Of Wolves and Men

Lia’s POV

He towers over me, his eyes black with anger, his claws extended and I watch them come down on me.

“No!” the sound jars me from sleep and I jolt up. I wince and grab my head, a sharp pain rings through my head.

“What the hell?” I curse, massaging my temple. I stay in that position for a while till the pain recedes. 

I am in the woods, naked. With a heavy sigh, I stand up and start looking through the holes in the trees for spare clothes. Clothes are always stashed in trees for unplanned cases like this, though it is never advisable to morph on your own and so close to human territory.

I found a pair of shorts and a tank top in the groove of a tree. They are a few sizes too big for me but they would have to do. The sharp pain still lingers and I squeeze my eyes short, in a hopeless attempt to chase it away. I cannot remember everything that happened last night, I remember Alpha Verrick and I getting into a fight over another of my defiant stunts, as he likes to call them.

 He had said something that set me off, but the nagging pain in my head hinders my remembrance. The last thing I remember is running off in anger, that must have been when my wolf took over.

I suddenly pause, I cannot feel her. My wolf, I cannot feel her, it is almost like she is asleep or hiding from me.

 “What did you do?” I growl but still nothing. I huff and start making my way back to the pack. Great, my wolf has gone and done something stupid in anger and Alpha Verrick is going to make me pay for it.

Another huff leaves my lips as I look around me, I must be very far into the woods which means a long walk back to the pack. “Perfect time for you to come out now,” I tell my wolf, still nothing.

 “Fine, be that way. Your running privileges have been cut off.”

My life is the exact opposite of roses and sunshine, so thorns and thistles are a more accurate description. I have no family ties, no mother or father, from what I was told I was found by warriors at the edge of the pack. Cast away and unwanted. So, Alpha Verrick in his ironic benevolence took me in and made me an omega, because it makes perfect sense to 

"make the orphan helpless girl a permanent slave to you".

Omegas are born as slaves to the Alpha, they are taught from birth about the life of servitude and expected to lay down their life for their Alpha whenever the time calls for it. Now, every other kid around me then wore it as a badge of honor but I hated it and I opposed everything. I did not like the idea of living for someone other than myself, I was an anomaly then and I am an anomaly now. Safe to say this did not go down well with the pack members, the omegas hate me for staining their perfect servant reputation and the other pack members hate me for thinking I could be one of them. It is a surprise Alpha Verrick has not banished me yet.

Banished, an image of Alpha Verrick yelling those words flashes through my mind and I wince at it is followed by the same sharp pain. What the hell happened last night?

This should not be too hard to piece together, Alpha Verrick and I get into it once in a while. He seems to be the only one in the pack who does not see me as an abomination. He would yell at me for stepping out of line and I would defend myself, that kind of thing, it happens about twice a week or so. So why is this different? What did he say to set me off enough to bring out my wolf.