The Adopted Alpha

Clare Adam-Baros walked into the school hall making sure to keep her head facing downwards to hide her face. Even though she was putting on a hoodie for the same purpose, she still couldn't risk being noticed by anyone, especially her bullies. It was almost like she naturally attracted trouble the way they always seemed to find her no matter her disguise.

Nowadays, she put more effort into escaping than disguising.

Clare was probably the strangest alpha in the world, she was at least the weirdest she had seen or heard of.

Or who had ever heard of an alpha cowering at the thought of being discovered by a bunch of deltas and omegas.

In truth, Clare was the weakest of the pack. Literally, since she was actually born an half-omega and not an alpha.

Her real parents, an omega and human couple, were killed in a rogue accident. She was then adopted by the Alpha and Luna who had also lost their only daughter to the same accident.

No wonder everyone hated her, she had gotten an automatic rank upgrade from an unfortunate accident that affected the whole pack.

Not that it was her fault, but Clare was beginning to think it was, from how unwanted everyone made her feel.

"Hey Clare, trying to hide from me?" Clare stopped as some pair of shoes came into her view. She could recognize that voice anywhere.

She looked up and sure enough, it was her mortal enemy at school, Jeff Zachary and his gang.

Jeff was the school resident bad boy. Tattoo, check. Cigarettes, check. Party animal, check. Bullying, check. gang of devoted followers, check. He had it all down complete with the good looks that every girl in school drooled over.

Oh, and he was also the beta's son and apparently the leader of the group of werewolves that bullied her daily.

Claire flinched as Jeff grabbed her chin in a tight grip that was sure to leave a bruise there later.

"I already told you that you can hide from me mutt, I can smell your fear." Jeff continue with a sneer that mared his handsome face. She was sure that if his fangirls saw this, they would not think he was so exciting anymore.

Or maybe they would, with the amount of kinks people were coming up with daily.

"Please -" Clare begged hoping to escape hoping to escape his wrath that morning and get to class on time. "I already gave you all my allowance for the week. Please I need to get to class."

"Shut it, you pathetic dog!" Jeff swore and tossed her to the floor.

Clare braced herself for the pain that came when her body met with the floor. Since she was prepared, her palms and arms took the brunt of it.

She quickly sprang up to her feet taking them by surprise and ran for the staircase to go to the second floor where she should be now, turning in her assignment.

The gang followed after her, she could hear their pounding footsteps following her. Clare turned a corner at the end of the stairs and instead of running for her class like they would have anticipated, she dashed into the opened broom closet making sure to leave it open.

She hid in the darkest part of the closet and held her breathe.

She heard the sound of footsteps in the hallway and then voices questioning her sudden disappearance.

A head even poked in the closet, but since it was left open, the omega didn't look and sniff hard enough. One of the perks of being a half wolf especially an half omega was that her smell was very faint, barely there.

After what seemed like eternity to Clare, the footsteps reversed as they decided to check the third floor.

Clare waited for a minute or two before coming out and heading to her class. Her academics was the one thing she had going on for her in her miserable life.

It was her only ticket to a better future and she would not let anything ruin it for her. Ever!

She might have to hide out in the library during lunch, but at least she was cleared for this morning.

"...and don't forget to turn in your projects before 10:00 am tomorrow guys, via your email. It counts as twenty percent of your total assessment.... " Clare was barely listening to the teacher much like the rest of the students as she hurriedly packed up her things.

She had already submitted her project the same week it was assigned to them, so that was not a problem. There would however be one if she did not get out of there as soon as possible.

The sound of the bell ringing for the close of school for the day herald her escape. As soon as the bell went off, she grabbed her bag and dashed out of the class and the school in general.

Angry words followed her, from the people she had to brush past but she didn't mind anymore. Constantly on the run from taunts, insults and sometimes physical abuse was the story of her life.

She didn't stop until she was well past the school gates and almost halfway to the pack house. Only then did she paused to take deep breaths and calm her pacing heart.

She looked back to see that she was still alone and decided it was safe to continue walking the rest of the way.

Jeff and his family of course lived in the pack house as the beta of the pack but if she was fast enough, she could change and leave for her aunt's before he caught her at home.

The dull sound of her feet hitting the ground kept her company all the way home. It was otherwise quiet and peaceful.

Peace was one of the little things Clare has learned not to take for granted growing up. She was always under a lot of pressure from everyone around her. Trying to prove herself was always so exhausting, especially when it was impossible.

Pack training every Sundays were torture and her wolf always got so beaten up that it took her the remaining days of the week to recover.

