Walking into the kitchen all the teenagers stopped talking; choosing instead to fix their judgemental stares on me as I fished through the fridge. I pulled out an apple and took a bite as I searched for something to have for lunch.

I heard snickers as I bent over but I tried to ignore them. I’d been getting this treatment my whole life. I was the only human in a pack full of werewolves; a pack full of skinny, model- like werewolves. But they were egotistical, nasty and bitter towards me; as beautiful as they were on the outside, they were hideous on the inside.

The adults were indifferent to me but the teenagers hated me. I guess I ruined their perfect image of a pack, at least in their minds. As a human I was excluded from everything. I couldn’t go on runs with the males or hang out with the females because I didn’t belong. To avoid their accusing glares and cold shoulders I locked myself up in my room, burying myself in the world of fiction. I ran nightly after they were all asleep but it didn’t do much good. Sure I didn’t get out of breath when I walked up the stairs but since I just sat around during the day and because my metabolism isn’t as fast as theirs, I was much bigger than them; a fact they never let me forget it.

I really only ventured out of my room to get food, go to the bathroom, go running and go to school; though I wouldn’t have to do that anymore as I’d graduated last year. My room was my sanctuary and no one entered but my dad’s, Jenna and Davy. I guess that they could tell that I wasn’t really part of the pack so they never pushed me; I guess that they assumed I didn’t care.

School wasn’t much different; I stayed out of everyone’s way and did the work. My teachers marked me fairly and generally left me alone.

My life was lonely. Really my only friends were my dad’s, Alpha Jenna and Beta Davy. They were so busy running the pack of well over a thousand wolves that any of them had time for me. If I’d been born a wolf then I would’ve had many friends and been respected because of my father’s position. But that wasn’t the case. I knew that they’d found me in the forest next to the body of my mother when I was only a few months old and adopted me into the pack.

I stood with some leftover chicken and the apple, closing the fridge. “I don’t think you really need that chicken.” I felt it plucked from my grip as I turned around. Lani, one of the meanest bitches I’ve ever had the displeasure of knowing, stood with the container in her hand.

I sneered at her and went to grab it out of her hand but she moved it away and shoved a hand in my face. I growled, a habit I’d picked up from living with wolves, and shoved her away from me. I was just going to walk away but she growled with a cruel smirk. “I’m just looking out for your best interests Eve. After all, what guy would want you a fatty like you?”

I shook my head and stared at her, my anger burning inside me. “You may think that you’re so pretty and liked but the truth is that you are the ugliest thing I’ve ever met. You think that boys like you so much? Well they just like the fact that you’ll open your legs for them. They’re not interested in me because unlike you, I have morals.” I said angrily.

“What did you say?” She hissed, taking a few menacing steps toward me.

“You’re a whore.” I shouted, poking her in the chest with each word. Years of bullying had spilt over and I was sick of it. She’d called me names for years and now she was getting a taste of her own medicine.

“Apologise and I won’t beat you to a pulp.” She hissed. I knew that she was very capable of bashing the shit out of me but I was sick of cowering before her.

I smirked and shoved her back. “Sorry for calling you a whore Lani.” I paused and looked thoughtful. “I just didn’t realise that the lack of love from your parent’s leaves a hole in your heart only dicks can fill.” I knew that it was a low blow as it was well known that her parents had left Jenna’s pack to travel the world with no thought to their only daughter.

Her mouth dropped open before she lunged at me. I ducked and turned quickly, lifting my foot and kicking her square in the ass. She head butted the fridge and before she could recover I sprinted up the stairs to my room.

I could hear her growling and chasing after me as I ran, slamming the door and bolting it behind me. She began banging on the door and I was afraid that it would splinter until I hear my saving grace.

“Is there a problem here Lani?” I heard Jenna, our alpha, asked calmly. “Would you care to tell me why you’re trying to get into Eve’s room?”

I heard Lani growl before banging her fist against the door again. “The little shit called me a slut and said that my parents didn’t love me and that I filled the hole in my heart with dick!” She screeched.

Jenna chuckled and I heard the floorboard creak. “She’s not far off. Get lost before I punish you for threatening and bullying my niece.” Jenna ordered.

“B-bu-,”

“Get the fuck out of here before you get your ass handed to you.” Jenna said threateningly.

I heard Lani scamper off before there was a knock and Jenna sighed. “Eve let me in please.” It was more of an order than a question but I did what she asked.

The lock clicked and I opened the door to peer out at the beautiful woman at my door. Jenna Knight was everything I aspired to be. She was a fearless fighter, strong and didn’t take shit from anyone. She was the first and only female alpha and currently the only female wolf that could shift. She led the pack well and was a generally fair, kind and protective alpha. Although she was twice my age and constantly busy, I trusted her with my life and she was one of my closest confidents.

