Chapter 2

Sophia

My face turns towards the right while the skin of my cheek stings with the impact of the slap.

My eyes burn with tears, which I refuse to release as my gaze is trained on the floor.

"Apologize to Cynthia right now!" My father bellows causing me to flinch. "How dare you disrespect my wife and your Luna by questioning her actions?!"

My mother died soon after giving birth to me, and my father blamed me for her death. When I turned three, councilmen asked my father to take a second chance mate because his wolf was going crazy without his mate. Even though he didn't want to, he had to find another mate because, slowly, his wolf was going insane. 

Since my mother was his true mate, he never wanted to give her place to anyone else, so instead of taking Cynthia as his second chance mate, he married her.

Cynthia is what you can call a true definition of an evil stepmother. She hated me from the moment she married my father and made it clear to me that I was unwanted in her house.

But since she couldn't kick me out, she made sure to make my life miserable at every chance she got.

"She punished Emily for no reason." I speak in a low but firm voice, "She is a small child who just took an apple from the fruit basket."

"She stole the apple." Cynthia glares at me, then turns her gaze to my father and places her hand on his arm, "Emily is a child. That's why it is important for her to learn if she needs something, then she should ask instead of stealing. I was disciplining her by ordering her to fetch five buckets of water from the well, not punishing her."

"I even asked Janet to accompany her and help her with completing her task." She sighs and shakes her head, "I am mother of this pack; I am not cruel as Sophia thinks of me."

"You don't have to justify yourself; I know you." Father wraps an arm around her as she softly cries, "This girl is nothing but a nuisance. It seems like killing my Selena wasn't enough for her, so each day she does something that only hurts others." He glares at me with such hatred that the tears that I was holding back spill from my eyes.

"No food for you for five days, and you will work with the omegas for the preparation of a full moon ball." He puts every bit of his Alpha command behind his words while glaring at me.

"Yes, Alpha." Bowing my head, I show my neck in submission to him.

Strangely, Alpha commands never work on me, but I haven't told anyone about this, especially my father. If I told him then he would find one more reason to hate me thinking I am challenging his authority.

I turn and leave the room, my head held low. As I walk through the halls of the pack house, I feel the weight of everyone's stares. Whispers follow me, but I am used to it. I've been an outcast my whole life. I pass Emily in the kitchen, her eyes red from crying. She looks up at me with a mixture of guilt and gratitude, and I manage a small smile for her.

"I am sorry, Sophia." She wipes her eyes with the back of her hand, "I was hungry."

"It's okay, Emily," I say softly and reassuringly.

Emily is one of the orphans of the pack. Her parents died in a car accident two years back; since she doesn't have any family who could take her in, she lives in the orphanage. 

I head out to my room in the packhouse where I live since I am not allowed to live in the Alpha house, ready to start my punishment.

Physical labor is nothing new to me; it's a way to keep my mind off the pain and loneliness that have become my constant companions. As I work, I think about my mother, the only person who might have loved me if she had lived.

And sometimes my thoughts shift to the person whom Moon Goddess has chosen for me... my mate.

My heart clings to the hope that one day, I'll find him, and he'll take me away from this misery.

Something in me tells me that soon, my wait is about to come to an end.