Lightning & Thunder

Chapter One

The sky was not supposed to be as beautifully sunny, breezy, and bright as it was that day. It was supposed to be dark, dank, with hail falling as fast as bombs, ready to unleash on its next victim.

That entire morning Olivia had stood ready at the window, checking every second she could. And yet, everytime she peeled back that curtain the heavy feeling would sink within her gut.

The sky was abnormally bright.

Rain was not coming.

The wedding wasn't going to get ruined.
And she would have to carry on with the entire shindig as if it wasn't the worst thing to ever happen in her god-forsaken teenage life. The feeling within her gut was only going to sink heavier with the realization that she was forever going to be tied down to that snout-nosed, beady-eyed, despicable-

She slammed her hands to cover her face. Her shoulders heaved with the weight of the world upon her. In the next room over, she could hear her mother excitedly picking out the colors of her petunias.

They were going to be blue. Sky blue.

Olivia could only sob harder. Quietly of course, she wouldn't want her mother to know she was crying-but it was definitely with more force than before.

How could this day have happened?

How could she have gone from sitting in school on her day-to-day routine, gossiping with the girls about makeup and boys-

Oh god forbid boys!

Her mother would kill her if she knew about all of her different crushes. And how she and her friends would secretly put on unique perfumes to try and fool the boys into thinking they were mates.

Her ears pinkened at the memory.

There was Thomas A. from her chemistry class, then there was Jacob Dilford from her study hall-he was also the Gamma's son, so that was a major plus-then there Harry and Henford and Henry...she definitely had a thing for H's.

But oh it didn't matter anymore, did it?

Because she was to be married. At sixteen! When she told her friends she couldn't tell if they were excited for her or horrified. She certainly was!

Well, not at first. At first, nobody told her who the boy was (which was still scary on it's own). She figured maybe it was going to be to her most recent crush: Nathaniel Greene. He was a brown-haired, green-eyed boy and he was a charmer. And she liked that.

But then her mom had to go and spoil all of her dreams by telling her that she was getting married to the Alpha's son-a boy named Bessel.

Which fine, that definitely wasn't a name she would have chosen if she were to have a son but it was whatever. She was going to be inheriting his last name, not his first name. All of it would have been fine and dandy if she had found out sooner that by boy, her mother really meant a twenty six year old man.

She was sixteen.

When she told her friends that, they all screamed in horror. Immediately, they all cuddled up around her in one giant hug, all begging the same question: what was she going to do?

It was an answer she would've liked. She begged and screamed and almost freaking kicked her mother because she was trying so hard not to get married to an old man.

"How could you marry me off to a guy eleven years my senior!" She had yelled at her mother. Right then and there, she had expected to hear a 'surprise! It's a prank!' but no. Her mother's face was empty. Even. Not a single emotion on it. Then she shrugged.

"Your father's a close family friend. It's tradition for the off-spring of the Beta and Alpha to be wed. It's just how it's done."
And then she left with not a word more.

Although she knew at times she could be dramatic, and yes, she knew she wasn't the best child, but in that very moment she could honestly say that she felt she had been betrayed.

Her breaths began to even with time. Her hands wiped the drying tears, and her shoulders heaved a little less. She looked down at the beautiful gown on her figure, the lace billowing out at the bottom. It was a mermaid dress.

The one thing she wanted, she did have. A beautiful dress. So there was that.

But then she glanced out the window again and it was still sunny, with not a cloud in sight. She could feel more tears prickling at the edges of her eyes, but in the distance, her mother's voice became not so distant.

"Olivia, come in here and see how charming your brother looks! Oh, he's just the cutest little boy!"

Olivia could barely stop herself from rolling her eyes. Heels clicked on the wooden flooring. She stopped a couple steps to wipe away any final trace of her tears, and went to go meet her mother in the kitchen.

It was the widest grin she had seen her mother wear in years.

Her hair was billowing around her, full and bright just like the sky outside. She had bright blonde highlights mixed in with the brown, something she had done recently for the wedding. The blonde mixed in well with her tanned, golden skin. It made her teeth shine.

Olivia's eyes drifted to her mother's neck. It was bare, spotless.

To make sure, her eyes drifted even further to her mother's wrist. There, just under the white lace of her Bride-of-the-Mother gown, was a tiny speck of purple.
Go figure.

But her attention was caught by the gleam in her mother's eyes. In her hands, a camera.

"Honey! Come in here for the family photo!" Her mother happily shouted through the hallway, towards Olivia's father.

She could hear him snort as he dragged himself off the couch, away from his wall-mounted TV and towards his wife.
Her mom.

She tried keeping herself to the corner of the room as un-awkwardly as she could. Her hands were placed awkwardly on the side of the dress, just hanging there. As soon as she locked eyes with her father, she tried as hard as she could to plant a joyous smile on her face.

With his eyes glancing briefly down, she was worried it was more like a grimace.

Her mother's hands came around her waist as she ushered them all together into one big group. She held the camera self-style, stretching her arm as wide as she possibly could to snap the photo.

In her mother's true fashion, like always, she was in the center of the photo. Not Olivia. With how bright her mom smiled (and the white dress she was wearing), anybody would've thought she was the bride. Not Olivia.

With a click, the photo was snapped.

Olivia was pushed to the side as her mother turned her head last-minute to her husband-also her older brother. Their lips locked, and with a sickeningly delighted noise from her very own Mom, they began to make-out.

As fast Olivia could, she leaned down to cover her little brother's eyes to try and save him from the abhorrent sight.

She herself gazed in a different direction, trying to battle the curling feeling in the pit of her stomach.

Even from a young age, she knew how strange her family was.

The fact that her mom was married to her brother wasn't even the icing on the cake.
But she sure hoped it was going to be the last of surprises for a long, long, time. She hoped that the surprise wedding would be the last thing sprung on her life.

With the slick noises, groans and moans coming to her left, however, and the sinking feeling in her gut...she was unsure of just what her future would bring to her.

She prayed to the Moon Goddess.

Let it be something good.