Chapter 1
Chapter 1: ChaSity the ChaRity Case
Chapter 1: ChaSity the ChaRity Case
The blanket of pure white snow seemed to sparkle in the early morning light. The Pack House wasbuzzing with excitement about the upcoming festivities. Tomorrow was my birthday, not that anyonecared or even remembered because it was also the birthday of the Thorn Triplets. The Thorn Tripletswere the pride and joy of the Winter Moon Pack. They were the sons of Alpha Romeo Thorn. Theywere filthy rich, devilishly handsome and disgustingly arrogant. All the young she-wolves adored themwholeheartedly and stroked their egos on a daily basis. I was cursed to share a birthday and a homewith them.
At the tender age of nine, my drug-addicted parents left the pack to go rogue and had not been seen orheard from since. They left no instructions regarding their wishes for me so I was taken into the packhouse under the care of Alpha Romeo and his wife, Ronnie. As if I had not been devastated enough, Inow had three twelve-year old tormenters. The identical triplet sons of the Alpha were, in order of birth,Alex, Felix and Calix. They despised me and ensured that I knew I was beneath them. My parents hadincurred a huge debt due to their drug seeking habits which was paid off by the Alpha. Thus, I had toearn my keep and repay my debt by doing as many chores as possible while the triplets enjoyed anidyllic childhood in the very same house.
In some packs the new Alpha ascends at age eighteen when they first shift but in mine, the age forascension was twenty one. Thus tomorrow, on November eleventh, the triplets would turn twenty-oneand take over the pack while I would turn eighteen and experience my first shift. Eighteen was also theminimum age when werewolves found their fated mate but I did not care about that. All I wanted was tocome of age so I could leave this hell behind.
At least, the pack house had beautiful scenery. We were close to the north pole so snow was aneveryday affair though there was no sign of Santa Claus. I certainly did not expect any birthdaypresents this November or Christmas presents come December. The pack made it clear that I owedthem money and they were subtracting everything they did not spend on me from the huge debt. Theyalso subtracted my “wages” from the debt so I was never given any money. I was allowed food, clothesand shelter, the basics.
I slowly got out of bed. The sun was just peeking out from behind a snow-covered horizon. Everythingglistened. I gazed out my window at the wintry terrain. I sighed. I had to start making breakfast foreveryone. Despite the huge size of the pack house with its luxurious bedrooms and bathrooms, I wasgiven a small empty storage room to stay in. I had a cot, a shelf of second-hand books and a singledrawer full of second hand clothes. The other drawers contained extra cleaning supplies as I did thehousekeeping work also.
I used the common room’s bathroom, showering quickly. I looked at myself in the mirror. My parentshad name me Chasity but everyone in the pack called me Charity. This was started by the triplets as ajoke and because they said it so often, even decent pack members thought it was my real name. I wasso shy and scared as a child that I never bothered to correct them so it had stuck.
I detangled my waist-length dark blonde curls and put them up in a huge bun. Whenever I left themdown the triplets would pull my hair ever since we were little. They had not grown out of this habit evenin adulthood. I sighed. There were dark circles forming under my large brown eyes. My light brown skinlooked sallow. I had been overworking myself or rather the Thorn family had been overworking me.They used to have a maid and a cook with me as the sole assistant of both, but they had fired them lastmonth after numerous conflicts between them and the spoilt triplets. For the past month, I had beendrowning in work while attending my final year of high school. I had seven more months of high schoolbefore I could leave this place. That was the deal. At eighteen and after high school, I got my freedom
and whatever I had paid off by then would be the end of it. The current Alpha and Luna seemed to thinkthey were being extremely generous.
The pack house had a really good heating system so despite the fact that outside looked like the frigidtundra, inside was pretty warm. I put on a long-sleeved white babydoll top that covered my behind as Iwas wearing just black leggings underneath. I started on breakfast. As it was the Triplets’ “birthdayweek” and they would soon be Alphas, everyday was a feast day. I made waffles, pancakes, bacon,scrambled eggs and sausages. I put the butter and maple syrup on the table. I made coffee. I quicklydrank some sweet, milky coffee for some energy and started setting the table.
Luna Ronnie entered the dining room, eyeing me, scrutinising my handy-work. She was a tall womanwith dark brown long straight hair, pale skin and green eyes.
“The table looks nice,” she said, a rare compliment. “But have you washed all the wares? Wash themall before you eat!”
