Chapter 1 Payback

• RAYNE
• “Where the hell have you been? Come, Orm needs our help!” Aaron, my cousin and third in command, said, running past me as I made my way down to the dungeons.
• “What about the beast in the cells? Who’s watching it?!”
• “Leave the dog; it’s not going anywhere!” He spat, and I made it as though I was right behind him, but I turned around and ran back to the cell the moment he was out of sight. Grabbing the keys, I quickly unlocked the gate, my heart banging against my chest as though it would leap out and fall at my feet. I took a searchlight and walked inside to find Sage lying in a pool of his blood, battered and broken.
• “Sage! Get up! You need to wake up!” I called out to him, tapping his cheeks while scrambling for the collar, trying to insert the key and unlock it. “Get up!” I repeated this as his eyes drooped close again, tears welling up in my eyes at his condition.
• I unlocked the collar, but gasped, falling on my bum when his eyes snapped open again, this time crimson. A low growl vibrated from his chest, causing me to slide back, and my hands trembled in fear. He got to his knees, and I watched in horror as his bones broke before a black wolf towered over me.
• He took menacing steps toward me, and I trembled even more, cowering in fear. I fell on my back, shielding my face with my arms as he suddenly lunged, thinking he was lunging for me. But when nothing came, I opened my eyes and slowly lowered my arms to find him gone. I quickly got up, the gravity of what I had done sinking in, and I ran out of the cell terrified of the consequences should I be discovered. But I didn’t regret what I had done. I couldn’t just stand by and let him die like this. Sage saved my life. I owed it to him to at least try to save him.
• My mother and I moved to this town five years ago. We were running from my abusive stepfather after he tried to kill us. He set our house on fire with me, my mother, and my sister inside. My sister died, and my mother and I survived and fled. We had nothing—no money, no clothes—so we came here to my mother’s half-sister. She sheltered us, and I started going to school here the following year.
• Things got better. But Oleander, the school’s bad boy, noticed me. He started pursuing me, but I was not ready for a relationship. Plus, I was not in his league. I was nothing compared to the girls he dated, and he looked as if he came from a wealthy family too. He didn’t take kindly to the rejection; he was used to getting his way. Oleander started taunting me, even telling his nasty girlfriend Lacy that I tried to seduce him.
• She and I were in the same class, and she made my life a living hell. It became worse when they discovered the burn scars on my arms. They nicknamed me Crinkly.
• They humiliated me every day, seeking me out when I tried to avoid them, and no one intervened but Lorna, Sage’s sister. She found me crying in the stalls, and I expected her to drag me out and laugh at me like everyone else, but she didn’t. I was tired that day, and I decided to end it all. She hugged me and comforted me when she didn’t even know me, and by the time she was done, I didn’t have the strength to go through with what I had planned. She saved my life that day, but it didn’t stop there.
• One rainy Saturday evening, I went to get some candles for our house from the store after the rain tripped our power, and Oleander and his groupies cornered me. They chased me down a dark street, and I screamed like a madwoman, terrified. I don’t know what they would have done to me if it weren’t for Sage, who heard my screams and came to my rescue.
• I was wet and shivering cold, and Sage took off his hoodie and placed it on top of my wet clothes. He took me home, and I later heard he warned Oleander and his groupies to stay away from me. They finally left me alone. Sage and his sister showed up at my darkest moments and saved me.
• I hated wolves. My stepfather was one. Mom dated him before he dated my father, but he was abusive toward her to the point where she left him and met my father. My father was a good man and loved her, but they couldn’t be happy. My stepfather kept coming after them, trying to get my mother back.
• When my mother was pregnant with my sister and me, he broke into our home and murdered my father. That was the first time my mother got to know what he was. She was terrified, and when he threatened to kill her, out of fear, she stayed with him. He was a monster, and she knew nothing could save her from him.
• We didn’t know he wasn’t our father since my mother never told us. She tried to shield us from the abuse. As long as he didn’t touch us, she stayed and took it all. He also never hit her in front of us. We sometimes noticed bruises on her, but she would always have an explanation.
• But one night, a loud commotion awakened my sister and me. They were arguing, and we heard our mother apologize before we heard her scream. We ran to the room and found him hitting her. She told us to return to our room, but we didn’t. We couldn’t leave her like that.
• We ran to her and tried to yank her away from his grip, but he grabbed us and threw us off of her. She got up and fought, and that’s when he hit all of us. He half-shifted, and we huddled in a corner, screaming in fear. It was the first time we had seen something like that—a beast—and we couldn’t even move. Fear paralyzed us.
• He locked us inside and set the house alight. By the time the neighbors came to our rescue, we had caught flames. When my mother and I awoke in the hospital, they informed us that my sister's burns were too severe, resulting in her death. That’s when we fled. A social worker was kind enough to help us get to my aunt, and that’s when my mother told me everything, including that he was never our birth father and that our father met his end by his hands.
• I sank into a dark place. I couldn’t even start school that year. I was afraid to even step outside. Every face I saw turned into his face, and my sister’s screams as we burned alive while my mother desperately pleaded, trying to open the door, haunted my ears. I became suicidal, and the thought of leaving my mother alone was the only thing that held me back every time I was about to take my life.
• After months of depression, I eventually got better. But when the bullying started in school, it set me back. All the pain and anger multiplied, and I was drowning again. Aaron was constantly training, and after nothing helped with my depression, he invited me to train with him, and that’s when everything changed for me. That’s when I found my purpose.
• I told myself I would train harder, and one day I would seek my stepfather and avenge my sister and father. Aaron and I became very close when we started training together, and one day I told him a story about a werewolf. My mother had cautioned me against revealing my stepfather's identity to anyone, fearing it could lead to the death of my family. But I had to say it to someone so I told Aaron. When I did, I didn’t clarify if it was just a story, a movie I watched, or if it was real. I told myself that he would never believe me, anyway; no one would, or so I thought, but it turned out I was wrong.