Betrayed from Birth - Alpha's Unvalued Daughter

Receiving Sanctuary

Chapter 8

Raven’s POV

After the Beta blocked me from the view of my family, I felt safer than I have for years. I was not completely scared of him, but then more warriors came out of the dark woods, and now I was terrified. I hadn’t even sensed them, but I know now that they were here for at least the last few minutes. None of them had done anything to me, but years and years of what would befall anyone who trespassed onto Blood Walker land is running through my head, and I am scared of what the penalty of my actions will be. I am so glad that they are not concerned about me, as they are totally focused on my parents and the rest of the group at the border. I have to say that hearing the Beta mock and threaten my father almost made me laugh out loud. I may not know how to fight, but the bold way they all stood there, almost challenging Silver Blade, daring them to come onto Blood Walker's land. That let me know that if my father and the warriors did come over, they would not be returning to the Silver Blade pack alive.

I started edging off, and Emerald mindlinks me, “Raven, stop. Do not run, we will be safe here. I promise you. None of those men will hurt you, and they are all highly trained. If they wanted us dead, we would have been dead already. There were two warriors right there when we first came onto their land. Your parents have drilled fear into the whole pack to make sure no one ever came to this border. Don’t you think it is weird that there is a 10-foot stone fence all around the perimeter of the Blood Walker pack, but a shorter six-foot metal fence on the border to the Silver Blade pack? Does that not strike you as odd?”

“It doesn’t matter, Emerald. We need to get somewhere safe. I just need to get away from all the packs and live in the human world. I just cannot trust other wolves. I know how they are now from how I was treated at Silver Blade. I don’t want to be bullied anymore. I just want to get away from being treated like I am less” I told her in our link as I entered the tree line. I am thankful for her werewolf vision as I tried to be quiet as I made my way as quickly, and as quietly as I can. We were in total silence as I hurried along coming to a stream and I looked in both directions as I tried to find the shortest distance to jump across it.

“If you go down about 80 feet to your left, there is a little bridge that you can cross, if you are trying to keep from getting wet” I hear a deep voice right behind me and I jumped into the water, springing away from him in fear. I had no idea that he was that close to me, I never even heard him approach. I quickly turned around and I see four men standing there. Beta Timothy, with three warriors standing behind him. I never heard one of them approach, and my heart is in my throat. They are well-trained warriors, and any one of them could have probably ended me and I would have never seen them coming.

The Beta was about 6’4” tall and was in great shape. I bet my thigh wasn’t as big as one of his biceps. He had dirty blonde hair, and I could not tell what his eye color was as it is very dark out here in the forest. But I could see that he was an attractive man. I couldn’t tell if he was in his late 30s or early 40s, but he had an air about him that let you know if you decided to engage with him, it was probably going to be the last thing you did. He exuded confidence and security, and I could tell that Emerald trusted him. But she wasn’t telling me why we could trust him yet. I will go with her on this, but I was not joking about getting out of here. I think that the best place for us would be for us to just go and live in the human city.

“Please don’t hurt me. I am sorry I came on your land, but I had to come here to get away from them. I was going to be locked up, and most likely tortured. I already know that if I did make it past the torture when Reagan becomes Luna, her first act would be to have me killed. I wasn’t going to die in that horrible pack, and to tell you the truth, I really don’t want to die in this one. Please just let me go, I swear to you all, I won’t ever come back here if you will just allow me to leave” I told the Beta with my eyes full of tears. I prayed to the Goddess that they will allow me this one kindness. I was telling the truth, I won’t come back, and I will not cause them any problems. I heard them growl as I was begging them to allow me to leave. I am a little scared that my time is now up. At least I will be dying here, and not at the hands of such evil people at Silver Blade. I was trespassing, and this is going to be my punishment for it. At least my death will be quick, and probably more merciful than what I was going to receive at my old pack.

“No one here will be hurting you here, Raven. Do not be afraid of us, we weren’t growling at you, it was over the fact that you think that you would have been killed. You have been through enough. Please come with us to the packhouse. You will stay with my family tonight, and we will get you situated when you wake up tomorrow. I have already linked my family and they will all be meeting us at the packhouse. You are safe here with us, if you believe nothing else that I say tonight, just please believe that you are now safe” Beta Timothy told me. I keep my face neutral. I cannot trust complete strangers. I mean, look at what I had to endure from my fellow packmates at Silver Blade, and I knew a lot of them. How could a stronger pack possibly be nicer to me? I will just stay on guard, comply with their wishes, and then look for a way to leave.

