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When I got home, my parents were waiting in the study, and I groaned inwardly as Mother moved to block my retreat upstairs. "We are very disappointed in you," she said coldly. "You have a duty, but you insist on pursuing this foolish idea of yours."
"Last I looked, I was an adult, and not chattel," I said, folding my arms. If they wanted to give me attitude, they'd get it right back.
"Watch your mouth," Father warned. "You're an adult, but you are still my daughter. If I have to command you to do your duty, I will."
"Good luck," I said. "You can't force me to marry against my will; you know you're literally incapable of making me do something I don't want to do. You and Mother forswore all my ties to the pack the day I turned sixteen, which means I'm a free agent and I can do whatever the hell I wish."
That set them back, and their faces showed just how little they liked it. But it was a point of law among werewolves that all cubs were forsworn from their oaths to their pack of origin when they turned sixteen. Once they hit that milestone, no one in the pack could command them, and Father's face said he was inches away from smacking me in the jaw for bringing up what was a very sore point for him and Mother. I had them over a barrel, and they knew it.
"Go to your room," Mother said finally, looking like she wanted to join Father in belting me one. "We'll discuss this in the morning. You can go hungry tonight for your unconscionable defiance."
Being sent to my room without food was a common enough occurrence to have made me very resourceful whenever this happened - and it happened often enough. I left without another word and headed upstairs to the tiny attic room my parents deemed me worthy of. It had no door, but I'd rectified that by putting up a curtain, and while my parents didn't like it, neither did they stoop so far as to try and have it removed to ensure I had no privacy at all.
I let the curtain fall behind me with a sigh of relief, but that relief soon turned to anger when I saw my mini-fridge was now padlocked. The rest of my pack didn't think I deserved privacy, and my bratty cousins Chelsea and Pearl ransacked my room on a regular basis. It had taken a direct command from Father to ensure I had enough clothes to ensure I gave the outward appearance of being looked after, but everything else was fair game, up to and including my bed.
And now it seemed my mini-fridge had become fair game as well. I recognised the lock as Pearl's work; and though I wanted to go in search of her and strangle her with her own guts, I refrained.
Besides, there were other ways to get food, and in less time than it takes to tell of it, I was out of the window and down the drainpipe, sighing in relief once more as the cool grass welcomed my feet. I shifted, let out a joyful yip, and set off at a gentle lope towards the relative peace of the woods surrounding our packhouse. My parents had, mercifully, told me I could go for a run whenever I wished, but their tone had implied I didn't deserve this, and they were only letting me have this small modicum of freedom so I wouldn't go talking to anyone outside the pack.
But the joke was on them; because they'd never forbidden me to go running, they had given me the perfect oppournity to make friends. I never did of course, since word could and did spread fast, but I at least had the chance to speak with and play with other wolves, and one and all, they'd promised to keep my rants secret. None of them liked my parents, who were the most rigid, hidebound traditionalists this side of the Wheel, and though I didn't dare call them my friends, I knew at least I could call them allies.
And my parents were none the wiser. Pry though they might into everything else I did, they knew better than to pry into what I did when I was in my wolf form. If ever they did, I'd make sure they knew about it in spades - what you did in your wolf form stayed with you, and no one had the right to make you tell them what you did while you were shifted.
And one day, I'd get away from them. I wasn't going to follow their line; I was going to break free and do what I wished, and they could take their hidebound plans and shove them where the sun didn't shine.
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