CHAPTER 1

Mia’s POV

When I stood in front of the principal, my hands were shaking as I tried not to cry. It was too crowded in the room, and each charge hit me like a ton of rocks. My mind was racing with painful images from the past.

Like before, I thought with anger. No one ever believes me. It's always what they think.

As I thought about the mean comments that had been said about me in the halls for years, the familiar pain in my chest got worse. "Bastard," they'd call me, and their words hurt more than any hit. My dad left my mom before I was born, that's why I was treated as a shame of the society. As if I had any control over that. My mother also didn’t love me much, she left me for her new boyfriend, Alpha Diego. She didn’t even care about me once, or meet me once. Why am I treated with no love or respect?

"I didn't do it, sir," I said in a low voice that was hard to hear. "I swear."

As Principal Sharma leaned back in his chair and looked at me carefully, his eyes got wrinkled. Despite my desire to shrink, I resisted the urge. 

After years of being picked on, I learned this defense mechanism: if I could simply disappear, they might leave me alone.

"Mia, you were found with a rock next to the broken glass. Are you sure I'll think this was an accident?"

"Of course you don't believe me." I thought, anger and hopelessness were fighting inside me. No one ever does. Always point the finger at the me.

"They made me do it," I said, using a weak voice. "I didn't want to, but they—"

His words echoed off the walls as he yelled, "Enough!" I jerked back as memories of being yelled at in busy halls came back to me. "This isn't the first time you've done something like this. After the fake bombing, this! You need to understand how bad what you did is.”

It was a fake blast. It was another set-up where I was cornered and had to take the fall. I felt ashamed and powerless all over again, like that day was never going to go away.

"I didn't—" As I started to speak, the door flew open, and Alpha Diego walked in, changing the aura of the whole room.

I felt a spark of hope in my chest, but it was quickly dampened by fear. I had learned the hard way not to put too much faith in people and think they would protect me. But something about Alpha Diego made me think he would help me, for an alpha sake. 

"Principal Sharma," he said in a cool, firm voice, "I think you're making a very big mistake."

The principal's eyes got really big when he got up from his chair. "Alpha Diego, I didn't realize you were here. This girl is—"

Alpha Diego glanced at me. "My stepdaughter," he said.

Stepdaughter? The word kept going through my mind, strange and almost unbelievable. I had been by myself for a long time, helpless against the mean kids and adults who didn't care about me. The thought that someone might be on my side was almost too much to bear.

"And I promise you that, as an Omega, she can't do these things by herself. She was made to do it by someone, maybe an Alpha.”

The principal blinked and looked shocked. "Stepdaughter? I—I didn't know..."

As Alpha Diego continued to protect me, questioning the principal's claims and calling for justice, I had a strange range of feelings. There was relief, but there was also a growing feeling of being weak. For a long time, I had put up walls around myself and learned to think the worst of everyone. Now that I was being protected and shown care out of the blue, I wasn't sure how to respond.

When Alpha Diego told me he was pulling me out of school, I felt a lot of different feelings at once. I was scared of the unknown and desperately wanted a new start, a place where I wouldn't be judged all the time for things I couldn't change.

It was very quiet in the hallway as we left the office, and I could feel my peers' eyes burning into me. It felt like they were following us, so I 

naturally hunched my shoulders to make myself less noticeable.

"Mia," Alpha Diego said, in a soft voice as we got closer to his car. "I'm sorry you had to go through this."

Still having a hard time making sense of everything that had happened, I shrugged. "It's not your fault. It was my parents duty to protect me but they failed."

"No, but it's now my job to make sure you're safe," he said in a strong voice. "And I will."

“So you and my mom got married?” I questioned him, because I wanted to know how a stanger was helping me this much.

“Yes we did, and she wanted to come to see you but she has to go another pack for the work. She will be happy to see you,” He tried to defend her.

I didn’t know what to say him, because my own mom didn’t even cared me for once since I was born and today her new husband has saved me. 

I looked at him for the first time. His mouth was set, and even though his eyes were angry, they were full of worry. He meant what he said, not just what he said.

"Do you really think your pack will accept me?" Before I could stop myself, I asked the question that had been on my mind ever since he called me his stepdaughter.

He gave me a soft smile and opened the door to the car. "I'm sure they will. My pack and I will protect you. You're not alone anymore, Mia."

I took one last look at the school as I got into the car. It had felt like a jail there, but now it was just a memory as we drove away. It made my chest feel strange.

Hope.

This could have been the start of a new story. I really hope that one day I will have a family and a place where I fit.

Alpha Diego must have felt how stressed I was. He smiled at me again as he caught my eye in the rearview mirror. "Mia, I know this is a big change for you," he said in a friendly tone. "But I want you to know that you're not alone anymore. Now you'll have a family and a house.

I slowly nodded as I tried to understand what he was saying. Thoughts of leaving everything behind and going into the unknown were both scary and exciting.

"There's something else you should know," he said, his voice getting more serious. "You have four stepbrothers."

I was shocked. "Four?"

He laughed softly. "Yes. I'm sure they'll be as shocked to meet you as you are to meet them. They're all older than you.”

"Will they... like me?" I asked slowly, nervously twisting my fingers in my lap. Having four bigger brothers all of a sudden was too much to handle after years of being rejected and picked on.

Alpha Diego's smile got a little weaker, and he let out a sigh. "Mia, it might take a while for everyone to get used to it. A lot has happened to them, and this is also a big change for them. But they're good boys, and I'm sure they'll care about you once they get to know you. It's just that... they look out for the family the most."

I nodded, but what he said didn't really calm me down. Looking forward to my new life, I couldn't help but wonder if I was trading one group of bullies for another. But I let myself hope that maybe, just maybe, things would be different for the first time in years.