Adored by the Alpha

Chapter 1

I collected my things, begging that my laptop screen hadn't been destroyed when it had been thrown to the ground. I'd worked my ass off for 3 years in the coffeeshop to able to afford it, I was going to cry if it had broken.

I ran home, being careful not to bump into anyone. When I finally caught sight of our apartment building my heart filled with relief. I and my family lived in the slum. The specific part that every wolf pack had reserved for humans with no connection to wolves whatsoever. Many human parents would pamper up their daughters and sons every day, begging that their child would be the mate of a Beta, or perhaps even an Alpha, or anyone closely connected with either of the two. Despite them being generally selfish beasts, they were usually very respectful of something they considered as sacred as family. Having your child being the mate of a highly ranked wolf was a one-way ticket out of the slum, with just a hint of respect from wolves coming along with it.

Fortunately, my mom and dad would much rather for me to be happy with a human man who doesn't think he or she owns me, preferably to some disgusting animal-human hybrid who thinks an instinct gives them some sort of special right over other living beings. My parents had been fiercely protective of me ever since I had turned 16 nine months ago, having forbidden me from going to my dancing classes, to make sure I wasn't put in unnecessary danger of being anyone's mate.

I shook the thoughts out of my head and speed-walked the last few meters to the door, locking myself by entering the passcode. All slum buildings had passcodes that only the humans living in the building and the highly ranked wolves of the pack knew. Their way of 'protecting' us. This was due to some incidents of wolves breaking into the human's homes, robbing, raping, and murdering every human they met on the way.

Along with the doors that locked from the inside between 11 at night and 5:30 in the morning.'The human safety curfew' they had called it, even though every human in their right sense of mind knew it had only been inforced so they could save money on guards since they that way wouldn't have any humans trying to escape the tyranny during the night. The doors wouldn't open unless there was a fire, in which case the doors wouldn't even be unlocked before another passcode, that only the local fire department knew of, was pressing into the keypad, to prevent anyone starting a fire in the attempt to flee from the pack.

I rushed up the stairs, to the top floor, unlocking the door to our apartment.

My mom jumped up from the couch as I entered the room. "Paige! Why are you so late? If you're not ready within two hours for the ball we'll all be ki-"

She stopped in her tracks when she finally realized what she was looking at. "Oh my god sweetie, what happened to your throat? What happened to your head? No, no you'll have to tell me when you get home, you have to go take a shower and get all of that ... blood out of your hair..." she bit her lip, walking over to me. She brushed her fingers against the back of my head, making me wince. Sorrow filled her eyes before she moved her hand down to touch my neck, shaking her head carefully, then lowering her head.

"I don't know how we're going to survive if things stay like this," she whispered, before lifting her chin and pressing her lips together.

"Take a shower, try to get the blood out of your hair... thank god I bought a whole new concealer for you, we'll need all of it for your neck..."

"How bad is it?" I asked, my throat acing painfully as I spoke. She looked at me with a worried frown, her lip quivering.

"Go take that shower, it won't be long until your dad comes back from work."

I nodded, picking up some towels from the tiny cupboard by the door, walking down the hall into the shower room we shared with everyone else on the top floor of the apartment building.