favorite ink black pen.
Pulling the book onto my lap, I flip through pages that already have writing on it until I stumble upon a clean page to begin writing my response. Once I've scribbled down very neatly my response, I put it up to show Elliot who squints as he reads it.
'No thank you.'
"Are you sure? Elijah said he'd buy you ice cream."
I sit up, the excitement clear as day on my face because ice cream was my weakness. It was that one thing that I ate and it melted my problems away with it's sweet goodness. Anything sweet related really got me pumped, I had a sweet tooth that I had to be careful about because I nearly got a cavity that had Elliot freaking out about.
Usually werewolves didn't have to worry about trivial things like cavities like humans did but I was an omega, the weakest type of wolf. I was an embarrassment. Maybe that's why my parents hated me. They wanted a male so badly and they got one but they gave birth to a weak one.
Elliot must've saw my shoulders sag because he briskly rushes to me and placed himself next to me on my bed. He left space between us, something he did to respect how I didn't like to be touched. I didn't care who it was, I just hated and freaked out when anyone touched me.
"Remember that I'm here for you, Nik," Elliot says, something that he said to me frequently.
I didn't feel like writing so I just nod.
Elliot smiles and I frown slightly. How is he always so happy? What was there to be constantly happy about that he just smiles to easily? Or was that a pity smile that he gave to me because he pitied me. The poor omega who's parents hated him and never loved him enough so they discarded him. Was that it? That was nothing to smile about; I hated it.
"I know how you feel," My eyes snap up to look at Elliot as he rises up from his spot.
I furrow my brows, I wanted to know what he meant by that so I quickly started writing down what I wanted to say but Elliot was by the door and ready to leave.
"I'll go out with Eli and Caspian to grab supplies you boys will need and I'll make sure to bring back ice cream for you," he tells me.
I feel the urge to speak, to tell him to stop because I wanted to know what he meant by, 'I know how you feel,' but all he did was spare me a glance before softly shutting my door.
I huff and flop backwards onto the soft mattress. Closing my eyes, I realize how tired I am but I can't allow myself to fall asleep. I didn't want to wake up sweaty with my heart constricting, with my lungs tight and with those choked up sobs that had Elijah running in to check up on me with Elliot to follow with those sympathetic eyes of his.
Shaking my head, I get off my bed and drag myself out of my room and down the hall until I reach the stairs that lead downstairs. Elliot and Elijah didn't live in the pack house of The Silver Creek Pack, the pack that Elijah is the alpha of. He sometimes told me how he missed the pack but he was willing to settle in the home we lived in if it made Elliot happy. That was the type of love I only used to read about.
Apparently the pack still had ill feelings towards Elliot because of a dispute nobody would tell me about but I didn't care what it was. Elliot was nothing but amazing to me and to everyone he encountered so it didn't matter if the whole Silver Creek Pack hated him, I didn't even like the pack. I much preferred the Blue Moon Pack, our neighboring pack but I might be biased because my best friend, Hazel, was apart of that pack.
Hazel is the only friend I really have. She took the time to sit by me during lunch and help me when boys would pick on me so I grew to like her a lot. Her brother, Easton, and his friend, Eros, hung around us a lot and they made conversation with me but I was still standoffish around them even though I could relate with them and their social awkwardness. Sometimes Eros was just a bit too much of a wuss but it wasn't my business what his behavior was like, he wasn't really my friend.
I'm in the kitchen that's too big even now but I couldn't find anything I really felt like eating but I was picky so it was my fault.
Opening a cupboard that was beside the stove, I see that the top shelf holds Moon Pies but not the Orion kind, the Lotte kind because there was a distinct difference in taste. The Orion kind had that trashy American taste to it while the Lotte tasted like what it was supposed to; chocolatey goodness. May came by and always stocked up our house with them and so I loved her, her son Xavier however wasn't my favorite person. He was annoying.
He's the type of person in your class who always tries doing stupid s**t to get giggles out of everyone and usually it worked but it was him being obnoxious. He hung around other troublemakers and always did dumb things with them, he was also close with Gnashton. Thinking of Gnashton makes my fingers fidget slightly.
He's my oldest adoptive brother but he was so difficult to read. The guy is violent and so reckless. He's spontaneously a trouble maker and has no regard for others, just being in the same room as him gave me anxiety but not because I was afraid he'd hurt me, it was more because he never hurt me. He's thrown a few punches at Caspian, our other adoptive brother, and even Elijah, our adoptive dad but he's never shown anger towards me.
He just kind of looks at me with those placid green eyes of his and he always had the ability to leave me squirming and feeling so out of place. I didn't know what to make of it.
I was able to 'talk' back to him, give him the dirty looks he beats others up for making and get away with things others nearly died doing but when it came to me he brushed it off and just gave me a look that made me so frustrated because I was never able to decipher what it meant. I kept thinking I got away with things because of pity, because he felt sorry for how pathetic I was and I used that excuse whenever anyone socialized with me or tried to be nice to me but when I thought about him letting me get away with things because of those self deprecating reasons it just didn't...fit.
I didn't know what it was but right now I cared more about the moon pie sitting on the high shelf than I did about figuring out Gnashton who was twenty years old and going into his senior year of high school. Moon Goddness knows how that even happened.
