Just another day

“Ah shoot! Here we go again! These pricks think they own the School”. I mumbled, with my head down, trying to avoid eye contact with Nico and pretending not to hear her calling me.

“Heihei come over here,” an elegant, demanding voice of Nico hollered, as she fished for something in her fanny pack. I knew exactly that it was a cigarette because it wasn’t the first time. After classes, Nico and her boyfriend Arnold, take thirty minutes to smoke cigarettes. It is strongly prohibited to smoke in the school compound, but the dummies from the Art department act as if they live above the rules here. They just do whatever they want. Even the principal can’t do anything about it.

Since the beginning of this semester, I've been everyone’s punchbag. Anyone who wants to impress their friends or wants to show that they’re actually strong or venerated, I am the perfect board to show off. The worst of them is Linda and the ARNICO–a couple of Arnold and Nico. They have made me their maid and ashtray. After school, they call me and I light their cigarettes, then when they finish smoking, I collect their cigarette butts and throw them in the bin.

“Uh-My name is Abigail,” I muttered as I approached them.

“What'd (you just say?) Shut your damn (mouth! Hell, this real) chicken right here!” growled Arnold, with his strong ebonics, and weird way of speaking, leaving out some words.

“Ugh! for Goddess' sake Arnold, just finish off your sentences. Now Heihei, Light it!” Nico said, sounding vexed, handing me the lighter, and leaning forward with a cigarette in her mouth.

“Light it? (Kids these days ain’t got no damn) manners. Chain the doggone ciggy” Arnold growled indignantly, which freaked me out. My throat ran dry, and I gulped.

“Babe! She doesn’t smoke. You don’t want to explain to your father how you suffocated the underdog. Do you?"

“I'm a Beta’s (son, my dad ain’t gonna do) shit!”

I have always tried to be patient with all sorts of humiliation and chicken nicknames– just because I'm the only Omega's Daughter in the school, but Hearing them calling me an ‘Underdog’, struck my head, pierced, and penetrated inside like a toothpick in an apple, unearthing ire mixed with embarrassment within me. My heart was burning with anger. I wished I could knock them unconscious and somehow teleport home. But how can a 17-year-old freshman, who doesn’t even have her wolf yet, fight two adult sophomores, who have their wolves already? Plus, Arnold’s father, Mark Benson, is one of the two betas in our pack. So you don't want to mess with the Bensons. Well, we might even say that he is the only beta because the first beta has a secret identity. Nobody knows them.

I just lit her cigarette, waited for them to finish smoking so that I could collect the cigarette butts, and they let me go away. On my way home, the word ‘Underdog’ kept echoing in my head. I just had so many questions to ask mom, but I prefer not to. The last time I asked her about my dad, she just cried, the situation I wish could never happen ever again.

“Hey mom, I'm home”

“Oh! Hey sweetie. You're late. Again.! Were you studying?” mum snapped as soon as she heard me at the door.

I wanted to tell her the truth about the bullies in my daily routine, about how I became their ashtray, but that would freak her out even more, so I lied to her “Yeah, I stayed thirty minutes, doing the self-study”

“Aww! That’s my cupcake,” she said, tickling my cheeks.

“Mom! I'm technically eighteen already!” I grumbled.

“Nope! There are still a few hours left, honey!” she replied, taking away the backpack that was in my hands.

“W-what? I thought you said that…. Never mind,” I complained, but she disrupted and repeated the same story the night I was born, to convince me how she remembered exactly the time I was born.

She told me how she remembered that lonely night at her mother’s, and how her grandmother single-handedly helped her deliver a newborn before they were banished out of the pack.

I wanted to ask her why they were banished and who was my father, but I didn't want to ruin her once-in-a-while auspicious moment, let alone tell her how I don't have self-studies after school. She was excited about my birthday coming on the next day, unlike other typical days where she is always sad.

After dinner, she told me how she had carefully planned my birthday party and that my cousins were coming.

“Hey, I have good news and good news! Which one do you want to hear first?” she asked, smiling.

“Tell me the good news first. Wait, what choice do I have, though?”

“First off, tomorrow I will bake your favorite cake myself!”

“Chestnut cake? No Way!”

“Second, after you get your wolf, I will answer every single question you have about your father, as promised.”

“Oh, my goddess! Really? I can’t wait”

“So, is he coming” she winked

“W-what? Mom, what are you talking about?” I acted as if I was confused, even though I knew she was talking about my friend from the same department. He was my first male friend, but ever since she saw him, she assumed that he was my boyfriend.

