Into The Woods (18+)

Long Lost Sister

**I'm sorry I haven't been able to upload more than once a week. With being a full-time college student as well as being in a sorority AND having a job (even though it's only one day a week) I'm a little overwhelmed. When I get a free moment I'm going to try and write up another chapter (I have quite a few already written) so that I can maybe double upload or something like that. I don't want to go long periods of time without updating, which is why I'm only uploading once a week. I hope ya'll understand. Love you guys!***

Alethia's POV

I passed by the desolate door like I have every day for the past eighteen years of my life. Stopping midstride, I turned around and leisurely made my way back towards it. I chewed on my bottom lip, a nervous habit I've had ever since I was just a little girl. I examined the dust-caked white wooden door. The room hasn't been touched since she was taken.

I can recall the last time someone had spoken about the taboo that was this room and the life that had once inhabited it. It had been an Alpha that was visiting from a neighboring pack, an ally of ours. He'd noticed the room's abandoned state on the way to my father's office and decided to make a comment about fixing the room up to be an office for our Beta. He thought it was only logical because, well, no one was using it. No one had ever really used it.

My father killed him then and there. Slit his throat with a single claw and walked away as if it was just another mundane task - like doing laundry or cooking dinner. He ordered Beta Aaron to explain the situation to the diseased Alpha's pack on his behalf and instructed him to give them the choice to join ours, or go rogue.

I was nine years old then.

It was the first time I can remember being so absolutely terrified of my father, the man who salved my tears and bandaged my scraped knees.

It was times like that, that took me back to when my parents first told me about my long lost sister. It was about a week after my sixth birthday had passed. My mother physically couldn't do it, the words had escaped her completely - my father was no better. He struggled to finish his sentences, and when he did they were clipped and dripping with sorrow and pain. He had held my small frame that resided on his lap so tight it was painful, but I thought better than to say anything. It was as if he thought that the second he loosened the vice grip he had on me, I would disappear into thin air.

They'd then proceeded to show me pictures that were captured during the short three months they were blessed to spend with the both of us. My chest ached with the happiness they radiated in every single one. I'd never seen them smile so immense before - like they were in those pictures. Being so young and innocent when they told me, I wasn't able to comprehend why someone would want to sneak through our window, into our once shared room, and snatch my baby sister right out from under my parents' noses.

Things were never the same.

It was as if a giant storm cloud had rolled in over our entire pack, never leaving or letting up; just ominously hanging there, causing a grey cast over everything that was once sunny and bright. Dulling the life in each and every pack members' eyes.

I feverishly wiped at the one traitorous tear that rolled down my cheek. I heard the telltale creek of the floorboards as someone walked up behind me. My father's familiar scent of aftershave and pine trees engulfed me like a warm blanket. His presence, although comforting, only seemed to make my throat constrict even more as I tried to hold back a sob that was so dangerously close to breaking free.

Sensing my obvious emotional distress, he wound his arms around my much smaller frame and tugged me back against his chest while resting his chin on my forehead. I silently shook as he tried to calm me down.