Chapter 1 - Nova

Climbing the steps to my rundown, shit hole of a house, I feel a bone deep weariness that never seems to go away these days.  The evenings at the club, the skintight clothes, the filthy hands grabbing at my body, it all takes a toll.

            One that I don’t know that I’ll ever be able to wash away.

            Tonight was no better.  My feet ache from the heels that I’m forced to wear and I feel like I have a permanent wedgie from the way that the bunny outfit that is my uniform at work showcases my ass cheeks.  I just wish there was a better, faster way to make the money the I need to get out of here.

            Unfortunately, those grabbing hands also fork over a fistful of cash for the liberties that they take.  And if I want to escape the situation that I’m in, this is the fastest way to do it.

            Speaking of my ‘situation,’ I take another quick peek at the street in front of my house to make sure that he isn’t there.  That his truck isn’t coming down the street or that he is ambling down the sidewalk.

            Thankfully, it looks like my father is out still.  Drink and stuffing all of the money that he can find up his nose.  At least I can shower and get in bed without having to worry about him lurking.

            I make my way through the house and up the stairs to my room.  It’s a fucking pigsty.  Clothes, empty beer cans, food containers, and more suspicious things cover nearly every surface in the lower part of the house.  My father’s domain. 

            He’s typically too drunk or too high to do anything about the mess that he creates.  I think the only thing that stops the house from being overrun by vermin is the fact that we’re werewolves and the lower creatures know to steer clear of us.

            If only it were that easy for me to steer clear of my father.

            The top level of the house is mine.  We live as much of a separate life as is possible for two people that live in the same house.  He doesn’t want me here and I don’t want to be here.

            Keeping my keys out, I find the two that go to the padlocks that I have on the outside of my bedroom door.  They’re the first things that I purchased when I was ‘rescued’ from the rogues and brought back here.  Really, all that happened was I was removed from one level of shitty danger to an equal level.

            The locks on my door can be removed from one side and placed on the other so that I can keep someone from getting in when I’m in my room and when I’m gone.  I don’t trust my father not to rough me up to get what he wants.

            It won’t be the first time that he’s beaten me.

            Once in my bedroom, I immediately replace the padlocks on the inside and then turn around to face my bed longingly.  Since I turned 18 about six months ago, I have spent very little of my money.  I don’t want my father to have any reason to bitch and moan or worse, come after me, because I’m spending a ton of money.  But one thing that I did spend money on was a new mattress.

            Yeah, it might be on the most rickety and rusted bedframe that you’ve ever seen, but the mattress itself is like a fucking pillow.  All I want to do is to sink down into it and go to sleep.

            But first I have to take off my armor and warpaint.

            Instead of sitting on the bed, since that would just be a trap waiting to happen, I lean against the door and take off my six-inch heels.  I hadn’t been able to grab my bag before I left for work with a change of clothes.  Not with the men that had been prowling around downstairs with my father when I left for work.  Anything that they could have grabbed onto as I walked by would have spelled disaster for me.

            So, I had to walk to and from work in my work uniform and a long coat.  Not the most fun thing to wear on a December night in Wisconsin, especially not on the bus.  But it was better than anything that those men would have done to me.

            I quickly take off the one-piece bunny suit and the hose and garter belt that are attached underneath.  Lastly, I unpin the bunny ears from my hair.  This is my manager’s idea of sexy.  Women dressed like prey, skittish and vulnerable, for the male werewolf clientele to hunt.

            I’d roll my eyes if it didn’t work so fucking well.  Even the lowest omega gets a hard on at the thought of one of us at his mercy and the money that he ponies up for the fantasy is worth the degradation.  Even more so when I finally get out of this place.

            I throw on a pair of sweats and an oversized shirt for the trek across the hall to the bathroom, tossing my clothes from the night into the laundry basket beside the door.  I grab a towel, my toiletry caddy, and my keys and let myself out of my padlocked door.  As I open the door, I listen carefully to see if I can hear my father or anyone else downstairs.  No use trying to smell for him.  He smells as bad as the trash downstairs.  I wouldn’t be able to differentiate the two.

            Not hearing anyone, I quickly leave my room, padlocking the door again, and then go into the bathroom.  This room only has locks on the inside.  If father or his cronies want to ransack the bathroom when I’m not in it, so be it.  But I do want to keep them out when I’m in here.

            Breathing a sigh of relief, I turn on the water in the tub, since the shower has been broken for as long as I can remember.  And then I turn to the mirror to take off my make up.  Scrubbing, I remove the layers of makeup that I put on every day.

            Slowly, the mark of the rogue is revealed as my makeup is stripped away.