Mine

Chapter 1

"Morning." He whispers, sipping his coffee before offering me the cup. He frowns as I rub my arms, trying to shake the chill the brisk walk over her has left on my clothes.

"Morning." I take a quick gulp, using all the senses we are gifted with as wolf shifters. No one else is awake, or at least down here to witness Nate's act of kindness. The beverage warms my insides and I hand it back.

"Got these on for you." He points the oven and obviously the coffee machine too.

"You really shouldn't do that!" I move past him to get out the egg mix I made the night before. Joys of being the official help - breakfast was one of my duties to ready each day except for Sunday. Apparently even I deserve a day off, though it never turns out that way and there is always something found for me to do. To complain means being ungrateful and that either leads to being banned from shifting, no meal times and in extreme cases the odd beating.

"I hate this!" He growls, a little too loudly.

"Sssh! Go away before you get me in trouble!"

"I'll take the blame!" He argues, remembering to keep his voice low this time.

"Doesn't work like that!"

Since my parent's death, I had been under the care of Nate's family. As our Alphas, the responsibility is on them to ensure the pack is taken care of, including orphans. Problem with that was, his Mother hated mine. It started in high school because my grandparents left the pack. You don't leave your pack unless the Alpha's permit it, typically because you have found your mate. It's like an unspoken law amongst our kind. So when she returned as my Fathers mate, his mother wasn't impressed and saw her as a rogue deserter. After her joy passed from the fact my mother was gone - she realized she was stuck looking after and raising me as one of her own pups.

I was only eight at the time and things started off ok, I guess. By the time I turned ten she had managed to turn the pack against me. Rumours came first. Things like she caught me stealing her jewellery or if any of the farm equipment broke she would accuse me of being near it. Once I became a teenager, apparently I was sleeping around with mated wolves much older than me. So that made school was even worse. The more dominant could easily show off by bullying me, and the teachers never intervened. Those from packs in other area's turned against me too. If my own pack didn't stand up for me, why would they?

In the wild, I probably would have been chased away only apparently we have a more humane streak within us that rationalized since they kept me fed, clothed and sheltered - that was enough. Really I was free labour and put to work on their winery rather than sent to university or college after school as repayment for all their good deeds. Nate hates it. I manage to hide most of what goes on from him, more so now I don't see him every day while he is at university.

I think he only cares because before my parents accident, we had been best friends. None of my other friends cared enough to stick around though. We met in a pre-kindergarten group and because we share the same birthday hit off right away. His brother Dean, never liked me; back then or now. The more Nate defended me the more trouble he got himself in and I begged him to stop. So at school he tried to avoid me. Yet he still snuck into the toilets to help me fix myself back up, bringing band aids or helping stop blood noses. If I get banned from dinner, he sneaks me food after everyone else is asleep and as the years have gone by we're mostly left to this right now - Morning conversations we shouldn't be having.

He wasn't next in line to be Alpha. No Dean was the one who would spend the next ten or twenty years of his life waiting to take over when his Dad stepped down, unless he actually challenged for it sooner which I wouldn't past him since he and Nate were like chalk and cheese. I dreaded that day. Hopefully I won't be here for that. My hopes were starting to grow with the prospect of my eighteenth birthday tomorrow that I wouldn't actually be here. In my other fantasies, once I'm of an age that my wolf would be able to identify my mate, he would come from out of town and in driving by - find me. We'd leave immediately and I'd start again, having a new life where I was loved again.