Chapter 2

Stormie-

My head was spinning as I began to wake up. Slowly opening my eyes, it took me a moment to realize that I was lying on my bedroom floor. It felt as if I had been asleep for days, but I was still tired. Sitting up, I looked around my room and didn’t see anything out of place.

I didn’t know what happened last night. The last thing I could remember was helping my sister with her homework. When the vague recollection of two strange men in my house, I remembered that I had been drugged. Scared that something had happened to my family, I crawled to the bed to use it as an aid to stand up.

At first, I was a little weak, but I managed to keep myself upright as I stumbled to the door. Expecting to see that man again, I was relieved that he wasn’t there. Leaving my room, I felt stronger with each step. Wandering through the house, I looked for my family, but I kept quiet.

Until I could be sure that those men weren’t here, I couldn’t alert them that I was awake. The first room I went to was my parents’ room, as they were the first door in the hallway upstairs. After opening the door, I didn’t see them or any signs of them.

Leaving their room, I continued down the hall to Misty’s room. Her room was the largest in the house, at the end of the hall, with two rooms combined. Originally this house had three bedrooms upstairs and two rooms downstairs, with one room being my father’s office.

I used to stay across the hall from my sister, but then I was moved downstairs when I was five. My father shortened the hall and combined the two rooms, giving Misty her own master bedroom and bathroom. Her room was even bigger than our parents’ room.

Reaching the door at the end of the hall, I hesitated before opening it. Normally if I entered her room without permission, she would yell, tell our parents and I would be grounded. Right now, I couldn’t worry about being grounded, since there was a chance that she could be in danger.

Opening her door, I stepped in and didn’t see her. Hoping she was in her bathroom; I went to her large bathroom and peeked my head inside. She wasn’t there either. Now I was starting to get worried. When I turned around, I noticed her phone was sitting by the bed, which was strange.

She normally always kept her phone with her. I can’t remember a single moment that I saw her without it. Moving toward the bedside table, I picked up her phone to check the date and time. It was just after three in the afternoon.

I was relieved to see that I hadn’t slept for a few days, as today was officially the day my twin and I would be turning eighteen. Maybe I didn’t have anything to worry about and our parents took Misty out to celebrate. As I left Misty’s room, I couldn’t shake the feeling that something was wrong.

Checking the entire house, I still couldn’t see any signs of them. I thought about checking the basement, but I didn’t have a key. Since I hadn’t spotted a strange man lingering around the house, I opened my mouth to call out for my sister or parents.

Before I could utter a word, I heard a loud crash, and then a skull-splitting pain erupted across the back of my head. I turned slightly to see who hit me, but my vision went dark before I could. Collapsing to the ground, I did my best to stay awake.

“Did you kill her?” My sister’s voice sounded panicked.

“She is still alive.” My mother answered.

Well, at least they were still alive. The only question I had was why they hit me. I felt a sharp pin prick on my arm, that felt as if someone put a needle in me. I did my best to remain conscious, but it was hard to do. I felt weightless as someone lifted me in their arms and started carrying me. I recognized the scent to be my father’s, which meant he was involved with this.

“We will need to figure out what to do with her after we are done. If she dies, we will need to dispose of her body before anyone realizes what we have done.” My mother’s voice sounded as if she was walking behind my father as he carried me somewhere.

“What if she doesn’t die?” My sister asked.

“Then we will need to send her away. We can’t have her telling anyone what we have done. We can send her somewhere with humans.” My father responded.

It wasn’t that I wasn’t used to the fact they all hated me but hearing them talk about getting rid of me didn’t feel good. I hoped that there had been a part of them that loved me, but now I was sure that it wasn’t possible. If it weren’t for the fact, I needed to know why they were doing this, I wouldn’t fight against the loss of consciousness I felt that was going to come soon.

“I say we just kill her if she does survive after losing her mark. If she does say something to someone, we could get in a lot of trouble.” I could imagine Misty flipping her hair over her shoulder as she spoke with her arrogant attitude.  

“We will see. After we are sure the mark transfer is complete, we will go from there. In two days, you will marry the Alpha’s son and soon you will become the Luna of the Pack. It might be a good idea to keep her around so you can make her do what you want.” My mother’s voice sounded comforting as if she was attempting to comfort Misty.

“After I get her mark, I want her to be as far away from me as possible. She will ruin everything!” Misty sounded like she was on the verge of throwing a level three tantrum.

“Hush, Darling. Everything will work out. Soon you will have a strong wolf and you will be Luna of the Pack. No one will be able to take away what you deserve.”

I waited for Misty to argue, but I couldn’t hear anything. For a moment I faded away and realized I had fallen asleep. Now I felt something hard and cold under me. It was like I was on a metal table or something. Opening my eyes, I looked around the room and realized I was in the basement.