By rank, she was to be on the elite team, training with the likes of the beta and delta. Even though Tony, the current delta and hence the pack trainer, gave her the alternative of battling with omegas like herself, it was really the option of her pride and dignity.

On the off chance that she gets beaten by a fellow omega, not only would her body and pride would be injured, but also her dignity. So she sucked it up and took her weekly beating from the malicious Jeff or whoever else battled her.

Clare stepped onto the front porch of her home in record time. Her adoptive uncle was seated there scowling, but then, when was he ever not angry at her.

"Hi, Uncle Drew." She called out with a smile.

He narrowed his eyes at her in reply and then continued reading the newspaper that was in his hands.

That was his standard reply to her greeting so she was not bothered. Uncle drew and his son Rick had hated her since the day she had begun to live in the pack house and only had harsh words for her. Though usually in the absence of the Alpha and Luna.

Days where Uncle Drew ignored her, like today, were a blessing.

She had hoped as a kid that if she continued killing them with kindness, they might eventually warm up to her.

However, if the passing years had taught her anything, it was that some wishes like that never came through, especially when the people you hoped to kill with kindness already had a dead heart.

She had recently thought of what her reaction would be if they were suddenly nice to her. Probably run for her dear life!!

Clare made it inside safely and went straight to her room to change into more casual clothes; a large green sweatshirt, skinny jeans and a green beanie since it was the end of winter and it was still cold out.

The house was still quiet, if she hurried she could have lunch before she had to go.

Luck was on her side and she saw some left over pizza on the kitchen island. She put some in a foil to go and left the building through the back door.

When she got to her aunt's home, she rang the doorbell and went in.

Aunt Lilith was her mother's little sister that had moved to the pack almost two years ago.

She lived a bit away from the rest of the pack in Clare's parents home and was also an outcast since she was a non-wolf, in other words, a human.

It also didn't help that Aunt Lilith was a bit eccentric naturalist. And a bookworm. And also a wallflower, you get the picture.

Summary was, Aunt Lilith stuck out like a sore thumb in the pack much like her niece, but Clare loved her to pieces.... cuckoo and all.

The interior of the house was bright even though Aunt Lilith wasn't very fond of bright lights, Clare believed she kept it like that to make the house look regular to the other wolf kids and to keep them from snooping around. Her room however was dimmed with thick curtains.

Clare made her way straight to her aunt's library which was a bedroom converted for multiple purposes. There her aunt kept her wonderful array of books along with bottles and bottles of dyes that she was constantly mixing looking for a certain perfect color or shade

The room was brightly lit on one side from its opened window and dim on the other from the closed blinds.

Aunt Lilith was at her table peering down at something on her work table. Clare moved closer as loud as she could to let her aunt know she was around so as not to end up startling her.

"Hi Aunt Lilith. What have you got there."

"Hi Col... Clare." Lilith glanced up at her and then back to what Clare could now see was a tortoise that was lying belly up and deathly still on the table while Aunt Lilith stuck a bunch of needles in its belly.

"Oh my God, is it okay?" Clare asked coming closer to the animal. "Is it dead?"

Aunt Lilith shook her head and chuckled. "This one has still got at least five more decades to live. He just has constipation, he would be all better in no time at all."

Clare quietly watched her aunt work her magic on the animal and the release him back to woods at her backyard.

They both watch the shelled animal crawl back amongst the shrubs.

"Where did you see the tortoise Aunt Lilith?" Clare asked her aunt as they walked back into the house.

"I was going to get some herbs for my dyes and saw it out back."

"And how did you know it was constipated, and please don't say 'intuition'."

"Oh but then it is," Her aunt giggled, going to the stove to make them some tea. "stick with me dear, and you will be able to tell the state of anyone or any animal just by a glance."

Clare scoffed not believing for a second that she could ever be as awesome as her aunt.

Aunt Lilith was just one of a kind.

The last time she had come to the pack house, she had seen the house cat and said it was pregnant even before it was showing and eight weeks later it had a litter of kittens.

Her aunt also helped her take care of her really awful menstrual pain with acupuncture at times or her special broth. Depending on which Clare wanted.

So yeah, Clare was very doubtful that she could ever be that cool.

"Help yourself to some tea if you want." said Aunt Lilith after she poured herself some into a nice china mug from her "trea of life" teapot and teacup set.

Get it? "tree" and "tea" name mutation equals "Trea".

No? Yeah, Clare thought it was pretty dumb too when she saw it written on the set of the, otherwise, adorable China.

Clare poured herself a cup of camomile tea, sweetened it with syrup and then topped it with plenty of fresh milk.

