Mates? You wish. Jerk. (ON HOLD)

Chapter 9-Yep my life sucks

ROSE'S P.O.V

It has been several days since I was let out of their infirmary, and I have gathered a lot more information as to where we are now! For starters, we were hunting too near the Fire Pack's territory, and being one of the four Great Packs, they immediately attacked. Their alpha is a tall, good looking guy called Jason. He was the one who allowed us to stay and become a part of their pack. We had the joining of the minds ceremony where he asked us to become a part of his pack and we formally excepted. It was quite boring really. And lastly, nobody knows why I was affected so badly by our mates mating with each other. I think I have a theory, but no way to prove it...

Today, I woke up, ready and excited. This was going to be my first ever hunting and fighting lesson, and I was ecstatic! I dressed in black shorts and a light blue t-shirt, pulled my hair back into a ponytail and ran down the stairs and out into the huge gardens to find Alex and Natalie, the pack's best two fighters, waiting for me.

"Hi Alex, hi Natalie!" I greeted them as I arrived. "Please," said Natalie, "Call me Nattie! I only get called by my full name if I have done something wrong. Or if I am around my Grandma. She doesn't 'approve' of nicknames." She rolled her eyes dramatically and I giggled. She was really fun, almost the opposite of the cool, brooding Alex who merely nodded at me coldly.

"Okay," he said at last. "Since you have never fought before, we are going to start with the basics. Wait, why haven't you fought before? If you were a part of the Wind Pack, they would have trained you." His eyes narrowed in suspicion, "That was your pack right?" I panicked a little. I hadn't told anybody about my past, I didn't want them to automatically think of me as weak. "Ummmm... No," I stammered, "I mean yes! Yes, that was my pack but my role in the pack meant that I didn't need to know how to fight," yes, that was believable. "In fact!'" I said, on a role here, "that was why I ran away! Because I wanted to learn to fight! And Brett...... He.... Uh... Came with me because.... He was my only friend! Um......... Yeah." I finished lamely. Alex still looked a bit suspicious, as if he still thought I was lying to him, but before he could say anything, Nattie squealed and ran over to hug me. "Don't worry!" She said into my shoulder, her blonde hair tickling my cheek. We will teach you to fight!" I grinned, this was the first time in a long while that someone had hugged me! Too soon she pulled away, "Well," she said, "We'd better start."

After a very tiring three hours of practice, during which, I had to spar with Nattie so that Alex could evaluate my level. I had to run 2K without stopping, then we practiced this weird marshal art, that was a bit like kick boxing but more..... Fluid. I wasn't really very good at anything apart from a roundhouse kick. For some reason I picked it up really quickly! By the time we were done, I was drenched in sweat and most of my hair had escaped fm the ponytail and was sticking to my forehead. ""You did fairly well for someone who has never fought before." Said Alex as he headed back into the house. "Yeah!" Enthused Nattie, "You managed to kick me right in the stomach! Don't know how I didn't see that one coming! You were just so fast!" I smiled proudly, I had never really excelled at anything, so it was nice to be given praise for my achievements!

"You are good." Said Alex, "but don't forget to keep you hands down to block any attacks. Your defence is what you need to work in the most." "Oh don't mind Alex!" Grinned Nattie, "He's just cross because you might grow to be better than him!" Alex glared at Nattie. "That is so not true!" "It so is!"

"Is not!" I smiled to myself as their bickering continued, this is what a real pack is like.

You would have thought that after all that hard work I would sleep soundly and peacefully, but no. For the first time in a while now, I had the dream.

This is the dream that I haven't told anybody about, but that keeps recurring whenever I least expect it to. In this dream, our family (minus Violet who is with friends) is out for a nice midnight walk in the forest, a Halloween tradition, when we hear a noise. Mum shifts immediately and stands in front of me and Josh. Dad listens for the noise again. Then, out if the darkness we hear the crow of a raven just before we see one swoop past our heads and land on a branch above our heads. This seems to agitate our parents even more and my Dad turns to us telling us to go, to run, and not look back. So Josh and I run off, led by my Mum, we stumble through the forest, tripping over twigs and branches as we went. I am terrified for my Dad who is still in the forest and my fears multiply when my Mum announces that she was going to go back and help him. She runs off into the forest and I stand there watching the darkness swallow her up. Josh takes my hand, but I don't move. Josh pulls at me and leads me to the house, but the moment we enter I run out the back door and out into the forest to find Mum and Dad. I hear Josh shouting after me but I don't look back. I run as fast as my little nine year old legs can carry me. But then I hear that raven again, I remember Mum and Dad's reaction to it and I quickly scale a tree to hide. Then I see my parents running as fast as they can towards the house, my Dad shouts at my Mum to hurry as they can't come into the pack clearing. This confuses me. Who can't? I am just about to shout out to them when I see the raven perched on the branch next to mine, staring at me with black soulless eyes. I quickly slip down the tree and start to jog home. As I approach the clearing I hear footsteps behind me. This part, I always see in flashes,
me running.

Heavy footsteps behind me.

My parents reached the clearing. Footsteps.

They are asking Josh where I am.

Getting closer.

They turn and see me.

A hand brushes my jumper.

I see my parents screaming at me to run, then running towards me. Shifting as they do, they collide in unison with whoever was with me. I fall to the ground and scamper into a bush and watch my parents fight this wolf. Then all of a sudden my Mum howls in pain. Dad looks and sees that a chunk has been ripped out of her chest and her neck. She falls to the floor and my Dad turns to help her.

Then this part I remember with perfect clarity. As my Dad turns his back on his attacker, the wolf shifts back into a man, and pulls out a long silver knife. As my Dad turns back, venom in his eyes, the man plunges the knife into his chest. My dad falls to the ground, shifting back into human. As he falls, he notices me in the bush. Choking in his last breath, he turns his head to Mum, never taking his eyes of me and whispers into her ear, still looking at me, "I love you." Then he dies by his wife's side.

I feel numb, I can't move. Then I cower back in terror as the man crouches down in front of me. "Hmmm, aren't you a pretty little girl." He says.
"Well the least I can do after killing your parents is to give you something to remember me by." Then without warning, he shoves my face into the dirt and drags his knife across the back of my neck and down to my shoulder blades. But he doesn't stop there, he carries on dragging until I pass out.

I only remember snatches of what happens next, the man picks me up and carries me to the edge of the pack clearing, the only thing I really remember about him is that he was always talking to his bird, singing it funny little songs and such. Then he drops me at the foot of the clearing and I wake up.

I sat up in bed, tears gently falling from my eyes, rubbing the back of my neck, the scars from that have never quite faded. I keep them covered up with my hair, which I keep long and thick.

As I struggled to get back to sleep, I couldn't help but cry a little over my situation, my parents killed, my family broken my pack abusive, my mate a jerk. Living with another unknown pack with the boy who used to hurt me the most. Forced to live life with my parents blood on my hands. Constantly reminded of that by the scars. Yep, I thought as I drifted off to sleep. My life sucks.

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Hope you enjoyed that. It made me sad just writing it! Thank you for all the reads! <3

Please leave a comment! :)

-Kate