You Never Knew Me

LYRIC

Today’s the day. This will be the day that everyone sees me.

I shower and put on a surprisingly nice dress my mother showed up with a little while ago. Even though there’ll be no celebration for me afterward, and I’ll be wearing a gown over it with the school colors, she insists I wear it. After all, her parents, she says, whom I’ve never met, are traveling to see their only granddaughter graduate.

It’s fine. They’ll be witness to what I have planned.

I slip on the shoes my mom brought to go with the dress and tuck my hair up in a high pony. Looking in the mirror, my crystal blue eyes, the color of azure and bluer than even my mother’s, stare back at me. I’ve put on mascara, which I never wear, to highlight them.

When I confront my father, he’ll look into my eyes and see me. He’ll know I’m serious.

I step out of my tiny room and present myself to my mother. She squeals and claps her hands excitedly. “Oh, Lyric! You have truly turned into a beauty!”

My eyebrows raise. It’s the first compliment my mother has ever given me, and I’m having trouble processing it.

The scoff from behind her, though, quickly reins me back in. I peer over my mother’s shoulder to find the luna standing there with a scowl.

“Thank you, Mother.” A small smile plays on my lips, a thank you for her compliment. “I’m sorry, but I have to go. There’s a lot to do to prepare for the ceremony.” I give her a brief hug—hugging one another is not something either of us are used to—nod at the luna, and then make my escape to the school gym.

I’m helping the student body decorate and set up chairs. By the time I arrive, they’ve already completed setting up the podium, and they’ve placed balloons in the school’s colors into a huge net that is suspended overhead. After the ceremony, the net will drop, and balloons will rain down on the graduates while caps are thrown in the air.

“Lyric.” Mr. Marshall approaches me with a smile on his face. He hands me a small, wrapped box. “Happy birthday, Lyric.” He pats my shoulder.

I’m tickled he remembered. I pull the bow off and peel back the shiny paper. Inside the box is a delicate watch. I pull it out, and he helps me put it on. “I took it to a witch and had her spell it for you. It will disappear and reappear when you shift,” he says softly.

This startles me. He knows about Sadie?

He winks. “I’ve known about her for a long time, my dear,” he whispers. “She’s a fine wolf. A true alpha. She is strong and kind. When you start your own pack, please invite me. I’ll join in a heartbeat!” His words are hushed to not attract attention. He squeezes my hand, then moves away.

I’m touched and look down at the watch once more before continuing to help hang streamers and helium balloons.

At three in the afternoon, it’s time to go backstage and get our caps and gowns on. Alpha Marco steps in with the luna to congratulate everyone on a job well done, just as I’m finishing the last snap.

He doesn’t offer a happy birthday. He doesn’t even look my way. I shrug to myself and say to Sadie, “Business as usual for the alpha.”

Sadie snickers. “Yes, until we show him what he has missed out on and lost.”

The diplomas are called alphabetically. Of course, Damien, carrying the DeLong name, is called before me. He accepts his diploma with a smug smirk, then sits with the alpha and luna on stage.

And now it’s my turn. I walk proudly across the stage, accompanied by the sound of silence. Unlike everyone else, there is no sound of clapping or cheering. It’s par for the course. My mother doesn’t even acknowledge me or smile my way. Instead, she lowers her head as if in shame. I’ll admit, although I’m used to it, it hurts.

As I take my diploma and carry it off, waiting for the rest of the graduates to be announced before my speech, an enticing scent wafts through the air. Wild berries and chocolate. It’s coming from the stage.

From Damien.

“Mate,” Sadie whispers in my head.

“What! Ew! No, Sadie! He’s my half brother!” My lip wrinkles in disgust.

“Well, apparently not! Perhaps another rooster was sneaking into the henhouse while your mom occupied the alpha,” Sadie answers.

I chuckle. “Go figure!”

The superintendent steps up to the podium and announces me. My heart is beating triple time, but I plaster my fake smile on my face and move to the podium, where I look out at all the faces of my classmates and teachers. Mr. Marshall gives me a thumbs-up, and I grin at him.

“Hello, fellow graduates of the Half Moon High School. I’ve lived alongside you my entire life as Lyric Johannes, but that’s not true.” I wait for the side chatter, which started when I stepped up to the podium, to die down as my words penetrate.

“Yes, my name is Lyric, and I am the daughter of Christine Johannes. But my father”—I pause for dramatic effect—“is Alpha Marco DeLong.”

There is an uproar as everyone breaks out in disbelief and anger. My father rises from his chair to stop me, and I whirl around on him and growl loudly. “Sit down, Father!” I bark in my alpha voice.

He stops in shock, and I turn back to the crowd. “I am only going to say this once. I am not a nobody. I am an alpha’s daughter. That alpha!” I point to my father. “The same man that has had both his luna and fated mate side by side for years!”

I turn to glare at him, making sure he’s hearing my every word. “He has been cheating on his luna and his pack, and he’s ignored and tried to hide me away with the help of my mother.”

I turn back to the crowd, now silent. “No more,” I say, my voice strong and my head held high. “I reject both my parents, Alpha DeLong and Christine Johannes. And I reject this pack.”

I stare into the sea of faces, all whose eyes are on me, seeing me and my worth for the first time. “Yes, while you’ve been busy ignoring my existence, I’ve been watching all your interactions, listening to all your secrets. I am well aware of the injustices this pack is capable of. Are you?”

I strip off the gown and yank the cap from my head, tossing it to the ground. Then I take a few steps to stand before my father, who stares into my eyes, his face mottled in anger. “I’m done with you, Father,” I say, my voice loud and clear.

Damien stands and walks toward me, and I wonder what he’s going to say in defense of his father. But my pondering only lasts a moment. There is lust in his eyes, and I know he recognizes me as his mate.

