Melinda

“Stupid fucking whore!” Mike yells while kicking my mother for the tenth time. “I’m gonna kill you!”

“Dad!” I scream while grabbing his arm. “Please, don’t,”

Mike pushes me away, and I land on the floor with a thud. Mike is a huge man, tall and built. His dark eyes are almost black, showing the evil within, and he’s so damn ugly; I swear, he was hit with the ugly stick; one too many times.

I hate the man who fathered me with every fibre of my being. If it weren’t for my need to stay and protect my mum and sister, I would have left long ago.

I have to wonder how Mike can so easily fool those around him while torturing his family on a daily basis.

My eyes meet my baby sister as she peaks out from her hiding place behind the sofa.

I shake my head when she moves to run to Mum. I cannot let anything happen to Jessie; Mum would be heartbroken. Mike wouldn’t think twice about killing my three-year-old sister.

‘Jessie, don’t move!’ I yell through our mind link.

‘But Mummy,’

‘I know, I’m going to save her, I promise. Just stay where you are, Jessie.’

She nods and hurries back out of Mike’s line of vision.

I drag myself to my feet and rush at Mike again. “Stop it; you’re going to kill her!”

His eyes widen as he looks at me, but at least he’s no longer hurting Mum. She’s not moving, and I’m scared she won’t make it out alive this time.

My father has so beaten down my mother that her wolf is weak. She’s too weak to shift, and she doesn’t heal as other wolves do, which is why I’m so scared for her.

With a heaving chest, Mike looks down at Mum’s battered form. He yanks his arm out of my grip and again pushes me away.

“Clean up this fucking mess, mutt,”

I clench my teeth. It always angers me when Mike calls me such names. But I dared not answer back; Mike would rip my voice box out so I could never speak again. No joke.

“I’ll be back later. Do not call for help, and don’t let anyone in, or next; I’ll rip that little cunt apart.”

He’s talking about Jessie, which makes my stomach turn. Goddess, he’s so vile to all of us, but Mum and Jessie get it the worst. The worst thing is that I can do nothing to help them when Mike hurts them, and I hate myself for it; Goddess knows I do.

“What about Alpha? He said we all had to be in his office asap.”

“I’ll deal with Lorcan. You keep that fucking mongrel,” He’s referring to Jessie again. “Hidden, and I’ll figure out what to tell Lorcan about your mother.”

With that, Mike walks out of the house.

Jessie rushes toward me, and I wrap her up in my arms as she cries. No child should ever see their mother being abused like Jessie and I have. It’s the worst kind of torture for any kid to have to endure. The visions and memories never fade, nor do the nightmares. All I want is to keep my mother and sister safe. I want to get them away from Mike because they deserve a life without fear and pain.

“Why is Mummy not healing?”

“I don’t know, Jessie.”

I do know why Mum doesn’t heal as she should. I put it down to her weak wolf and the beatings and torture she’s endured for so many years. But I know it takes ten times longer for Mum to heal than regular wolves. I wonder if she’s been beaten down so much by Mike that her body is finally giving up.

It hurts to think, but I don’t know what else to think. My poor mother tries so hard to shield her children from Mike, but she fails every time. Mike gets off on Mum’s begging for him not to hurt Jessie and me. She takes everything he does to her to keep him away from us.

However, there have been times when Mike has tied Mum to a chair and forced her to watch as he attacked me. Goddess, my mother would beg and sob so hard that it would make her ill.

I love my mother, and I would do anything for her, anything to protect her. If my mother taught me anything, it was to stand up for those you love, even if she never said the words.

I haven’t been able to do much all these years, but I can now.

I sit Jessie on the floor beside me before checking on Mum. She’s battered beyond recognition, and Jessie is right; she’s not healing, not at all. As I said, Mum heals slowly, but this is not normal!

This is bad, really bad.

I made a promise to my sister that I’d never let this happen again after the last time. But this time, it’s much worse than it’s ever been. Mike did this because Jessie got out of the house, and I couldn’t catch her before she ran into Alpha Lorcan.

Our Alpha and Luna knew about Jessie, but she’s never been near them. Luna always welcomes new cubs to the pack, and I don’t know how Mike got away with hiding Jessie for as long as he did.

Alpha Lorcan is a busy man, and he’s not one for going house to house. So I guess it was easy to keep Jessie away from the Alpha for as long as Mike did.

It’s Luna Gianna that always surprised me. But then, I can’t blame her for not noticing when she has so many kids of her own to deal with.

Mum was too scared of Lorcan finding out where Jessie came from, meaning her birth father, to say anything to anyone. Mum has never told me who that man is, but I got the feeling Lorcan realised when he held Jessie.

I don’t know how that could be, but I saw how Lorcan’s face changed from smiling to angry. I heard the crack of his jaw as he clenched it.

Mike's eyes widened when I told him that Alpha Lorcan wanted to see him and Mum in his office. I could see that he was both afraid and angry.

Why didn’t Mike go to Lorcan’s office and make up another lie?

It’s what he’s good at; after all, lying, I mean.

But no, he came home and attacked my mum in the worst way imaginable. For some reason, Mike believed Mum had somehow gotten to the Alpha and made lies up about him. Mike is insane to think that when he doesn’t let her leave the house!

Now she’s lying on the floor, a broken mess. I don’t know if she’ll ever come back from this, even if she does survive. Mike has caused so much damage to my beautiful mother, and I know I have to do everything I can to help her.

I’m scared to touch her; in case I cause her even more damage. I need to call someone, but I know it can’t be anyone from the pack; I can’t risk Mike finding out.

But who else am I meant to call?

I don’t know anyone outside this pack, so I’m pretty much fucked! Mum needs help, we can’t stay here, and I can’t tell Lorcan because I’ll be in shit for keeping this all from him.

No, there’s only one thing I can do – get Mum away from Silver Paw. I’m scared, of course, I am, that Mike will find out what I’m planning. But we can’t stay here any longer; Mum will die if we do.