Pausing in a dark doorway down a side road, I take a minute to catch my breath. The night air clouds with the heat of my breath like a smoke signal asking for help. I'd lost them a few roads back, the ringing of their cries of my name in my ears. But, no matter what happened, I would not live like my mother had. I would not live without love regardless of my feelings. I wanted to be loved in return.

Memories of my mother and father arguing outside in the dark hallway of our childhood home came to mind. The shake of the walls of our bedroom from the shrieks of our mother and the echo of violence cutting through the darkness. Mother had taken our father because she loved him with all her soul. Father had taken her out of duty. He was alpha before Seth's father overthrew him during a fight for power. When he died Seth reluctantly took over. It wasn't long before our mother had left after that. She refused to bow down to the new alpha and, as punishment, she was exiled.

Huffing out a last poof of winter's air from my lungs, I head for the one place they'd likely not look for me. The club. In wolf form the trip didn't take any longer than an half hour. The lights were off, the car park was empty and everything seemed to be still as I squeezed through the metal gate and trotted over to the back door. As expected, the window had been left unlocked and slightly opened to let the night's sins ooze out to freshen the place up. Using my nose, I nuzzle it further open and jumped through. With a sniff to the air I'm happy that I'm alone and make my way towards the bar manager's office. Only to be greeted by a screaming shadow loitering by the bar.

"What the fuck!" Foxy screams, scrambling around the bar to grab the bat we keep under the glasses just in case.

I internally roll my eyes and move towards her, hoping I have a spare set of clothes in my locker. But she swings the bat at me with a shriek, "fuck you!" I hop back out of reach, amused at her sudden act of bravery. "Which one are you?" She demands taking a good look at me. Her features twist into a look of distain as she recognises my markings, "Rose."

Suddenly, she grabs a bottle of Bud and smash it against the side of the bar with a sinister snarl, "I've been wanting to do this for years. I've seen you eye fucking my boyfriend. You're out of your mind if you think he would look twice at you. Wolf or no wolf!" She leaps forward and slashes the air, catching my leg. Whimpering I move out of the way and lick at the throbbing, bleeding wound that had begun to matte in my fur. A bubble of fury pops inside of me and I glare back at her and match her snarl with one of my own. I wasn't a fighter. But then again I wasn't a weak human either.

"Come on you bitch." She clacks her over-whitened teeth at me. Her acrylic nails coiling around the base of the beer bottle. She flicks her bleached hair out of her eyes. "Come on." With a snarl I leap into the air. Right into her arms. My teeth digging into her shoulder.