Not only that but she was stunningly beautiful with long raven hair, bright blue eyes, high cheek bones, full lips, long, black eyelashes and she had a body that any model would kill for.

“What did she do?”

“She took the chicken I was going to have for lunch, kept calling me fat and telling me how no one would ever want me.” I told her quietly. “God I hate that bitch!” I punched my bed covers in anger and rolled over to stare at the wall. As far as Jenna was concerned this was the first time I’d been bullied. I kept it from her because it wasn’t worth bothering her and possibly getting hurt by the wolves. If they got in trouble with Jenna because of me, then their treatment would just get worse.

“Yeah I had problems with her ever since I was little.” It was unbelievable to think that Jenna was almost forty years old and only looked twenty. Werewolves, well, all supernaturals are immortal and stop aging when their bodies are at their physical peak or when they’re turned. My dad’s both looked younger than thirty and the oldest looking person in this while pack didn’t look a day over thirty.

My lifespan was only a blimp on their radars. Sometimes I wished I was around normal human beings; at least that way I wouldn’t be looked down on simply because I wasn’t immortal, invincible and stunning. But then I guess that even humans are shallow and I could probably expect the same treatment because I was plus sized.

We sat in silence and honestly I just wanted Jenna to leave me alone. I loved her and my parents but they all treated like a china doll. I was nineteen for god’s sake and they refused to even talk about going away to college or participating in pack events. If I ever bought up leaving I swear my dad’s looked like they would lock me up and throw away the key. They said that the world was a dangerous place and that I’d get hurt because other creatures would take advantage of my ‘kind, caring spirit’; kind and caring my ass.

I felt Jenna’s hand on my back and I flinched. I never had liked much human contact. I guess I’d always been afraid that the verbal abuse and cold treatment would become physical. I had trust issues I knew that and I didn’t let many people close after I’d been dumped by my supposed friends when I was little as they’d soon discovered that I was different.

“You’re a beautiful person Eve; even if they don’t see it.” I snorted and turned to face her. When her face went blank and her eyes became unfocused. I knew that someone was talking to her through the pack mind link. Yet another thing that I was excluded from.

“Rouges have been spotted near the house. Get down to the safe room until I send one of your dads.” She ordered, helping me up. I frowned and shook her grip off me.

“Why am I the only one that has to go down there? Why can’t I just stay in my room?” It was true. Every time there was any hint of danger I was locked up tight. None of the other females or children were locked up because they had self-defence training. I wasn’t allowed to participate in those either; I was too fragile, too mortal, too human.

I was sick of it.

“I’m staying here.” I said stubbornly, knowing that she couldn’t force me because her alpha command didn’t work on me. Jenna could be intimidating though and right now she was shooting me glares.

“Eve go down to the safe room right now; I have to go deal with these wolves.”

I shook my head and pushed her towards the door. “Then go deal with them. I have hundreds of wolves and a huge house standing between me and them.” Not that any of the wolves would actually stop the rouges if they wanted to come after me, which I sincerely doubt.

I could tell that she needed to go and I used that to my advantage, stubbornly refusing to move. She could’ve easily pick me up and but she didn’t, choosing instead to shake her head instead and growl. “Fine but I’ll be having words with you after, so will your father’s.”

She ran out of the door as I sunk to the bed in relief. I couldn’t stay here; I wouldn’t. If I was a wolf I would be fighting right now but I was a fragile human and was good for nothing, an orphan.

I changed into a pair of jeans, a shirt and some sneakers. I grabbed a duffle bag and shoved in some clothes and my wallet, making sure that I had my identity documents. I ran to my parent’s room and grabbed one of my dad’s wallets. I knew that it was stealing but I couldn’t stay. I was sick of it. I took the wads of cash and stuffed them in the bag before grabbing a pen and paper.

I sat on their bed, madly scribbling. I lay the note on their pillow before closing the door and running down the stairs to the garage. No one stopped me as most didn’t care; the ones who did were dealing with rouges. The garage was full of cars that the pack rarely used and I knew that the doors would be unlocked and the keys in the glove box. I took one of the older four wheel drives and threw my bag in, jumping in after it.

The car tires spun as I peeled out of the driveway and gunned it through the forest.

That had been five years ago as of today. I’d caught the first plane out, which as it turned out, was headed for England. I’d landed in Heathrow airport and walked to a bus shelter. A poster promoting the British Army had caught my eye and long story short, I joined the army.

I just barely passed the physical examination and had rapidly lost any excess fat I’d had on my body in the first few months of training. It had been an intense time in my life and there were so many times I wanted to give up and go home, but I couldn’t. I had been the weak link in the pack, the weak human; but no more. I worked my ass off in training for a year until I and my division were sent off to Afghanistan.

