My Personal Hell - D. Richardson (read with me .txt) 📗

pills, swallowing one with the very handy glass of water that sat next to the bed. When I was done I crawled under the big fluffy blankets. Letting out a satisfied sigh. This bed truly was magnificent.

 

 

 

 

Drake

 

 

 

I rubbed my eyes and looked at the clock. 12:30. Becca was going to kill me. She hated it when I stayed up too late working. One of the woes of being mated. It was a rare occasion despite what all of the books said. Fact was, was that it’s a lot harder to find your one true mate. Many alphas don’t but it made us that much more powerful. Could be that you lived in the US and your mate was in China.

It was much more common for an alpha to just marry a powerful female, and leave it at that. We can still fall in love with others, but it’s not as pure. And it’s definitely not as intense. Especially at the very beginning of the mating process.

My internal musings were interrupted when my office door swung open. Tom walked in kicking the door closed, and started pacing in front of my desk. I waited for a few minutes for him to tell me what had him so obviously flustered. He was supposed to be sitting with Ailith in case anything happened.

“Is something bothering you?” I finally asked. Becca was waiting for me as it was. He paused his pacing and faced me fully.

“There is something seriously wrong with that girl,” he said pointing in her general direction. I tensed, my mind obviously going to the worst possible scenario. Which of course was death.

“What do you mean?”

“She woke up a little after midnight.” I relaxed a little.

“She’s awake?” I asked, happy that there wasn’t anything medically wrong with her. But he shook his head at me.

“Oh, that’s just the tip of the ice berg.” Now I was confused.

“You lost me.” He resumed his pacing.

“You don’t understand. I gave her the same amount of that sedative that I would have a wolf. She should have slept well into tomorrow morning. But barely after midnight she jumps up. She didn’t wake up slowly like she should of. Oh, no. She woke up like an injured wolf on hostile territory.”

“What are you trying to say?” I asked, wishing he would get to the point. Again he pointed in her direction.

“She is not human.”

“Of course she is. You took in her scent, hell it’s all over the kitchen thanks to her blood loss. Even Lori said she was human, and didn‘t know anything about us.” He shook his head.

“I know, I know. Her scent is human, but so is every wolf’s as a child until their wolf starts to make an appearance.” It was my turn to shake my head.

“The wolf appears at the beginning of puberty, she’s well past that.” Contrary to popular belief, we aren’t born with our internal wolf.

We start the change at the beginning of puberty. Only when you come to terms with your internal struggles, and have full control of it, do you achieve the physical change. The age of first shift varies greatly from wolf to wolf, depending solely on your level of self control. But it’s very rare to go to fifteen before then.

“I’m aware of that. But she doesn’t act like a human girl. Were there any oddities when she collapsed?” I thought back to that blood filled afternoon.

“She waited until the girls were out of the room before she showed any pain.” I looked up to see Becca standing in the doorway. She had come for me, but instead of being angry had listened in.

“What?” Tom asked, turning to her. She stepped fully into the room, letting the door swing shut.

“Aaron slapped her back, but she didn’t fall until she got the girls out of the room. She held the pain back until they were clear of it.”

“Why?”

“To protect them.” Adrian supplied as he walked in. I sighed, was everyone going to pitch in here? Maybe Ailith will walk in next to answer all of our questions. But oblivious to my frustration at being interrupted in a private conversation, Becca nodded.

“Lori came in soon after. She said that Ailith had always protected them from the pain.”

“So she learned to have strict control over her own pain?” Tom asked, a little in awe.

“You saw the scars. She’s had a lot of practice. Probably way more than anyone knows.” Adrian added. “You didn’t see her in that basement. She stayed in front of those girls the whole time we were in the room, and barely let us even see them. I asked her to come with us, and she wouldn’t leave them.”

“Do you have any idea what this could mean?” Tom asked, and we turned to him in confusion. “What if that’s how her wolf has manifested? In the protection of those weaker than her?”

“But what about the other aspects? Hunting, fighting, hell even self defense. She has shown no hostility even when she thought she was in danger. She didn’t even fight back when she took the beatings.” I thought back to all of the times I had seen any reaction from her. “If she’s a wolf she would be an alpha, she’s definitely not submissive. Her wolf wouldn’t have allowed her to just take the pain without dealing some damage herself. Not to mention she’s still well past the age to even have her first shift. Her scent hasn’t even changed.”

“What if she’s repressed it? Is that possible?” Asher asked walking in. I sighed, is everyone up this late?

“What do you mean?” Becca asked.