Alpha Romeo sauntered in, kissing his Luna gently. He nodded in approval at the breakfast spread. Ismiled feebly at him. I heard heavy footsteps on the stairs and I took a deep breath. The Triplet Terrorswere coming. They towered over me at six feet and four inches each, exactly a foot taller than me.They resembled their father with their shoulder-length thick shiny black hair, chiseled faces, baby blueeyes, dimples and chin-clefts. As they were Alphas they were all broad-shouldered and muscledblessed with super speed and super strength even beyond what was considered extraordinary for awerewolf. They were perfectly identical and perfectly heinous or at least they were to me. Their deepvoices boomed as they shouted excitedly, shoving each other playfully. They would be twenty-onetomorrow but they still acted like they were twelve.
Alex was the eldest and the most serious and severe. He would surely rule with an iron fist and a surlydemeanour. Felix as the middle triplet loved being the centre of attention and was naturally filled with
wise-cracks, jokes and quips. Classic middle child. The youngest, Calix, was the charmer, aprofessional sweet-talker and Mommy’s favourite. He almost treated me like I was human.
“Did you make all of this, Charity?” Asked Calix, immediately trying to pull my hair out of its bun. Inodded, dodging him, only to bump into Felix who smirked and slipped my hair tie off. My curls tumbleddown all around me. Felix and Calix laughed.
“Stop!” I implored them, reaching for my only hair tie. Felix held it high above my head. He threw it toAlex who caught it and put it in his pocket. I tried to lunge towards Alex but Felix grabbed me. Felix andAlex started shoving me back and forth between them like I was a ball and they were playing catch.
“I give up! I give up!” I said while they snickered.
Calix said, “All right. Cut it out. Let her go wash the wares. Mom wants the place kept as clean aspossible so there’ll be less to do tomorrow.”
The elder two relinquished me. I ran into the kitchen. My heart was racing. I started on the dishes. Bythe time I was done, the family of five hungry werewolves, four of them from Alpha stock, had devouredliterally everything I made except for one pancake. The chairs were all empty. I went to get the lastpancake but Felix snatched it up. He had zoomed in out of nowhere, fast as a cheetah and quiet as amouse.
“I haven’t eaten anything,” I told him, my eyes wide.
“Good, you’re fat enough as it is,” he said, sneering. He ate the pancake in two bites.
I sighed. I refused to cry. I had not cried in front of them since the first year of torment when I was nine.My tenth birthday marked a very important vow I had made to myself after crying almost every singleday at aged nine. The vow was that I would never let the Triplets make me cry ever again. I would bestrong. I had kept that vow successfully for eight years come tomorrow. The comment stung though.
The Triplets were widely regarded as the most handsome eligible bachelors in the Pack. Theyconstantly attacked my weight. I was not overweight but I had a curvy hourglass figure. My waist wasslender. I wore about a size 4 in clothes which was small enough in my opinion but all the Triplets hadstick-thin size 0 girlfriends.
I had to take the bus to school. I had thrown on a man’s black coat over my white top and leggings,another hand-me-down. I managed to find another hair tie but this was truly the last one. The Pack highschool was called Winter Moon High after the pack. Our pack colours, and therefore also the schoolcolours, were white, blue and silver. The whole school was decorated with streamers and balloons incelebration of the new Alphas, the Triplets.
“You’re so lucky, Charity,” said Mina Toros, the most popular girl in my senior year. She tossed her longdark hair back and pursed her plump red lips in her locker’s inside mirror. She was wearing a pink skirtshort enough to qualify as belt. Thank goodness she had opaque tights on underneath. She usuallyignored me except for the occasional pronouncement of how “lucky” I was.
“The things I’d to those Triplets if I lived in that house,” Mina said, licking her lips.
“You’d have to drop out!” Squealed her best friend, the second most popular girl, Tina Gregory. “You’dget pregnant the first month there.”
Tina had flawless dark brown skin with curly hair. She was tall and waif-like and also wore a pink skirtshort enough to be a belt with opaque tights. Mina and Tina usually matched as though they weretwins. Mina cackled at Tina’s joke.
“You know, Charity,” said Mina suddenly. “You’re not totally hideous.”novelbin
Gee, thanks.
“Ok,” I said, clutching my books. The girls were blocking my locker which was sandwiched betweentheir two lockers. Lucky me, indeed.
“Yeah,” agreed Tina. “Your hair is actually pretty. You’re like a biracial Goldie Locks.”
I smiled. That sounded like a real compliment.