After stirring her very healthy beverage, Clare left the kitchen to join her aunty in her living room.

She made herself comfortable on a sofa before taking a sip of the hot drink.

"Ah, you can almost feel the tea travel down your G. I. T. and righting all the wrongs in your system." Clare declared before flashing her aunt a grateful smile.

"G. I. T?" Lilith asked confused.

"You know Gastrointestinal Tracts? G-I-T?" Clare explained to her aunt who still looked kind of confused. She sometimes forgot that her aunt was so old fashioned. "Like your stomach and intestines." She explained in simpler terms gesturing to her trunk.

Her aunt's eyes widened finally getting what she was referring to. Clare shook her head at her aunty. "Old people." She murmured under her breath knowing it would set her off, her aunt was always so sensitive of her age which made it so much fun to tease her.

It was one of the reasons they became so close in under two years. Her aunt was so friendly, brilliant and surprisingly easy to talk to that Clare felt so drawn to her. She was more than just an aunt to her, she was a dear friend.

Lilith glared at her niece. "I heard you."

"Are you sure you are not a werewolf, your hearing is like, too good for a human." Clare shot back.

Her aunt took a sip of her tea. "Next time, don't talk back at me then. I have an ear for things like that."

********

"I'm done with this book. It was just like I said, The legend of Heracles is actually just the story of Hercules like I watched on Disney only more intense." Clare stated matter-of-factly bending to retrieve said book from the book bag she had carried with her.

"And a lot more accurate than any other account you may have read or watched. Thank you!" Lilith huffed as she took the book from the younger and and kept it on her shelf.

"Accuracy my butt." Clare huffed. "That book is just full of a lot of mumbo-jumbo and some serious fan theories."

"If you don't like my books, then stop reading them!" Her aunt called from the kitchen. Clare had been so engrossed in checking for a new book to read on her aunt's bookshelf that she hadn't even heard the other leave.

"I love reading too much to stop, you can't blame me if my curiosity won't let me set high standards for what I read." Clare yelled back.

"Well you should, you are what you read after all." Her aunt replied. "Speaking of curiosity, do you know of Pandora?"

Clare paused and shook her head, then remembered that Lilith was in the other room. "No, I don't."

"There is a book for that in shelf. It should be on the third rung, right next to Prometheus' Legacy." Clare check and saw the slim book where her aunt where her aunt said it would be."

"Why don't you just take both books? I have been intending to loan you the other one."

Clare let out a shrill scream turning in surprise as she went. "I've told you to stop sneaking up on me like that." She scolded her aunt, bent over and clutching her racing heart.

"Hold still." Her aunt warned her in a stern voice. Clare obeyed and saw that her locker had caught on her aunt's handmade cloth bracelet.

She paused long enough for aunt to untangle it with shaking hands. Clare rolled her eyes at her aunt's overreaction over a very plain looking bracelet.

"You are so overprotective of that old bracelet. FYI, bracelets like that are so last decade." Clare said eyeing her aunt scared expression as she inspected the bracelet.

"Thank goodness nothing happened to it." Her aunt finally announced after careful inspection. "It was the last thing I had from my sister."

Clare's eyes widened when she heard that, "My mom gave you that?"

"Ehn?" Aunt Lilith snapped out of her reverie and glanced at her surprised niece. "You... your mother gave this to me. So it's very special. it's all I have to remember her by."

Clare felt her own eyes water at the anguished sounds if her aunt's voice. She and her aunt tended to skit around the issue of her parents so as not to relieve bad memories. But moments like this came up and they were the only two that could understand the loss they shared.

"I truly miss her." Her aunt sniffled as a lone tear ran down her cheek, a depiction of their feeling at that moment.

"Me too, and I barely remember her. I can only imagine how you must feel."

Her aunt looked at her, eyes filled with guilt and regret. Clare wondered if her mother had a fallout with her sister before she died.

That would explain how her aunt didn't know about her existence till she was sixteen, and all the unspoken apologies in her aunt's gaze.

"She- your mother, she was such a beautiful soul. S-she was so so full of life." Her aunt sobbed trembling all over.

Clare stood there wanting to comfort her aunt whom she had never seen looking so distraught.

"Can I hug you, Aunt Lilith? "

The older woman nodded. "Yes please. "

Clare wrapped her arms around the older trembling woman and patted her softly whispering "It's okay"s and "let it out"s while Lilith cried for almost an hour.

"You remind me of her," her aunt yawned when she had finally quieted down. "You look exactly like her. I'm so happy to have found you after all this time."

And she fell asleep, on Clare's lap.