Her Mates: Three and Some

The sound of the slap reverberated loudly across the huge room, my mum’s whimper of terror blending melodiously with it even as my head whipped to the side, my blonde hair getting in my face. He slapped me. My stepfather, the Alpha of the Windy Harbor Pack slapped me. Why, you ask? Simply because I had confronted him for beating up my mother. I had been in the kitchen, making some lunch for her to eat before she took her medication when I suddenly heard her scream. Scared, I had dashed right over to the large room I’d heard the scream coming from, only to find my mother huddled on the ground, my stepfather, Steffan Wilkins kicking the s**t out of her even as she whimpered and begged for mercy. Yes, the Alpha of the Windy Harbor Pack was an abusive bastard. I had charged at him in a fit of rage, trying to get even for what he was doing to my mum, but I had been seized by the guards before I could get to him, and then he had slapped me for my impudence and daredevilness, simply because I’d tried to defend my poor mother from an evil imbecile like him. “Rhys—Rhysette?” My mother called out softly even as I shrugged the guards off and rushed to her side to help her up, trying to get me to look at her face, to look in her striking blue eyes that seemed to be the only thing I had in common with her… desperately trying to warn me against attempting anything stupid, because my poor Mama, Analise Phoenix, the once powerful Alpha She-wolf and Luna of the Windy Harbor Pack now riddled with a mysterious illness, knew me, and she knew just how stubborn and impulsive I could be sometimes, and how that bad trait had gotten me in a lot of trouble time and time again… but I ignored her, my chest heaving as I clutched at my smarting cheek with one hand even as I helped her up with the other, too far gone to hear her or listen to reason. The guards had thankfully relaxed their watch on me, thinking that the slap had subdued whatever rebellion I’d barged in with. I took advantage of that, and without thinking, I closed in on the Alpha in record speed and slapped him back with just as much measure as he had me, my eyes shining with so much hatred and fury even as the surprised guards reached out and grabbed me once more. “YOU STUPID BASTARD!” I shrieked, “I CURSE THE DAY YOU MET MY MOTHER! LET ME TELL YOU, A DAY IS COMING WHEN I WILL MAKE YOU PAY FOR EVERYTHING YOU’VE DONE! YOU WILL PAY! AND I WILL MAKE SURE YOU BURN IN HELL LIKE THE MISERABLE FUCKER YOU ARE WHEN THAT DAY COMES!” I cried out, spitting in his face when my thrashing and kicking failed to land on him. “RHYSETTE! STOP, PLEASE!” My mother’s scared voice snapped me out of the furious haze I had been in, and I realised that perhaps I’d taken things too far. But it was already too late. Steffan came close, grabbing me by my hair, yanking so hard that tears stood in my eyes. I refused to give him the satisfaction of seeing them drop. “You stupid omega b***h!” He was pissed, but somewhat amused despite all of it, “You think you’re going to stop me? You? A cunt like you who was born an omega? Why do you think the council made me the number one contender for the Alpha position, huh? Every one is convinced you’re a bastard, girl. As a matter of fact, I could kill you right where you stand and no one would mourn you… no one, except your pathetic excuse of a mother perhaps, but I’m not going to do that. I have wonderful plans for you, Rhysette, and soon, they will all be revealed.” His eyes shone with promise even as he roughly let me go, “Throw her in the dungeons, but not before you have her flogged until her back is all torn up. Release her in the morning.” He ordered. I stared at the bald-headed man with the bushy dark beard who had once upon a time been the only good thing in our lives, failing to believe that he was now the reason for all our miserableness. You see, Steffan Wilkins had come around at a time when our Pack was still reeling from the mysterious death of my father, Alpha Jaxon Phoenix, and my brother Ryder, the future Alpha heir of our Pack. By then, he was a complete nobody, a worthless Alpha wolf with nothing who had wormed his way into my mother’s heart in our time of grief and taken advantage of her weakness to become who he was today. I had always been wary of him to be very honest. But Mama had been relieved. Too torn up with grief to take over the pack like she should have, and caught up in the mourning of her mate and her only son, she had left my upbringing and the fate of the Pack to chance, and so you can imagine her relief when Steffan came into her life. Someone who had the potential of being the new Alpha was interested in her, ready to accept her only remaining child as his, ready to take care of the Pack if they would have him as their leader. Mama had accepted him for me, I knew this. She didn’t love him? My father was the only man she had ever loved, the only man she was ever going to love, Steffan had known this, and he had been okay with it. Mama had only wanted to protect me, given that my Omega status despite having two powerful Alpha Wolves for parents had long been the talk of the clan, and so she had actively championed Steffan’s acceptance, and eventually he had run uncontested in the fight for the Alpha position and had successfully claimed the role. Who knew that years after he had been completely established, he would reveal his true colors for all to see? My mother fell at his feet at his wicked verdict, grasping onto his legs as she sobbed, the loud noise snapping me out of my thoughts, “Steffan please! Have pity on her, she's just a child, she has no idea what she's doing, please spare her. You can punish me instead.” He kicked her roughly in the face, and I couldn’t help it, I threw myself at him, my anger making me no match for the two guards who tried to hold me down. My nails clawed at his face, right before the guards tightened their hold on me, and I smirked in satisfaction at the marks on his face. “You just don’t get it, do you?” I spat, “I’m not afraid of you, Steffan… not anymore, and I will fight you over and over again, even to the death if need be if it means protecting my mother from a bastard like you. Never lay a hand on her again, and we’ll be all good, but do otherwise, and I’ll keep coming after you with every blow, with every kick you lay on her, and I’m not going to stop until I eventually have my way.” My satisfaction was short-lived as the claw marks began to disappear, but my words seemed to have created a whole set of scars on the Alpha thief. “One of these days, Rhysette, I'll just wring your pretty neck… the suspicions of the pack, and the plans I have for you be damned.” He swore solemnly, but I paid him no mind, all my concentration on my mother who was still huddled on the ground, visibly shaking. I couldn’t go to her, even though I absolutely wanted to, to hug her and assure her that everything was going to be alright very soon. Her beatings would have dragged on for longer than this had I not stepped in. I was in trouble for stepping in, but the most important thing was that at least she was safe, For now. “Oh Rhysette, my poor Rhysette.” She sobbed bitterly. Tears stood in my eyes, but I willed myself to stay strong. For her. For us. “It's okay, Mama...” I smiled softly, “It’s just till morning, don't you worry about me, I’ll be fine,” I tried to console her as the guards dragged me off, but my stepfather's booming command stopped them. “I changed my mind. Release her two days from now, and have her flogged every morning, noon and evening. No food, no water.” The guards dragged me away, my mother's loud cries following me even across the huge hallways. A lone tear slid down my face. But it was all suddenly very clear to me. I needed to get us out of here. My poor mother couldn't take this for much longer, and I was this close to committing a murder myself. But wicked Alpha or not, that was just going to get me in trouble with the Pack who didn’t really like me in the first place. We just had to get away. Thankfully, I had two days of idleness to come up with the perfect escape plan.