I forced my frozen body towards the forest. Each step brought me closer to the darkness that it contained and I could barely hear anything over the chattering of my teeth. I felt like they would shatter in my mouth as they chattered loudly in my head. I swallowed against the burning air and focused on the edge of the forest. The sun was rising behind the trees and I was hidden in their shadow as I walked closer and closer.

I blinked slowly and when I opened my eyes I was at the edge of the forest. My entire body shook violently and a loud howl broke through the noise in my head and my heart thumped against my chest violently before I took another step forward. The wind couldn't reach me through the trees and there was an eerie silence as I moved further and further into the forest. My legs suddenly gave out and I crumpled to the snowy ground. I felt numb as I looked at the whiteness on the ground. My cheeks burned and my body felt numb but the shaking wouldn't stop.

The sound of snow crunching had me huddling further onto the ground. "Fuck, he sends you out in that? Trying to kill you is he?" The voice was gruff, much more so than Alpha Lawrence's. The footsteps crunching against snow drew closer and I found my gaze on a pair of boot surrounded by what looked to be a cloak. "And look at you. Nothing but bones. This could very well kill you. Foolish bastard." Despite the harshness of the words there was a faint thread of affection in his voice.

The male crouched in front of me and I leaned back with wide eyes. The man looked so similar to Alpha Lawrence it was almost eerie. He shared the same face shape and the same black hair but his eyes were green instead of brown and he had a scar slashing down his forehead and across his nose and cheek. He shook out another black cloak and to my surprise he wrapped it around me. The fabric did very little to take away the cold but I appreciated the gesture, no matter how surprising it might have been.

"Well? Are you going to sit there looking like a freshly dug up corpse or are you going to say hello to your Uncle Jace?" He smirked slightly as I blinked at him before I swallowed, trying to find my voice.

I wasn't quite sure what he meant but he wanted me to say hello. "Hello?" It came out as a slight cracking squeak and he gave a small chuckle.

"Good enough!" He quickly scooped me into his arm and wrapped his cloak around me as he did so. "Fuck, you are like a block of ice. Let's get you into the jeep where it is warm." He started moving and he frowned, I caught the look as I glanced up at him as quickly as I could. "I wouldn't worry about it too much, I am sure there is at least one pack member willing to curl up with you to keep you warm. You are an awaited guest after all." His voice was still gruff but his held a note of amusement that Alpha Lawrence's never did.

"I know you are confused but trust me. Trust him." He shifted me slightly and I could hear twigs snapping around us. Several different coloured wolves appeared from the trees as if there were ghosts. I closed my eyes, I felt so cold. My teeth were chattering but I could feel the body heat from the male who called himself my Uncle Jace.

I leaned closer, trying to get closer to the heat as my eyes opened. A different hand reached towards me in my peripheral vision and I jerked my head to stare at it with wide eyes. The male who was reaching for me raised an eyebrow before he tugged up the hood of the cloak and covered my head, blocking my vision. I felt a warmth at the gesture as my face was no longer nipped by the small breeze blowing around us.

I was tired, I wanted to sleep but my mind was racing quickly. I did not know who the men around me were. I did not know who Uncle Jace was and I did not know why he labelled himself as such. My parents had died before I had the chance to remember them and as far as I knew, they did not look like Alpha Lawrence.

"Are the jeeps running?" His voice rumbled through his chest and into me and I tried to move closer to him, despite how my nerves screamed at me in pain. They were waking up and I knew it would not be pretty once they were all awake.

Everything was hurting or starting too. I was used to pain but the painful aching was something that one could never truly drown out.

"Yes, Alpha Lawrence." The voice was rumbled and clipped and I lifted my head to look at the male who spoke but a large hand pressed me back to his chest.

"I know you are confused but save the questions for when your teeth aren't chattering so hard, Maricella." The name confused me. I had never heard of it before but it tugged as something inside of me. I fought it back, I couldn't remember. It wasn't allowed.

An Omega has no memories.

However the name tugged so much on my curiosity. "Maricella?" My voice was raspy and he let out a sigh.

"That is your name, is it not?" He sounded impatient and I tried to quell my chattering teeth.

I didn't want him to be irritated with me but I was confused. "Alpha Lawrence calls me Mary Mary sometimes but I do not recall any other name." I shivered violently and my muscles jerked without me meaning to and I frowned as my hands shook. I was starting to feel the cold again and I didn't like it. The pain was starting and I knew it would continue for hours.

"He never told you your name? What kind of fucking bullshit is that? You know what, never mind. Your name is Maricella Charlotte Lawrence. You are nineteen years old. Your birthday is June twenty-second." His voice suddenly held no notes of amusement and I shrunk slightly, my gaze on the cloak covering me.