It had been brutal and I constantly questioned why I joined until the day our company was attacked by al-Qaeda rebels. It had been terrifying and exhilarating. I saved the life of a fellow private but shooting and killing a man who’d been about to gun him down. That was the day I knew I was no longer the weakest link and the day I knew that I found my purpose. I finally belonged in a team and I began building friendships with many of the men in my company.

Since then I’d served four tours in Afghanistan and Iraq, working my way up the ranks from private to a captain within the space of three years.

When the SAS began recruiting I and my best friend, Griffin Vance, enlisted. Training was twenty- nine weeks long and it was hell. In the start there were two hundred tough men, all whom had been in the military for years. By the end there were only twenty recruits standing; Griffin and I included.

The easiest part had been the training for the training; they gave us preparation before we actually began proper SAS training. They assessed us in that first week and told us the likelihood of failure; it was estimated that I would drop out in the first ten weeks.

We then progressed to the beginning; fitness and navigation. I was already in peak physical condition by then so the initial 1.5 mile run, sit-ups and pushups were no problem; even though they were under tight time limits.

For a week they ran us up hills in the Brecon Beacons, mountain ranges in Wales with treacherous weather conditions. We had to carry a forty- five pound rucksack, an unsupported rifle that we had to carry when climbing and a water bottle. They made those runs harder by adding navigation and map reading exercises.

Over the next week they increased the rucksack load and frequency of the runs and exercises. By the end twenty men had dropped out from sheer exhaustion or were kicked out for one complaint; they didn’t tolerate slackers or whiners. And in the third week they got us to run through the mountains, staff asking us to locate our position on a map before we could continue.

Training for the fourth week was considered ‘testing’ week; consisting of six marches on consecutive days with ever increasing weights and distances. The second to last day involved covering twenty- two miles with a hand-drawn sketch map rather than a printed map. The testing week concluded with a forty mile march across the Brecon Beacons, completed in less than twenty hours with a fifty- five pound rucksack plus water and the rifle. Occasionally I would pass men laying on the ground, naked with saline drips up their asses; it was crude and undignified, but the fastest way to get fluid into a dangerously ill man. At the end of the four weeks, over half of the initial recruits had dropped out and one had died due to exhaustion. I didn’t blame them; it was brutal.

I struggled on the last march but as we trekked through those frigid mountainsides I kept reminding myself of Jenna and how the pack had treated me. I let their insults and cold shoulders fuel my determination until we moved on to the next phase; fourteen weeks of in-depth weapons and vehicle training, along with demolitions and small unit patrol tactics.

After that we were throwing into six weeks of jungle training, in the rainforests of Borneo. They split us into teams of four and we were each supervised by a member of staff. Thankfully Griffin was put in my group and we grew closer still.

The rainforest continuously pulled down our moral with persistent rain and damp conditions which resulted in countless bruises, insect bites, cuts and blisters. Jungle training taught us jungle survival, patrol techniques, navigation, boat handling, camp and observation post techniques, contact drills and field medicine. The skills we learnt were tested in a tactile environment and another forty men dropped or were kicked out.

Next was stage three of training and nearing the end. It was another three weeks of survive, evade, resist, and extract training. Training was brutal and by the end only twenty- five men were left, including me.

If we thought training had been hard then the test was harder; a three day long escape and evasion. We were put into groups and dressed into uniforms from the Second World War. They gave us nothing but a tin can filled with survival equipment and told us to head to a marked point at first light. We were hunted by the Special Forces Support Group, all of whom had gone through the exact same training. It meant that they could get in our heads and mess with us, toy with us. Slowly they knocked down each team; mine was the only one standing at the end but we were not spared from the interrogation period. Unfortunately it was mandatory and we didn’t get out of it for evading capture.

The interrogation period lasted for three days with no breaks. We were beaten, verbally abused, forced into stress position enforcement and white noise desensitization; any phobias you had were forced upon you and many broke. The only information that we were allowed to reveal was your name, rank, serial number and date of birth. I gave up my name, rank and nothing else; I was as tight lipped as a Politian.

When I stood up on that stage with the ten other men who had made it through hell, I couldn’t have been prouder of myself than I was in that moment. I wore the coveted tan beret and thousands of British soldiers now looked up to me as the model on which almost all national commando units are based. I was now part of the best of the best. I would be on probation for another year and considered a shadow rank but I would be part of covert missions and I’d finally made it. Who dares wins; in this case I would keep daring. Afterwards Griff and I had the SAS motto and sigma of a fiery sword, Excalibur, tattooed on our forearms with each other’s serial numbers on the side of the sword.



The only thing that could’ve made it better was if my dad’s and pack had been there; I was no longer the weak human they knew. But would my dads have been proud of me? Would Jenna have been proud? If they could see me now, would they recognise me?