Chapter 2 Growing Pains

• Olivia's POV
• I could still feel the sting of Annabelle's fist on my lip. My head struck the wall when I fell, but I scrambled up, furious as fire.
• "What the fuck is your problem?" I lost my temper and wiped the blood off my mouth.
• She towered above me, her eyes flashing and bitter. What time do you suppose it is?”
• “It’s midnight. What would it matter to me when I get home?” I could not speak calmly anymore; I was angry.
• Footsteps that shook the house tramped along the hall. My father. He was there with smoked-down eyes and his wolf on the verge of breaking.
• "You don't talk to your mother like that!" he growled.
• "Well, she is not my mom!" I was furious with him. I was not going to cower.
• His eyes fell on the blood at my lip. "Why is she bleeding?"
• “Because your perfect mate decided to hit me when I walked through the door.”
• "I said not to talk to her like that."
• "Why don't you tell her not to strike me?”
• His face stiffened. "She must have had her reasons."
• I snorted. “Yeah. She simply felt like that. And that is a good enough reason, no?"
• "Olivia, be careful of that tongue of yours." His hand twitched, and he lifted his fist. "Or I will backhand you myself."
• My voice a sharper blade, I stood my ground. "Down to hell. Both of you."
• I stormed down the hall and shut myself in my bedroom, locking the door. My hands trembled, not through feebleness, but from the effort it took not to fight back.
• My ragged split lip was staring in the mirror. Annabelle had Nolan bound so hard about her finger he could not see his own direction. I was waiting to get a fist in her mouth and smash it, but I knew better. He could never forgive me for touching her.
• Once their door closed, I grabbed fresh clothes and toiletries, walked into the bathroom, and showered. The hot water stung my open skin, but it helped me to breathe. I got dressed, went back to my room, and took the drawer out of my chest of drawers. The diner tips--a sixty tonight--added to the small package of bills on my dresser at home. My only plan is to escape.
• Annabelle snooped around quite a good deal. She supposed she was smart when she put things away where they would never be found. I was always two steps ahead, though. Soon I would walk out of this house, never to return. I would either go home and pester my mother until she could not resist my pleas, or I would beg the Alpha Arthur to be allowed to live by myself. Nothing could be worse than this.
• ***
• The sleep came late. My eyes were sore after I awoke. We were up early, at six, and I was struggling to rouse myself out of bed to another day.
• I loosely gathered my long, curly blonde hair and applied the minimum drops of makeup to my pale face and crammed my books into my bag. My blue eyes were the most distracting; they looked back at me in the mirror, unwanted magnets. I despised the way people stared at them first.
• I was free now, up to the moment Annabelle emerged in the doorway of the kitchen with a coffee cup in her hand.
• "You had better be home at ten tonight, or I will lock the door. Well, you can sleep somewhere else.”
• My lips turned in a cold smile. I am looking forward to it. "I don’t get out of work till ten. The job, which you made me take on."
• Her face kept its complacent expression, and she turned into the kitchen. I bit my lips and walked away.
• I ate my favorite muffin and coffee at the diner. Zeke came in, saw me, and cocked an eyebrow—the one that meant he wanted to talk but did not know how and wasn’t sure if I’d bite his head off. I sat there sipping my coffee in silence until I heard the buzz of my phone.
• Nolan: She means to lock you out tonight. I will have your bedroom window unlocked.
• I made no answer. He did not need the gratitude. Instead of sneaking around Annabelle to cushion the blow, he should be telling her it was not alright to treat his daughter like that.
• ***
• When I came to school, Harvey was standing outside, leaning against the wall.
• "How did you spend last night?" he inquired when we came to walk together.
• "As usual. Work. Training. I got home, and until the bitch went to bed, I remained out of sight.”
• He smiled, but I could tell that it was not a funny smile. "I like that you are brutally honest. You just speak it like it is.”
• "Why sweeten it? The truth is the truth; the truth is what the truth is, whatever way you gild it.”
• "That is what makes you different; that is what makes you different," he said with a grin.
• We came to my locker, and I pushed books in it. That is when the slam hit.
• The door of my locker broke my hand, so it made a crack sound. Pain flashed up my fingers, white-hot. I yelled and held my hand to my bosom.
• Kelly stood there with her pack of cackling shadows, her smile of blamelessness full of venom.
• "You have only done a great thing," I hissed through clenched teeth.
• "And why is that?" she taunted.
• I lifted my undamaged left hand and pounded it against her face. The satisfying crack of her nose breaking filled the hallway. She tripped and fell back in a heap upon the floor.
• “Holy shit,” Harvey muttered.
• Whispers and gasps of "What happened?" erupted around us. A teacher ran over to me, Kelly was bleeding on the floor, and my right hand was mangled.
• What happened here? What occurred? he demanded.
• Kelly slammed the locker on one of Olivia's hands. Harvey said quickly. “Olivia defended herself.”
• Kelly shrieked as her friends engulfed her, but the teacher was not deceived. He took me and Harvey directly to the hospital.
• By the time we arrived there, my hand was so sore I thought I would faint. The healer shook his head as he fixed my fingers with a cast. Werewolves are fast healers.
• Kelly had a history of starting trouble, but she was patched up in another room. I didn’t cause any trouble. The weight of the pack was here with Alpha Arthur himself.
• He heard it all. He was not fooled by Kelly. Instead they got punished, and I was sitting in the hospital bed with Harvey by my side.
• And when at long last the Alpha discharged him to get coffee, I knew that the real talk was going to start.
• Arthur was sitting across the room, and as large as he was, his presence filled the room. “How’s everything at home?”
• My stomach knotted. "You know about that?"
• "When you came along, Annabelle made it clear she did not want you here."
• I gazed at him. I stood transfixed awhile. and I nodded grimly. “She still doesn’t. But it’s fine. Better she neglects me than seeks to go out of her way to improve on it.”
• His eyes lost their hardness. "You are a fighter, Olivia. I have seen your history. You train, you work, and you maintain your studies. Not many would take it as well as you have done.”
• Heat came to my cheeks. "I do my best, sir."
• He was bending down forward a little. "I did not just want to see you because of that."
• My heart skips. "Well, what is it then?"
• "A call came to me today about your former pack. From your mother.”
• I sat up and tried to straighten myself on the bed, with panic seizing my heart. We talked over the weekend. Why would she call you?”
• Arthur looked at me quietly but thoughtfully. “Something’s happening back there. I think you should speak to her as soon as possible.”
• Cold dread sank into me. My mother never would’ve gone through an Alpha unless it was dire. Something was not right.
• And all at once the aches and pains of my injured hand were as nothing beside the fear closing in on my heart.