You Are Mine ✔

Chapter Sixteen

Lilly was always a little angel, never got in trouble and everyone loved her. My father had hit her before but nothing more than a hard slap because I'd always step in. That day I wasn't there.. I'll always hate myself for not being there for her. Lilly was nine years old and seeing as I am six years older than her I was already well into my Alpha training at fifteen. Alpha's start training at ten years old in our pack, we are not only trained physically but mentally as well. We are taught all about business, investments and the outside world that the humans live in. Were put through vigorous exercises that would make the army's training look like it was made for kids. We are taught to withstand torture of all manner. I never really took it serious though, I didn't want to be Alpha, because I didn't want to be like my father.

That all changed though, the day Lilly almost died was the day I vowed to never let him hurt my family again. He had beat her so bad, she was in a comatose state for weeks so her body could heal itself and the swelling inside her brain would go down. Those weeks were pure torture as I sat in her room at the packs infirmary and watched her. Her hair was dull and lifeless, her skin far too pale to be considered healthy and she felt cold to the touch.. she was always so damn cold. Brent and I would spend hours in her room everyday. Telling her about how our day was, I remember one day Brent was reading Lilly one of her favorite stories. Beauty and the Beast was her go-to when she wanted a bedtime story. As Brent read her the book I brushed out her long hair, freeing it from all knots and tangles before french braiding it. I was more of a parent to my siblings than their big brother.

Father hated the very sight of us most days and mother wasn't much better, though she did "favor" Lilly. I'm not sure what she felt for us inside but I knew it wasn't love. She acted like she loved us but the whole time lilly was healing from dads beating, mom didn't show up once to check on her "darling daughter" to see if she was going to be okay or even live. Yes werewolves have amazing healing abilities but that's only after we have shifted and are one hundred percent synced with our wolf. Yes we can still get scars as well if the injury was serious enough which is why Nikita still has that scar on her side. Her wolf healed her but she had been near death and her bond with her wolf wasn't strong enough yet.

I found myself in my office just standing there behind my desk, looking out the big window into the darkness, my arms crossed over my chest. The faint rumbles of thunder in the distance could be heard as the rain started to trail down the class in front of me. My eyes focused on the water droplets as they landed on the window, trailed down the glass before disappearing below. I was utterly confused on what I should do, thinking about the past made everything worse. My future seemed to match this weather, dark and stormy. The hope inside of me was fading just as fast as the rain drops as they slide down the windowpane. The emotions swirling inside me were like the loud cracks of thunder off in the distance. You knew they were there, they were coming closer and closer. You can't stop the thunder from coming, just like I couldn't stop what I felt for Nikita. A part of me wanted to love her with everything I have and another part of me just wanted to escape. To just disappear into the ground like the rain soaked into the earth.

"Dom!" Lilly's panicked voice jolted me from my thoughts as the doors to the office slammed open.

"Oh thank god! Dom come quick."

"Wha--"

"It's Nikita." She rushed out before I could even finish a word. My body responded instantly, racing out of the office.

As I followed close behind Lilly I reached out to Nikita through our bond, letting all over her emotions seep into me. The only thing I could feel from her was unbelievable pain and fear, a crippling fear that had even me scared. Pushing back against the emotion I tried to get a sense of what could be causing her distress. My body lunged forward at the sound of Nikita's ear piercing scream. Taking the steps three at a time I pushed past Lilly. Brent was standing outside of her room, little Jackson standing next to him as they stared into Nikita's room. Nikita's scent had changed once again, sending panic through me. Once a wolf mates their scents mix, bits and pieces of each others scents blending in with one another. I wouldn't lie and say I didn't love how she smelled after we mated last night. The thought of other males knowing that she's mine had me grinning from ear to ear but now her scent was different. She still smelled like us, but something was mixed in and not knowing what it was had me even more on edge.