“OK, I won’t cause any problems. I will follow you to the packhouse. I wasn't trying to trespass. I was just trying to get away from them. I will apologize to the Alpha for my actions tomorrow after he returns. I hope he will also give me grace” I told them, and then fell in line. The Beta was in front, one warrior on either side of me, and one warrior bringing up the rear, walking about 8 feet behind me. I guess the other two warriors that had been there at the border, had been part of their patrol, and had stayed behind to continue their patrol. They probably stayed there at the border to make sure no one from Silver Blade tried to sneak in here to retrieve me. I suddenly blushed in shame as I realize that means that they heard the whole thing. The whole shouting match between us. I am so glad that we are in the dark right now, that is so embarrassing. In my pack gossip runs rampant, I bet in the next two days everyone here will know my shame. I will be branded as someone that is unwanted, and I am already weak because I am not trained. That is something that wolves value above almost anything else their strength, and being attractive. Clearly, I am starting out on the wrong foot here, and tears start to fill my eyes. I can’t hold back the small sob and the Beta immediately stops walking and turns back to look at me.

“Are you hurt, Raven? Do you need to go to the pack hospital first?” Beta Timothy asked me with real concern in his voice. He actually cares if I am injured, and that only ends up making me cry even harder. How is a stranger more concerned about me than my own family ever has been? The truth of that question, the reality of my family hating me, makes my tears break like a dam and fall down my face in fat tears as I continue to sob out my pain. I can see that the men beside me are really uncomfortable about how upset I am. They don’t know what to do to help calm me down. I can tell by the way they are shifting around that they would like nothing better than to take off running and leave me to the Beta to deal with by himself. The warriors all look to be in their early to mid-twenties, and they clearly have no idea at all what needs to be done in this situation.

Beta Timothy stepped up to me and pulled me into a tight hug and said, “Sweet girl, I promise you that you have no reason at all to fear us. Everything is going to be OK, I swear to you on my life, that it is going to be fine. You will find out tomorrow that everything is going to change for the better for you. I can honestly promise you that too. Do not worry about your safety. You will be safe here, no matter what you have been told about us.”

I nodded against his shoulder as he continued to hug me. I wanted him to know that I did understand what he was telling me. I am still crying my eyes out, so I cannot speak to be able to answer him. His kindness to me makes all I went through at the Silver Blade pack even worse. They are my family, and yet they never really cared enough for me to comfort me. Maybe they just wanted, or expected to have one baby, and picked the one that looked the most like our mom. My black hair was more on my mother’s side, as my maternal grandfather also had black hair. But Reagan looked exactly like Mom and my grandmother. She just had our father’s eyes. I was just the extra, and expendable one. I cannot stop the tears as they continue to slide down my face.

Beta Timothy seems to understand that I am not scared of them, and with his arm on my back to comfort me, continues on to the packhouse again. I walked with him and felt like I could trust him completely. I see no deception in him, and a short time later we exit the forest and I see a massive packhouse. It looks to be twice the size of the one at the Silver Blade. The massive stone structure looked formidable and old like the building itself immediately deserved respect. It was at least 6 stories high, and I could tell it was well taken care of. You could see that the center and main part of the building were a lot older than each of the ends of the packhouse. They used a different color of stone as they increased the size of the packhouse, adding the same length of the main part of the building onto each of the ends. They used a little darker stone on the ends with made the lighter center part of it, draw the eye. There was a really nice and large light fixture in the center of the packhouse, just above the double doors. It was lighting up the night as if it was welcoming us to the entrance.

I saw four people standing there at the top of the stairs and I slowed my steps. I was not in a hurry to be meeting any more people tonight. That would increase my chance of someone bullying me. I was OK with having to spend the night in a cell. I should be safe there, and I could phase into Emerald to stay warm. I have no idea why these people that I can now make out as two men, and two women, are even standing here for.

