The Mark of a Beta

three

School was a bitch the next day, but not for the reason I had expected. Thank the Moon Goddess that Brenden didn't get to corner me at school. I packed extra poptarts and made sure to run for Larry's classroom like there was a fucking sale on sweaters- so as quickly as possible.

Larry only gave me a confused eyebrow raise, and then lunch went as usual. I may have yelled at him for giving me the wrong topic for the pop quiz, but Larry had laughed at my expense and said I deserved it for "not respecting him." I would respect him a hell of a lot more if he didn't deceive me! Like, what the fuck does Larry expect?

After school, I made sure to lose myself in the crowd and run home instead of taking the bus like I sometimes do. I don't have a car, so it's either walking or the crowded bus that smelled too much of hormonal teenagers and sweat from the poor kids who were forced to take gym during the school day.

It should be illegal to force kids to exercise during the day. How are we expected to smell good? Thank goddess I opted to take an extra AP class instead of gym which is basically just pack training.

The rest of the week went like that- I avoided Brenden at all costs, and he glared at me from across the halls. It just felt wrong to let him fuck me in a spurt of anger when I did nothing wrong. If I let him, it would feel like he has a right to claim me and control me, which is not fucking true. Brenden is just a quick fuck. He knows that. I know that. So why the hell is he trying to make us more?

When Friday finally rolls around, I realize how little I've seen of my family. Nik moved in on Wednesday, and now he's sharing Sarah's room. Unfortunately, that means that I have to share a bathroom with the two of them. I miss having my own bathroom. Not only do I have to share it with Sarah again, but now I have to share it with her giant mate.

I really want to shave Sarah's fucking head. If I find one more long hair in the drain...

This is why I prefer men.

My family hasn't been home a lot- they're either out shopping for the baby, at a doctor's appointment, or eating at restaurants. They've bought some of Sarah's favorite snacks- I also made them buy me three boxes of chocolate pop tarts- but they haven't been grocery shopping. Hence the problem I now have because it's Friday night and I don't have any real food at home. I don't even have a bowl of ramen to make. This fucking sucks.

I text the group chat, but they all seem too busy with their own lives. Anya is going on a picnic date with Eric, Dan got a babysitter so he can fuck his wife, and Thomas said that members of another pack are meeting tonight and through the weekend. He has to play host along with the Beta, Alpha, and the Luna, so I'm on my own for tonight.

I decide to just fuck it and walk to the pack house, anyway. It's not like I have anywhere else to be. The walk takes me thirty minutes, although if I shifted into my wolf it would take me less than half of that time. Now that I think about it, I really should shift into my wolf. It's been a little while, which would probably partly explain why I've been so fucking antsy.

I love shifting- the wind brushing along my fur, my paws digging into the dirt as I sprint and dodge between the tall trees littering the forest nearby. However, I can't travel to the pack house in my wolf form and run the way I would like while holding a backpack in my mouth. I'll shift later tonight, I decide.

I grab my backpack with all of my schoolwork and head out. I tend to work better at the pack house. My house becomes too quiet or too empty for me to do work. Or it's the opposite with my mother screaming at me for who the fuck knows what.

It takes me a little longer to get to the pack house because I get distracted. I began looking up at the clouds and finding random shapes in them. I found a robot house cat, an octopus wearing sunglasses, and a rose with petals being plucked by a garden gnome.