I didn't want him to be upset. I didn't want to but I knew those words were lies. "I am not a Lawrence. Alpha Lawrence is my Alpha, nothing more." The words were a faint whisper as tears flooded my eyes. I would have loved to be a Lawrence, to be adopted by Alpha Lawrence. The only person who had shown me kindness. Something tugged at my memories but I pushed it away, having memories hurt me. The voice screamed at me again and again.

An Omega has no memories.

A deep rumble escaped the male holding me. "That is not what his letters said." He spat it out and I tried to shrink further into the heavy fabric surrounding me. I did not mean to make him upset with me. I didn't want anyone to be upset with me. if they were upset then it meant I was punished. He pressed my head back to his chest with a faint sound. "Rest." There was a sharp order in his voice and I snapped my mouth shut.

I clasped my bony fingers together under the cloak and hated how cold they felt. We walked in silence before the sounds of running engines filled the still forest air. I turned my head and looked forward, several battered jeeps waited in a line. A male lazily stepped out of one of the jeeps. He was wearing a heavy looking denim jacket and a small wary look on his face. He looked very similar to Alpha Lawrence and Uncle Jace. He stuffed his hands in his pockets and a chuckle rumbled out of Uncle Jace's chest.

"You can lower your guard, Davin. We've done what was requested of us. Now come and take Maricella, you and Collin are to keep her warm in the back of the jeep." He jiggled me slightly and I looked at Davin with wide eyes. My breathing was ragged as I shook harshly under the cloaks. "Or I could hand her off to Collin. My guess is he would rather enjoy snuggling with your cousin." Again the use of familial terms in regards to me. I stared up at the scarred man in confusion before I gave a small startled cry as I was pulled from Uncle Jace's arms quickly but gently.

Jace reached out and chucked me underneath my chin with an easy grin. "Easy, Maricella. You couldn't fight your way out of a wet paper bag at the moment. We will take you far enough away that the mate bond will affect you less and your body will stop trying to kill you." I turned my face away to look up at the man who had taken me. His green eyes showed his wary agitation and his dark eyebrows were pulled low over his eyes as he carried me towards the jeeps.

"I apologize, sir. For the inconvenience." The words sounded low even to my ears and he looked down at me in confusion.

"Sir? The name is Davin. Not sir." He gave me a peculiar look and I shrunk down into the cloak with a heavy feeling of panic. I didn't know what I was going to do. The banishment took me from my place in the world. I felt like I was floundering.

"I'm sorry, si-" I cut myself off before I could say it and I stared up at him as the jeep door opened. I averted my eyes, terrified he would catch me looking and punish me.

An Omega's gaze belongs on the floor.

The voice in my head screamed and howled at me, thrashing the inside of my skull with the mantras until I felt it ache terribly. "What are you apologizing for?" He set me on the seat gently before getting in as well. He was a larger male and I felt small seated next to him.

I swallowed down my fear, I wasn't allowed to address my superiors but I knew he was expecting a response. "For being an inconvenience." I knew I was an inconvenience, Ingrid had beaten it into me. I was useless unless I served the pack. The bastard child of two rogues who deserved nothing more than death and I needed to be grateful for being allowed to serve the pack.

"Family is always an inconvenience, Maricella. Just you deal with it because you care for them." He sniffed slightly and I shrunk into my cloak. Everything around me was foreign. I had people claiming to be my family and claiming my name was Maricella Charlotte Lawrence. I had no recollection of any of it. Something tickled the edges of my mind and I shoved it away quickly as the panic rose up sharply.

An Omega has no memories.

"I don't have a family." I said it slowly as I glanced at him quickly and looked away. I didn't want to see the irritation marring his features. I didn't want to be punished for looking at him. I wasn't allowed to stare. I wasn't allowed to address my superiors but I was so confused.

"Yes you do." He startled me as he wrapped an arm around me and tugged me partially against his chest. His large hand reached inside of the cloak and started rubbing at my arm. I shivered at the heat his hand held. "Fucking Christ, you are freezing. Is your wolf helping you warm up at all?" I gave a tiny shake of my head. I didn't want to think of ym wolf, she was absent, so timid she hid in the back of my mind and I had not seen her in years. The other door opened and a blonde haired man got in with a rather cheeky smile. I lowered my eyes from his face and he sat down before grabbing my legs and pulling them onto his lap.

"Try not to enjoy this too much, Collin." Davin's voice was snappish and I jerked slightly as Collin's hands grasped one of my bare feet and started rubbing it in between his hands. The feeling was weird and I resisted the urge to shake his hands off. I didn't like feeling so confused and off balance. Everyone and everything was confusing me and I just wanted to be left alone.

