Cassandra’s POV
He grabbed my arm and flung me at a wall prompting me to cough up blood from the impact.
I stood up with shaky legs as I stared him in fear.
His eyes were filled with anger and hate as he looked at me and I wondered what I had done.
His fingers reach for my hair and yank it hard.
His fingers brush my scalp and I suddenly feel pain rush through my body as it felt like life itself was being taken out of me.It felt like there was electricity and fire in me burning through every living cell in my body.
“Give me what I want” his voice is filled with anger and the pain soars to a new level.
Tears fall down my cheeks but I try not to make a sound because I know I’ll get punished for that.
I bite my lip hard, drawing blood as I try to hold back my scream.
His hand moves to my neck and I feel it burn.
His hands were hot and literally burned my skin as it made contact.
I coughed out blood as it felt my throat was closing up.
I began to pant heavily as the pain got worse and instinctively let out a scream I could no longer hold back.
The pain became more intense and I lost all strength and fell to the ground.
He looked at me with distaste and hatred.
It seemed like he didn’t get what he wanted, whatever that was.
He raises his leg and stomps hard on my left arm, breaking it.
I let out a blood curling scream before feeling darkness overtake me.
I open my eyes again and my head is throbbing hard.
It takes my eyes a few seconds to focus.
I see a girl standing front of me, she has blond hair and beautiful blue eyes that look down at me in concern.
“Cassandra, it’s okay now” she tells me softly.
“Who are you?” I ask in a whisper as I move back a bit with caution.
She doesn’t seem dangerous but then again, it’s better to be safe than sorry.
“I’m Sophie… Sophie Hunter” she introduces herself with a small sad smile that instantly eased my nerves.
“You’ll be fine, I promise”.
I wake up with a start, my breaths leaving me in shallow pants as I tried to steady it.
My heart was beating at an incredibly fast pace and I tried to take deep breaths to fight off the upcoming panic attack.
My hands start to tremble as I reach up to my neck.
It doesn’t burn it was just a dream.
Just breath.
You’re okay.
You’re safe.
I sit on my bed for a few minutes trying to recollect myself.
I haven’t had a nightmare in such a long time I had almost forgotten how terrifying it was.
I’m mad at myself for not being able to get over my past.
And I find it a little nerve wrecking to still be dreaming about the exact events that took place years back.
I have a future ahead of me and I can’t keep rereading the last chapter, I have to write a new one.
I get up from my bed making up my mind to act like nothing ever happened.
This is what I’ve always done and it’s what I would continue to do.
Just then I hear a knock on the door and I take a deep breath before heading to the mirror first.
I look at my reflection.
I look horrible with my bed hair and eye bags.
Fortunately, the eye bags weren’t that prominent as I managed to get a little bit of sleep the previous night.
I use my two index fingers to pull my lips up into a smile.
I step back from the mirror and force a smile again without pulling my lips up with my fingers this time.
It’ll do.
Fake it till you make it.
The knock sounds again and I throw open the door not forgetting to put on the smile I had shortly rehearsed.
From the other side of the door Anna and Drake looked me over in confusion and concern.
“What’s with the overly forced and creepy smile?” Drake asked worriedly.
Busted.
“I’m just exercising my lip muscles” I answer without dropping the smile which I’m sure creeped them out judging by the way Anna flinched and the way Drake took a step back.
“Do lips have muscles?” Drake mumbles while deep in thought as if trying to figure out some impossible maths problem.
Anna and I just shrug it off ’cause who knows?
“Anyway we came here because Drake wanted to teach you how to fly so you don’t fly into a wall and end up in a ditch somewhere” Anna tells me a little too straightforwardly and I give her a weird look.
“His words not mine” she quickly defends while pointing accusingly at her brother.
“Whatever. I’ll get ready now”, I mumble and head back into my bedroom.
The moment the door closes my smile drops and I sit on the floor in a corner and roll myself into a ball.
I rock back and forth as I begin to cry.
I thought I would never have to be this vulnerable again.
I thought I would never again have to face the demons that I managed to hide at the back of my mind.
All the pain I had felt in the past came crashing back.
