Nova

"Enough." My blazing gaze broke slightly as my sobs became audible.

"I hear it all." I tried to hold the snot that was threatening to drain from my nose because of all the crying. If he really cared, he would have felt my pain and come looking for me.

That's because he doesn't care, my wolf growled out angrily. At first, she was extremely happy to have a mate but now I could feel the pain, anger and doubt that ran through her.

I know, I replied sadly.

"Nova let me explain," he begged walking closer to me. I let out a fierce growl that stopped him in his tracks. My wolf was pushing at the surface. She wanted nothing more than to rip him to pieces.

"No. I don't want to hear it."

"Well, you're going to hear it!"

Did he just use his Alpha tone on me, I asked myself.

Yes, he did. I could feel the struggle with me to obey him, but it was no match for my anger at this point. What was that old saying? Hell hath no fury like a woman scorned. Well, Alpha hath no power like a she-wolf angry.

"Why so you can feed me some bullshit line like you do with everyone else? I think not."

"No, I want to explain my reasoning to you," he said.

He looked a bit shocked that his Alpha command had no effect on me. He tilted his head like he was trying to figure me out. Or figure out what I was or who I was.

"OK then, tell me why. Why did you break my heart? Why did you break my wolf's heart? Why," I shouted.

You could still hear my questions lingering in the air. The echo of them being carried miles away.

"You're not in shape. You're fat. You'd get us both killed. Do you know how dangerous it would be for you? What with the hunters and the rogues around here, and then the threat from the new pack in the area not to mention the Vampires, people WILL be looking for the Alpha's mate. And with you being your size, you'd get caught," he explained.

I laughed venomously. So, he was doing this for me? Or was he just doing it for him? I looked at his face and was instantly pulled into his gorgeous blue eyes. Could he really be trying to protect me? My wolf was begging me not to give into him as I would normally do. She was begging that I stayed strong. I shook my head.

Why did this have to happen to me, I asked myself.

As if a sign from the Fates, a coppery colored wolf with brown eyes sprinted from the trees and stood next to Maxon. When he turned to me his face dropped and looked embarrassed. I knew it was Juan. While he had never made fun of me, he had never jumped in to stop his mate or anyone from making of me. It had me wondering why he was defending me now.

I thought back to the conversation that took place between them. He had told Maxon that it was just baby fat and would go away as soon as I shifted. Which was something we all knew to be true, so it couldn't have just been him trying to protect me. Even when Maxon was my age, he had a bit of a stomach on him. Then as if the Fates were now trying to have me sympathetic to Maxon's reply, I remembered something from the past.

Contrary to popular opinion, Maxon had not always been that arrogant asshole that he is now. He used to help Alex take care of me, he was like a second big brother. We would all play games and sometimes even when they were playing games with the other older kids, they would still make time for me. We were so happy back then.

"Hello Alpha Ellis, can Maxon come out and play," Alex asked. We had walked to the Alpha home that rested a couple of yards from the packhouse.

Alpha Ellis was a mean man. He always had those evil black eyes that we all knew belonged to his wolf. Alex told me that when he was a bit younger Dad had told him a story about how Mr. Ellis had let his wolf completely take over when he came home and caught Luna Ellis in the bed with another man. He said that he was so sad that he couldn't lead the pack much less live with her. So, he gave his wolf full control. That's when he became that evil person that he is now.

He looked down on us with this evil smirk at the mention of Maxon's name. For a second, I thought I saw sadness register on his face, but if I had it had disappeared too quickly because there was no trace of it now. The disgust that was now apparent on his face was directed both Alex and me.

While by instinct Alex cringed back, I stood my ground looked him in the face. Alex said we were never to look the Alpha directly in his eyes. It would mean you were challenging his wolf, and we didn't want that.

"Maxon is training to become a strong Alpha, just like you should be doing. As the Beta's son, you shouldn't be that fat. Do you want to join him," Alpha Ellis asked. If it weren't for his tone, you would have thought that he was really trying to be kind.

"My Dad said that having weight is alright seeing as how I'm eating for two," Alex said defending himself.

"Your Father is a fool. Ever since that one," he said pointing to me, "killed his mate, he hasn't been straight in his head."

Out of reflex I hid behind Alex. Even though I rarely showed it that man really scared me, and I didn't want him to catch me looking at him, so I directed my attention to the curtains that were moving. Looking more closely I saw Maxon's pointing to the backyard where there were woods that we would play in. I nodded my head in understanding; he flashed a perfect set of pearly white teeth, especially for a ten-year-old.

