Aftermath

After Annabelle finished her dinner, she took Casey on her walk which was very awkward as she was instructed not to talk to Evan when she passed him. When she returned from the walk, she gave Evan a comforting smile, but he just looked away. Unspoken between them was the uncertainty of what Alpha Kevin would do to him as punishment.

She opened the front door and Jenna called to her from the living room. Anabelle stood in the doorway and Jenna told her Anabelle's father had decided to send Evan to the packhouse for a while under the supervision of our grandmother who worked as head chef and took care of the pack orphans there. It crossed Anabelle's mind that this was a short reprieve before Alpha Kevin dished out the real punishment.

She went outside and handed Evan the overnight bag she packed for him and told him where he was to go, and he left without a word. Anabelle held back the sob that was threatening to escape her. What would happen to her now that Evan wasn't there, and Jenna could focus all her anger on Anabelle? At least when Evan was around, they could get through it together. The evening passed by uneventfully, with Anabelle completing her usual chores and going to pack training. Much to her dismay, Evan wasn't at training.

This didn't surprise her as she knew that Grandma Marie hated their mother just as much as their father did. She would not be easy on Evan. Anabelle left training that night feeling sore and disgruntled. As usual, the other pack members had taken their issues with the Alpha out on her. They wouldn't dare challenge the Alpha directly, but everyone knew he did not care for Anabelle, so she was treated as a living punch bag for his crimes.

The walk home, as usual, was brutal and tiring and when she finally completed her nightly chores and walked Casey she collapsed into a dreamless sleep, exhausted from the day's events and anxious about what tomorrow would hold. The next morning Annabelle was roused from her sleep, still stiff from last night's training if one could call it that. To Annabelle, it felt more like a free for all beating she was forced to stand and endure.

Alpha Kevin insisted everyone's training left them with purple bruises spreading up and down their rib cages, and broken fingers. Anabelle of course had the option of going to the pack doctor to get her injuries treated but this would only enrage her father. She had gone to the pack hospital once when she was ten and he had pushed her down the stairs for failing to clean the bathroom properly and he had locked her in her room for three days with no food as punishment for embarrassing him.

He had told the pack doctor she was lying and had fallen down the stairs when she failed to notice her shoelaces were undone. Of course, no one in the hospital would dare argue with the Alpha. She wrapped her ribs in a bandage and applied the splint that was now worn down from regular use to her hands and made her way down the stairs to repeat her monotonous morning routine. It was only when she entered the kitchen, did she remember what occurred the evening before.

She contemplated why he would dare go against their father like that while she completed her chores. Jenna approached her before she left for school and told her to make sure she was home from school on time and not to delay. Hidden in that sentence was a warning, one Anabelle knew too well. If she was late Jenna would starve her or if she was feeling particularly nasty – add to her injuries.

Anabelle left for school with a pit in her stomach and wondered what the evening would be like and whether her father had settled on what only a monster would deem an appropriate punishment for her brother. If he was allowed to return to the house, he would most likely be locked in his bedroom and tied to the bed with silver bindings and no food. That was their father's favourite punishment. The timeframe depended on the severity of the crime and how nasty he was feeling that day.