"She's cold." His voice was husky and I risked a glance to his face and his brown eyes were looking at my pale feet as he rubbed them gently.

He had an almost soft look on his face and Davin let out a snort. "No shit." With the tone he took I could almost imagine him rolling his eyes in irritation. I swallowed at the other male snapped his teeth together and threw a dirty look towards Davin.

"No, fuck face, her feet are like ice." Collin's reply was harsh but he looked away from Davin before I watched him lift up his jacket and shirt, stuffing both my feet under it. He hissed as my feet touched his stomach and I stared at him with wide eyes through my cloak. I resisted the urge to yank my feet away and tuck them underneath myself. I didn't like that. I didn't like so much contact. The panic rolled through me and I shook violently, I wasn't sure what was causing the shaking more, the panic or the cold shivers that plauged me.

"She was forced to walk over a football field worth of snow with bare feet. Of course they are going to be cold." Davin shifted me closer and ran his hand down my arm to rub at my hand. I felt my shaking lessen slightly and then the aching started to set in. The bone deep pain set my teeth on edge. I closed my eyes tightly, going through my breathing to ignore the pain. I knew what I had to do in order to ride it through.

"What kind of shit person does that to a little girl? No offense, sugar, but you are tiny." Collin patted my leg and I cracked my eyes to glance at him. He must have been waiting for it because he winked at me. I felt my face flush and his mouth curved into a smirk.

"Apparently my Uncle Andrew's pack and stop flirting with her." Davin shot out his other hand and smacked Collin's shoulder. I flinched at the action, if they were quick to hit each other I didn't even want to know what they would do to me.

"Why is she here again?" Collin looked at me in confusion and I turned my head towards Davin's chest. I was starting to get sleepy. Collin rubbed at my feet through his jacket and shirt and I slowly tried to pull my feet away from him but he grabbed my ankle, stilling my retreat instantly.

Davin rubbed at my skin, pulling me closer as if he was able to read my thoughts on pulling away from them both. The contact made me uncomfortable. That familiar feeling inside of me rolled under my skin, urging me to reject their touch and to curl away to be alone and unseen. I now knew it was the severed mate bond and it was trying to kill me but it didn't stop how much I agreed with it at the moment.

"Uncle Andrew phoned dad and told him that if he didn't come get Maricella she would end up dying because she had a mate reject her." They were both so gentle with me that I felt like I would break. I knew I wasn't in the best of shape at the moment but I had never had someone treat me like they were. Alpha Lawrence had treated me fairly and there had been moments of tenderness and affection but nothing like this. It made me anxious as to when the punishment would start. No one did something nice to Omegas, it usually lead up to a cruel action.

"Jackass rejected her and didn't let her accept it?" Collin's voice was a mere growl and I closed my eyes tightly. I didn't want to be on the receiving end of a punishment because of his anger. I knew if he caught me looking I would be punished.

"You got it. So now we are taking her back with us. The separation will weaken what is left of the bond and after a bit of time she can accept it without being near him." Despite how anxious I was to be around them, his words made sense and I was glad that Alpha Lawrence had done what he did for me. He got me away from the place that would kill me and had placed me in the care of what appeared to be gentle and friendly people. I didn't exactly trust them but they hadn't hurt me so far and I knew that if I stuck to the rules they wouldn't have a reason too.

"After that?" Collin's sounded wary and I shifted in my spot, turning slightly. I froze as Collin let out a his as my feet shifted on his stomach. "You have very cold feet, sugar." He grabbed them, holding them firmly so they couldn't move again. I waited for him to punish me with my heart pounding in my chest but after a few moments of nothing I felt myself relaxing.

"I don't know, Collin." Davin sounded unsure of himself and I let them continue their conversation as the cold left my bones. Their voices were a murmur that pulled me towards sleep and I yawned and stretched my arms over my head slightly, trying to get more comfortable.

"Okay, that is adorable. Just look at her cute little face." Collin's voice was coated in sweetness and I felt my face blush. Davin placed my arms back into the cloak and resumed rubbing at my hands. I tried to slowly move my hands out of his reach but he merely reached further, grasping them firmly in his hands so they couldn't escape.

"What did I say about hitting on my cousin?" There was a thread of warning to his voice that reminded me of Alpha Lawrence and I felt my heart filled with love for the one person who had cared for me. He had promised me it would get better and I believed him. Despite the fact the pack connection was severed, the faintness of it barely hurt me, he was still my Alpha and I knew deep down that I loved him dearly. Tears slowly filled my eyes when I realized I didn't know if I would ever see him again.

I fought back the tears, he promised me it would be better and I knew crying would only make me worse. I needed to do as Uncle Jace had said. I needed to rest.