Black Rose

"My silence is not weakness but the beginning of my revenge." 

I sat there, staring with disbelieving eyes at the fallen bodies of my parents.

Blood pooled around me like a lake, and all I could feel were the tears streaming down my bloody face.

I heard rattling and the crunching of leaves behind me, but I was too shocked and scared to move. Suddenly, I heard a loud gasp, followed by numerous others.

"What have you done?" someone whispered in disbelief.

I was confused about who she was talking to, but my face wouldn't contort into a look of confusion. It was expressionless at the moment.

"You murderer!" someone yelled before I felt a force push me to the side. However, I was still unable to move a muscle to protect myself from hitting the ground.

I watched as people gathered around my parents' bodies, sobbing and wailing. Some of them even howled sadly into the night sky.

It was understandable—their reactions, that is. Their alpha and luna were dead. My parents were dead.

"You brat." I felt a hand connect with my cheek. I looked up to find it was none other than Uncle Adam, my father's best friend and beta.

"I knew you would do something like this one day. I knew it!" he yelled, and again, I was too confused and shocked to utter a word.

"What have they ever done to you?" a voice I recognized as Valerie, my best friend, whispered with a sob.

What the hell were they saying? Couldn't they see what really happened?

I looked at Valerie with teary eyes.

"I didn't do anything," I said, my voice cracking at the end.

"Don't lie!" Uncle Adam yelled as he backhanded me. The impact knocked me back to reality, not completely, but enough to be aware of what they were accusing me of.

"I didn't do anything," I repeated weakly. "I didn't kill them."

Why would I kill my own parents? Why would anyone do that?

"Shut up!" he yelled angrily. "Take her to the cells until I decide what to do with her," he ordered. 

I looked at him in disbelief. The cells?

"Why would you take me to the cells? I didn't do anything!" I yelled as two well-built pack members took hold of my arms and brought me to my feet roughly.

Uncle Adam didn't bat an eyelash as I continued screaming and yelling for them to let me go. I called for Valerie, but she too ignored my pleas.

My eyes searched for Hugh, my other best friend, but he wasn't there. That didn't stop my loud pleas from filling the night air. But no one listened. No one cared. They didn't notice how broken I was, how badly I needed a shoulder to cry on and someone to save me from my fears, from this nightmare.

I was shunned and became the least favorite pack member. No, I wasn't even worth that ranking. 

That was the night I lost my parents, family, and friends. That was the night that a new April was born. An April that would avenge her parents' deaths, no matter what or how long it took.

And that was the night that April met Rose.

I huffed out air from my mouth as I threw another punch at the punching bag I had hanging from the ceiling.

It was a little worn out and had dents everywhere from where my fists would connect, so I had started feeling guilty towards the poor thing.

Another frustrated punch followed by another.

"How dare they," I growled to myself.

My wolf was angry while I crossed beyond that anger; I was infuriated.

It was already past midnight, meaning that the whole pack was sound asleep right now. Thank God for the soundproof exercise room that Hugh built me secretly. I honestly don't know how he did it, but I'm grateful nonetheless.

Another angry punch made the poor punching bag swing angrily about its hinges as if telling me to have some mercy.

I don't blame the non-living thing, though, since I always took out my pent-up anger on it. It had already been seven years, and being the loyal thing it was, it still hadn't come to life and beaten the crap out of me.

Maybe it understood my situation. Maybe it knew what my pack members did to me and thought that was enough. It was kind to offer itself for support in my worst times. Again, I was grateful.

Yes, it'd been seven years since my parents died, and I still hadn't recovered fully from the incident. Watching your parents getting killed in front of your eyes did more than mental damage. And it didn't help that my pack members turned a cold shoulder towards me.

After Uncle Adam sent me to the cells where I first shifted all alone and scared, I was kept there for about a week before he turned me into the pack's slave. He was the new alpha, so his words were nothing but orders to the rest of the pack.

He made me clean the whole packhouse and prepare breakfast, lunch, and dinner. He made me stop school and training and moved me up to the attic where he gave his daughter my now old room.

