I jumped as my mother burst through the door, slamming it shut behind her, rattling the frame of our small house.

"Alpha Samuels is on his way and he's already angry. He wants his payment early, you need to get out of sight." She growled, her brown eyes frantic.

I found myself immediately angry.

I hated living this way, it disgusted me at what she had to do in order for us to survive. It disgusted me even more that an Alpha take advantage of someone's vulnerability. Alpha's were the leaders of a pack and are supposed to be the strong and noble while protecting their people, not a pathetic misogynistic woman abuser.

I felt my mother shaking me from my thoughts, struggling to pull me from our old sofa.

I stood up as she gripped me tighter, wincing at the slight pain from her tight hold.

"Charlotte. Don't be stupid." She warned.

"You know I can take him." I growled back.

"And that's exactly why you must stay quiet. The only female shifters are ones who are heirs to an Alpha title. If you shift, it would be a dead giveaway of who your father is and then everyone would know that your-

"A bastard pup? That's what everyone else calls me. The rumors never stop. Little does everyone know, its true." I said.

She growled.

"I told you never to say that about yourself! You-

She silenced as a loud banging sounded from the door.

She shoved me back, pushing into the room we shared.

I tripped, falling back and hitting my head on the frame of the bed.

She took the opportunity to slam the door, locking me in from the outside.

I growled, crawling towards the door, ignoring my head as it throbbed with pain as I struggled with the doorknob.

I quieted as I heard Samuels voice as he shouted and I heard my mother cry out as he began using her, his grunts sounding around the house.

I growled and began banging on the door as hard as I could and just as I brought my fist back again, the door was ripped off the hinges, wood splintering at my face and around me.

I looked up into the dark eyes of Alpha Samuels, anger evident in his features.

His eyes raked down my figure and he growled.

"You're the bastard pup of Cara's?! You're a grown woman!" He growled.

He turned toward my mother.

"You've hid her the entire time? I would have rather had her ass than yours. Look at her, so innocent and clean, but now's not the time. We have a guest coming soon and every of age unmated female's presence is mandatory. You are coming with me." He growled and gripped me roughly by the arm and began to pull me alongside him as he walked.

I cursed, dropping my weight to the floor in my best efforts to resist him, struggling against his grip as my mother tried to plead with him to take her instead.

I growled when he back handed her, sending her sprawling toward the ground as she cried out in pain.

I went to reach for her, but suddenly I was yanked back by my hair and being dragged along the cold sleet covered pavement of the territory as we exited the house.

I didn't know how long I struggled like this, pack members watching on in horror, or some ignoring the scene completely in fear of their own lives, but by the time he finally released me my head throbbed and I had a migraine thundering in my head.

I stood up slowly, the world around me tilting as if it were on an axel until my vision steadied itself. I found myself in a room full of girls who all looked as if they had been ripped from their everyday activities and dragged down here too based upon their empathetic faces, but unlike me, they were all now made up and looked clean and polished, some of hem still doing their make up and even smiling, the faint electric feel of excitement in the air.

I rubbed my head as Alpha Samuels chuckled.

"Our guest is here to look over each female. He has been to every pack, I highly doubt he'll find what he's looking for in you sad women. Do not look him in the eye. Do not speak or move move. If you make me look bad, I will most certainly make you pay." Alpha Samuels boomed out, his harsh tone causing a few females to flinch.

He looked down at me.

"I think I'll leave you like this." He said as he circled around me, eyes examining my now ripped jeans and dirt covered tank top.

I growled when I felt his hands grip my bottom half. It took everything in me not to lash out.

He chuckled and began to speak loudly again after walking away from me.

"He will be here at midnight, so talk amongst yourselves for the next half hour." He said and walked off.

For the next half hour I picked grass from my snow soaked hair, and attempted to clean my face, but every time I tried to walk towards a mirror, one of Samuels goons would shove me back against the wall, one of them striking me in the face which busted my already chapped lips.

I looked around the room, sensing the women's emotions, some anxious, some hopeful. It disgust me. That they deemed it okay to be demonstrated like cattle for the picking.

I had just put my wet knotted hair into a high ponytail when Samuels roared for us to get in line.

When I didn't move from where I stood, he personally shoved me forward, placing me at the end of the line.

I chuckled when he gripped me by the ponytail, bending my head back to meet his gaze as he stared down at me.

"I'll have you in front of your mother as soon as this is over and done with." He whispered quietly.

I grinned as I spit in his face and he tossed me back, releasing me as he raised his hand, but he was interrupted by one of his men tapping him on the shoulder and whispering something in his ear.

He stood straight up, wiping his face as he stared down at me before he turned on his heel and began walking down the line of the dozen or so girls that stood straight and poised at their Alpha's orders.

"Now our guest is someone you've all most definitely heard of, whether it had been an old war story, or one you heard around a campfire as a teen. Many believed him a myth. He's Alpha Kieran."

I froze at the name. We all did. You could feel the sudden fear in the room. He'd been rumored to have killed hundreds, taken out whole packs to get territory, not caring who he had to slaughter in the process. He was said to be so traditional that many don't even practice his ways today. His laws, his demeanor, his wolf, it was very different from the ones you see today and those ideas alone were enough to instill fear in us all.

I wanted to run. I could find my mother, take our chances as rogues, those without a pack to call home, most being those who had gone insane from the loss of a mate or child. Odds were against us, we could be raped, tortured, or even killed, but I didn't want to face Samuels because I knew I would snap, but I definitely didn't want to face the most cruel Alpha to ever walk the planet. Bastards were considered illegitimate children and traditional laws automatically assumed the mother as guilty for seducing a male, especially if he were mated, and she and the child were automatically sentenced to death.