Page 14 of The Demon's Pet

Um, didn’t you miss a few fucking things? Like a fucking orgasm or any sense that I’m a person and not an inanimate fist made for fucking?

This was not the thing to say to me before the ceremony, but based on my mother’s blissful look and self-satisfied nod to herself, she believed she’d done her duty.

All I could feel was an ache in my heart at the state of things between her and my dad.

And some regret that I’d ever come in to talk with her.

She didn’t even ask any questions, then just stood, folded her hands in front of her, and walked out.

“Are you coming?”

I don’t know,I thought. I might try running again, because being torn apart by border guards would be better than enduring hundreds of years of what she described.

We lived a lot longer than humans did. Not as long as immortals, like angels.

That was a long time to feel like an object.

But my brain still hadn’t come up with an escape. I’d known this was coming for years, but I kept telling myself I’d find a way out.

But I’d been beaten down for so long. They took my martial arts. They turned my friends against me. They took me out of school.

It was a slow, long process meant to remove my humanity and my inner wolf’s strength, and when I didn’t fight back, it felt like it worked.

But where was there even to go for me? No other supernatural community would take me.

The undead hated shifters, and they were in the dark realm anyway, except for the more sophisticated vampires in the mid-realms.

Humans lived mostly in clusters between shifter havens, unable to see our enclaves due to enchantments placed by the celestials.

And angels lived in complex communities in the heavens.

The fae claimed the barrens that were left when humans were chased out of inhabitable areas, and now didn’t allow anyone into their territory.

They were even more protective of their wilds.

If I went among the humans, like other supernaturals who tried to hide among them, and was caught, the penalty was death.

We were supposed to leave humans alone.

And truth be told, I loved our little haven, the way time seemed behind. Before I’d been assigned the role of omega, I’d loved my friends and teachers and town.

But now, as an omega, I could never love this place, because if I wasn’t suffering, someone else would be.

I couldn’t be happy standing on someone else’s pain, and to be honest, I didn’t know how anyone else stood it either.

I followed my mother down the creaking, half-broken stairs of my cottage and out into the night.

It was dark, and the moon was full, with only a few scattered, hazy clouds in the great, dark-blue canvas above us. The moon shone so bright the stars looked faint around it. I stared at it and felt a strong call from my inner wolf.

Let’s run, she said, more through feelings than words.Let’s run in the woods and smell the leaves and feel the wind.

I felt her in my skin, ready to rise, a prickling sensation that was making my hairs stand on end.

Then I heard another inner voice, more distinct. The one that always got me in trouble when it showed.

Come on, let’s go take on those shitty alphas. Should be able to kill at least one before we go down.

I couldn’t help but agree, though it seemed stupid. Every time I fought, I just got kicked down even harder than before.

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