Filed To Story: Secret with Betas Daughter: Skylar Story Series
Gamma Brett tilts his head slightly.
“What silver powder?”
My mom asks. I ignore her.
“She was whipped, to almost unconsciousness, silver powder was added to make the pain worse and the healing slower since she healed too fast the first time and then she was left in the forest behind the packhouse to fend for herself or die. The person or people who tortured her believed no one cared if she lived or died, and the point was hit home when she was out there for two f*cking days and NONE OF US NOTICED SHE WAS MISSING!”
Mateo stands as he starts to shout. “She had to rely on herself and her wolf to recover while we were having a party at the packhouse.”
He’s pacing now, making an attempt at pulling his hair out. Oliver stands ready to restrain him if needed.
“You need to relax, son. I don’t know what stories your sister has been telling you, but she is being dramatic. She has never gone missing and I would know if she had her wolf.”
Beta Daniel says too calmly, trying to take a step towards his son.
“How the f*ck would you know?! You don’t even acknowledge her presence when she is in the room, you made her believe she is worthless and unwanted. That she will never be good enough. She believes it’s her job to take this abuse.”
Mateo sounds almost deranged as he spits the words out.
“Well maybe it is. She brings trouble wherever she goes.”
The beta shrugs his shoulders and Mateo lunges at him, grabbing him around the neck and slamming him against a wall using the other to punch any part of his father he can reach. We all jump up, but it’s Delta Kyle and Gamma Brett who get to them first and I must say I am proud of the fight Mateo is giving them. He is not going to let this go easily. They finally get Mateo off of him and start dragging him to the other side of the room, putting all of us in between.
Cam POV
“Don’t you talk about her like that, in fact never speak to her or about her again, you are not worthy to have her as a daughter. In fact I want her out of your house permanently.”
Mateo spits, still breathing hard, his wolf is fighting to break free. “She can have my room here at the packhouse or stay with Sierra, anywhere but with you.”
“We all need to calm down, clearly there is more going on here and we all want answers.”
My dad looks at all of us, lingering a little longer on Beta Daniel. “Kyle you seem to have information the rest of us don’t, please fill us in, then I would like to hear what you kids know.
Kyle proceeds to tell us he noticed about four years ago that Skylar started coming to additional training with the little pups. He didn’t care much because they were always wild and help is help. It wasn’t until a couple years ago, he noticed bruises and marks on her arms and legs, that were definitely not from training. She wouldn’t say anything about how it was happening for a long time and he finally just started giving her a salve that would help the bruising heal more quickly because she was worried about getting in trouble at home for having bruises when she should be better at fighting as a beta. He looked shamelessly at Beta Daniel and told him the way she described her injuries at least confirmed that the abuse wasn’t happening at home. I hadn’t even thought of that. We all looked at Beta Daniel, silently letting him know what we all thought about his treatment of her. Beta Daniel did not waver in his stoic expression.
Kyle let her come to more and more training, as it seemed to make her happy and she had less injuries the more she trained. He thought she was getting better at defending herself. She was also a natural warrior, one of the quickest to learn and master skills he’s ever seen. Which also made him wonder about the injuries she did show up with. She almost never got hit in training, so what was she doing to get injured? He then introduced her to the Luna and her warrior’s training, hoping being around females would encourage her to confide in someone. He said there was a weekend last spring when she didn’t show up for training, like normal, but he also knew she didn’t talk to many people so there wasn’t anyone he knew to ask about her well being.
My heart sank and every part of my body froze, he did notice, but brushed her off like the rest of us. When she did return, she was pale and noticeably thinner, but trained just as hard as always and avoided any questions on where she had been. He only found the scars on her back because he was teaching her something new and his hand got caught in the very baggy shirt she was wearing and brushed the wounds. She cried out in pain and blood started seeping into the shirt. She refused to go to the pack hospital and the only way he would agree to help was if she told him what happened. With a lot of prompting she gave every detail of the torture, which he was not willing to repeat in front of my mother, except for descriptions of the people. She said nothing was going to be done about the bullies, it’s not their first time doing this and if they get in trouble, it would only make it worse on her in the end because they would retaliate.
“So, you see Daniel, she was not being dramatic.”
Delta Kyle finishes.What did she tell you guys? Clearly it was enough to light a fire under your asses this morning.
We all relayed what Sky told us. Filling in things we noticed about her as she told her story. By the end Sierra was sitting on Sam’s lap softly crying, Mateo was pacing again, Oliver had his head in his hands, elbows leaning on his knees taking very audible, deep slow breaths. Dakota and I are rigid in our seats looking at our dad. We know he’s thinking the same thing that we are. She isn’t the failure, we were. The current and future Alphas didn’t notice the trauma happening to a ranked member of the pack. Someone who got so good at going unnoticed that we missed every sign for years.
“Oh my poor girl. How did none of us see this?”
My mother is openly crying now. My father pulls her into his lap and holds her tight. “We knew it was not good, but this is so much worse, and she believes she deserves it.”
“We were too busy being caught up in ourselves.”
Mateo huffs.
“Training, becoming the next leaders, the idea of being in power is all we focused on.”
Oliver adds on, not raising his head.
“She has done more to protect pack members than we ever have.”
Dakota whispers.
“She is making the tough choices and defending those who need it regardless of what happens to her.”
I finished. “She asked us not to do anything, said if we try to protect her now, it makes her look weak, but we can’t just stand by and let this keep happening. She may not want help, but is there anything we can do to make this end? These bullies have to be stopped. No one should be able to openly harm pack members for no reason.
“Well, as bad as this situation is, for the first time, you boys are thinking like the leaders you are meant to be. Let’s think through this and see what we all come up with. I do have a few things that I can’t avoid today, but let’s get back together tonight. And Mateo, we will discuss your request to have her moved, it has to be her choice though, I will not force her into anything she doesn’t want.”
New Book: Returned To Make Them Pay
On her wedding anniversary, Alicia is drugged and stumbles into the wrong room—straight into the arms of the powerful Caden Ward, a man rumored never to touch women. Their night of passion shocks even him, especially when he discovers she’s still a virgin after two years of marriage to Joshua Yates.