I stick my hand up, a gesture for him to stop. The alpha looks from Damien to me in confusion, and that’s when Damien growls. “Mate.”

I huff in derision. “Yeah, no! Not going to happen.” I look directly at Damien. “I, Lyric Johannes, reject you, Damien DeLong, as my mate. I will not be stuck in this pack.”

Damien grabs at his chest and howls, and the luna rushes forward to support him.

“Makes you wonder how he can be my mate, doesn’t it, Father? It looks like while you were off being all lovey-dovey with Christine, the luna had her own midnight caller.”

He growls low in his throat before his eyes dart to the luna, who dips her head in shame.

I whirl to face the pack. “Your leaders, ladies and gentlemen!”

I allow Sadie to take over, and together, we hear the startled exclamations and whispers of awe as her huge white self emerges. Sailing over the heads of those standing in front of the stage, we practically fly out of the gym and dart toward the forest.

Sadie’s enormous paws seem to eat up the ground as we make a path through the trees and up into the forested mountains. We quickly locate the hollowed-out tree where I hid a duffle bag and a large backpack. Shifting long enough to slip the backpack on, I shift back, and Sadie grabs the duffle bag with her teeth. Then we take off for the border.

I’ve chosen the path of least resistance. Fewer patrols come out this way because of the rocky incline. I don’t really believe anyone will try to stop me, but my father just saw my wolf. He now knows her to be a strong white alpha.

I refuse to allow him to drag me back into his pack. But I can’t wait to see him try.

I cross the rock-strewn slope and turn to look back. It will be the only time I do so.

“I, Lyric Johannes, reject the Half Moon Pack,” I say once more. I’m a little surprised I feel nothing—no anger, resentment, or even sorrow. But then again, why should I? They never really claimed me.

Sadie sniffs the air before altering course and heading us north. Toward a new life.

EPISODE 4: Devious Bitches

ALPHA MARCO DELONG

My son. I watch as Damien walks across the stage and takes his diploma, a smug look on his face. He’s grown into a fine man, but then, of course he would. He’s mine, and I expect nothing less.

I dip my head in acknowledgment of his achievement as he looks at me, and he lifts his chin before taking a seat next to his mother. Yes, he graduated, but he still needed a tutor. A tutor! Pathetic.

Lyric Johannes is called, and she saunters across the stage to take her diploma. She cleans up pretty well, but she’s weak. She can’t even shift! I swallow the bitter taste in my mouth. The one child I have with my goddess mate, and she’s without a wolf.

The only thing she’s ever been useful for is helping my son raise his grades. I look at her again. She is pretty. Beautiful even. Perhaps she can be useful in other ways…

The rest of the graduates are called, and finally the end is near. Lyric stands once more and makes her way to the podium for what is bound to be a boring speech meant to motivate. I’m wrong.

It all happens so fast that I can’t find the words. In front of everyone, she has the audacity to name me as her father! Livid, I stand to quell her speech, and growling, she tells me to sit down. I see a glimpse of her wolf…but that can’t be!

What happens next is a blur. Damien yelling he is her mate, Diana bowing her head in shame, Lyric rejecting the pack, her mate, her mother, me.

She shifts right in front of us, leaping over the heads of the crowd and exiting through a rear door. I can’t believe my eyes. Her wolf is magnificent! The most beautiful wolf I’ve ever seen—and powerful. I’ve never sensed such power before. And she’s been here all along, right under my nose. Right under my nose!

Howling my rage, I shake as my anger consumes me. That little bitch! How dare she defy me? Me! I’m the alpha. I’m her father!

The audience, made up of pack and neighboring pack members, turns to stare at me, and all chatter ends. I can feel their eyes upon me, judgment heavy on their brows—

The alpha doesn’t even know what’s going on in his own family!

If he kept this a secret, what else don’t we know?

His daughter? He can’t even control her!

“Leave now!” I command, my voice a roar that echoes in the silence. There’s no need to demand twice. The message has been received. Parents hug their sons or daughters and make their way out of one of the exits. Their glances at me, however, do not escape my notice and only infuriate me further.

Christine stands and moves slowly toward an exit, but she stops immediately when she hears my growl. Looking from side to side as if for an ally, she sinks into a chair.

Diana slinks over to my side and touches my arm. “Marco, I don’t understand,” she says, her voice filled with false sincerity. “Damien can’t be—”

“Enough!” My hands clench into fists as I look into her deceitful eyes. She’s known the truth this whole time, betrayed me all along, put me in the position to turn my pack over to a bastard when it’s time for me to step down.

“But I swear I didn’t mean—”

My hand flies through the air, landing with a loud thwack on her cheek and creating a blossom of raised red skin. It’s the only time I’ve ever struck her, and the feeling is satisfying. “I will deal with you later,” I say, my voice menacingly low. “Get out of my sight now, or so help me, I will not be responsible for my actions.”

Diana shuffles away quickly, taking her bastard son with her. His gaze remains fixed on the exit on the opposite side of the room, as if he expects his mate to return and rescind her rejection. Ha! How perfectly fucking ironic.

I unhurriedly walk across the stage, and my footfalls boom in the now-empty room as I make my way over to Christine. She cowers in her seat, and I swear I hear her wolf whine in submission.

“Did you know?” I ask roughly, trying to hold on to every scrap of control I can.

“I swear, Marco, I had no idea,” she whispers with tears in her eyes.

“Dominic!” I yell. The entire room seems to vibrate with my wrath. My beta appears as if out of nowhere and bows to me. He’s good for some things at least.

If the little bitch wants to play, we can play. I’ve learned from the best and know how to take a female down a peg or two. “Find the bitch and bring her to me,” I growl. “She’ll soon learn who’s top alpha in this family.” I throw my head back and howl again. “Bring that bitch back!”