Reject Me

At eleven years old Aluma received the news. She wanted to cry, she wanted to be allowed to grieve her parents. However, she didn't know how to. How to process, how to get over everything she saw. The adults around her looked down on her with pity. Something she would come to despise in the following years.

Her father. He had been a monster. The very worst of their kind. Every human that said werewolves were more beast than man, could be proved right in his actions. In his treatment of his family. His mate, she had wanted to be free of him. However, he held her captive, aided by the mate bond that forced attraction between the two. His daughter, Aluma, had been terrified of him. Walking on eggshells, wondering what would set him off next. There was no pattern. No rhyme or reason to his anger. That's what Aluma had thought when she was younger until she noticed the bottles that pilled up around the house. Her father, the monster, the big bad in Aluma's story was gone. She wasn't sure what happened next. Was she to mourn him? How could she, only relief surrounded her upon hearing he was gone. However, she would later find out his body was never recovered. It was an assumption that he was dead. No true confirmation was achieved.

On the other hand, her mother. That was a true loss. Her mother had always painted a smile on her bruised face for her daughter. Her mother that had protected her from the beatings and the full wrath of her father's rage. Her mother that had cared for her, clothed her, fed her. It hadn't been without difficulty. Her mother would hide money from her father, enough for food and the occasional clothes when Aluma needed them. Back to school shopping had always been hard, and Aluma, over the years, had noticed the guilt in her mother's eyes when Aluma's gaze lingered on something she wanted that was just too much money. Over the years Aluma had attempted to hide when she saw things she wanted from her mother, with little success. But they would both pretend that it worked. Her mother tried her best and did everything she could to support her. Aluma felt guilty for the building resentment that had started to grow over the years towards her mother, for staying with her father. The man that would put them both through hell. Aluma wanted to grieve her mother. She truly tried. She tried to cry. Tried to react as others thought and told her she should. However, she couldn't bring herself to. No tears were ever shed.

It wasn't long after her parents' death, only six months, it was her twelfth birthday that something shocking happened. Aluma had been in the packhouse, in her room. Her friends had wanted to do something for her birthday, but Aluma refused. It was no longer something she wanted to celebrate. Not that she had ever really celebrated the day before her parents' death, but at least then she had her mother attempt to put something together. Now though, she saw no point. She was a product of an unhappy relationship, forced upon her mother she was sure. Now that her parents were gone, Aluma would forever run from her birthday.

The room she had been given wasn't anything spectacular. It wasn't perfect, but Aluma bathed in the joy that it was hers. On the white bed, on her twelfth birthday, Aluma felt a heat swell through her. The heat was painful, but not scolding. Aluma withered in pain, feeling as though she would burst into flames. The pain continued for hours before subsiding. Aluma was grateful it was over. By this time it was midnight, the moon was full tonight and at its peak. When its light shone through the window the blinding, flaming pain hit her. worse than before. Surrounding, suffocating, consuming her. Aluma assumed she was dying, punishment for not grieving her parents. Minutes felt like hours and Aluma felt her body breaking, dislocating, creating a new shape. At some point, Aluma must have screamed, because her door opened. She saw Alpha Nickolas, she tried to speak, to tell him she was dying, joining her parents. Alpha said something Aluma was unable to hear. The pain continued, only getting worse. Until eventually she blacked out. She didn't know it yet, but her blackout was Regan's doing. Dulling the pain to make the transition easier on her young, frail body that was not yet ready to shift. Alpha Nickolas sat by her side, attempting to ease the pain on the young girl in any way he could. As an Alpha, his wolf longed to protect every member of his pack. He felt a deep connection to each of them. Eventually, it was over, beside him Regan stood, bowing her head in recognition of her alpha. He was shocked, Aluma was so young. This hadn't happened in his lifetime, and he had never heard of any examples of such a young wolf shifting.

Alpha Nickolas had allowed Regan out of the packhouse and his bata accompanied her from afar while she became officially acquainted with Aluma, her human half. Nickolas, ever since that day, was exploring the reasons for Aluma's much too early shift and her survival. He would tell her, and others, it was grief-induced. However, he spent hours searching for the true answer.

On Aluma's sixteenth birthday, Nickolas found the answer. An answer that could change everything for Aluma, for him, and for the pack. He wouldn't tell her. Not yet. Instead, he got closer to the orphaned girl. Becoming a sort of fatherly figure for her, to replace the one she never had. His mate, the only other person in the world that knew the truth. One day, when she was ready, he would confess. Until then, he would hint, teach and guide her. He needed her to reach her full potential one day, but that day wouldn't come for a long time he hoped.

On the other hand, Aluma had sworn that she would never mate. With the belief that Regan's early appearance was caused by grief, she had found some form of contentment. She felt the loss of her parents, but never truly acknowledged it. With Alpha Nickolas' acknowledgement of her development and hard work to strive to be the best in her pack. She was training to be a pack worrier and so Alpha Nickolas noticing her made her feel special as if she truly could become the first female worrier of the pack. She would train, fight, and focus. No mate was going to get in the way of that and drag her down.