“Timothy is everything OK?” I hear one of the women call out to us.

“We are all OK, Amanda. We have a guest that will be staying with us tonight. If you and Stella could please take her up to our rooms and take care of her, I would appreciate it. She will need a bath, some clothes and probably a little food as she is very thin. She will spend the night with Stella tonight. I don’t want her to be alone” Beta Timothy said to her as we started up the stairs. The three warriors who had been trailing us dropped off about 20 feet from the packhouse and left heading back out into the night.

I can see the woman that is clearly his mate look at me in surprise and I can tell that they are mindlinking each other, to discuss me. I could care less. I will be out of here later on today, or tomorrow, so I can take whatever happens to me while I am here. Amanda was very pretty with brown hair and bright blue eyes. She was almost 6’ herself with a strong body that showed she trained hard. She is the Beta Female, and she has to be strong, but I could see her eyes looking at me with sympathy and care. I had to look away before I started crying again. I see a male standing there looking at me intently, and he never said a word to me. He looked to be in his mid-thirties and had kind eyes. He didn’t say anything to me, just nodded at me acknowledging me, and stayed at the back of the group. I guess he had received a heads-up on our way back as he has no surprise on his face or any real reaction to my presence at all.

The last guy looked either 19 or 20 years old. He was a big guy, who was about a half inch shorter than the Beta and looked like his twin. He just had his mother’s brown hair and blue eyes. Now that we were in the light I could see that the Beta's eyes were a smoky grey color. The Beta gave me a comforting smile, and then glanced over at his son and mindlinked him. His son was also very attractive and was looking at me with his head tilted as if he were trying to figure out a puzzle. The frown on his forehead was causing me to get worried. Is he going to be the one who decides that I need to go to the cells? I can see that out of the four people in this group on the porch, he likes me the very least. The girl next to him, however, is grinning at me in total happiness. She has brown hair and blue eyes and looks just like her mother, her build is the same as well. This family must train their butts off, I have never seen such a fit family. Just seeing them lets me know that the Silver Blade pack is in no way comparable to Blood Walker.

I can see that the Beta’s son is still looking at me, and I made a mental note to be sure to avoid him while I am here. He clearly had something to say to me, and we don’t even know each other, and I just want some peace. I don’t want any problems, especially with someone who could clearly end me quickly by just snapping my neck. I am sure that he has his reasons. He seems like he is a nice person, the whole family seems nice. But I am just passing through here on my way to freedom. We don’t need to become besties, I just want the shower that was promised, and some food would actually be nice too. I wanted to sleep, and I don’t care how small my room will be.

I feel safer here than I ever felt at Silver Blade. But I am not going to be letting down my guard. I am not an i***t. They could be trying to warm me up to lower my defenses, and I am not going to let anyone else hurt me anymore. I learned from my time at Silver Blade that no matter how nice you really are, you can’t make people like you. I tried to do it every single day, and it never worked for me. I was an outcast, a reject, and no one wanted to have anything to do with me. It would have decreased their value in the pack standing if they had tried to befriend me. Reagan would have made very sure of that. That particular lesson was learned in grade school when any friend I made that day, would come back the next day and hurt me. Because of the lesson that they had been given at home when their parents found out that they were my friend. Reagan told Dad, and Dad would make the phone call that evening to speak to the parents. By the time I started middle school, I had given up. It is OK, I like to read, and I found friends in the books that I read.

“Stella, please take Raven up to your room and let her grab a shower, give her some of your clothes too. She doesn’t have any, and some nightclothes too. I will go make her something to eat in the kitchen and bring it up for her. I will take you out shopping tomorrow to get you some more clothes, so feel free to give her at least three outfits” Amanda told her daughter, and she gave me a warm smile as she turned to go get me something to eat. I could tell that she knew that I was still scared at being here and was just trying to bluff that I was calm. The Beta, his mate, and his daughter are all really nice and don’t worry me at all. But the two other men did a little, as they never spoke to me and gave off a scary vibe. I reminded myself to stay vigilant, and pay attention. Even if I hadn’t trained, if anyone attacked me, I would do my best to fight them. I have goals to go find a peaceful place to live, with no drama and no bullies. I feel like I am closer to living that dream now than I ever have been.