If I knew

Chapter 1

"Believe in your dreams no matter how impossible they seem." ~ Walt Disney

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I looked out the window of my bedroom in my new apartment, as I unpacked my things. I had a great view of the city. The streets seemed crammed with people and life. Everyone was going to the places where they wanted to be. Everyone had a purpose and the freedom to choose what it was.  And now, so did I.

Everything was so different from how it was at home. Well what used to be my home.

This is my new home.

I had lived in Greenhaven, a small town in southern California that was populated with werewolves. Most pack members didn't like leaving town. They found it too overwhelming to be surrounded by humans and having to be careful about hiding the fact that they're not. It was just easier living amongst their own kind.

But to go to school, the kids - at least the ones who were in middle or high school - had to go to school in another town, with humans. Greenhaven was too small for anything more than an elementary school.  So all of us knew how to act around humans, since we were going to school with them. 

We did our best to blend in, but most werewolves preferred to stick with one another. Of course many did  become pretty friendly with humans. 

I was one of the ones that that were friendly with the humans. My best friend, Amy, was human. Actually all of my friends were humans.

Dad was the alpha of our pack, the Redfern Pack. Which meant he was our leader and was responsible for the pack.

It was hard growing with that because either everyone was always sucking up to you or was afraid of you. So I wasn't really friends with any of the other werewolves. I preferred being around humans. But I couldn't get too close them because I couldn't exactly tell them the truth about myself.

I became a completely different person when I was with my human friends than from when I was with someone from the pack

I was allowed to go and hang out with them, as long as I followed any rules my dad set, and if I wanted to sleep over my dad had to meet them, to make sure they were safe. 

The only one of my friends that dad really knew was Amy though.

I missed home, but the feelings of excitement and freedom over-weighed any feelings of.

I seriously couldn't believe I was here because I thought that I would spend my entire life obeying my father.

He believed that all I needed in my life was to find my mate and start a family.  Why would I need a job, when my mate could just support me. I know that my father loved me, but he didn't understand that the life he wanted me to have, would never be enough for me.

I wanted more for my life. I wanted college. I wanted a job. I wanted to be able to choose who I loved. I wanted be able to decide for myself what I wanted. I just wanted a normal life. 

He didn't think that it was important for me to further my education because I would have my life set with my mate. He would take care of me. 

Dad was just very old fashioned in that he thought women had to be protected from everything by their mates. That women were supposed to be taking care of the households and children. He considered them too delicate for anything like fighting or any kind of violence. And a lot of male werewolves had the same beliefs.

He had so many rules that I had to follow, but of course Leo, my older brother, could do practically anything he wanted. Which was so unfair. I'd always done my best to follow those rules, but sometimes I just got sick of it.