Chapter 1: The War is Over

Aurora’s POV

My mother gripped my hand tightly as she yanked me to the floor of our living room. She held a finger to her lips signaling me to be quiet. I wasn’t sure what was going on because last I heard there was an intruder, and the situation was being handled.

“Mom, what’s going on?” I asked, her honey-brown eyes full of fear. In my eighteen years, I had never seen my mother afraid.

“Put these in,” she breathed, stuffing my headphones into my hands. Normally she would be begging me to turn my music off and pay attention to the “real world” as she often called it.

“Now.”

Any other day I would have retorted with a snarky comment, but now didn’t seem like the time. The fear in my mother’s eyes was steadily growing. I turned on my music letting ‘Fall Out Boy’ blare through the small speakers of the headphones.

Soon enough my mother’s request hadn’t seemed so crazy. Sounds of screams and pleas from various pack members began to flood my mind. God, I hated mind-link sometimes.

My mother placed her hands over the headphones pushing them deeper into my ears, it was her best attempt at stopping the screams. It was bad enough knowing that our pack was under attack, but it was something completely different to hear their screams and know that we were hiding instead of helping.

Whoever had broken into our pack was ruthless and content at taking no prisoners in their little crusade. Call me selfish, but I hope they spare us. I hope they don’t find me and my mother and just leave. I squeezed my eyes shut trying my best to block out the others’ voices and focus on the music in my ears.

Involuntarily, tears began to fall down my face, and soon enough I was rocking along with the beat of the music. I wasn’t sure why I was crying. The pack members were horrible to me and my mother. The adults would whisper and call my mother names and the children they raised weren’t any better. I guess the apple didn’t fall far from the tree.

My mother wrapped her arms around me pulling me into her chest. She began to rub her thumb in circular motions on my arms. I wasn’t sure if it were to comfort me or herself. My mother wasn’t easily scared and neither was I, but this was different. Her fear had prompted my own.

The screams had stopped and my mind was finally empty of any other unwanted voices. I was left with my ragged breathing from crying and my mother’s inconsistent hums. I took deep breaths to steady my racing heart. Maybe the silence meant it was all over.

The front door of our house flung open and my mother shrieked at the sudden burst. Moon Goddess, if there was ever a time to save us now would be it. I had never learned to fight. Alpha Robin said that it would be a useless skill for someone like me. Everyone knew that Omegas were the weakest wolves a pack could have and attempting to train one was wasting resources.

My mother had often told me that it was best for our kind to just stay hidden and out of the way. I don’t normally agree with her, but if we joined the others we would’ve just gotten ourselves killed.

“We’ve got two more in here!” the shirtless man yelled over the music in my ears. He stood like God above me and my mother, and his sandy hair was like a shaggy mop on top of his head. His blue eyes stared long at me and my mother before turning his attention to our destroyed doorway.

This was it; this was our end. I never thought I wouldn’t make it past eighteen. Though the pack members were sh*tty I had assumed that Alpha Robin’s pack had been the safest place for me and my mom. As Omegas, we weren’t the most welcomed rank of wolves, but Alpha Robin had graciously taken my mother in when she was pregnant with me and had nowhere else to go. We owed him our loyalty and trust for that alone.

Another man walked inside our house. Something about this new intruder was different. He had an aura of dominance and power, not to mention he was certainly more attractive. His long brown hair stopped at his ear, and I couldn’t help but wonder what it would feel like to run my fingers through it.

Unlike the other man, this one wasn’t shirtless, not that it mattered. The black shirt clung to his chest and left nothing for the imagination as various tattoos that littered his arms peaked from underneath. He stood with his head held high and I found myself afraid to meet his watchful gaze. He looked too intimating and as much as I hated to admit it, it scared me.

“What’s your name?” the new intruder asked. Though his voice was demanding, it held a level of tenderness. It almost sounded like he cared.

“My name is Joyce Hamilton, and this is my daughter Aurora,” my mother introduced. Her hand was still holding me tightly as if I’d disappear from her hands at any moment. I looked up at my mother as she spoke. Despite her fear, she looked at the intruder, a spark of fire beaming beneath her honey specks.

I looked from my mother to the intruder catching a glimpse of the most captivating grey eyes. His attention was no longer on my mother; they had singled in on me. His eyes were burning a hole in me, causing a shiver to go down my spine. No one had ever looked at me with such intensity.

“What’s your ranking?”

Those grey eyes never left my face as he asked the question. I was not known to be speechless, but at this moment I was at a loss for words.

“Omegas,” my mother muttered. Admitting her rank was the most depressing thing for her. We were always judged for something that we couldn’t control. My mother couldn’t help who her parents were any more than I could.

The intruder nodded and for the first time in a while, he moved his gray eyes off me. He looked around the house, landing on our pictures that covered the pale green walls of our living room. Without saying another word he walked out and left us alone with the shirtless intruder.

“Pack your things and meet everyone at the pack house,” the shirtless intruder said.

I untangled myself from my mother and stood from the floor, causing my headphones to fall out of my ears. They had been long forgotten the moment they broke our door and invaded our home.

“What do you mean? You can’t just kidnap us.”

I wasn’t sure where the courage came from, but I was returning to my normal self; the one who always had something to say and a reason to argue.

“Your precious Alpha is dead. You’ve got two options, to come with us or become a rogue.”

That was all he said before turning his back to us and walking out. Alpha Robin was dead, and our only choices were joining his murderers or becoming worse than Omegas … a Rogue.