“Thanks Tina!” I said.
“Ohhh! And those Triplets are the three bears!” Shrieked Mina. “If I were their Goldie Locks I’d makesure everything was just right, get it?”
“Or too big,” said Tina, giggling.
“That means one of the triplets has to be too small,” I said softly.
Being werewolves, Mina and Tina heard me and they burst out laughing. Wow. I was actually gettingalong with them for five minutes.
“That was a good one, Charity, surprising,” said Tina, looking at me like she was now seeing me for thefirst time. 𝒸𝓸𝓶𝓮𝓷𝓸𝓋𝓮𝓁.𝒸𝓸𝓶
“Yeah,” said Mina giving me the same strange appraising look. “You know, if you had the money,imagine how cute you could look.”
I fidgeted uncomfortably, suddenly hyperaware of the patches in my clothes. Mina and Tina strutted offand I hurriedly opened my locker and got out my Math book. Mr Johnson who coached football andtaught Math looked like he should be an Alpha too. He was huge and really attractive for a teacher. Hewas married though to his mate, the Art teacher, Mrs Johnson. He handed out our graded tests whileTina and Mina made flirty faces at him. Those flirty faces were not doing them any good. I noticed theygot an F and an F minus respectively. I did not know F minus existed before today. He smiled at me
and winked. My heart skipped a beat. “A plus as usual Math champ,” he boomed. Mr Johnson was oneof the few people in my life who was nice to me.
“Mina and Tina, see me after class,” Mr Johnson said.
After class, Ashton Peters, a tall buff redhead who played football and was well-liked in the pack,pretended to knock into my desk.The stack of papers on my desk went flying all over the room. MrJohnson spotted it.
“Stay and help her pick those up, Aston, my boy,” boomed Mr Johnson.
“Aww, coach, I’ll be late for football practice,” he whined.
“And we’ll be late for cheerleading practice,” said Mina and Tina in unison, pouting.
“I’m the coach, Aston, go ahead and be late. I’ll explain to your cheerleading coach ok, girls,” said MrJohnson.
Ashton grumbled. He glared at me as if this were my fault. He started picking up papers at werewolfspeed which cause the ones I was picking up to fly around due to the displaced wind. I eavesdroppedon the meeting with Mina and Tina.
“Mina, Tina, I’m giving you a homework assignment to make up those grades. If you don’t ace it therewon’t be any cheerleading,” he said.
The girls gasped. He handed them a stack of papers each and told them they could work on it togetherand that he set the questions himself so they would not find the answers online. I snatched up the lastfew papers from the floor and took the stack Ashton was handing me without looking at me.
“Thanks,” I said softly to him.
He glanced down at me, surprised by my thanks. He looked a little guilty all of a sudden. Mr Johnsonleft the room, leaving Mina and Tina looking dejected. Ashton grabbed the hair tie from my hair just likeCalix had this morning. My curls came tumbling down again. I shrieked. I was so fed up. Ashtonlaughed and ran away to football practice. There went my last hair tie and my birthday was tomorrow.
“Aren’t you going to cheerleading?” I asked the girls, actually feeling sorry for them as they had beensort of nice earlier.
“No,” said Mina.
“What’s the use. We’ll never ace this homework so we’ll fail the class and be banned from the squadanyway,” explained Tina.
I walked up to them and looked at the homework assignment. I snorted. I could get 100% in this in mysleep. I was suddenly struck by an idea.
“Remember how you girls said I had…potential,” I said, looking at them.
They shrugged.
“I’ll do the assignment and you copy it over in your handwritings and ace it ok,” I offered.
The girls squealed. They jumped up hugging each other and me.
“Wait!” Said Mina, raising her eyebrows.
“What’s the catch?” Asked Tina, narrowing her eyes.
“I’m turning eighteen tomorrow too,” I said.
They gasped.
“You have the same birthday as the triplets?” Mina asked.
“Wait that means everyone ignores your birthday like every single year,” said Tina.
It was my turn to shrug.
“And they will this year too but I at least wanna feel…special. I’m gonna shift for the first time atmidnight and who knows…I might see my mate at the big party…not that I care…” I rambled.
“You wanna look hot! Is that it?” Mina said smirking.
“Yeah you want us to make you over?” Tina asked, smiling.
I nodded.
Updated from 𝙛𝙧𝓮𝓮𝙬𝓮𝒃𝒏𝓸𝒗𝓮𝙡.𝓬𝓸𝓶
