"Uhhhhh," I just stared at him for a moment, "W-where do you want me to start?"

Axel's eyes still continued to burn as he pursed his lips, "Well let's start with why you don't know your own birthday." He leaned on the stonewall next to the bars, knowing that we'll be having a long conversation.

I was silent for a while, putting the bowl back on the door's ledge for collection.

"Well," I was fiddling with the shackles of my wrist, both as a distraction and for comfort, "I stopped celebrating my birthday when I was 8 so I just kinda forgot the date." There was more to that but I didn't want to tell Ax-

"What are you hiding?" Axel interrupted my unspoken words, "I can tell there's more to that."

Fudge.

"Well when I did remember the date, " I paused, trying to piece this a distant memory, "I'm pretty sure I was too depressed to do anything about it. My pack didn't really provide anything for me so I was kinda a lone wolf just living on a pack territory. I had other things to worry about like how I was going to get to school or what I was going to eat that day."

"What happened to your parents?" I wasn't looking at Axel, just at the wall across my bed, but I could tell he was looking at me.

"Dead," I answered simply, bringing my knees to my chest and wrapping my bound arms around them. "Well I think they're dead." I felt my eyes burn with the threat of tears. I never met my parents but just thinking about them made me depressed. "I-I had a caretaker who I celebrated my birthday with, but he died too."

Axel was silent for a while, probably processing all this information and coming up with a new question. "Did your pack abuse you?"

"Yeah," I sighed, wiping the already falling tears away, "The day I was suppose to move into the pack? That was pretty much everyday of my life living there. The pack doctor was the only one nice to me, but he doesn't know my birth-date either. It's not on any pack records nor medical ones."

Wait.

Now that I say it out loud.

Why didn't Boras put my birth date on the records?

"I thought putting dates were required on records." Axel spoke up, almost absentmindedly.

"I thought so too." I furrowed my brows, the gears working in my brain to no avail. "But either way there was no point celebrating my birthday." I sighed again, "I'm just an omega, a waste of space."

"You can't really think of yourself like that."

"Sure I do." I finally looked at him in the eye, "It is all I know since that's what I've been told since I was little." I smiled, not a small one but a sad one, "I mean, even my own mate didn't see I was worth it so how can I see my worth?" More tears streamed down my cheeks, but I kept up my depressed smile, "My mate who was suppose to be destined for me and suppose to love me couldn't even bring himself to get to know me before I was rejected."

"Mab-" He started but I cut him off by continuing.

"But I can't blame him, you know?" I sniffed, "Just look at me. No one, not even my mate, would acknowledge me at school or anywhere else. I am invisible. And who would want that? Certainly not my mate and even when people started to notice me it was just to be disgusted at how pathetic I am."

"You are not pathetic." He argued back.

"I am," I slumped back down in my bed, still curled up from how tiny this room was, "I can't even take care of myself." I yawned, closing my eyes. I couldn't hear what else he said because I was already so exhausted. Tomorrow is another day of testing and I can't afford being tired.

I didn't even feel it when Axel reached through the bars despite being burned by them to gently move my hair away from my face.

+++

"I'm sorry Mable." I pushed her hair out of her face, letting me get a clear view of her beautiful features. I wiped her cheeks too since they had dirt still on them.

I was reluctant to pull my arm away, especially when she nuzzled closer to my hand when I touched her soft cheeks.

My heart just melted.

Especially when I felt how damp they were from her tears.

She has been through a lot this past few days. According to Brennon her test before the obstacle course was a reaction one where she ended up taking a full hit from a car.

Luckily for her that she healed almost instantly or she would have died.

But what pisses me off more is that the council really thinks that these wolves can perform or even survive these tests with their arms and legs bound.

"I'm sorry about your mate." My great grandfather, Len, approached the cell from behind me, regret laced his voice. "But this is council procedure."

"Is it really council procedure to torture these kids?" I turn to face the man I've admired since a child. But looking around these cells and halls, almost every single one of the 'testers' are barely my age.

"The council needs to know how they do in extreme conditions," he sighed, walking up to me to stand by my side as he stared at my sleeping mate, "They are not normal wolves."

"They are children." I snap back, going back to watching over my mate. She still looks so skinny and beaten. "You can't possibly think they are dangerous."

Len grit his teeth, "It only takes one to wipe out an entire pack." He looked to me, but I did not turn to him. "Do you remember the White Mountain Pack?"

"Yeah?" The packed that was wiped from existence?

"A single black wolf killed every single one of those wolves. From the strongest warriors to the smallest child." Len was not the happy-go-lucky grandfather I remember from when I was little. Now he was a hardened councilman.

"But these children are children." I managed to pry my eyes away from Mable just long enough to see my grandfather's expressionless face.

"So was that black wolf."

I was utterly speechless.

"Th-that's not possible." I look again to Mable. I can't imagine her hurting anyone.

"Killing is in their blood," he grit is teeth, "Every single one of them are blood thirsty killers."

"You're lying." I was getting torn.

" Mable is suppose to be completely untrained yet she took down your Luna. She claims to be powerless but she can command my guards with complete authority." Len tapped my shoulder before he was about to leave, "She is not who she says she is."

I stare at her.

He's lying.

She is perfectly innocent.

But why doesn't she know her birthday? Isn't that suspicious?

She can hurt a fly.

Phoebe claims she was trying to kill her. By the looks of it she was.

She is too weak to fight.

Black wolves are killers.

But she isn't like other black wolves.

Right?