Severed Ties

Elliot

To be a disappointment meant a person had to have done something so wrong, there is no anger, only the nonfulfillment of one's expectations.

I had done nothing. I kept my head down and followed orders like a robot who had been programmed to service. My father blamed me for my mother's death. She had died giving birth to me 17 years ago. That day he lost a friend. His best friend and his mate. An alpha is only strong with their mate.

The first few years of my life I can remember, my father was a sweet man, who seemed like he could never hurt anyone. He protected me from the other pack members who questioned my silver hair and bright irises.

When I turned 10, my father had found his second chance mate. That's around when he changed. The woman he then mated, Rebecca, had convinced him it was my fault my mother had died. For the last 7 years he has chastised and belittled me. Rebecca knew some part of him still loved my mother deeply and would never let her go. The mate bond was never broken when she died.

From then on, I became the pack omega. My father could never have any more children. Doctors told Rebecca she was infertile and incapable of bearing children. A part of me wanted to believe it was because they were punished. An alpha without an heir, was just as bad as a pack without an alpha. The fact I was the alphas only child made my life so much worse.

Most wolves shift at the age of 15 after their birth. Their 18th birthday is when we found our mates.

I had hoped and prayed to the moon goddess that my mate would save me from my pack, heck even my life. Yet, a part of me realized, that would never happen.  Contrary to other wolves, I had not shifted. The latest any wolf has shifted was a few months after their 15th birthday. It had been 2 years for me. Everyone had begun to believe I had no wolf. They began to believe I was just a human, automatically making me the weakest link in the pack.

Every day was a routine. I would wake up, shower, and put on one of the five outfits I owned, three of which consisted of sweatpants a shirt, and hoodie. The other two were jeans and button-down shirts. I threw on a grey pair of sweats and a red hoodie before making my way to the kitchen. It was now 4am and I was trying my best to not make any noise. The other omegas didn't clean up last night's dinner, leaving me to hurry and clean the dishes before starting on breakfast. By 6am I had managed to prepare three-fourths of the food and had enough time to set the table in between before the alpha and Luna had come down the stairs along with the beta family.

Everyone hated me so much, yet when I cooked it seemed as though they appreciated me for once. Yeah right.

Normally, whatever was left for breakfast, would be my food. Whether it was a single piece of toast, or a small portion of oatmeal, I was grateful for every bite I had. I hummed quietly while I cleared the table after the higher ups left. After clearing and cleaning, I set out the rest of the food buffet-style for the other pack members.

Come 8am, a stampede erupted throughout the house as the pack filed in, in a hurry to plate up before it was all gone. Carefully, I tread, tiptoeing around pack members, all the while trying my best to go unnoticed. That is until I bumped into a rather firm backside falling on my own in the process. "Jesus Elliot!"  I looked up from rubbing my hip to find majority of the people in the room staring at me. The firm backside in question had also turned around after gaining his footing.

The man was tall, in comparison to me, tall was an understatement. He had sea-green eyes, with jet black hair, sporting a small bit of stubble around his chin. He squats down becoming eye-level with me. His tattoo on his neck became visible to me, the left half of a moon with vines wrapped around it. "Watch where you're going next time." He grabbed my arm yanking me up off the ground before continuing to fix his plate. 

I nodded even though he could not see me before quickly making my way back to the corner.

Time seemed to pass slowly as I watched the pack socialize with the mystery man. Here and there my ears picked up the words "new alpha".   I was not entirely too sure as my ears were not good as those of a person with a wolf. I shrugged it off, as pack news was usually never disclosed to me.

The day dragged on. As I roamed around the pack house doing odds and ends for chores, "new alpha", always made its way to my ears. There was obviously no way they could have been talking about me.  My father would rather die than hand his pack over to me. It seemed about right if they were talking about another pack as it was around the time of year my father hosted an extravagant party to welcome new packs and pack members. "Runt! My office now." I quickly threw out the trash in my arms before running through the hallway to reach his office.

When I entered, was sat behind his teak wood desk, his glasses on the bridge of his nose, while he typed away at his computer. "Have a seat," he said without sparing me a glance.

Five minutes had passed in silence before he folded his hands looking at me through the rectangular frames. "In two days, the annual pack gala will be held. I will be inducting a new alpha for the pack as you will never be entitled to be an alpha," he frowned before his face went blank again. "You will oversee kitchen and serving staff as you know the packs likes and dislikes for food. I will give you $1,000 for spending on whatever you require." He sighed and rubbed his hands over his face. "I swear, if I could I'd send you off to be someone else's problem, yet none of the other chefs match to your skill."