1. CORA

“As alpha of this pack, it’s my job to do what’s best for my pack.” He folded his hands together to the desk, and slowly raised his head to look at me. “I’m sending you away.”

“W-what?”

“Since you are not of legal age and nobody wants to take you in, I will be sending you away to live with your uncle.”

Uncle?

I frowned at him. As far as I was aware, I had no other family. It had always just been Mom, Dad, and me. There was never any talk about other family members.

“Your parents never mentioned him?”

I shook my head.

“I’m not surprised,” Alpha Rowan muttered. “There’s been some bad blood between them for a few years now.”

“And you want me to go live with him?”

His eyes narrowed. “He is the only one willing to take you in.”

If there was bad blood between him and my parents, I was sure that I wouldn’t be treated any better at his pack than I was being treated at my pack.

“I turn eighteen in a month,” I told him.

“By law, you need to stay with a legal adult until you are twenty-one. Those are the pack laws.” He was silent for a few seconds. “I will not be breaking any more laws for you.”

I flinched.

Those were some of the things he always said to my parents whenever they asked for something involving me. All the pack members claimed that the alpha was breaking the rules to accommodate the pathetic human girl.

“I’m going to be honest with you, Cora.” Alpha Rowan stood and walked around the desk to take a seat on the edge in front of me. “Your parents are dead. I find no need to keep you in my pack any longer. Ever since they brought you here, I’ve had nothing but trouble. My pack sees me as weak because I always have to break the rules for you.”

If I could move, I would’ve run. He was looking at me with such malice.

“You have three days to pack your things,” he said softly. “Everything you’re not taking with you will be put in storage until you can collect it.”

“O-okay.”

“Dismissed.”

I hurriedly got to my feet and nearly tripped. Just as my hand wrapped around the doorknob, he stopped me.

“Cora.”

I slowly turned around to look at him.

“If anyone asks, not that they will, but if they do, you tell them that you are going to live with another pack. Don’t mention anything about your uncle.”

“Of course, alpha.”

“Good girl.”

I shuddered in disgust but tried my best to hide it. The last thing I wanted was to show any disrespect to my alpha. As he pointed out, my parents were no longer there to protect me from punishment.

“I suggest you start packing right away.”

Stepping out of the office, I took a moment to suck in a few deep breaths before I hurried out of the pack house.

I kept my head down, trying my best to avoid any eye contact. The last thing I wanted was to draw any unwanted attention towards myself.

“Look who it is!” A familiar voice called before I could slip into the tree line. “The orphaned human!”

I kept walking, but they had other plans.

Something hit me in the back of the head, making me stumble and drop to my knees. Pain shot through my knees, and it lingered where the object had hit me in the back of the head.

My breathing sped up, and my hands curled into fists as anger replaced the pain. I wanted nothing more than to spin around and punch her in the face, but I knew that she’d have me on my ass before the fight even started.

So I sucked in a deep breath, got to my feet, and walked away while trying my best to ignore their snickers and taunts.

Sometimes I wished that I could walk up to her and slap her so hard that she passed out. She has been making my life hell since we were old enough to talk.

I hated her.

At least now I didn’t have to deal with her any longer.

But there would be others.

I sighed when I reached the small cabin my Mom and I had been assigned to when Dad died. It was close to the border of our pack and mostly left unprotected, but Mom had assured me that it was perfect.

We at least had a roof over our heads until she had taken her last breath.

Tears burned my eyes.

It has only been two days since she died but it already felt like forever.

I missed her.

I missed him.

I missed hearing their voices and seeing their smiles.

I missed having her run her hand through my hair while she told me a story about her and Dad.

We might not have lived in the cabin for long, but it held a lot of memories.

My stomach twisted with unease as I glanced around.

Most of the stuff from our old home was still in the boxes. Mom didn’t want to unpack it because she said it would only make her sadder. She was full of life when we moved in, she had the will to keep living despite losing her mate. But one day she just woke up and decided she couldn’t.

I stayed by her side, taking care of her and silently praying that she wouldn’t leave me alone.

So much for all the praying.

A tear rolled down my cheek, but I quickly wiped it away. All I had been doing was crying.

Crying wasn’t going to bring them back. It wasn’t going to make anything better.

Raising a hand, I rubbed the still-aching spot on the back of my head.

I didn’t know what to expect of my future. There had to be a good reason for the bad blood between my…uncle and my parents.

Why had they never talked about him?

My eyes locked on the box with all the photo albums. There were no pictures of him. I knew because I had studied all the albums late at night when Mom was sleeping.

It only had pictures of them and me.

A stranger. I was going to go live with a stranger.

A new pack.

A new life as an orphan.

What was I going to do without them? Who was I going to complain to when one of the pack members was being mean to me?

A sob fell from my lips before I could stop it. It was instantly followed by another.

Sliding down the door, I pulled my legs to my chest and buried my face against my knees as I cried.

My whole life had been thrown on its axes and I wasn’t sure if I could handle it on my own. I wished now more than ever that I had grown up in a normal human environment. Maybe then I would have had friends and more family to support me.

Eventually, my tears dried up.

I splashed my face with some cold water and then started packing up the things in my room, leaving only the stuff I was still using.

All my clothes fit into the two suitcases I found in Mom’s room, but there was no space for anything else.

The photo frame I had of us was placed in the box with the photo albums.

I took some things from Mom’s closet and then searched through the boxes for a few of Dad’s things.

There was a navy blue jacket he always made me wear in the winter because I got so cold.

Within three hours I had finished packing everything I wanted to take with me to my new home.

All the other stuff was packed neatly in the boxes and stacked in the living room.

Alpha Rowan said that it would be stored in storage until I could collect it, but I didn’t trust him so I was taking all the valuables with me.

Sure he had protected me for most of my life, but he has never really given me a reason to trust him.

I jumped when there was a sudden knock on the door, startling me out of my thoughts.

“Cora? Open up, we need to talk.”