Dead wolf

Testing

Three weeks have passed, with no sight of Alistair except for when it was time for my daily beatings or meal times when he felt enough remorse to feed me but we hadn't really had a proper conversation between each other in those time slots. My arm had surprisingly healed the morning after it had broken which I believed Alistair had some part in.

Things had gotten better and I could see myself living here for the rest of my life but they were still bad. Charles had immediately gotten to work on my maths. At first, it was hard but as time went by it got easier and now I was able to at least get most of the stuff right. Not to mention, my moment of inspiration after being caught with the calculator that Charles used for calculating something that had to do with the piles of papers on the desk. Despite, being better I still used it whenever Charles left the room to order Angela or Amber to bring food up. Of course, it was mainly for him.

When I first met the girls, I was surprised as if seeing an alien for the first time. I tried greeting them but I ended up muttering nonsense. It was then Charles realised that my lack of social interaction was rapidly declining my social skills. Fortunately, I had got away with it by eating the food and it being 'cute'. I had learned to deal with the cute remarks because their gossip made up for it. These two were sources of all my information. If weren't for them, I wouldn't have found out Alistair was ignoring me or that Charles was trying to persuade Alistair to let me go to school. I had also learned much about the people living here. Some of the facts, I was still trying to get over.

With Alistair, there had also been many incidents where I was told off. Like whenever I ate my food too fast, immediately disobeying his commands but mainly when I mentioned my family.

"Izara, It is time for breakfast," Amber said almost in an utterance. She wasn't that loud, unlike Angela who I could normally hear from one or two floors above. I could swear I heard Alistair telling her to shut up, one time. I smiled back at Amber who led me to the breakfast table. It had been five days since the taste of food had touched my tongue.

As always in the mornings, Alistair was reading his newspaper with Charles who sat next to him pleading for his attention as I sat on the other side of him. Charles never sat with us and usually watched from afar.

"Good morning, Daddy," I said, cheerfully.

"Well, can you reschedule it?" Alistair asked.

"No can do, Alistair. They need me at the front lines. We're lucky he let me stay for Izara's lesson." Alistair's eyes had dark circles beneath them. His hair was a mess like the pyjamas he had on. He seemed stressed.

"What do you mean?" I questioned. They both frowned at the question as they looked at each other.

"Izara, Charles is going away." My thoughts were in randomised arrays. I had started to come close to Charles. He was the one who spent most of the time with me. In my breaks, I had gotten to know him better than anyone else.

"But what about my tutoring?" I asked.

"Well, I guess I will have to tutor you." He said.

"Alistair," Charles said sternly.

"Fine, me and Charles have discussed that if you do well in the test Charles has prepared then we might let you go to a school for werewolves." He said.

"Not might, Alistair. We will, it is direct orders from your father." Charles reprimanded. My fake smile covered the unease beneath it. I wasn't sure if I would rather go to school or let Alistair tutor me. The fact it would be with werewolf kids made it even worse. I wasn't even a werewolf so they would probably bully me or worse they might try to kill me.

"Uh, I don't think anyone is going to kill you." I watched quietly as Alistair face-palmed himself.

"What?" I asked. My grip on the fork slipped. It was like he almost heard my thoughts.