The pain I felt yesterday can’t even be compared.
I felt physical pain only but in my past I suffered physical, mental and emotional pain.
And I was afraid of having a replay.
The only reason I even kept living was because of my brothers, Blake specifically.
Blake had saved me the day I had almost ended my life.
He took me back home and Zane decided he would take me in.
Blake, Zane and Donald helped me through my trauma, I got a lot better.
I miss them…
and Sophie.
I spend a bit more time crying on my floor before I find the courage to get up and get ready.
“Took you long enough”, Anna says once she comes to pick me up.
“Drink this” she says as she hands me a small bottle.
“Another potion?” I ask as I eyed the bottle curiously.
I still found it insane that magical potions exists and I have a friend who can make them.
“Yeah, it’s supposed to hide your supernatural being. They’re a lot of wolves around today and they’re not gonna want to see some strange vampire roaming around”.
I take the potion in one go but immediately start coughing.
It burns.
My mind goes back to his hands wrapping round my neck and the burning pain that follows.
I swallow hard in nervousness and try to get the bad thoughts to the back of my mind.
We walk through the hallways which were more packed than usual.
The wolves smile at Anna when they see her and give me perplexed looks.
“They seem to know you” I point out as some wolves smile and nod to Anna in acknowledgment.
“Well I used to be here a lot but stuff happened. I really missed this place though” she says with a smile as if recalling old memories.
“You used to come here?” I asked.
I didn’t think that werewolves would accept a witch and judging by Preston’s reaction when he saw Drake it looks like he’s been accepted too.
Preston is very open about his hate for vampires.
I wonder what Drake did to get on his good side.
Preston seems to really like him.
Before I know it, we’re out on the lawn.
I’ve never been outside since I got here so I was really happy to be out.
I took a deep breath, loving the fresh air.
Werewolves were all around talking and playing.
They all seemed like one tight knit family and it was something I really missed having.
Kids played with each other in their wolf forms, tackling themselves to the ground and nipping at each other.
The adults talked and laughed and some drank as well.
I followed Anna out of the pack house yard and into a nearby street.
We passed few houses and buildings before we stopped in front of an area which was secured by a wired fence.Wolves stood in there at attention while their commander stood in front of them.I came to a conclusion that it was some type of training ground.
As I got closer I a noticed the dark curly hair of the commander.
“Natalie?” She turned to me with a smile and a wave.
“Hey bitches” she greeted getting an eye roll from Anna and a short giggle from me.
“Oh hi Cassandra… and Anna” I heard someone greet.
It was then I noticed Preston on the floor doing push ups in front of Natalie with Caroline on his back.
Preston was sweating and grunting.
Caroline wasn’t making things better as she was snacking on a big bag of potato chips.
“Hundred” Preston panted “you can get off me now Caroline”.
She groaned, ” I don’t wanna get up yet” she complained as pieces of chips flew out her mouth.
Preston threw her off anyway and got on top of her before growling to her face causing her to giggle as she tugged on his hair “Get a room love birds. Not on my field” Natalie growled causing Preston to huff before getting up and helping Caroline up as well.
“Next time don’t interrupt my training sessions or you’ll be doing two hundred” Natalie warns as she glares at the cocky beta.
“Yes ma’am” he answers mockingly as Caroline hands him his shirt.
He seems to finally notice me and glares at me with a look of pure hatred.
“What is she doing here?” Preston asked with evident disgust.
“I brought her here” Anna announces from behind me prompting his to shift his gaze to her.
“Why? She shouldn’t be here”.
“She’s staying here with me Preston. Don’t bother her” Anna says with a tone of finality.
Preston doesn’t say anything after that, just scoffs and begins to walk away.
It’s funny how Anna was able to shut down the beta of the most powerful pack in existence.
I wonder how she did that.
Caroline walks up to him and squeezes his hand.
He smiles at her before turning back to glare at me. This story is hosted at g.com.
Geez, why does the dude hate me so much?
This whole time the other werewolves which I assume were pack soldiers were watching us with great interest.
“What’re you looking at? Stop watching shit and start kicking ass!” Natalie yells.
Wow, she’s fierce.
