Chapter 3

I hopped up and made my way to the window I had just climbed, but I wasn’t fast enough. Kent and his wolf were at my door and I took Kent all in. He was taller from this angle, almost too tall for my door, and his face less innocent. The wolf was also bigger. Fatter. Fluffier.

“Out!” He yelled at me. Almost like I was his dog.

I moved away from the window and climbed down my bed.

“I am the help.” I lied, a lie my mother alway told me to tell.

Kent’s handsome face twisted into a smile. I should have hated it because I knew he meant it to be evil, but it made him even more handsome. It seemed playful rather than menacing. At least to me.

“Max—“ he snapped his fingers again and the wolf came closer to me. He circled me like he did Marianna and as he did, my mother and Marianna joined the circus.

“Jezebel, what are you doing here?” She yelled. “Alpha Kent, she is—“

“The help?” Kent finished for my mother. Max meanwhile was on his second full circle. “So?” Kent asked the wolf.

Max let out a loud howl. Kent laughed. Not an evil one this time, but a genuine display of elation.

“Max was out on a hunt last full moon. He was at the Unclaimed Forest.” Kent said.

“So Max was the one who attacked my daughter?” My mother yelled.

“I thought she was the help?” Kent shot back. The smile on his face growing. “And no, it wasn’t Max. He meant to intervene but turns out he didn’t need to. Should I tell you all why? Or do you already know?”

“Stop!” My mother strictly said. This is how she sounded when she berated us.

Kent’s smile grew further up his cheeks. He looked at me, then came closer to examine me. His dark eyes followed my body, up and down. “Plain. Simple. Nothing extraordinary about her. Nothing like Marianna.” He stopped in front of me, his eyes reading mine. He searched for a few seconds, not sure what he was looking for, but I was being taken by their color. They weren’t fully black. It was almost like they had a hue of red in them. This was the first time I had seen a werewolves—a male one—this close. He was dark, dangerous, and captivating. “I guess humans do make them dull huh?” Kent spat, breaking my trance. Humans?

“Alpha Kent please. You are here to see my daughter. You can have her. She is ready to be your mate. Can’t you look the other way for my other daughter.” My mother begged. She was bowing so low, it hurt my back, and pride, and fueled my anger. I got that Kent was an Alpha, the most powerful one in Astoria, but I also love my mother, and only yelling and power suited her. Not groveling.

“Or he can just leave and we can find Marianna a better match from a man who isn’t lying about why he is here.” I declared.

Kent’s attention was back on me. He lifted his hands. I saw one of his nails transform into a long, curved, sharp shape. He touched my cheeks with this nail. His touch left traces of heat as he trailed down to my neck. I swallowed because I realized I had forgotten to breathe and he moved along with the movements of my throat.

“Fascinating.” Ken slightly dug his nails into my neck. I felt a sting. When he lifted his nail, I saw a light trace of my blood on them. I gasped. This mother fucker had hurt me. “Should have told me to stop. Why didn’t you?”

Kent then turned to my mother. My mother closed her eyes, and I saw tears falling out of them. What was going on?

“She doesn’t know? Does she?” Kent softly repeated. My mother shook her head. “Well this is going to be complicated. Ladies, if you can give Madam Amelia and I some privacy?”

“I am not leaving. What don’t I know?”

“Mother. What is going on?” Marianna asked.

“Go, take your sister with you. Go to the village.”

“I am not leaving!” I continued saying.

“Take her.” My mother commanded Marianna.

Marianna came towards me and took my hands. “Come on.”

“No!” I snapped out of her hold. “Mother, you’ve kept me holed up in this cottage all my life. If this has something to do with me. Something to do with the fact that I am not a werewolf, I deserve to know.” I cried, real, big, long, tears.

Kent laughed once more. Now I was really starting to get annoyed. “I was not expecting this Madam Amelia. Really.” His laugh turned into giggles as he pointed his hands up and down at me. “Cruel. You are cruel.”

“Marianna.” Mother urged. Marianna tried to grab me again.

“Please. Just tell me. I’ve lived all my life wondering what’s wrong with me. All my life feeling useless compared to my wonderful, strong, fierce sisters. Please.” I was beyond inconsolable. All my insecurities, frustration, fears, were coming out in the form of tears.

Mother closed her eyes once more and said, “You're half human.”

Marianna cried a gasp.

I let the words fall on my ears. It was like a part of me always knew. It made sense. After being born to such a powerful werewolf, it made no sense for me not to have any powers. Still, I was shocked. Perhaps at mother’s admission. It honestly did feel like she was going to take this secret to the grave. So that was it. I wasn’t powerful because of my choices but because of my mother. Mystery solved. So why was I so—so—sad. Is it because it meant, I was in fact not fully part of my family. I was only their half everything.

“Come on Jez.” Marianna said. Since the shock rendered me useless she was able to drag me out of the room, and the cottage.