Crow

Chapter 4

The wolves call them mates, soulmates, but Katie knew full well that she would not get that lucky. For only werewolves get those mates. And since she hasn't shifted, she wasn't considered a wolf yet.

"Come for dinner Katie!" Her mom called breaking Katie out of her stupor. Shaking her head, Katie's eyes focused on her parents looking at her expectantly from the kitchen. She wasn't aware that time had passed so quickly. Nodding, Katie walked swiftly toward her parents when a loud knock sounded throughout the house.

Her parents locked gazes and as their eyes glazed over. Confusion and worry made Katie uneasy. What could her parents possibly be talking about with each other now? What were they keeping from her? 

Pushing his chair out loudly, scraping the floor, Katie's father rushed by her and tensely opened the front door. Whoever her parents expected at the door is not who stood there. Shock registered across her father's face before he turned toward his family. 

Katie's mouth dropped open as she got a good look at who stood on the front porch. The boy standing outside grinned, waving his hand with sparkling blue eyes.

"Hi, Mr. Storey. I'm Alpha Kaiden Crow, your daughter invited me over for dinner tonight."

There was dead silence as two sets of eyes turned toward Katie. She gapped at Alpha Kaiden Crow, the man who appeared to have made it his life mission to annoy her. All she wanted to do was knock some sense into him. No one went into random people's houses without an invitation.

"Katie baby, you never told us that you have a boyfriend," Katie's mum grinned, sending a suggestive wink to her daughter. Snapping out of her shock, Katie snorted at her mum's 180 degree personality change.

"I wasn't aware that I had one," Katie retorted quietly as she watched Alpha Crow, the only boy who has ever shown her any kindness introduce himself to her parents.

"I'm Katie's mum but you can call me Mal," Katie's mum grabbed Kaiden's hand shaking it, "Are you hungry?"

Katie narrowed her brown eyes at the boy daring him to say yes. Kaiden looked over at Katie catching her glare making the smile falter for a second. Even if his little mate was small, she had one heck of a glare.

"Why yes, now that you say it, I'm feeling rather famished," He grinned rubbing his stomach.

Letting out a low huff of annoyance, Katie spun around on her heel stomping into the kitchen.

"Oh don't worry about her," Mal waved a hand in dismissal as her daughter leaves, "my Katie baby just gets moody whenever she doesn't get food on time."

Mal and Kaiden laughed, making Katie grow even angrier.

"Can't you kick him out?" Katie whined falling into a seat at the table watching as her father set an extra place down for the guest.

"He is an Alpha, Pumpkin, he can do as he pleases. We are welcome to have him," Augustus began when he caught his daughter's look. Letting out a sigh, he pulled out his chair sitting down on it facing Katie. "What's going on between you two?"

"I don't know father, it's just, he kept the fact that he was an alpha a secret. And now he is inviting himself over to my house! It's a little intruding for someone untrustworthy," she explained, scrunching up her nose, unaware of the person listening in. "I just, I don't know what's bothering me. Maybe it's his face. Maybe it's so ugly that everytime I stare at it, it just gets me annoyed."

Augustus chuckled at his daughter's reasoning before his eyebrows furrowed together in thought. "Is- is your shoulder itchy?" He asked, making Katie blink in surprise.

"No, why would it be?"

Augustus let out a sigh of relief driving Katie into more confusion, "I just thought... ah never mind. It's stupid. You can't possibly have a mate. You're human."

There was silence all of a sudden and Katie felt her world stop.

"What do you mean, human? My wolf is dormant dad. I will shift."

"Auggie-"

"No Mal, it's time that we tell her," Augustus interrupted his wife from where she stood at the doorway.

"Father, I'm a wolf, a werewolf." Katie declared again with even more clarity.

Her mom was a wolf and her dad was a wolf, a beta wolf. So she must also be a wolf. When her wolf stopped being so stubborn and let her shift, she would find her mate, make friends and be happy.

"Honey, when you were little, you were born unlike any child I have ever seen," Augustus explained as Mal walked over her husband putting a reassuring hand on his shoulder. Kaiden stood at the doorway quietly. He was finally going to find out why his little mate wouldn't shift. "You were born a wolf honey. With a furry grey body and a small muzzle. The day you were conceived, the pack was attacked. Mal was forced to shift and as she did, you did too."

"What does that have anything to do with it?" Katie cried feeling as her world shattered around her.

"Your wolf Katie darling, your wolf was out of control. Even in your little body, your wolf was not meant to be awakened so early in life. You were running everywhere, tearing the fields apart. You were fast, almost impossible to catch and you liked to bite. Everything and everyone. Your wolf refused to listen to the Alpha command and you had to be stopped. So the alpha and I, we came up with a plan. We gave you tea with a mixture of wolfsbane and silver in it. After drinking it, you changed back into human form almost immediately."

"Since you have always loved tea, we have never stopped giving it to you." Her mum added in a soothing voice making bile rise in Katie's throat.

"Chances are, your wolf has died off."

Disbelief clouded Katie's mind. She shook her head, unable to understand her parent's motivation. Every morning, every time she sipped on her tea that her own flesh and blood made for her was a poison. Her family had prevented her with the one thing she longed for her entire life! There had to be some mistake. Her father and mother always seemed so understanding of Katie's condition. Of course they would understand. They were the cause of her latency. Tears welled in Katie's eyes, as she watched her parents' guilty expressions. How could her parents do something so monstrous?

Her father's face turned into panic as he went to comfort Katie's quivering form. She dodged his embrace.

"Pumpki-" "DON'T CALL ME THAT! Just leave me alone!" Katie yelled before sprinting outside face in hands. There was only one place she wanted to be.

She could hear her parents calling her from inside the house but she refused to answer them. Her parents laughed bitterly at the word. 

Parents don't hurt their kids. Parents don't lie and pretend to protect their children from the world. The only people that Katie needed protection from were her parents.