“Well, it seems she’s completely focused on protection. It’s one of the biggest ways a female would react when it comes to children. But what if in order to protect someone she completely repressed her wolf. Only allowing the basic of instincts to manifest. If it were in the best interest of a child she would have repressed her need to defend herself. And even then she would consider protecting them in everyway, including mentally. Which means she wouldn’t have shown any sadness or regret. Or even anger. All in the best interest of another.” He suggested. I had to admit he had a point.

“But it doesn’t make sense. Even if she didn’t allow her wolf to have a say in anything she did, her scent still would have changed.”

“Not if she started repressing before the wolf appeared.” Tom said as if he had gained some inspiration. But I shook my head.

“She would have had to start repressing even her human emotions at what, nine or ten?”

“What do you know of her history before she landed with the Crudelis pack?”

“Nothing, I don’t even know how long she was with them. But this is all just speculation anyway. She’s shown no real sign of being a wolf. Other than that she has a high metabolism and is jumpy.”

“So how do we prove it then?” Adrian asked.

“We could piss her off. Force her to react. She’s kept the wolf at bay by refusing to react to anything that’s done to her. If you take the other girls and prove that they are safe, and that there’s no need to protect them, then it’s left for her to protect herself. If anything it would bring the wolf forward to start the process that every wolf goes through.” I shook my head.

“That would be dangerous. Besides a pure blooded wolf wouldn’t be able to hold their wolf at bay for this long anyway. The pull is too strong it would force it’s way to the surface.”

“What if she wasn’t a pure blood?” Asher asked. I looked at him. How is it they all seem so able to counter my arguments? I was losing my touch. “What if she’s only half? The gene would still be there. If she had lived a normal life it still would have appeared at the proper age. But if she is half human and was repressing her human side, it stands to reason that she would be able to do the same thing to her wolf side.”

“That still doesn’t tell us how to get the wolf to come out. If she is a wolf and she keeps it caged in her own mind, eventually she’ll waste away from the effort she’s putting into keeping it at bay. Even though she won’t even know it.”

“I told you, we have to get her to react. Pull the girls aside make sure she knows they’re safe and rip into her. Make her protect herself or at least get angry.”

“It’s too dangerous. I told you, if she’s a wolf she’s an alpha. She could do a hell of a lot of damage. If we force her to let go, there’s no telling who she could hurt without even knowing it.”

“There’s a deeper reason to let it happen on it’s own.” Tom said plopping into one of my chairs. Tom never plops so it was a slight distraction.

“And what’s that?” I asked exasperated.

“When she woke up, she asked me where she was. I told her she was in her room, but she just waved me off. Told me it wasn’t her room, as if it were the most ridiculous thing in the world. I assured her it was, and she asked me why.”

“She asked you why it was her room?” I asked, not sure I was understanding. He nodded and continued.

“I said it was because she was now the oldest daughter in the house now, so she got the biggest room on the top floor.” I nodded, that was the base logic to it. “She said…she said, she wasn’t your daughter. That you had bought her, and you can’t buy a daughter. Then asked me to leave her alone. What‘s going on Drake? What does she mean, you bought her?” I sighed. I had hoped that this particular fact would remain buried.

“She was bought by the Crudelis pack as a slave. And the only way to get them out of there and safe, I had to get them legally. And the only way to do that was to get them to let me adopt the girls. So they wanted two hundred thousand for the three of them in exchange for the adoption papers.”

“So you did buy her, but not as a servant.”

“Exactly.”

“Then I suggest you tell her that. Because as of right now, she thinks she was bought to be exactly what the Crudelis pack made her. And you need to be careful. If our suspicions are correct, you have a lone, tortured wolf living in your home.” With that lovely piece of wisdom he left. I listened until I heard the front door open and close. With various words of departure the others went off to bed. As I soon did myself.

 

 

 

Ailith

 

 

 

I woke to the sun shining. I hadn’t set an alarm the night before. But the clock said it was seven in the morning. I guess getting up at the same time for a year and a half set my internal alarm.

I got up and went through my bags of new clothes. I found my functional pair of blue jeans and a long sleeved black shirt. I hadn’t bothered to try the clothes on in the store. I’d been wearing the same size since I was fourteen. But the shirt was a little tight. It hugged my torso in a way that I wasn’t used to.

It was still kind of warm out, but all of the other shirts I had grabbed would show part of my back. Not because they were skimpy they were mostly just spaghetti straps, so they would show the back of my shoulders. I hadn’t really thought about style or the weather when I had picked them. They were just what I always wore when I lived with my father. It was functional because it was warm for most of the year, and I had to do a lot of lawn