He cleared his throat. "Yes, he was the Alpha of the pack... before he died."

"Really?"

"Yes, Hillary. He was also my friend. Now, let's do away with the history and welcome the future."He held my hand tighter. "Hillary, I have dreamt of this day for many years and I can't believe that it's right in front of my eyes."

Dylan glanced at me and smiled and I reciprocated.

The old man clapped and smiled happily. "You guys truly love each other...don't mind me I'm.old fashioned, most of you modern youths hate using the word love and prefer 'really like', right?"

I replied with a smile although I felt like screaming.

"Yea, I thought as much. I can't wait...let the Alpha ritual be done by midnight. Dylan, alert everyone about it, it's going to be amazing."

I tried my best to remain cool, as I was really frightened and perplexed. What did he mean by that? Was he talking about marriage? I barely even know Dylan, how can I marry someone I just met a few weeks ago? Impossible. My mum and Steve didn't even know about him, I had met him only twice, and now I was expected to get married in a few hours. Crazy! Impossible! The only reason why I was still calm and I didn't object to the old man's speech was because he was nice and he said he knew my father very much and I didn't want to ruin my relationship with the only person except my mum, who had known my Dad.

"OK, dad."He said. it was obvious from his countenance that he felt uncomfortable.

The old Alpha rose up and gave me a Peck in the cheek. "Margaretta!!"He yelled with his old crooked voice. "Margaretta! M-A-R-G-A-R-E-T-T-A!!"

An elderly woman in an apron around her came in. She brought with her a tray which had a cup of chinese tea and some unleavened bread on it. She dropped it aside on a bedside table, took off her glove and dusted her apron. She had a nice and welcoming smile on her face and she graced me with it. "Old Jodan, what else do you need?"

He grumbled. "You're calling me old, like you're not old yourself."

She laughed. "Jodan, you and I know that I was still in the 5th grade when you were done with college, so let's not argue about age now, shall we?"

"Fine, but you look just as old as I do."He said.

"Hmmm, yet I'm not the one on the bed who can't do anything else but eat and sleep."She said jokingly.

"Whatever, you won."He said, surrendering to her. "Anyways, 'young' Margaretta, I would like you to prepare this angel of a lady..."He said addressing me. "For her ritual to become a Luna, can you do that? Or are your bones too weak to move around?"He said taunting her.

"Joke's over, Jordan, insult me one more time and you'd have anchovies on pizza as food for the next five days."

"OK, I'm done. But seriously, I'd like you to prepare her and dress her like the angel she is."

He looked away from Margaretta and stared at me. "Honey, I'm really grateful and I wish you all the best. Now, I think it's best if you get ready and prepared for the ceremony."

Dylan placed his hands on my shoulder and aided me in getting up to my feet. "Thanks, Dad. We better leave you to enjoy your meal and your chat with Aunt Margaretta."

"Sure thing, Kids. Margaretta's is feeling too good of herself and I need to change that, by the way."He waved happily and continued his chat with the old lady.

Immediately we left the room and Dylan shut the door, I asked him. "Nothing like that is happening, and I don't know how you're going to tell your dad that, but you'd have to deal with that. Right now, all I want to do is to leave here."

He stared at me in disappointment and said. "Of course, he walked down the long and wide stairs. The house was indeed enormous and was almost like a five-star hotel. There were several people moving around, some of them kids, some youths, some were couples , many were in their teens and many were as old as Margaretta.

There were so many eyes on me and some of them even smiled and greeted me.

Everyone looked so happy and it looked like they were all one big family.

Dylan escorted me out of the villa which was situated in the woods, but not the one close to my house.

We finally arrived at the road which led out of town.

"Goodluck, Hillary."

"Yea, I'd really need that."I said as I managed to smile.

"So, you're leaving town, aren't you?"It was obvious that he was sad.

"Yeah."

"Whereto, Hillary?"

"As far as possible."I said.

"OK.."He said reluctantly. "If you ever need help, feel free to contact me", he handed me a slip of paper which had his number on it.

I collected it and squeezed it in my hand. "I better leave, now before My Mum and Steve get back, i t would be better if I had some hours advantage over them."