I reach for the red box with the delicious, tantalizing picture of the treat I wanted so bad staring me in the face as if taunting me for being so short. I'm five seven but for a werewolf that was short.
I began to dance around on my tippy toes to get it down but it wasn't working so I didn't know what to do. My arms began to burn as I reached for it but nothing I did helped me and I started to curse life for being so cruel. All I wanted was to fill my tummy to drown my sorrows but I couldn't even do that.
Everything in my life was a joke; a sick joke.
I slump back down and shake my pale limbs, releasing a long sigh as I prepare for the last time to try and get the box. Running a gentle hand through my pale blonde locks, I hop onto my toes and grunt quietly as I reach relentlessly this time for the box but I'm failing once again.
Before I can back away and give up like I do with everything in life, I feel warmth and hardness on my back. Sun kissed tanned arms extend past my own laughably pale arms and reach easily onto the top shelf. Redness spreads across my cheeks and touches the tips of my elf ears as I feel a hot breath against my ear.
I couldn't even pay attention to the hand that grabs the box off the shelf because I could only feel two hard things pressed up against me. One was abs and the other was down south and it made my whole entire body flushed once I figured out what it was. I bite my thin but lightly touched with pink lips, refusing to turn around because this was so embarrassing.
The person behind couldn't have been Caspian because he was gone with Elijah and Elliot but also because Caspian is only two inches taller than I am and the guy behind me is way past that mark.
The warmth disappears and I slowly, reluctantly turn around to face Gnashton who wears a heavily amused expression on his face once he sees the embarrassment clear as day on my face. I grumble quietly.
He reaches into the box and pulls out a packaged Moon pie then with mock surprise, he turns the box over and shakes it to show me the moon pie in his hand is the last one. My eyes widen and I lunge at him to grab the snack I was so desperate to eat but he lifts it over his head, his long arms no match for how short I am.
"Looks like this is the last one," he hums to himself and I glare at him, stomping my foot down.
I outstretch my hand signaling for him to give it to me but he only smirks and tosses the box to the side as he rips open the package and holds the chocolate snack in his hand.
Shaking my head vigorously, I beg him with my eyes to not eat it but he's evil and guides the food to his mouth. My legs shake, my teeth scraping my bottom lip into my mouth. His smirk falters, his green eyes slightly darkening as his eyes zone towards my lips as if it was the real meal he wanted to devour.
Confusion littered my expression. I didn't understand why the look crossed his face so obliviously, I released my bottom lip only to swipe my tongue across it as it was something I just naturally did to provide moisture to my drying lip.
Shocked, I jump hearing his growl and the way his canines begin to elongate. I swallow and like the predator he is, he is watches the movement my throat made and that's when he began to stalk towards me.
I blinked rapidly, taking unsure steps backwards. Was he going to attack me?? I didn't have my wolf yet but he did and I was constantly told stories of wolves coming out and just attacking out of nowhere for no reason. Gnashton was also spontaneously violent so could this be his revenge for everything I ever did even though I never really tried or attempted to anger him before.
My heart raced, my legs trembling as it became hard to breathe. Flashbacks flashed right before my eyes and I felt like I was suffocating, like I was dying; I couldn't find a breath of air for the life of me.
'Useless f**k,' an angry voice hollered with undiluted hatred.
My body was shaking, tears streamed down my face. I felt pain, at the corner of my eyes was the shining object of a knife.
There was blood on it. The man came close...
I jolted, feeling a hand touch my arm and so I thrashed about and opened my mouth to release a noise but nothing came out and it hurt so bad.
I fell to my knees and with blurry eyes I see an angry Gnashton yelling at Caspian while Elliot is frantically moving about while Elijah tries to calm him down.
"Why the f**k did you touch him?!" Gnashton barks out at Caspian who scrunches up his nose.
"You act like I knew that would happen," Caspian crosses his arms across his chest.
Gnashtons hand balls into a fist, his eyes a scary black color and that's when Caspian began to regret his decision as he stumbles back and falls as Gnashton lands a punch straight into Caspians face. The c***k, the sickening c***k has me cringing as I struggle to get up.
"My baby," Elliot whimpers as he rushes over to my wobbling form where I stand.
He didn't touch me but I could tell that he so desperately wanted to embrace me, the glisten in his eyes told me everything. Elijah is holding him firmly, his eyes showing concern for me as he looked at me.
I ripped my eyes off of my adoptive parents to look at Caspian who groans in pain on the floor as he cups his hand on his face but I see the blood and it makes me lightheaded so I immediately look away and at Gnashton who is seething.
His knuckles are white with how hard he's clenching them and I can tell he wants to beat the life out of Caspian, the only reason he isn't is...well, I'm not sure why but I'm going to believe the reason is because of Elliot.
Gnashton forcefully tears his eyes off of Caspian to look at me and I shake my head slowly, as if telling him not to hurt Caspian anymore. I see how his chest puffs out, the prominent veins in his arms coming to life, it looks like he's trying to restrain himself.
Eventually, I believe he can't take it anymore because he looks away from me and growls once at Caspian before he kicks the back door off it's hinges and I watch him shift into his large dark brown wolf and run until I can no longer see him.
I slump down on the ground breathlessly.
"That was—so unnecessary," Caspian huffs out.
I run a hand down my face.