Tuning back into the conversation, I caught the last bit of Alex's statement. And boy was he asking for trouble. "--Nova is not to blame for something so natural. So, don't blame her. Leave her alone," he said roughly.

Alpha Ellis's eyes grew darker with his anger and before I could utter a whimper, he had picked Alex up by his throat and was choking the life from him. Immediately I hurled myself at the Alpha, attacking his leg screaming for him to let go of my brother. I was screaming at the top of my lungs for help as I looked at Alex's blue face, but no one was going to help. No one ever did, no one wanted to deal with Alpha Ellis like this. They were too afraid. A pack should never be afraid of their Alpha. Fear him yes, but being afraid, never.

I screamed louder. The wind was whipping past me, causing my hair to smack me in my face. The more I screamed the rougher the winds became until Alpha Ellis finally noticed and dropped Alex, who started coughing as soon as he hit the ground. Picking me up by my hair in Alex's stead, he looked at me with a puzzled look.

"Are you doing this," he asked me. I was too busy screaming from the pain of him grabbing me by my hair to answer him. He looked like he was about to burst a vein.

"Let her go," Alex whispered fiercely. Most likely because his throat was swelling from the tight grip the Alpha had on his throat.

"Answer me," he shouted in his Alpha tone. Even at this young age, I felt little pull to the Alpha tone. I could feel a little struggle within me, but it wasn't like what Alex explained it would be.

"I don't know what you're talking about," I cried.

I just want him to let me go, and then to run home and hide under my bed. This was all too much to get someone to come out and play. I looked back to the window and saw a horrified Maxon watching what his father was doing. He then disappeared leaving me to face his father again. A part of me hoped Maxon would run out here to save me from his father. It would be like a Prince coming to save his Princess.

"Let her go," a new voice shouted.

It was Maxon. They stood there staring each other down. After another minute or so I fell to the ground face first. Pain shot through my nose as I felt something running down my face. Alex looked scared and angry at the same time while Maxon just stared after his father.

"Come on Nova. Let's go to the pack healer," Alex said picking me up.

We began to walk away when we heard Maxon whisper an apology and shut his door. That was before his father started making all pre-shift wolves train and work out. Alex never told me why I couldn't go, he just said that I couldn't. A year after that was when Maxon began to tease me about my weight, causing everyone else to join him and ruin my life.

"Spare me the lies, Maxon. This has more to with the crap that happened when we were kids. Just because your father was an asshole doesn't mean you should be one too," I told him firmly.

I could see that statement really got to him. He faltered for a moment but then he became enraged. "You know what fuck it, Nova! Think what you want, but that still doesn't change the fact that you are FAT and until you lose weight, you're my little secret."

My ears were ringing. I was so angry that I was shaking, and I was so hurt that tears were threatening to spill from my eyes at any moment. I could hear him and see his lips moving but what he was saying wasn't being processed.

The wind was whipping around us quickly and hard. It was completely loud, sounding like howling in the wind and it came out of nowhere completely. My vision was beginning to blur, and my breathing became shallow, and then without warning, I let out a loud piercing scream.

There was a pain that shot through my body as every bone in it broke and shifted. I dropped to the dewy grass writhing in pain. I could feel nothing and everything at the same time. The cracking sound was becoming unbearable, so with all the strength, I could muster I covered my ears. Even with the hard wind blowing the cracking was the loudest thing in the world, at least to me.

Everything that was happening out of my body was no longer a priority to me. I just wanted the pain to stop. I closed my eyes tightly as the fiery pain that was shooting through my body made it to my eyes. I let out another scream, this time it was more guttural and feral, more animalistic.

Was this it? Was I shifting, I asked myself. The answer was a huge yes.

Alex had always told me how painful shifting for the first time would be, especially if it was done before you were ready, and by the amount of pain I was in now, I could only assume that I wasn't ready. There was a sickly ripping sound that my skin made that shot me from my thoughts. Bursting from my clothes and skin screaming on the floor for Maxon to help me. I could vaguely feel his presence, as I felt something sprouting from my skin...

It's my fur, my wolf barked happily.

The burning that had taken over my body was suddenly gone, and I could feel again. There was a cool breeze that softly blew and tickled the pure, white hairs that now covered my body. The pain was slowly disappearing, and it wasn't long before I could feel my body again. I peeked through my left eye and gasped.

This is how I see, my wolf bragged.