He sighed and he hugged me. "Hillary, I hope the next time we meet, you'd be less stubborn and more...submissive."

I laughed. "Dylan, I can bet that we'd never meet again, but it was nice knowing you. You taught me something very relevant, at least I now know what I truly am, and also I know some things about my father."

"Hillary, fate is stronger than you think. Fate brought us together, so no matter where you go, how far you travel or even if you go to the other end of the world, Fate would still bring us back together. It may take years, decades or it may even be sooner than you can ever imagine, but I'm sure that you and I will be together someday and I hope it's soon."

I smiled. "I don't believe in Fate, Dylan, so goodbye."

I turned around and walked hurriedly back to the school compound where my car was. I thought about Dylan Woodluck on the way and somehow I knew that in better circumstances, being with him would have been better than wonderful. I wished that he'd find a better person someday, a person who would love him and aid him in leading his pack. I also thought about Jodan Woodluck. I wished that he had a nice and proper life and that death would meet him well and that when he died, he'd join my Father in heaven and probably keep him company.

When I arrived at the car, I cleaned a teardrop which had escaped my eyes. I took in three deep breaths, each having significant meanings, the first breath was for me saying farewell to my past, the second was saying farewell to My sister, Dylan, Jodan and to the old me and the third one was for welcoming a new life and future for myself.

After my usual deep breathing ritual, I opened the car door and i... froze.

In the front seat was Ava Saints and in the back seat was my mum and Steve Harrows, both of whom were pointing guns at me.

"Seems like you're going somewhere, Hillary?"Steve said, with a wicked smile on his face.

"Get in the car, now!."My mum spat out.

I slowly hopped into the truck and prayed that my head wouldn't get blown with a gun from behind.

"Now Hillary, let's go back home."My mum said with a cold voice.

My head went blank and my body felt frozen. I didn't know what they'd do to me, but I knew that it would be the most horrific thing ever. I slowly shifted the gear to drive and I drove slowly to my waterloo.

*****

We arrived back at the house after twenty minutes of silent driving.

I got out of the car with shaking legs. Ava, my mum and Steve also came out and led me back into the house.

At that moment, I had no idea of what to do, I didn't know if I should cry or I should plead or I should even give up on living.

When I had left the house earlier in the morning, I had promised myself never to come back under any circumstances, but now I was back to the hellhole I had left for good.

I stared at Ava with anger, I didn't even know how she had met my parents but what I knew was that she was one of the people who didn't wish me well, and that she had a hand in my current predicament.

She looked back at me and gave a naughty smile and waved at me.

My mum had gone out the back door and Steve had followed her. I had no idea of what they were doing but I was sure that whatever it was, it wasn't in any way a good thing for me. It had to be some kind of torture or extreme punishment.

Steve came back from outside and walked upstairs, panting like a wild animal. He came back down after some seconds with a very large chain, he stopped at the end of the stairs, glared at me and stormed out of the living room and through the back door.

Now, it was just me and Ava.

We were both staring at each other, but the difference was that she had a victorious look on her face with a smile which I had once thought was beautiful but now all I saw in it was Evil–pure evil, and I had a look of fury and rage which made me look like a sorry loser.

Finally, she broke the silence with a loud laugh which echoed in my ears over and over again. "Hillary, don't look at me like that, it makes you look stupid."

I didn't have time for her silly comments, so I simply ignored it and asked her the question which was aching inside of me. "What the hell are you doing here, Ava?"

Her smile faded and the look of hate which I had seen earlier at the pack house came back. "I think you should know already?"

"All I know is that you're a crazy person who should be nowhere else but behind strong and thick bars of a prison cell."

"Yes, you're right. But the main reason I'm here is to finish what I have already started."She giggled. "You have no idea what I have planned for you, Hillary."

And she was right, I had no idea what she had planned for me, but I knew that it had to be extremely horrible and unimaginably hurtful.

She chuckled as she swiped away a teardrop which had escaped her ocean blue eyes. "Hillary, do you know what happened after Dylan came in to rescue you?"

I didn't respond and I didn't even move. I just sat in the chair like I was a doll.