“Ouh! Somebody is blushing!”

“Stop it, he’s just a friend. Plus, you know too well that I'm not interested in that currently.”

“Yeah, but eventually, you will!”

After brushing my teeth, I closed the door of my room behind me and took off my t-shirt. All I could see in the mirror was a loser with three long claw marks on my back. I have had those scars since birth, and my mother told me that she will tell me all about it, after my eighteenth birthday, after I shift for the first time, which is tomorrow.

The entire night I couldn't sleep, thinking about why I grew up in that suburb, unlike other wolves who live in the Packhouse. I had so many questions in my mind, including what kind of father would abandon his daughter, eighteen years, without even being curious about what she looked like. But whenever I remembered that the next day my mother was going to tell me everything, my mind calmed down.

My birthday went according to my mother’s plans, which were perfect as always. After the birthday party, everyone left, and eventually, we were alone - as always.

By night, after saying our usual 'Goodnight', I prepared to go to bed and closed the door behind me. I didn't ask her about the promise she made to me. I just didn't want to ruin her day. After snuggling down into my cozy blankets, I tried to sleep, but I couldn't.

After a few minutes, I heard a knock on my door, and I opened it. It was my mother.

“Can’t sleep? Me neither,” she said as she closed the door behind her.

“How did you know that?”

“Your lights!”

“So, why are you awake?”

“It was your birthday!”

“Oh right. A promise!. I'm listening, mom.”

"I'm sorry I didn't tell you everything, but please understand that I only wanted to protect you."

"Mom, it's okay, I'm a grown-up already. There's nothing I can't handle! I've endured so much" I said, referring to my Daily Hell-ish routine at my school, although I knew very well that she had no idea.

"Now, I know what you want to know most, so I will start with your father. My darling, your father is someone of high status. You’re a Beta's Daughter."

"Beta? What are you talking about? W-what do you--, I mean, which one? We have two Betas. Please tell me it's not Beta Mark Benson, Arnold's Father"

“Yes, that’s right, Honey”

“Goddess!, that arsehole, junkie, bastard’s father?”

“You mean Arnold?” mom replied, looking surprised.

“Wait, you know him?”

“Of Course, I do” At that moment, my brain retrieved and projected the scene of the previous encounter with that imbecile moron with his girlfriend. A wave of rage and anger rises from my stomach and I frown.

“So, as I was saying–”

“Hey mum, why don't we rest? I'm very sleepy! We will finish this tomorrow. Please!” She wanted to continue, but I stopped her, trying to act as if it was just fine, that I was indeed sleepy, but I was mad as hell.

After closing the door, I burst into tears and cried angrily. I tried to keep it down so that she wouldn't know what was going on. I threw myself on my bed and tried to quit thinking hard and sleep, but I couldn't.

I was too angry to sleep, so I woke up, put on my bathrobe and a scarf. I tiptoed quietly not to wake my mother and went outside and ran outside toward the woods, to vent out that anger.

It was mildly cold, a gentle breeze blowing my hair, a dazzling moonlight formed a clear shadow of me. It was spectacular. Unintentionally, I stepped forward and carried on moving forward, approaching the forest, following a weird scent that I sensed for the first time in my life.

At the edge of the forest, everything was quiet. The only sound audible was of crickets chirping in the woods, and the wind howling over the leaves of eucalyptus trees in the forest. I saw a car parked near the road on the forest edges, but I didn't care. I just felt like something took over me.

I sprinted toward the edges of the forest and sank into the pine woods, then I sat on the rock and tried to calm my mind.

Split-second, I suddenly felt a very painful sensation, like a jackhammer hitting my brain!. My whole body felt like it was on fire, and my hands became numb as if I was inside a frozen lake. My stomach felt like there was hot lava in it, and I felt starving and thirsty. It was very painful but lasted for a few seconds.

“Whoa, that’s weird! Is it my wolf coming already? Pshaw! Mom told me that it will be in the daylight,” I whispered to myself, as I jumped off the rock and sat on the grass instead.

The previous familiar sensation came back, but this time it was. It was very painful that I dropped to my knees because I couldn’t stand. My head felt that jackhammer but this time, my eyes felt heavy, as if they were going to fall out of my eye socket. As I fell, I closed my eyes and felt like a million ants were crawling all over my body, climbing up and down for a second. As I lay my back on paspalum grasses, I opened my eyes in extravagant pain and I looked directly into the blinding moonlight. The moon felt like it was just a few feet above my head. I was groaning in pain the whole time.

