Chapter 1 - INTRO

SKYLER'S POV

"SKYLER! SKYLER!"

I woke up to my brother James yelling from downstairs and the sun shining in my eyes. I stretched my sore muscles, that were slowly recovering from my punishment last night. I look at the clock and gasp as a shiver of fear runs through my body. It's after 8 in the morning and I should have been up at 5:30 to make enough breakfast for the entire pack.

 

I look at my alarm and realize that it had gone off, but I had slept through it, not that it was actually surprising as my punishment last night was one of the worst I have had in a while. I only just got up to my room and onto my bed before the pain made me pass out.

I get out of bed and up onto my feet as quickly as I can and ran into my small bathroom; I did my morning routine as quickly as I could, missing my shower, not that it mattered when I had it as my showers are always cold.

 

I throw on a pair of black skinny jeans, a long-sleeved t-shirt to cover the scars and the new cuts on my arms, and I add my oversized hoodie to try to keep at least a little of my heat in. I then ran down the stairs, trying to make it to the kitchen as quickly as possible, but was tripped on the last step.

 

I skid to a stop, hitting the side of my face on the floor; I groan a little as pain floods my head; I bring my hand up to try to ease it a little as I turned and see my brother standing on the second step, looking down at me with a sly glint in his eyes.

"Serves you right bitch, you should watch where you are going," James said, smirking.

 

"Oh! Dad won't be happy when he finds out you were late making breakfast again. You should have had breakfast made and on the table, everyone is down there waiting and they are all starving and if you don't hurry up, Dad will be even more pissed that you made everyone run late... Now get up bitch and make something quick..."

James then leans down, pulls me up to my feet by my hair, and slaps my face hard, knocking me back to the floor.

 

"Oh! By the way, once you have done that, you'll need to clean the packhouse until it is spotless, as Dad has a very important Alpha coming for lunch tomorrow."

He then walks up the stairs laughing as I slowly get back to my feet while holding my cheek. I quickly run into the kitchen, hoping to find it how I left it last night, but gape at the mess that's there. I sigh, knowing I am now going to have to clean it back up again before school. I quickly pull myself out of my shock and pull out the eggs and bacon from the fridge and make as much bacon and scrambled eggs as I can before everyone has to leave.

So while I'm cooking, I will introduce myself. My name is Skyler Jackson, of the Midnight Lake Pack. I'm the only daughter of Alpha David Jackson and the younger sister to James Jackson, who will take over being Alpha from Dad when he turns 20 in a couple of months. I'll be 18 tomorrow, so I will be able to shift for the first time, and yes, I am a werewolf.

 

I am known as the pack's slave and the punching bag for the Alpha and my brother. They have treated me this way since my 7th birthday, 1 year after my mum the Luna Catherine Jackson was killed protecting me from a rogue.

 

Watching mum and dad together when I was young, I used to dream of a mate, a loving, handsome, gentle, and protective mate just like dad but now I don't believe I will ever have one because who would want a mate who is covered in scars and my dad will probably kill or sell me before I get a chance to meet him, anyway.

Back to work. Once I have served up all the scrambled eggs and bacon I cooked, I leave them all to eat and head back into the kitchen to clean up the mess. After making everything spotless and practically shining, I grabbed an apple from the fruit basket and then ran to school.

I walked into my second class with my hoodie hiding my face and the bruise on my cheek that was made worse by James this morning and went to my seat at the back of the class, in the corner near the window.

I work my way silently through the school day. I try to stay out of everyone's way, but everyone still stares and whispers, calling me bitch, slut, ugly, a worthless waste of space. But this was nothing new to me. You see, with me being an Alpha's daughter, I should have shifted at 16 but because of dad's beatings and punishments, I became like an Omega werewolf who doesn't shift until they turn 18 years of age.

When the last bell for the day rang out, I ran to my locker, put all my books in except for the ones I needed for homework, I then ran back to the packhouse so that I could get a head start on the cleaning for tomorrows guest and then start dinner.

I clean and clean until it is time to head into the kitchen to help with dinner. It is only a simple one as I have something a little more complicated planned for the visiting Alphas lunch tomorrow. After everyone had eaten dinner and moved on to do whatever their normal stuff is to do, I pick up all the plates and clean the kitchen again. I then went back to cleaning the rest of the packhouse. Just as I had finally finished the last room, Alpha Jackson, aka Dad, called me into his office.

"Skyler!!! Bitch, get in here."

With fear running through me and down my spine, I walked to dad's office and slowly opened the door.

'SMACK'

 

My head flew to the side as he slapped my face. I don't make a sound as I put my hand up to my cheek while he grabs me by my hair, pulls me further through the door, and then pushes me even further into the office closing the door behind him as he then makes his way over to stand in front of me.

"I hear that you were late making breakfast this morning..."

"Y-y-yes, ss-ss-sorry Alpha, I-I-I accidentally s-s-slept through m-my alarm."

 

I hate it when I stutter in front of him. It makes me feel weak.

"Well, you know this means you get a punishment, don't you?"

"P...pl...ple...please, A...Al...Alp...Alpha... I...I...I don't know i...if I...I...I c...ca...can take a...an...anoth...another p...pu...pun...punish....punishment so s...so...soon..." I whimper

Alpha puts his hand onto my cheek and then proceeds to punch me in the stomach once, twice, and on the third punch, I fall to the floor. He then kicks me in the ribs once, twice and on the third kick, I hear a couple of cracks and just know that I will be bandaging the couple of ribs he has broken on top of the ones he fractured last night. I try to curl into a tight ball as he continues his assault for another 10 minutes, punching and kicking me. He then walked back over to his desk and sat down to continue his paperwork.

"Get your sorry arse up off my floor and get out of my office," Alpha yelled at me.

I slowly and carefully pull myself up and off the floor. I make my way over to the door, open it, and hobble out of the office and up the stairs to my room. I go into my bathroom, pull out my first aid kit, bandaging and clean up as much of the damage as I can before I crawl under my very thin blanket and pass out from the pain in my ribs.