I couldn't fight back. I tried, but because I was still a kid and wasn't fully trained, a new alpha was able to scar me. The proof was long on my back.

And while I laid on the cold floor of my makeshift room one night, in ran a worried Hugh and a teary-eyed Gabrielle. They were mates and three years older than me.

They were sent to Arizona by my father one day before the incident, and they promised him not to tell me anything. I was too broken and weak to persist in finding answers and just left it as it was.

"I'm so sorry I wasn't there," Hugh apologized for the hundredth time as he held me to him until Gabrielle finished cleaning me up and wrapping my wounds.

Hugh was more than an older brother to me, so his reactions were understandable. We were practically raised together. He was family.

"It's fine, Hugh," I replied weakly with a faint smile. "What happened happened."

"It's not that easy, April," he whispered as I felt yet another warm tear fall on my cheek.

"We should've known that something was wrong when Alpha Fields sent us to—" Gabrielle's sentence was cut short by a clearing of the throat from Hugh.

"Now is not the time for this, Gabrielle," he stated, and both Gabrielle and I almost flinched from his stern tone.

I threw my hardest and final punch as I recalled the memory. Now that all three of us agreed on avenging my parents, I was starting to get more and more curious about what Gabrielle was about to say, but I trusted them. I was sure Hugh would tell me when the time was right.

"Wow, someone must've cracked all your cornflakes today," I heard Hugh ask from behind me.

I turned around to see him looking at me in amusement, his arms crossed over his chest.

Even though he was a grown man now of twenty-three years, he never seemed to stop wanting to tease and annoy me.

"They crushed the whole box," I all but growled.

True, I was working for the pack members, and true, I didn't show any emotions when it happened, but it was not true that it didn't anger me a bit. I was an Alpha's daughter, not some slave, so my wolf and I didn't really appreciate the constant bossing around. 

Hugh chuckled lightly and started walking towards me, handing me a white towel.

"Thanks," I said as I reached out for it to wipe the sweat beads that formed on my neck and forehead.

"If it'll make you any happier, I have some good news," Hugh stated with a smile.

"You found the rogues, haven't you?" I asked with a smirk.

Hugh looked at me in shock before he shook his head as a small smile formed on his lips.

"What was I thinking? Of course, you'd know already," he mumbled to himself. A normal person wouldn't have heard what he said, but an alpha werewolf with heightened senses wouldn't have a problem.

"You're very easy to read, baby," Gabrielle said as she entered the room to stand next to Hugh. He wrapped his arm around her waist and pecked her cheek softly.

It was cute seeing them together, and honestly, I didn't want a mate even though Rose, my wolf, was dying for one. She understood, though, that it would be hard to have a mate, seeing as how I would be on what she called a death mission.

A mate would become a weak spot for me, and I was afraid he might get hurt in the process. Maybe when this was all over, I'd go search for him.

I was snapped out of my thoughts with someone snapping their fingers in front of my face. I looked up at a grinning Hugh and a giggling Gabrielle.

"What were you thinking about?" Hugh asked with a raised eyebrow.

"Of ways to give you a slow and painful death," I replied smugly.

"I think you already know how. No need to think about it," Hugh smirked, making me narrow my eyes at him while Gabrielle giggled once more.

"I already sent you the information to your phone. Go get some rest for your big day tomorrow," he called out as he led Gabrielle out of the exercise room, sarcasm dripping through his words as he said the last part.

But it was true; tomorrow would be a big day—the day where my parents' killers would pay.

"Are you sure you're ready for this, April?" Rose, my wolf, asked.

"I've been training for seven years for this, Rose, so I'm more than ready," I replied with determination. 

"Killing is not so easy, April; it does things to people," she stated wearily.

"I know that." I sighed.

"You'll have me by your side no matter what," she said gently, making me smile.

"Thank you, Rose."

"However," she started, making me stop dead in my tracks to listen. "If you don't go find our mate after this, I'm out of here," she continued.

I chuckled loudly as I entered my bathroom for a much-needed shower.

"No worries, Rose. I'll go find him when this is over," I assured her.

"You better."

Let's just hope this goes well...