Her eyes were red and tears were now escaping freely from her eyes. She didn't even bother to clean them, she let them fall without any form of resistance. "I bet you don't know, so I'll tell you. After your superhero came in to rescue you from me, the villain, I was tossed in a cage and left there...until he came back to meet me in the cage...he didn't look at me with love like before, he looked at me like I was some kind of disease that needed to be eradicated. Funny enough, when I saw him, I thought he was going to take me away from the cage, hug me and tell me everything would be alright. I thought he was going to tell me that he didn't care if you guys were mates or not, I thought...he would tell me that he loved me...but he didn't, instead he told me right in my face that I was a problem to the pack and then he banished me and told me that if I am ever seen around the pack that he wouldn't think twice before ending me."

I looked at her and all I saw was pain and hate.

She cleaned her tears with her long fingers which still made me shiver after remembering what had occurred in the pack house, how she had tortured me with those sharp manicured finger nails.

She stood up and walked to me.

My heart began racing as I anticipated the worst.

She sat beside me and held my face with her fingers. "You stole the love of my life from me, Hillary, and if you know anything about me, then you wouldn't have."

She applied more force on her fingers and they pierced my soft cheek, resulting in a small stream of blood from both my left and right cheek.

I winced in pain as her fingers dug deeper into my skin.

She burst out into laughter as she saw tears form in my bright green eyes. "Wow, I love seeing you cry, Hillary Hunter. How I wish you had seen me weep when the love of my life rejected me because of you."She removed her fingers from my bleeding cheek and slowly rubbed the blood around my face. "Hillary, I promise you that you'd pay for what you have done. Not only did you take away my lover but you also desire to steal the position of being the Luna, a position which I have suffered to be in for the past three years."Her fingers began trailing my face. "But I promise you this, as long as Ava Saints is alive and breathing, you and Dylan would never be together, I'd rather die than watch that happen."

"Ava, I don't even want to be anyone's mate nor Luna, I promise that if you let me go, Dylan would never see me again. I would go someplace far away that no one from here would know."I said, shivering.

She looked at me for a while and then burst into laughter. "That was funny, Hillary... really really funny. So, in your dumb and childish brain, you think that I'd let you go...after you have ruined my life. Yea, you think I'd let you go, and maybe you'd find a human boyfriend, give birth to as much children as you wish, have a family and die one day looking at your lover in the face, while I would forever be alone, faraway and hated by the only man I love and will ever love."

Her fingers reached my eyes and circled them slowly and gently. "If you think so, then you must be really stupid like Janette had said. I would make your life a living hell, I would make you suffer until you'd beg for death and then I'd make you wish you were never born."She gripped my face with her hands and attempted to use her fingers to press my eyeballs but luckily my mum stormed in and prevented her.

"What the hell do you think you're doing, lady? My mum said.

Ava looked around, then dropped her hands from my face. "Nothing ma, I was just telling her that running away from her family isn't the best thing to do."

"Please help us educate this blockhead of a daughter we have here because we have tried everything we can."Steve said.

He made a way to shake Ava but my mum pushed his hand away, and gave Ava a stern look. "Don't you try fooling me young girl, I know you hate my daughter and I don't give a shit to know why...but don't you try hurting Hillary because you have no right to, she's my daughter, my property, so leave me alone to torture my slave the way I want to."

It wasn't like I didn't know that my mum hated me, but still her words felt like I was being stabbed with a long blunt sword through my chest. A couple teardrops fell through my cheeks and my mum slapped them away.

"Now get your lazy ass up, Hillary."She pulled me up and held me roughly by my neck. She looked at Ava and said; "Thank you, you spared me a lot of money, it would have cost me some dollars to buy a new pet...and even if I had gotten a new one, it could never have been a human being who my blood runs through."

Ava smiled. "Don't mention it, it's my pleasure. But I would like you to do me one favor."

My mum smiled. "Whatever you say dear.I owe you one by the way"

She held my face and kissed me on my cheek. "Well, I'd love it so much if you keep her indoors for a while."

My mum laughed. "If that's what you wanted then I'd say you wasted that favor, as I have already planned to keep her in a place where she'll never see the sunlight until she's as old as I am."