My Barbaric Mate

Chapter 1

Krystal walked down the hallway of the pack house and accidentally bumped into a few werewolves. She seemed to be lost in thought-- too concentrated in the perils of her own life.

They gruesomely beat her for it. She fought against them but to no avail. She was outnumbered. Though she said it was an accident for running into them, they responded with a remark that hurt what little esteem she had left. 

"Yeah, we know you are." As though the stinging from the beating wasn't enough pain as it was.

As she laid on the ground for the brutal beating, her mind drifted to how her life used to be. She thought about when she used to be different. When she used to matter. When she used to be loved. When she used to be cared for.

Yet she never knew who her family was. The Alpha of the Spirit Walkers took her in. They had done all they could to try and keep her safe. There was something about her. Something special. Special enough for her to be hunted down by random rogues for a reason she still couldn't figure out. 

She could hear snickers at her as she laid on the floor with her bloodied lip, but she ignored them and remained on the floor. It was the only comfort she had left.

The Alpha and Luna had a son already who was about 3 years older than Krystal, and he treated her like trash almost all of the time. Maybe he was jealous of all the attention that she was getting from his parents that took her in. That seemed to happen in a lot of families but she had hoped that would dissipate over time. He started to train hard as young as 13 years old because he needed something to focus his anger on after the incident. 

By then, Krystal embedded in her mind that he was simply a monster. One she was cursed to be alongside. But Krystal felt somewhat responsible and felt that she was the cause of a lot of his pain.

And little by little, as he grew older, people began to follow alongside him... Abusing Krystal and treating her as less than. Even some rogues stayed away after seeing her bruised and beaten body, thinking that she didn't live up to the rumors that they had heard.

It all started when she was 10 years old...

***

The alpha was watching over the pack house at the moment so that his son, Axel, could prepare for his title as he grows older. As Axel stayed with his father, Krystal stayed with the Luna, Maria.

Krystal was only partially listening to what Maria had to say. She was lost in thought again. A bad habit that she had fallen into.

"Krystal, are you listening?"

"Hmm?" 

She nodded yes, then stared into Maria's eyes as she spoke, fully attentive this time. Maria was a wonderful Luna. She was always nice to Krystal and treated her like her own daughter. They were having a conversation about 4 miles away from the pack house because Krystal didn't want to have anyone seeing her cry.

She was confused about where she came from and Axel was making her life harder.

"He is t-turning people against me and I h-have done nothing wrong. He will be an alpha and other people will hate me too!"

Luna Maria came by her and bent down to her level.

" You have nothing to worry about. As long as we are here, you will be safe. Nothing will happen to you. Trust us. You are already a pack member. You may not be our blood but we will still love you as our child and want to help you. The moon goddess chose you to be our daughter. You will always be special to us. Just as she specified to us in a dream to protect you."