Two: A trip to memory lane

Aria’s POV

The street lights illuminated my way as I walked from our little cottage on the outskirts of town, into the town. At first, the few houses I passed still had their lights on but I was surrounded in eerie silence until I got farther away from our home. The streets were still lonely but I could hear the sounds of warm laughter coming from the houses close by and they reminded me of the home I used to have until five years ago, before things suddenly changed.

“We’ll find comfort soon, there’s still hope,” I heard the voice of my wolf, Hailey, in my head.

“Stop it, Hailey,” I snapped at her, and she whimpered softly but I ignored it. She always tried to comfort me like she couldn’t see the reality of things. “People like us can never find comfort and happiness. We’re an abomination, remember? And I’m sure we’ll be tossed out of this town if the people find out about me. It’s why papa made sure we live on the outskirts of town,” I reminded her before shutting her out of my head and glancing at the houses again. 

The laughter and the shadows of the family having dinner cast on the window curtains by the moonlight reminded me of the life I once had before things turned sour.

I could still vividly recall all of the family vacations I took with my mom and dad as a kid, until he lost his job and things became really hard on us. We had to fend on my mom’s meager salary that she got from teaching in the pack school, and it barely covered our expenses because in our old pack, teachers and doctors were likened to be public servants who generously rendered their services to the masses, not to earn from them, but to help them.

My dad had been so frustrated that he’d taken to drinking when he couldn’t find another job. Countless times, my mom had tried encouraging him that things would be fine and he’d get back on his feet if he could just give up the alcohol and stay focused but her words always fell on deaf ears. It got so bad that our usually peaceful home lost its love, as I could hear my parents arguing and throwing insults at each other almost every night. But even then, I thought things could still get better. Not until the night of my twelfth birthday…

I’d been home alone all day after returning from school to meet an empty house. My mom was at her job, and my dad was out to drink with his friends as usual. I took a nap  but then all of a sudden, the loud bang of my bedroom door against the wall pulled me out of my sleep and my eyes snapped open in time to see my dad storming into the room, fuming and seething as he approached me and grabbed the top I was wearing to yank me out of bed.

“Is this what you spend all of your time doing now? We pay for your expensive school fees only for you to return home and be useless to me?” he roared, sending a fearful shiver down my spine, as my sleepy haze quickly cleared, replaced by confusion.

Up until then, my father had never raised his voice at me or even laid a finger on me.

“D-dad…” I stuttered, gently reaching for his hand but he slammed me hard against the nearest wall, caging my slender body between the wall and his huge one. Hot pain seared through me, a scream of agony flying from my lips, as tears poured out my eyes.

“I think I’ll have to teach you a lesson, you little bitch. You think I don’t see what you do to people? I blame your mother for forcing me to let you be all these while. You’re an abomination and have always been an abomination. I should have treated you like what you are all along but I had pity on you because of her. Your time is up,” although his words were a drunken slur, they still sent fearful chills down my spine, as my confusion grew more, while I wondered what he was talking about.

How could he say I was an abomination? What was he talking about? Were they hiding anything from me?

I was still lost in these thoughts when I felt his free hand creeping up my thighs to my core and I suddenly gasped in shock, a wave of nausea hitting me as I tried to grab his hand to keep it still but he was fast enough to cage my wrists in his hold.

“Dad! What are you…” Before I could complete my words, he slapped me hard across the face, causing my lip to split and my head to hit the wall. A dull ache began to form at the side of my head from the impact of being slammed against the wall.

“I’m doing what I should have done a long time ago, to sanitize you and keep you from infecting all. You think I don’t see how the male teachers in your school leer at you from how you’ve possessed them with the dirty spirit you emanate?”

“D-dad…” I cried out, struggling against his hold because I was sure he was only intoxicated by the excess liquor he must have consumed. “Dad, you’re hurting me,”

“And you deserve to be hurt and punished in every way necessary,” he reached for the fabric of my panties and yanked them hard, tearing them and tossing the material to the ground. I was still struggling into his hold and pleading for his mercy, trying to calm him when I heard the sound of his zipper and the next thing I felt was the intense pain that shot through me from the forceful penetration at my core, making an ear-piercing scream of anguish to expel from my lips, followed by another scream from my mom who suddenly appeared at the door.

She ran to us and tore him away from me, slapping him hard across his face, while I fell to the ground, curled in a ball, still crying from the unexpected assault and harassment I’d just been made to face by my own father.

“How could you, you devil?” My mom screamed and tried slapping him again but the next thing I heard was a scream of pain and she fell to the ground but he pounced on her, wrapping his arms around her neck to strangle her. She coughed, choking from his actions but it seemed at that moment he was blind to the reality that he was slowly draining the life out of her. I rose to my feet and tried walking towards him, in hopes of savaging the situation but I fell on the ground again, unable to move as a result of the pain in my core.

“Dad…” I called weakly when I saw her body writhing underneath his, powerless to his attack…

I must have been so lost in my trance because suddenly, I crashed into a hard surface and stumbled back, about to fall but strong arms held my shoulders to steady me.

“Watch where you’re going,” the deep male voice said with a hint of annoyance. I blinked and glanced up to see him looming over me, his dark brooding eyes glaring at me. He had a scar that cut across his left eye and coupled with the deep scowl directed at me, my heart raced with fear.

He was dressed as one of the pack’s sentinel which meant I shouldn’t be scared of him but my dad has brought me up to be scared of all men. I swallowed and pulled out of his hold, stepping back, and glancing around to see more than a few houses with their lights still on around. 

“It’s too late for you to be out in the lonely streets, girl,” he spoke again, and I stared at him, looking him up and inwardly wondering what he was also doing outside of the pack house.

All sentinels were appointed as guards to work in the pack house, seeing to the safety of all members of the Alpha’s family. The BlackMane pack didn’t need guards because the town was safe, and far away from the human world to be attacked by hunters.

I was still speechlessly staring at him, with a defiant expression etched on my face when another man, also dressed like a sentinel approached us with a frightful expression etched on his face.

“Another man has been taken,” he blurted out and the man who had been staring at me whipped his head in the direction of his colleague, his frown deepening.

“How? When?”

“I have no idea but it seemed to have happened not too long ago. His car was left at the scene with the engine still running,”

I saw his facial features harden, and he glared at me again.

“Go home.”

I watched him pull the other man in the direction he’d emerge from, leaving me there in the lonely street all by myself. I glanced around and turned on my heels, running towards the direction of our house while trying to make sense of all I’d heard about the missing man, and what the sentinel had said about the town not being safe.

Were we under some form of attack?

The thought made my heart drop. My dad and I had just recently moved into the BlackMane pack. If there was trouble, it meant we had to quickly relocate to the West, as we couldn’t head back to the East where we’d run from.

After he accidentally killed my mom, we had to run away to avoid suspicion.

I got home and peeped in to see he was fast asleep in the living room with a bottle of liquor beside him. I knew better than to try to help him to bed. Hence, I sneaked in through the back door and got into my room, locking my door from behind. The last thing I wanted was to wake up from sleep to face his fury for sleeping in or not preparing his breakfast on time. And again, I had school the next morning and couldn’t afford to take any beatings before class.