Little Dahlia

Ch. 3 - Home Pt. 1

Picture: Rayna's fur
Song: Worthless by eli.
Words: 2347
Published: May 8th, 2020
Third Person POV
Rayna

Rayna waves to Naomi through the car window and walks down the same driveway she had that morning. She sighs, holding her backpack straps tightly in her hands.

She watches as a car full of young adults drives by, heading out. She figures out that it's pack members heading to the pool, since it opens today. This is a day of celebration in everyone else's eyes. To her, it's a day to prematurely grieve over. Over her health and her education.

She stops in her steps to turn her head with the passing car. Guys were leaning out windows, cheering with music blaring. A girl was peeking through the sunroof holding a towel behind her.

She feels a lump form in her throat, and her eyes sting. She loves Naomi like a sister and is thankful for her, but how she wishes she could just be normal. Yeah, a good majority of the pack are assholes, but how good it would feel to be accepted and safe.

She sighs and turns back around, continuing the walk to the house.

She opens the door, keeping her head down, and just as the door closes behind her, she gets pushed to the ground. She looks up to see Jake, her brother.

Well, adoptive brother.

He snickers and heads out, not saying a word and leaving her on the ground. At least he didn't continue. She stands up, brushes herself off, and heads to her room. Placing her backpack next to her desk and laying down on her bed, she gets lost in thought.

When she was only six months old, she was left swaddled in a blanket in front of the pack house. It's a wonder no one saw who left her. The Beta Female, Rose, was the one who answered the door. She showed her to the pack and told her mate, Johnathan, that they were keeping her. The two already had three sons. Jayce, the oldest at nearly 4 years old and future Beta. Jamie, a true sweetheart at 2. Lastly, the youngest, Jake, who was only a year old.

Rose named her Rayna Dahlia Quinn, giving her their last name.

As Rayna grew, it became apparent that she was an outsider. She was bullied and excluded from everything. Rose did her best to stop this, and at first she had Johnathan at her side. Rayna made one friend and one friend only: Naomi. Over the years, Johnathan wouldn't care to lift a finger for the girl his wolf never claimed as his daughter, and he lied to Rose saying he'd do something about the bullying.

When Rayna was ten, in fifth grade, she was diagnosed with dyscalculia and dyslexia and held back a year. She took this as a fair trade, since it meant she was in the same grade as Naomi, no longer in the same grade as Jake, but it gave other kids another reason to bully her. That's why she graduated just before turning nineteen.

She shifted on her thirteenth birthday. Everyone saw. Her wolf is blue. Her fur is black at the roots and faded to blue with some near white. In certain lighting she could pull it off as a fairly normal silver, but that night, everyone clearly saw. She died inside. She had no chance at being normal. No chance of being happy or making friends.

Only four people saw the mark on her front right leg. Two of them knew what it means, one of them brushed it off, and one of them found out but didn't believe it. Rose tried to tell her what she is, but Johnathan continuously shut down every thought she tried to put into the young girls head.