The Rouge and the Reject

Breakfast at the O'Leary's

Arya.

Only in my dreams could I get a moment of peace. Those wonderful six hours a night where I didn't have to follow anyone's orders or feel the wrath of my older brother's temper. Sleep was my escape from the hell on earth I lived in. That is until the sun comes up and my oasis is destroyed by the obnoxious buzzing of my alarm clock.

I groaned reaching over to the dusty cardboard box I use as a nightstand feeling around for my clock. Finally my hand landed on the little black box and I punched it till the horrid buzzing stopped. I stretched my limbs till I heard some pleasant cracks and stood up off my bed which consisted of an old queen sized mattress on the floor in the attic of my brothers house. Yes, I live in the attic my brother Connor insisted on it. Let me explain a little...

My name is Arya Jane O'Leary, about twenty years ago my father was Alpha of the Grey Winds Pack. Until he cheated on his mate with a human. My mother. His mate, Connor's mother, was so devastated she literally died of a broken heart, leaving Connor and our father alone and distraught. In our community it is a great sin to commit any form of adultery against your mate, so when little baby me was left of the door step of the pack house with a little note explaining who my father was he was stripped of his Alpha title making his Beta, James Huntington the new Alpha. Connor told me there was a time father was happy, but my only memories of him are miserable. Since he lost his job as Alpha we had to leave the pack house, we had little money, my father managed to buy a rundown house from an old human man that lived in the area. We stole furniture from junkyards in surrounding towns to furnish the place. My father spent everyday sitting in a musty old recliner that was held together by duct tape, feet propped up on an old car tire he used as a foot rest. A thirty rack of beer was ever present at the side of the recliner. I was twelve when my father disappeared, Connor was sixteen. It wasn't unusual for him to leave us alone in the house for days, even weeks. However, after three months of not hearing from him we suspected he left us to fend for ourselves.

Connor was furious, he had always blamed me for the death of his mother but now he blamed our father leaving us on me as well. The night we discovered our father had left for good Connor gave me two options, leave his house and never return. Or stay and in order to be allowed to stay I had to do anything Connor told me to do without question.

Being a naive twelve year old I figured staying was better than trying to fend for myself on the street. So I stayed, and became his slave. Life never got any better, kids at school knew that I was half human and what my father did, I was tormented daily. Connor all but encouraged kids to shove me into lockers and throw food at me during lunch. Even some teachers turned a blind eye to the ridicule.

If I wasn't at school being tortured I was at home cleaning. Connor was best friends with the Alpha's son Mason. Everyday Connor would have a group of people over and they'd trash the living room playing video games for hours. Everyday I'd sit quietly in the kitchen until Connor or one of his friends demanded a new beer or some food. During the weekends Connor would go out with friends and I'd stay home alone. That is until I tried to sneak out one weekend, now Connor pays his friends to watch me if they feel like making a couple hundred. I don't know where he gets his money but he has a lot of it.

When I turned seventeen Connor's birthday gift to me was the option to drop out of school with the promise he'd let me get my GED and maybe go to a college. I gladly took the offer, any chance to avoid that hell hole was a gift from the Moon Goddess, or so I thought.

Connor worked me like a slave, since he and most of his friends were now out of school the house became the ultimate party house for the whole pack. And I was the maid, bitch, bar wench or whatever creative nick name they came up with for me. Connor moved my room to the attic in order to make a beer pong stadium out of my bedroom. I guess you could say we don't get along very well.