Chapter 1: His Name is Zack

903 19 16
                                    

As usual, I came home from working at my family's diner, De Luca's. We had quite a few in the state, but I worked close to home.

I walked to the dinner table to see my family already sitting without me, of course, even my older brother and his pregnant girlfriend were there. This meant a serious situation. I took a step back to take a breath, but my dad heard my car door close.

"Rita, come join us for dinner," He said in his friendliest tone. I could already tell they were ready to give me yet another pep talk. They tried to do this every month or so, since I was the black sheep in the family. Unlike Tony, I didn't have good grade in high school or even go to college. I partied and drank and put shame to the De Luca family name, unlike golden Antonio. Even my younger brothers Marco and Joey are better than me. But none of them loves a human.

I put on my best warrior face and walked past the entry hall to the dining room again, where my mother graciously put out a feast for my brothers and future sister-in-law.

"Ma, why do you always make dinner for an army when Hannah comes around? She's only got one extra in her," I shook my head and sat between Tony and my mother, who immediately began serving me. Gotta love Italian mothers; we'll never go hungry.

"Why don't you be nice to her?" Tony swatted my arm. "She's probably been workin' all day on this!"

"Shut up, Tony," I scowled and kissed my mom's cheek before scooping a big bite of chicken. I didn't get to even go near my mouth, everyone was staring at me. "Jesus."

"You should watch your mouth, Rita," My dad said from his spot at the head of the table. He folded his hands and gave me a good stare, a harder one than even Tony gave me. "You know what we want to discuss."

"It's not even a discussion," I was becoming riled up. "It's gonna be you telling me I'm doing everything wrong and unnatural. It's not natural to turn into wolves, Dad."

"Don't be a smart ass," He scoffed and took a huge bite of pasta. He then gestured to the rest of my family, "We're lookin' out for you. You haven't found your mate, but you aren't even trying! Staying in this town, you probably never will. And do I need to remind you of our family shame? We were the Betas-"

"Until Papa Franco murdered our standings by marrying a witch-I know! But we're already so low, there's no point in changing me to keep everything else the same!" My father was a firm believer that one of us would find a higher rank to marry. Tony already made the first step with Hannah Coppola; she was a close cousin to the Rossini's, who were the Alpha's in our pack. She was fourth runner up to them and mate to bird brains.

My mother tsked at me, "Don't talk over your father like that."

"I just finished his sentence, so he had time to eat," I said, making my younger brothers laugh. I hastily scooped my forked chicken in my mouth with a smile, seeing my dad slowly breath because of how angry I made him.

"Rita, you cannot be with that boy any more!" He put his hand on the table. Hannah jumped a little, but the rest of us looked down. "You will not be with him. You know how dangerous it is, you could kill him! And then we would be exiles in our own home. Do you want that?!"

"Dad! I'm not going to kill him, ok?!" I put my fork down. "How do you even know if I have a mate here? Most of the boys are young! I'm already twenty-two-"

"Exactly! This is why you need to explore, like your brother did-"

"But he found Hannah here! He left for no goddamned reason!" My father glared at me.

"He got a degree, and now he can own the business. You, you did nothing with your life! Nothing! This is why you need to find your mate. You CAN NOT end up like the shame. You WILL end it with this boy-"

Caught Between a Mate and LoveWhere stories live. Discover now