There were a few people around me, dressed in white lab coats, with masks. In an attempt to sit up, I realized that I was strapped to the table. Panic set in and I tried to pull at the restraints. I stopped struggling when I saw my mother lean over me.

“I am surprised that you are awake. I guess you are much stronger than we anticipated. Don’t worry, you will fall asleep again and when you wake up, everything will be over. You always said you wanted a different life, so we are going to give it to you. Don’t blame us, we just need to save your sister.” My mother injected something into me.

I wanted to say something to her, but before I could I was fighting sleep again, this time I couldn’t stop it from happening. As I fell asleep, I felt as if my soul was breaking. I have been looking forward to the day I receive my mark, now it is being taken from me.

Not by just anyone, but my family. It isn’t like I was surprised they would do something like this, but I didn’t think it would go this far. Now I didn’t know if I would be able to make it out of this alive, if I did, what would become of me?

Once again, I woke up feeling dizzy. I didn’t want to open my eyes, out of fear that someone was around. I felt strange and my entire body felt numb. Maybe if I kept my eyes closed for a bit and regained my strength, I could find a way to escape.

Wanting to just check to make sure there was no one around since I didn’t hear anything. Opening my eyes into slits, I saw that I was in my room. I wasn’t able to move my arms or legs, but I was able to rotate my head.

It felt as if I had gauze wrapped around my neck. Even though my body was numb, I could still feel a stinging pain in my neck. That pain was enough to make me not want to move my head. I was fairly sure they had succeeded in removing my mark, but now I wondered how long I had been asleep for this time.

“What did you do?” The sound of my mother’s loud and shrill voice made my head hurt, but that was nothing to ringing in my ears when her hand landed against the side of my face with a resounding ‘smack’.

I tried to open my mouth to tell her I did nothing; it was her that did it. Yet I couldn’t even move my mouth to speak. Tears welled up in my eyes and I wished that I were dead. At least I wouldn’t be laying here completely defenseless.

“Don’t try to pretend that you just woke up, your mark was removed over twenty-four hours ago.” My mother sounded frantic.

Well, that answered my question. I have been asleep for over twenty-four hours. If my mother thought that I had been awake before now, I could tell that no one had come to check on me during that time. At this moment, any love that I felt for my family was completely shattered.

“I don’t think it was her.” My father came in, carrying a piece of paper in his hand.

“There is no way Misty would leave a letter behind and run off with a rogue. She has been looking forward to marrying Alpha Axel for months.” My mother sobbed.

“He isn’t Alpha yet. Let’s just take a deep breath. Have you tried calling Misty?” My father pulled my mother in his arms to comfort her.

“He will be Alpha in a few months when he turns twenty-one. Everyone already calls him Alpha.” My mother rolled her eyes but then leaned her head against his chest. “I tried calling but her phone is turned off. I just can’t believe that she would leave with only a note saying she was in love with a rogue and now that she has a strong wolf, she wants to be with him and help protect him. Have we really raised such a stupid girl? Without any wolf training, how does she expect to protect a rogue?”

It was probably a good thing that I was unable to move or speak. Hearing my mother call her precious daughter stupid would have earned me another slap for laughing. If there was one thing that Misty said that made sense, it was that she didn’t understand how we were twins. I wondered if I had been born with all the brain cells and left her with none.

“It will be okay. Misty is smart. She is probably just experiencing a little rebellion. I am sure she will see that living as a rogue isn’t for her and she will return. I also have some men out searching for her. Once she is found, I am sure everything will be fine.”

“What about the wedding? She is supposed to marry Alpha Axel tomorrow night.”

I didn’t get a chance to hear my father’s response, because he led her out of the room and closed the door behind them. All I could do was lay in bed and think about how ironic everything was. They went through all this trouble, for what?

To practically kill one daughter to help another daughter, but that daughter turns around and bites the hand that fed her. This was like instant Karma. The only downfall was that I had to suffer in the process.

Once my body is back to normal, I am going to try to escape. It should work in my favor that they will be focused on Misty running off, allowing me the chance to leave. Without my wolf though, I didn’t know what I was going to do.

I didn’t have any money and I had nowhere to run to. Originally, I thought about going to college to become a pack doctor, but now that dream is gone. I could always go to medical school for humans, but I would need to create a whole new identity. I would also need to return to school to meet the standards that humans had for medical school.

Being a doctor wasn’t my dream, but I thought it was a way for me to be accepted in a Pack. I wanted to find a pack I could belong to. Now, I couldn’t even do that. I have always been known as Misty’s twin, so I didn’t know who I was just yet.

Maybe I could just travel for a bit, while I figured out who I was. Then again, that might be dangerous. Not having a wolf mark, but still smelling like a werewolf, would put a target on my back. The more I thought about it, the more I felt defeated.

I just needed to take it one step at a time. Step one, escape. Step two, figure it out from there.