Just like I remember.
“Are you like the commander or something?” I ask her in awe.
She smirks “yep but here it’s called Gamma”.
“That’s so cool!” I shriek making her laugh.
“I missed your childishness” she chuckled while shaking her head.
“I missed your badass attitude” I admit.
“I’m here!” Drake announced as he walked into the field.
The soldiers stop their training and glare at Drake and some even begin to crack their knuckles.
What was I saying about being accepted?
Were they mad because he’s a vampire or because he beat up some of them.
Maybe it’s both.
Drake just gave them a wide eyed stare as if wondering what he did to to earn such hostile behavior.
“Do you remember him?” Natalie yells as she looked over at the soldiers.
“This was the vampire that invaded your territory and hurt some of you!
Men, are you going to have this?
Are you going to let this man go scotch-free?”
“No!” They yell in unison.
“Well, then what are you waiting for? Prove to this vampire that you aren’t to be messed with”.
And just like that werewolves started attacking Drake from all angles.
He looked at Natalie like she had killed his puppy before snarling and fighting back.
“Natalie, what the hell are you doing?” Anna yelled in panic.
“I’m trying to teach my men a few lessons. Drake has the upper hand here”.
“What lessons?” My curiosity gets the best of me and I can’t help but ask.
“I riled them up giving them the emotion of anger all directed towards Drake”.
“Sounds like you’re giving my brother a death sentence”, Anna mumbled in annoyance.
Natalie ignored her and continued, “emotion can be the downfall of any soldier. It’s normal to feel emotion but controlling it is the hard part. Right now they feel annoyed that they were beat by a vampire and they want to prove that they are stronger. I want to see which one of them can control those emotions and make them an advantage, channeling them into the fight”.
“Oh” was all I could say.
I already knew this, when Zane had been teaching the boys I had eavesdropped a bit but didn’t get this much detailed information.
Just like Natalie said, Drake was beating up half the soldiers.
Not because they weren’t strong but because their anger drove them into making a few minor mistakes.
Minor but detrimental mistakes.
Drake was finally pinned to the ground by a man with blonde hair and defined muscles.
“Davis, I said to leave it to the rookies”, Natalie glared at the man with crossed arms.
“Ah sorry gamma. I couldn’t resist a fight”, he said causing Natalie to huff.
Davis looks over at me and raised a brow, I don’t know if it’s because he can’t identify my supernatural being or he just doesn’t recognize me.
Maybe it’s both.
“Who is this?” He asked politely as he smiled at me as he gets off Drake.
“A friend of mine” Anna answers before anyone else could say anything.
“Cassandra, this is Davis, my second hand and Assistant commander of the pack soldiers and Davis this is Cassandra, a good friend of Drake and Anna”, Natalie introduced.
I assume Davis is in good terms with Anna and Drake, he doesn’t seem hostile towards them in fact it seems like he’s known them for quite some time.
I mumbled a small ‘hello’ as I shifted from one leg to the other.
I’m really bad at this, social settings I mean.
“It’s nice to meet you Cassandra” he says and I nod because I don’t know what else to do.
“Hello? I’m dying over here” Drake calls out while still on the floor.
He sticks out his tongue and closes his eyes in an attempt to fake death.
The rest of us look over at him and laugh while Anna walks over to him.
“Get up looser” she huffed as she kicked his side.
He held the area and pretended he was seriously hurt, “Dear sister, do you want me bruised? That will mean you’ll have to take care of me” he says mockingly.
Anna kicked him on his side again but a bit harder, “get up. You’ve got a flight class to teach” she tells him as she points back at me.
“Flight?” Davis asked.
“Video game” I say without thinking and he nods in understanding though is face was scrunched up a bit in confusion probably trying to figure out any video game where you teach flight classes.
“Fine, I’ll get up. Stop kicking me or I’ll really get bruised” Drake huffed.
“You can heal it dumbass” Anna spat and Drake just rolled his eyes as a response.
“I’ve got a class of one slightly dumb person to teach” Drake says as he gets up and brushes himself.
“C’mon Cassandra. Let’s go flying”.
“Hey, did you just call me dumb?”