I was panting and felt lightweight, so I changed my position and took a lion's pose. As I re-opened my eyes, I noticed something had changed. I could see far away in the forest! It was a dull, blue-violet and shades of gray kind of image. “Huh?” I exclaimed, groping my face. “A fur? Oh my goddess, my wolf!” I shouted regardless of the fact that it was twenty-one in the night and the fact that I was in the forest. Maybe my extreme anger and sadness awakened my wolf.

“Is everything okay?” a gentle voice of the guy sounded familiar, as the scent that enticed me into getting out of the house intensified. I tried to get up quickly, but I was too exhausted to stand up.

“H-hi? I stammered.

I looked up and saw a silhouette of a tall, muscular guy standing right in front of me, I couldn't get a clear view, because he was standing right in front of me, blocking the moonlight in my face– not that I wanted to stare at him anyway, I was on the verge of passing out. Because of the first shift, I lost all sense of my surroundings and I ended up staring back directly at the pupil of the guy standing before me, now I could see him clearly. My gaze slowly made its way down his body. From his broad shoulders, and spacious pectorals to his dry six-pack abs. My whole body was acting weirdly, in a way I never experienced before. I was overheating, my stomach palpitated, a tingling sensation sparked my spine. When he blinked, our gazes locked and my lips parted. The strong aura that surrounded him, freaked me out, and I shifted back to my human form unintentionally.

The long awe silence was broken by his exclaiming whisper, that rumbled like a violent pitter-patter via mind-link ¬At long last, Mate!¬

¬Mate!¬ a loud melodious voice inside of me replied, but I didn't say anything out loud.

“W-what?” I was totally confused, trying to understand what he was talking about, or rather whom he was talking to.

“Ahem! You do realize that you're half-naked, Right?” after saying that phrase, all the frenzy and folly vanished in a swift. Embarrassment consumed me, and I quickly covered my chest, which was naked with the palm of my hands and a scarf. Turns out my wolf was way bigger than I ever imagined. My bathrobe was shredded into a million shreds because of my first unexpected wolf emergence. Good thing I had my scarf.

He gave me his jacket to cover my top half and helped me to get back up on my feet.

“Are you okay?”

“Yeah sorry, I'm fine. It’s just, uh, an itsy-bitsy change I'm going through!”

“Your first time, Obviously!”

“Yeah, I’m not used to this”

“Kinda painful huh?”

“Super atrocious!”

Uncanny enough, none of us even remembered to ask either one’s name. There’s a myth in our pack that says that when you meet your mate, sometimes it’s not necessary to introduce yourselves, and a long time to get to know each other. They say that the moon goddess makes your wolves figure it out instantly so that you feel like you know each other. We just talked as if we knew each other already. He told me that he didn’t know exactly why he came to the forest. He just followed his instincts and drove all the way from the packhouse to the forest. He also told me that he used to come to the forest to do archery.

He accompanied me back to our house, telling me how I shouldn't be outside by myself that late.

“ Oh! I'm Daniel”

“Abigail. Wait, Daniel as in Daniel Trainor?” I was so surprised, wondering if he was “Daniel” the next Alpha. How silly of me to think that Alpha's son would be wandering in the “Underdogs” neighborhood?

“Oh, how do you know my name?”

“So you're the real Daniel. How can I not know the next Alpha? Besides, my mother used to tell me stories about

their childhood friendship with Beta Mark and Alpha Lex, and how they grew up together. You bet she talked about the Trainors triplets for sure!”

“Oh! Is that so? Why don't I know you? My father should've told me about those stories! Or at least Mom”

“That, I can not know!”

“So why don’t you live in the Packhouse, like the rest of the pack members?”

That question awakened the long-gone feelings and extinguished the flames of excitement that was burning inside of me. After a few moments of awkward silence, He realized that I suddenly changed, so he dropped the subject and deviated instead.

Later on, he asked me where I went to school, and he told me about how it coincided with him and his triplet siblings transferring to the new school out of our pack the next day.

He told me that he must be returning to the Packhouse because it was getting late, asked for my number which I dialed in his phone, then he told me that we will meet again, and he drove back.

All night I was thinking about what my life was going to be like, now that I was going to be his luna! I didn’t see why he wouldn't want me by his side, based on his first impression and how kind of him I witnessed earlier. He sure is going to make me his Luna! Wait, will he take in an “underdog” as his Luna?