Ivory

TWENTY-THREE*

I squirmed under his body as he dangled the leaf things over my face.

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Elizabeth

My stomach hurt.

Everything hurt, actually.

My eyes were closed tight, because I was scared that if I opened them then I would find out that I was dead. Not that it would be an extremely bad thing, at least I would be free and wouldn’t have to live through being rejected by my mate. Why would he want a fat, insecure, worthless excuse of a werewolf like me anyways?

That’s right, he wouldn’t. No one ever does.

My own sister refused to acknowledge my existence and even stuck me here as the punching bag/maid of some pack. Life would have been so much easier if we had remained rogues.

Actually, life would be easier if my parents hadn’t been mutilated by rogues in the first place. If it wasn’t for the damned Rogue King I would have my family and we would be the way we were supposed to be. I wouldn’t be fat, Chloe wouldn’t resent me, there wouldn’t be scars on practically every available place on my skin, and I wouldn’t possibly be dead.

“I don’t care who the hell you think are,” someone yelled suddenly, making my head throb and my toes to curl in hatred, “but she is my sister and I have more of a right to be in here than you do.”

The next thing I heard was a low, deep growl that sent a chill down my spine, but also a warm feeling in my gut accompanied by butterflies. “You’re no sister of hers,” a deep, masculine voice rumbled. “A sister wouldn’t have done what you did, so get the hell out of the room!”

I didn’t hear anymore words, just the sound of an exasperated sigh and the slamming of the door. The warm feeling began to numb, until it all eventually faded away again.

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Something was touching my hand and it was sending a vine of tingles from my arms and spreading through my body. I had never felt anything like it before, my senses were on high alert and were solely focused on the sensation that thrummed through me. I didn’t want to let it go so unconsciously my grip on it tightened a fraction.

“Beth,” the low voice from before said softly. “Beth, please wake up. Please.”

I wanted to, just to meet who ever that was, but I couldn’t. Why couldn’t I just let the sweet darkens consume me and take me away from here? My life wasn’t worth it for me or anyone else. The only thing I could do was clean and mess up people’s lives.

I wasn’t worth anything.

“Yes you are, my child. You are special and beautiful and nothing happens without a reason,” a light, silk-like voice murmured in my head. “Everything that you have survived through has made you stronger, wiser, more acceptable of becoming the Luna you were born to be.”

Luna? I wasn’t made to be a Luna. I was meant to die with my parents, it was my fault they were gone in the first place and I needed to make up for that.

“Child, you were meant for something greater than death. Maybe that was what you think is right, but that was not the path I made you. Great things come from people who have been through the worse scenarios. Do you see what has become of Brooke Hope? She has become so much while she grew up with so little, just like you.”

There was some truth in those words that great people start out the same as everyone else. We all start at small, vulnerable infants who know nothing more than who our parents are and that there are strange sausage like things at the end of our hands and toes.

“If you open your eyes than you can begin your ride to your destiny. One with no more pain and more love. Love from someone who deserves you.”

That sounded nice, but too good to be true. Who could love a fat girl like me?

Open your eyes and see, the small voice in my head said, shining some common sense on the matter at hand.

Don’t you just hate it when that little voice in your head was right? Slowly, my eyes began to flicker open, but the light was so bright that I couldn’t actually see anything except white. I groaned, not only at the light, but the flood of pain radiating from my stomach. Why was I in so much pain?

Something warm pressed into my palm and tugged on it gently. “Come on, you can do it. Just open your eyes, please,” they said, same voice as before only this time it was pleading me.

Slowly I opened my eyes again and this time the lights were off, the only form of brightness came from the window on the other side of the room. My gaze drifted to my hand and saw a much larger, tanner hand clasping my small pale one.

Small? My hand was small. I always had sausage like fingers, and now… What happened? My wrist and forearm were smaller too. This was weird, this wasn’t my body. I must have had a brain transplant with an actual skinny person.

But then why were the slits on my wrist still there? They were done with silver so they couldn’t disappear, but that didn’t explain why I was so skinny.

“My gift to you, child. Don’t abuse it anymore,” that voice said again. Gift? I was given a gift to be skinny? But why?

“Beth,” the other voice pulled me away and my eyes landed on possibly the most handsome man I had seen in the longest time. He had silky black hair that curled and looked similar to a pool of black ink. He had electric blue eyes that shone in the absence of light as though it had its own source. His features were chiselled and he had a strong jaw that complemented his strong, muscled body. He radiated power, which scared me. He was an Alpha and I was an omega, we shouldn’t be mates.

Yet the tingles in my body, the butterflies in my stomach and the undeniable connection I felt in his star confirmed everything that I was afraid of.

We were mates.

I tried to pull my hand out of his grip, but only caused a pained and desperate look engulf his expression and hold onto my hand tighter.

“Please don’t be afraid of me,” he desperately pleaded. “I will never hurt you, Beth.”

This time when I pulled my hand away he didn’t fight me, just let me take it and put it on my lap but leaned forward in his chair, bringing his face closer to mine. “How do you know my name?” I asked.

He smiled at me and if I was standing, I probably would have fallen to the ground because it made my knees weak and legs feel like jell-oh. The butterflies now turned into dragons that felt like they were going on a rampage. “Brooke is a good person to know,” he answered, still smiling down at me like I was the most amazing person in his world.

I felt a small smile tugging at my lips, too, but I didn’t allow it to show. “She is,” I whispered, knowing exactly what he was talking about. She was an amazing person to know. I wish that I knew more about her.

“I know that your life hasn’t been…great,” he began, twiddling his thumbs in his lap, “but, please know that no matter what you went through I will never judge you for them. I’ll do whatever I need to so that you’re comfortable around me, just don’t shut me out, please. Talk to me, argue with me, but please just never stop talking to me. I don’t care that I don’t know what happened in your past, I don’t care that your bitch of a sister doesn’t talk to you or acknowledge your existence, what I do care about is you.

“I, Zander Hope, Alpha of the Ivory Sun pack, accept you, Elizabeth Travis, as my mate and Luna.” He smiled down at me, taking my hand in his. Slowly I returned his smile, but it quickly dropped as the doubts began to fold in.

“I don’t think I can do it,” I whispered, averting my gaze to our joined hands.

“I don’t care,” he swiftly answered, practically interrupting my sentence. “I’ll wait for you as long as you need. Forever, if that’s how long it takes.”